With Two Huge Commits for 2027, Brent Venables Has Brought In-State Recruiting Back at Oklahoma

But at least for the '27 class, OU appears to be more than back on track attracting in-state players. This has always been an emphasis for Brent Venables, who has preached an inside-out approach since he was hired in December 2021.

Venables has made good on his philosophy since he returned to Norman. In 2022, with only a few weeks to repair a recruiting class shocked by the departure of Lincoln Riley, OU closed on four of the state's top 10 players — three of those are Gentry Williams, Robert Spears-Jennings and Jacob Sexton, who are playing key roles as OU seniors. The 2023 class was less successful in-state (just two of the top 10, per 247Sports) due to the emphasis on out-of-state talents like Jackson Arnold, Cayden Green and P.J. Adebawore.

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In 2024, Venables' dedication to recruiting in-state talent finally paid dividends: OU won six of the state's top 10 talents (plus two more in the top 15) — names like Danny Okoye and Devon Jordan and Xavier Robinson. Perhaps the biggest win that season, David Stone, could be added to that list since Stone is a native Oklahoman but was playing football in Florida at IMG Academy.

The Sooners maintained their momentum in Oklahoma in 2025 with four of the state's top 10 prep players, including Nos. 1, 2 and 3, as well as No. 12.

This is a far cry from where the program was under Lincoln Riley.

When Venables inherited the Sooner machine in late 2021, OU had only brought in 11 of the state's top 40 players in the previous four classes. Five of those 11 were signed in Riley's first class as Oklahoma's head coach in 2018. From there, Riley only brought in two top-10 players from the state of Oklahoma in each year from 2019-2021. (Furthermore, it was Venables who finally did land the state's No. 1 player in the 2021 class in Kendal Daniels, and the No. 3 player from the 2019 class in Trace Ford — both were transfers from Oklahoma State.)

With Venables' inside-out approach, he has helped build Oklahoma's defensive depth back to where it had been during his first stint in Norman. As programs begin to put a bow on their 2026 efforts, OU has already laid a strong foundation for the 2027 class — and it begins in Oklahoma.

Traditionally, Oklahoma’s football identity has been deeply tied to the belief that Dallas/Fort Worth is almost an extension of the state, with countless standout Sooners hailing from that region across generations.

Still, this legacy doesn't diminish the value of homegrown Oklahoma athletes. After all, four of OU’s seven Heisman Trophy winners were Oklahoma high school stars first.