Oklahoma officially signed 27 players to its 2024 recruiting class during the NCAA’s early signing period on Wednesday.
The standard’s been set, and we’re raising the bar. #24K | @SoonerClub pic.twitter.com/xDGR0uiEhW
— Oklahoma Football (@OU_Football) December 20, 2023
It’s Brent Venables' third official recruiting class since taking over OU's head coaching job in 2021. Under Venables the Sooners have landed four five-star commitments and notched three consecutive top-10 recruiting classes, according to On3’s Team Recruiting Rankings.
Venables continued the trend in 2024 by landing five-star defensive lineman David Stone, who is ranked as the top defensive lineman in the nation and the No. 7 player nationally. Alongside Stone, the Sooners earned commitments from 15 four-star recruits, tied for the fifth-most in the entire nation, and 11 three-stars.
With the SEC on the horizon, Venables wants to build more competitive depth in his third season as OU's head coach.
“I'm looking for people that make us better,” Venables said. “We're not looking for backups. We're looking for guys to come in here and make us better. … I tell the players all the time, my job is to put together the most competitive roster I can, your job is to show up everyday and be ready to compete and if you don't like to compete, you know, good luck when you leave college because the real world gets even more competitive.”
Despite massive roster turnover in two seasons, Venables has retained 16 players and 22 players from the 2022 and 2023 recruiting classes, respectively. In 2021, former OU and now-USC head coach Lincoln Riley signed 16 players, but only four — Jalil Farooq, Billy Bowman, Danny Stutsman and Ethan Downs — players from that class will remain on the Sooners’ roster in 2024.
Here’s how OU’s 2024 recruiting class ranks vs. other programs:
This data was acquired from On3's Team Rankings.
