Hook Em'!! 🤘🏼 pic.twitter.com/7jIhcN4h9J
— Cameron Rising (@crising7) April 22, 2017
The Tom Herman factor is in full effect in Austin, Texas! Just over a week ago Southmoore (Oklahoma) product Casey Thompson committed to play football for the Texas Longhorns. It was widely speculated that Thompson (and OU Football prodigy) would church burnt orange over crimson and cream because the Sooners already had 4-star quarterback Cameron Rising in the fold.
After the Longhorns’ spring game Tom Herman said his team needed another scholarship quarterback, indicating the two he was heading into the summer with wouldn’t be enough, but on Saturday night Oklahoma’s longtime quarterback commit flipped and decided to answer Herman’s call as well.
Rising’s commitment to Texas won’t do anything for the Longhorns’ depth next fall but it certainly does boost UT’s 2018 recruiting class and, possibly more importantly to Texas, it leaves Oklahoma without a current quarterback commit for 2018. Known as the quarterback whisperer, Tom Herman came into Bob Stoops’ backyard and stole a prodigy, and then broke into his house and stole the corner-piece of Oklahoma’s 2018 recruiting class.
So what’s next for Oklahoma? The easiest path is for the Prodigal Son to come home. I’m not sure how likely it is that Thompson (also a 4-star quarterback) will flip to Oklahoma now that the Sooners are in dire straights, but it’s at least a possibility. “OU hit me up already,” Thompson told Burnt Orange Nation following the news of Rising’s flip.
Nothing is going to happen overnight but February is a long ways off and Oklahoma has time to pull out all the stops to land Thompson. They need to make him a priority though and Bob Stoops will possibly have the greatest recruiting tool to his advantage in Thompson’s dad and brother (both former OU quarterbacks).
The Sooners could also jump back out on the recruiting trail if Thompson isn’t willing to show some love back their way. Oklahoma had offered on four quarterbacks for 2018 and two of them now are in Tom Herman’s back pocket. Trevor Lawrence is the nation’s top pro-style quarterback prospect, per 247Sports, and seems to be a strong Clemson commit. It would honestly probably be easier for Lincoln Riley to get Cameron Rising to flip back to OU then to get Lawrence to look away from Clemson towards Norman. Neither is likely to happen.
That leaves North Charleston, North Carolina prospect Dakereon Joyner as a name you might want to take note of. At 6-2/200, Joyner is a 4-star duel-threat quarterback that Oklahoma has offered and is currently uncommitted. Many believe that he’s a lock to play for South Carolina but the Sooners did make him an offer in March of 2016. The fact that he remains uncommitted means that there’s at least a slight chance that the Sooners could move in on him.
With National Signing Day still over nine months away, there’s plenty of Time for Oklahoma to grab a quality quarterback in the 2018 class. While I’m sure there’s plenty of disappointment coming from the coaching offices in Norman, I doubt there’s any panic associated with it.