Bob Stoops has typically recruited a lot of defensive players in his tenure at Oklahoma. However, OU’s head football coach is not opposed to recruiting offense.

Stoops acknowledged that offense is exactly what he was after this recruiting season, and that strategy is reflected in the numbers.

At the end of national signing day, Oklahoma had signed eight new defensive players and 17 offensive players. Stoops said he is happy with the holes the team filled during this offseason.

“We answered all of our needs,” Stoops said. “We came into this recruiting season and knew where most of our shortcomings were and that we would have to sign more offensive players than defensive players.”

Oklahoma continued its trend of signing at least one quarterback by signing San Antonio native Trevor Knight, a four-star recruit rated as the No. 5 quarterback in the nation by Rivals.com.

Knight gives the Sooners another dual-threat quarterback to go along with sophomores Blake Bell and Kendal Thompson.

“I think everything starts with us with throwing the football,” Stoops said. “I think (Trevor’s) got a great release in how he throws the ball, and then he’s got excellent feet to go with it. And that’s exciting.”

As excited as Stoops is about Knight, Landry Jones ended all talks of a quarterback competition when he decided to forego the NFL draft for his senior season with the Sooners.

Therefore, one of the things Oklahoma needed to find this offseason was a new target for Jones to throw to since the best receiver in school history graduated. The Sooners came up huge in that department.

Oklahoma landed four of the nation’s top recruits in Trey Metoyer, Durron Neal, Sterling Shepard and Derrick Woods along with the No. 12-ranked junior college player in the country, Courtney Gardner. Metoyer, who is already enrolled and on campus, highlights the class as the No. 2 receiver in the entire nation.

“All of these guys are special athletes,” Stoops said. “The high school guys are fabulous athletes. Speed, quickness, size, catching the football, running with the football, returns-these guys are all really special. I think they’re going to have a chance to make a huge impact.”

Oklahoma also landed four tight ends in this year’s recruiting class, but took a slightly different approach than in recent years. Whereas the Sooners have utilized smaller tight ends with speed and athleticism the last couple of seasons, the team seems to be once again looking for size.

Oklahoma’s four new tight ends, Brannon Green, Taylor McNamara, Sam Grant and Laith Harlow are all over 6’4” and 235 pounds. Whoever carries the load at the position next season will be the team’s biggest tight end since All-American Jermaine Gresham.

Apart from being pleased with the positions he was able to fill both offensively and defensively, Stoops said he was pleased with how much of the country the coaching staff was able to recruit.

The 25 new Sooners in this signing class come from 11 states across the country. Stoops said he hopes the widespread recruiting effort opens up more pipelines for the team in the future.

“I love to recruit the entire country,” Stoops said. “You just have so many more opportunities, I feel, moving forward. Usually players recruit players, so now I feel as we go back into those areas next year and the years after it could be a great opportunity.”