Closing the Book on 2017?

Traditionally it's National Signing Day that sees all of the fireworks.

But between Oklahoma landing possibly it's final three commitments of the 2017 class as well as their first junior day and finally two of Oklahoma's long-time commitments visiting Florida it's safe to say that some of February 1's fireworks were sped up.

SoonerScoop.com took some time to go back over the week that was.

Without question one of the biggest storylines of the weekend was a pair of Oklahoma commitments, Tre Brown and Charleston Rambo, choosing to visit Florida for official visits this weekend. The two seemed to come to this decision through no collaboration or pre-conceived ideas but in the end both arrived in Gainesville and following the weekend before that saw another long-time Sooner commitment visit the SEC, Sooner fans began to sweat.

Though leading into the trip Rambo had made no attempt to hide his trip to the Swamp, Brown had merely commented publicly that he would not be visiting USC last weekend - as some had believed he might.

However once both arrived in Florida neither tried to hide the reality as Rambo had a chance to spend some time with Florida coaching legend, and friend of the Sooner staff, Steve Spurrier Sr.

The newly-minted Rivals100 wide receiver from Cedar Hill, Texas took some time to look at the Florida offense and according to some found himself as a better fit inside Oklahoma's offense playing with current 2017 Heisman trophy favorite Baker Mayfield and the potential of Dallas prep legend Kyler Murray.

In the case of Brown, nothing seems to be quite as definitive or direct as Rambo's clear connection to Oklahoma and the current and future of it's passing game. However, in talking to various sources it sounds as though Oklahoma has every reason to feel good about the four-star cornerback when he faxes his letter of intent from Tulsa Union high school on Wednesday.

More on the situation here.

Even coming into January there wasn't a lot of work left to do in Oklahoma's recruiting effort. The class had largely been done since early in the 2016 football season and the Sooners had continued to add one piece after another in the roll up to the final month of the year.

However there were certainly a few pieces, namely along the defensive line, left to come together and on Friday the Sooners saw those pieces start to fit together. That picture began to be placed when Ardmore, Okla. three-star defensive end Tyreece Lott announced that he would be committing to the Sooners.

The most interesting, and unique, aspect of his commitment was that Lott made the pledge to the Sooners in front of both Bob Stoops and Calvin Thibodeaux. The two were at Ardmore high school on Friday morning to pay Lott a visit and at the time the 6-foot-3, 265-pound former TCU commitment let them know of his intentions.

News that one of our own members broke with some live video, but was quickly corroborated by Thibodeaux himself.

Roughly 24 hours later another defensive lineman jumped on board with Oklahoma's first-year defensive line coach when Baton Rouge (La.) Madison Prep Academy defensive tackle Troy James pledged to the Sooners on Twitter. The active defender was an in-season offer for the Sooners but at the time of that offer he was already nearing a decision and went through with in and pledged to Arkansas.

For some time that decision seemed set and he was locked into the Razorbacks but as time wore on he continued to speak with Thibodeaux and Oklahoma made a run and after months of work got the 6-foot-3, 270-pound on campus last Wednesday for a rare midweek official visit.

Little was said of the visit publicly but as we reported in Friday's Sooner Scoop, things went exceedingly well, and shortly after the Scoop's report James tweeted out the news of his decommitment from Arkansas.

Less than 24 hours later he tweeted out more news, that of his decision to pledge his future to Oklahoma.

And with James' commitment Oklahoma's defensive line, with four commitments, was likely closed - barring a surprising decision from five-star defensive tackle Marvin Wilson. However, that's not to say the class is done, or that decisions for the weekend were done. That's because Oklahoma brought in a late minute surprise with Ryan Jones of Charlotte (N.C.) Mallard Creek.

For months the Sooners and Jones had been something of an on again, off again situation but last week Kerry Cooks made his way to Charlotte to check out some of the finer points of Jones' recruitment and to speak with faculty and the coaching staff around the school to get a feel for the four-star two-way standout.

Things clearly checked out because Jones was brought in for an official visit over the weekend and wasted almost no time jumping on board with the Sooners tweeting out his commitment early Saturday afternoon while still on campus for his visit.

At this point Oklahoma has 27 commitments and while the class looks quite possibly done there is still the consideration of the afore-mentioned Wilson but over the weekend some interesting news also emerged in regard to Rivals250 linebacker Tyler Taylor. Oklahoma inside linebackers coach Tim Kish paid a visit to Taylor and his mother, who will also play a key role in his decision, and it seems that the Sooners made a very strong final pitch.

Now is it enough for Oklahoma to turn Taylor away from the Auburn/LSU leaderboard that he announced a little over a week ago? That remains to be seen but there is no question that the Sooners and Taylor is a storyline to watch over the next few days.