Oklahoma
Sunday Offering: Oklahoma in Contention for 4-star 2025 LB

Already holding one of the top five recruiting classes in the 2025 cycle, Brent Venables and Oklahoma continued to make headway in the past week.
Even in the midst of preparing for the Sooners’ spring football game, OU was able to stay in contention for one of the top linebackers in the country and extend offers to five other high school prospects.
With plenty of time left to continue building their next recruiting class, Oklahoma is off to a good start and seems to be in position to add to what is already a solid group.
On Wednesday, Chad Simmons of On3 reported that Oklahoma, Alabama, Missouri and Nebraska are “battling” for 4-star linebacker Dawson Merritt. Hailing from Blue Valley High School in Overland Park, KS, Merritt is rated the No. 61 overall player and No. 8 linebacker in the nation, according to 247Sports.
Listed at 6-foot-3 and 215 pounds, Merritt has racked up nearly 25 scholarship offers from schools around the country. In late November, the speedy linebacker visited Norman to see the Sooners take on TCU in OU’s final regular season game of the 2023 campaign.
Merritt is the son of Kansas City Chiefs defensive backs coach Dave Merritt, who has been with the team for five seasons. Merritt has spent 23 seasons as an NFL coach after playing linebacker in the league for four years.
With Carl Albert (OK) linebacker Marcus James, Wagoner (OK) edge rusher Alexander Shieldnight, Lee’s Summit North (MO) interior defensive lineman Ka’Mori Moore and Dr. Henry Wise (MD) defensive lineman Trent Wilson already on board in the upcoming cycle, adding Merritt would be a massive win on the recruiting trail for Zac Alley and company, strengthening the OU front seven in 2025.
Offers extended
On Monday, Oklahoma offered Port Arthur Memorial (TX) 4-star linebacker Tank King. Listed at 6-foot-2 and 215 pounds, King is rated the No. 70 overall player and No. 6 linebacker in the 2026 recruiting class, according to On3.
Also a standout baseball player, King holds offers from Notre Dame, Texas, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Penn State and many others.
On Tuesday, the Sooners offered 4-star Lincoln-Way East (IL) quarterback Jonas Williams. A 6-foot-3, 205-pound sophomore, Williams is rated the No. 147 overall prospect and No. 9 quarterback in the 2026 class, per On3.
OU is the latest school to offer the Frankfort, IL, product, following in the footsteps of LSU, Oregon, Ohio State and many other programs.
The following day, Seth Littrell and company offered Queen Creek (AZ) quarterback Tait Reynolds.
Listed at 6-foot-1 and 195 pounds, Reynolds is rated the No. 236 overall prospect and No. 19 quarterback in the 2026 cycle, according to On3. Like King, Reynolds is also a standout on the diamond and is currently committed to Arizona State to play baseball.
The two-sport star also holds offers from Tennessee, Florida State, Utah and others.
At the Sooners’ spring game on Saturday, Venables and company handed out two more offers. First, Oklahoma offered 3-star 2026 offensive tackle Maxwell Robinson, from Derby, KS.
Later in the day, 4-star Skyridge (UT) offensive lineman Darius Afalava picked up an offer from the Sooners.
Listed at 6-foot-5 and 280 pounds, Afalava is rated the No. 199 overall prospect in the 2025 recruiting class, according to Rivals.

Oklahoma
Oklahoma State on Verge of Elimination from Bowl Contention

Oklahoma State is set for more Big 12 action this weekend, but it could make the inevitable official.
On Saturday, OSU will head to Lubbock to face No. 14 Texas Tech. The Red Raiders are coming off their first loss of the season but still have arguably the best team in the Big 12. As one of the frontrunners for the conference’s spot in the College Football Playoff, they shouldn’t have many issues taking care of business against an OSU team that hasn’t won a Big 12 game since 2023.
Along with being on a years-long drought in conference play, the Cowboys haven’t beaten an FBS team since September 2024. With this being the eighth game of the season, that also means OSU is down to its final hopes of making a bowl game.
Of course, the Cowboys have effectively been out of bowl contention since losing to Tulsa. While at that point there were still plenty of games left to play, that loss showed that OSU might not be ready to compete with anyone of note.
That assumption turned out to be entirely correct, as OSU hasn’t had another game within one possession since that loss to its in-state rival, which also led to the firing of Mike Gundy. While falling out of bowl contention seemed inevitable for the Pokes for much of the season, this weekend could be when it officially becomes reality.
Sitting at 1-6, the Cowboys would need to rattle off five straight wins to get to bowl eligibility. Considering they will start that journey as nearly 40-point underdogs in Lubbock this weekend, it’s safe to say that won’t happen.
While this is the reality OSU football is in at this point, it’s still a stark reminder of how quickly things can change in college football. Just two years ago, OSU won 10 games, made the Big 12 title game, which led to an appearance in the Texas Bowl, marking the Pokes’ 18th straight bowl appearance.
The last time OSU missed bowl games in consecutive seasons was 2000-01, when Bob Simmons’ final season and Les Miles’ first season at the helm both ended with losing records. Of course, Gundy missed a bowl game only twice in his 20 full seasons as the Cowboys’ head coach, but this year likely would have been his third had he gotten the opportunity to see it through.
While nothing about OSU’s outlook will change on Saturday when the Cowboys are likely eliminated from bowl contention, it is still a reminder of how far the program has fallen.
Oklahoma
Thunder receive NBA championship rings, raise title banner: Check it out

NBA teams with most pressure in 2025-26
Breaking down which NBA teams are under the most pressure to win going into the 2025-26 season.
The 2025-26 NBA season started Tuesday night in Oklahoma City as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder hosted Kevin Durant and the Houston Rockets.
Before tip-off, the Thunder celebrated their 2024-25 NBA championship season and raised their first title banner since the organization moved to Oklahoma City.
OKC players were greeted by NBA commissioner Adam Silver as they were introduced to the home crowd and received their championship rings.
Here’s how the players reacted to the championship rings and banner being raised:
Thunder receive championship rings, raise title banner
Here’s a detailed view of the Thunder’s new bling:
Oklahoma
Interim study held over misuse of ALPR cameras

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — An Oklahoma Representative says the state’s Automated License Plate Readers (ALPR) are being misused by law enforcement.
When News 4 spoke with Rep. Tom Gann (R-Inola) in August, he claimed law enforcement was abusing the purpose of ALPRs, which is used to make sure Oklahoma drivers are insured.
Gann and others presented how ALPR cameras are infringing on peoples 4th Amendment right.
He says if action isn’t taken soon on governing how law enforcement is using these cameras, the citizens of Oklahoma will end up paying for it.
“These are serious violations of people’s rights and this comes from a lack of internal controls,” Gann said. “We have feds using local cops passwords to do immigration surveillance with flock cameras. It is the fact that he can pass his password around to anybody he wants to, to get onto this system is a problem. We need internal controls otherwise we create more victims with these flock cameras.”
License plate readers have been legal in Oklahoma since 2018.
The cameras intention was to enforce the Compulsory Insurance Law, making sure drivers aren’t on the road without insurance.
“Under the appropriate use, this is a good thing,” Shena Burgess, Attorney said. “We want people to have insurance. If people have insurance, then our insurance rates go down. I was all for that part.”
Oklahoma’s Uninsured Vehicle Enforcement Diversion (UVED) Program says these cameras have helped greatly, drastically reduced the number of uninsured drivers on the road.
Over the past seven years, we’ve realized a significant reduction in uninsured vehicles operating on Oklahoma roadways. UVED offers Oklahomans a chance to achieve compliance without law enforcement interaction, without criminal charges, without court costs, and without time
lost from work, school, or home.Spokesperson for Uninsured Vehicle Enforcement Diversion (UVED)
However, Burgess says those cameras are being used for much more.
“The Tulsa County Sheriffs Office testified in a federal court that they use the Automated License Plate Readers all the time, for purposes that have nothing to do with whether or not the vehicles have insurance,” Burgess said.
Gann says this has led to instances where law enforcement have pulled over the wrong person thinking they were a suspect in a crime.
“We have victims of mass surveillance out there already,” Gann said. “When tag numbers are misread, you have people like this, where her and her 12 year-old sister were held at gunpoint because of a misread on a tag.”
He also mentions that this is a violation of your 4th Amendment right.
“The 4th Amendment offers security to a person when they place themselves in a constitutionally protected area albeit home, office, hotel room or automobile,” Gann said.
Burgess says this is a major concern for her, and what this could mean for future court cases.
“Once challenges start happening, civil lawsuits are going to follow,” Burgess said. “It is going to be our citizens who end up paying for this.”
The meeting was supposed to be a joint study between Gann and Rep. Tim Turner (R-Kinta), but Gann told Turner he would be taking up the allotted time, so Turner decided to withdraw his study.
They say they will continue to work toward a solution over the misuse of ALPR cameras.
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