The game was good, the crowd was good, and the weekend recruiting push seems to have been good as well. Oklahoma’s 28-13 Bedlam win on Saturday night not only salvaged the season by making the Sooners bowl eligible, it also possibly solidified the 2023 recruiting class. OU already ranked #7 nationally (per 247Sports) with twenty verbal commitments but is sitting on the opportunity to move up significantly should they land a few more key targets and that’s exactly what we could be looking at.
With two dozen(ish) recruits on campus for the game, the Sooners have already received two crystal ball predictions and are sitting on a rumor of flipping another major target. The two crystal ball predictions are for 3-star defensive lineman Ashton Sanders and JUCO corner Kendel Dolby.
Sanders is rated by 247 as the #79 defensive line prospect, and the #62 overall prospect from California, for the class of 2023. The 6-1/270 product of Los Angeles, California is sitting on 13 scholarship offers, with Oklahoma coming on board October 31st. It appears as if the strongest competition for the Sooners in his recruitment are going to be California and Wisconsin which makes his recent crystal ball predictions all the more important because one of them was from Badger247’s Evan Flood.
Dolby was also a late offer by Oklahoma. The 5-11/180 prospect from Northeastern Oklahoma A&M was offered by the Sooners on November 2nd. That was followed by offers from Arkansas and Mississippi State to build his list to twenty different opportunities. Oklahoma State and Washington State seemed to be the frontrunners for the 2022 SWJCFC Defensive Player of the Year but that was before OU got involved.
There were a total of seven 5-star recruits on campus for the Bedlam game with Oklahoma having its sights on flipping Peyton Bowen away from Notre Dame and David Hicks from Texas A&M. One key part of making that happen would be 4-star linebacker Daymion Sanford. A high school teammate of Hicks, Sanford is also committed to Texas A&M but is rumored to have flipped to Oklahoma after his weekend visit to Norman.
At 6-2/210, Sanford has a total of 26 scholarship offers and has been committed to Texas A&M since June 27th. Again, Oklahoma was a little late to the party, offering on November 3rd, but seems to have made some headway at possibly the first domino falling in the Sooners benefitting from “Flip Season”. It’s widely believed that he and Hicks want to play on the same collegiate team as well and the Bowen and Hicks are connected as well. My thought is that this one is going to go down to the wire and we won’t know until the early signing period opens up on December 21st.
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