Oklahoma
Sunday Offering: Oklahoma Hosts Junior Day, Extends Several Offers to Recruits
Between OU’s first junior day of the spring, several at-school and at-home visits and a handful of offers, the Sooners had a productive week on the recruiting trail.
Here is the latest on Oklahoma’s search for rising football talent:
A handful of the Sooners’ top targets went to Saturday’s junior day, the first one of the 2025 spring geared toward prospects in the Class of 2026.
Prospects that announced their intentions to attend include quarterback Jaden O’Neal, running back Kaydin Jones, edge rusher Kevin Ford Jr., wide receivers Jabari Brady and Daniel Odom and defensive lineman Valdin Sone.
O’Neal is one of three players committed to Oklahoma in the Class of 2026. He is ranked as the No. 63 prospect in the class by ESPN and is in the top 300 in all major recruiting services.
Excited to be back in 📍Norman, OK this weekend for the Jr. Day! #agtg #BoomerSooner 🤘🏽👇🏽 pic.twitter.com/0N9oZfcfSo
— Jaden O’Neal (@Jadenoneal_26) January 24, 2025
Out of Harbor City, CA, O’Neal committed to OU on June 24, 2024.
Jones — the No. 2 recruit from Oklahoma in the 2026 class, per Rivals — narrowed his list of schools down to five earlier this week, and OU was one of them. The 4-star running back out of Jenks also has Kansas, Louisville, Tennessee and Vanderbilt in his top five.
Jones also posted a photo on X alongside O’Neal and 2026 wideout target Mason James.
James, out of Norman, is a 4-star wide receiver prospect that is ranked No. 172 by 247 Sports.
Brady and Odom are both graded as 4-stars by 247 Sports. Brady is the No. 68 overall prospect in the 2026 class, while Odom is the No. 29 player from California.
Ford, also a 4-star, is the No. 11 edge rusher in the 2026 class. Sone, a 6-foot-3, 320-pound d-lineman originally from Sweden, is the No. 9 prospect from Virginia.
A handful of Oklahoma coaches visited numerous prospects at their schools or their homes this week.
More than 10 prospects posted on X/Twitter that coaches visited them.
Sone got a recruiter visit in the same week that he went to junior day, while 4-star linebacker Brayden Rouse was visited by OU coach Brent Venables and recruiting coordinator Miguel Chavis and picked up an offer from the Sooners.
Other coaches that visited recruits include offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh, offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle, wide receivers coach Emmett Jones, co-defensive coordinator Todd Bates, running backs coach DeMarco Murray and defensive backs coach Jay Valai.
In addition to Rouse, the Sooners offered nine other prospects this week: quarterback Bowe Bentley, tight ends Luke Sorensen and Jeramie Cooper, wide receiver Derrick Johnson II, defensive backs Chace Calicut, Carter Stewart and Dhillon McGee, offensive lineman Canon Pickett and defensive lineman Corey Wells. All eight of them announced their offers via X/Twitter.
Cooper and Wells are part of the Class of 2027, while the other six are 2026 prospects.
Bentley, a 4-star quarterback, led Celina (Texas) to a 16-0 record and the 4A state championship in 2024.
Shortly after Calicut’s offer, he reportedly told Hayes Fawcett of On3 that the Sooners are among his top 10 schools.
NEWS: Four-Star Safety Chace Calicut is down to 10 Schools, he tells me for @on3recruits
The 6’3 195 S from Houston, TX is ranked as the No. 1 Safety in Texas (per On3 Industry)
Where Should He Go?👇🏽https://t.co/QzjhFv6iHr pic.twitter.com/TKGgyYxdtw
— Hayes Fawcett (@Hayesfawcett3) January 25, 2025
On3 has Calicut ranked as the No. 1 safety from Texas in the Class of 2026. Other schools in Calicut’s top 10 include Texas, Texas A&M and Oregon.
McGee, also from Texas, is another 4-star defensive back. 247 Sports has him rated as the No. 92 player in the Class of 2026, and McGee has also collected offers from Nebraska, Ole Miss and Texas Tech.
Oklahoma
Oklahoma Ford Sports Blitz: Mar. 1, 2026
Steve McGehee reports live from Paycom Center with the latest on SGA’s return after missing nine games, the Thunder’s push to hold the top spot in the Western Conference, and what getting healthy means for OKC’s title hopes.
Oklahoma
How Oklahoma GM Jim Nagy ‘Put More Around’ John Mateer During Offseason
Oklahoma general manager Jim Nagy experienced great success during his first year in Norman.
Nagy, who joined OU’s staff in February 2025, oversaw the Sooners’ scouting staff as Oklahoma reached the College Football Playoff for the first time since 2019. He also helped OU sign a top-15 2026 recruiting class and land several key transfer portal players after the 2025 season.
Though the wins outweighed the losses in Nagy’s first year, the Sooners’ general manager knew that there was much to fortify during the offseason.
Oklahoma’s offense sputtered late in the season, as the Sooners scored fewer than 25 points in each of their last four games.
For Nagy, a major focus was surrounding OU quarterback John Mateer with quality talent.
“(We wanted to) just really put more around John Mateer,” Nagy said on The Dari Nowkhah Show on KREF on Friday.
Nagy and his scouting team added plenty of pieces from the portal that should elevate Oklahoma’s offense.
The Sooners signed three portal wideouts — Trell Harris (Virginia), Parker Livingstone (Texas) and Mackenzie Alleyne (Washington State) — after the 2025 season to join returning receivers Isaiah Sategna, Jer’Michael Carter and Jacob Jordan.
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Sategna, who transferred to OU from Arkansas after the 2024 season, served as Mateer’s safety net in 2025. The receiver finished the year with 965 yards and eight touchdowns on 67 catches.
Harris and Livingstone are both proven producers at the Power Four level, and Nagy believes that those two will make OU’s receiving corps stronger in 2026.
“Those two, we’re very excited about both of those guys,” Nagy said.
Nagy also did plenty of work to ensure that OU’s run game improves in 2026.
The Sooners added three tight ends — Hayden Hansen (Florida), Rocky Beers (Colorado State) and Jack Van Dorselaer (Tennessee) — from the portal. They also added three transfer offensive linemen: Caleb Nitta (Western Kentucky), E’Marion Harris (Arkansas) and Peyton Joseph (Georgia Tech).
OU will have its two top running backs from the 2025 squad, Xavier Robinson and Tory Blaylock, back in 2026.
For those two to reach their full potential, the Sooners’ blockers will have to regularly open up running lanes — and Nagy is confident that they will.
“We have to run the ball better, there’s no way around that,” Nagy said. “Our job is to create more competition in every room in the offseason. I feel like we’ve done that.”
On the show, Nagy revealed that the Sooners added nearly 9,000 collegiate snaps to their roster during the offseason.
The general manager believes that both sides of the ball will be stronger as a result of his scouting team’s offseason efforts and their collaboration with OU’s coaching staff.
“I’ve tried to be really intentional with our communication,” Nagy said. “There’s a common goal: We’re trying to win a national championship. This is a true partnership, and we all have the same goal in mind. It’s going to continue to evolve and get better.”
Oklahoma will open its 2026 season against UTEP on Sept. 5.
Oklahoma
Elgin’s Ritson Meyer becomes four-time Oklahoma high school wrestling state champion
Elgin’s Ritson Meyer becomes four-time OSSAA wrestling state champion
Elgin’s Ritson Meyer beat Coweta’s Aiven Robbins 8-7 in the Oklahoma high school wrestling Class 5A 215-pound finals on Saturday, Feb. 28, becoming a four-time state champion.
The loss was on Ritson Meyer’s mind all week as he prepared for his final state wrestling tournament.
A senior 215-pounder at Elgin, Meyer isn’t used to getting beaten, but he got a wake-up call when he lost against Coweta senior Aiven Robbins by five points in their regional championship match.
For Meyer, it set in that winning his fourth state championship wouldn’t be an easy task.
“I lost to him last week and I’m not a loser, so it was eating on me all week in practice,” Meyer said. “So (in) practice, I really leveled up everything. Everything about it.”
Meyer and Robbins met again on Saturday, this time with the Class 5A state championship on the line.
Intensely focused from the start, Meyer came out aggressive. And although it was another great match, Meyer did just enough to etch his name in the state history books.
Meyer held on to beat Robbins in an 8-7 decision in the new OG&E Coliseum as he claimed his fourth state championship, while Coweta won the team title.
An Abilene Christian football signee, Meyer’s wrestling days are over, but he leaves the sport with satisfaction.
“I came out here — even though it hurt, even though I was tired — I got it done,” Meyer said. “I’m so happy. I got to celebrate with my parents, my family, my friends. It’s a crazy feeling.”
A standout running back and linebacker on the gridiron, Meyer helped his team win the Class 4A state title in football as a junior before Elgin lost to Tuttle 23-20 in the 2025 championship game in December.
It’s a different sport, but that loss fueled Meyer’s wrestling season in a way.
“I like to tell people that wrestling is like offseason football,” Meyer said. “I can’t go out, lose. Everybody wanted me to win this. I won it for the whole entire community. First four-timer at Elgin. And that football (loss) really did eat me alive. It didn’t feel good at all, and I didn’t want that same feeling again.”
Meyer had a great start against Robbins on Saturday and never trailed, but Robbins battled to set up a great finish and both were gassed when it was over.
“I just gave it my all,” Meyer said, “and I got it done.”
This article will be updated.
Nick Sardis covers high school sports for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Nick? He can be reached at nsardis@oklahoman.com or on Twitter at@nicksardis. Sign up forThe Varsity Club newsletter to access more high school coverage. Support Nick’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing adigital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
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