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📈 Recruiting success

Anyone still questioning Oklahoma’s ability to recruit under Brent Venables hasn’t been paying attention this last month.

Oklahoma entered July with nine commitments for its 2023 signing class and added nine more by the time the calendar flipped to August.

That’s seven four-star and two three-star prospects.

That’s three top-100 players nationally in the 247Sports Composite rankings and six in the top 250.

And that’s five new defensive commitments to four on offense.

Oh, and the class is far from complete.

OU's 2023 commitments

• Why it matters: The Sooners landed not just one but multiple verbal commitments from elite defenders, including blue-chip edge rusher Adepoju Adebawore and defensive lineman Derrick LeBlanc, both of whom could (and should) finish as top-100 prospects nationally. OU hasn’t struggled to bring in blue-chip talent on offense. But to regularly land elite defensive players, especially in the trenches, is exactly what OU needs to compete in its future conference and should expedite Venables’ rebuild of the Sooners’ defense.

• What’s next: OU enjoyed plenty of fireworks in July and more are expected in August. The Sooners appear to have taken the lead for four-star edge rusher Colton Vasek, the son of former Texas defensive end Brian Vasek. Vasek, who’s also considering UT and Oregon, is expected to announce his decision today at 3 p.m. after visiting OU this past weekend. There’s also a lot of buzz building around OU landing not only five-star defensive lineman David Hicks, but four-star defensive lineman Jordan Renaud as well. If OU can get all three, consider the future of OU’s front seven to be in safe and capable hands.

• Big picture: OU currently ranks No. 7 in the 247Sports team recruiting rankings. The Sooners were relatively quiet in June compared to other big-time programs. Now? There’s maybe one or two other teams with as much momentum as the Sooners have in recruiting. OU’s push for elite defensive talent seems to be working under its new head coach, but that might be underselling it. OU has simply not had this kind of defensive recruiting haul in over a decade.

The Sooners are also doing a fine job of upholding their lofty standards on offense, adding the likes of speedy four-star receiver Jaquaize Pettaway and elite four-star offensive tackle Cayden Green this past month.

• TL;DR: OU recruiting machine 📈📈📈📈📈

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📚 Read options

• Why Jeff Lebby is the 'most fortunate guy' to be back with OU football as offensive coordinator (The Oklahoman)

• Gabe Ikard, Dusty Dvoracek launch Strengthening Oklahoma as 'The Good Part of NIL' (SI Sooners)

• Inside Oklahoma's Party in the Palace football recruiting event (247Sports)

• Jerry Schmidt working Sooners through 'transformation stage' ahead of fall camp (Norman Transcript)

• Column: Kyler Murray is a Super Bowl-caliber QB (Go Long)

🏆 Awards watch

College football’s slate of preseason watch list reveals concludes today with the release of the Chuck Bednarik Award, which is annually presented to the best defensive player in the country.

A list of the Sooners who were recognized as watch list candidates the last few weeks:

QB Dillon Gabriel, redshirt junior

• Maxwell Award (Player of the Year)

• Davey O'Brien Award (Best quarterback)

• Walter Camp Player of the Year

RB Eric Gray, senior

• Doak Walker Award (Best running back)

OT Anton Harrison, junior

• Outland Trophy (Best interior linemen)

WR Marvin Mims, junior

• Fred Biletnikoff Award (Best wide receiver)

• Wuerffel Trophy (Community and leadership)

• Paul Hornung Award (Most dynamic player)

P Michael Turk, redshirt senior

• Ray Guy Award (Best punter)

LB David Ugwoegbu, senior

• Butkus Award (Best linebacker)

TE Brayden Willis, senior

• Mackey Award (Best tight end)

🤔 Question of the day: Which OU player(s) are you most confident in to win a national award this season?

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📺 Programming alert

Oklahoma’s streaming and content partnership with ESPN+ starts today.

What this means: Plenty of content seen on Sooner Sports TV properties will be available through the ESPN+ platform with an active subscription.

How much does it cost?: It’s $7/month or $70/annually for just an ESPN+ subscription. You can also bundle an ESPN+ subscription with Disney+ and Hulu for $14/month.

Do you really need it?: It probably won’t be a bad thing to have if you want to watch some archived OU football content and any live OU athletic events that would have regularly appeared on Fox Sports Oklahoma. You will also need it for OU football’s Week 2 game against Kent State, which will stream exclusively on ESPN+ on Sept. 10. Goodbye, pay-per-view game.

🗓 On this day

Back on Aug. 1, 1999, The Oklahoman published its Big 12 football sneak peek, which included this story on Josh Heupel, the then-newcomer leftie quarterback that was named a team captain prior to ever taking a snap for OU.

Sound familiar?