In Miguel Chavis' first recruiting cycle at Oklahoma as defensive ends coach, he made quite a first impression, landing a couple of high-motor hell-raisers in PJ Adebawore and Taylor Wein.

This time around, Chavis has the Sooners trending for another phenomenal class at his position group, and the first pledge in the boat is three-star Minnesota native Wyatt Gilmore. The 6-foot-4, 250-pound standout from suburban Minneapolis announced his commitment to Oklahoma on Wednesday night, spurning offers from Oregon, Miami, Kansas State and a myriad of other P5 programs.

“The reason I chose Oklahoma over the other schools is the relationships I had with the coaches," Gilmore told OUInsider shortly before publicizing his decision. "It just felt right, and I knew that these are the people that are gonna help me become the best version of myself.”

The Sooners haven't rostered a scholarship player from the state of Minnesota since 1965, and whether by design or by coincidence, Oklahoma has expanded its geographic recruiting footprint immensely under Brent Venables. Over the three recruiting cycles that Venables and his staff have overseen, the Sooners have landed commits from 19 different states. That includes Pennsylvania (Phil Picciotti), Washington (Jasiah Wagoner and Heath Ozaeta) and New Jersey (Logan Howland).

Gilmore's pledge comes less than two weeks after he took an official visit to Oklahoma for the ChampU BBQ, where he gave the staff his word that he'd be a Sooner. A subsequent official visit to Oregon, which had been scheduled for June 23-25, never took place.

“Going into the ChampUBBQ," Gilmore remarked, "I was thinking [that] if this goes how I expect it to, then I will be a Sooner by the time I walk out of there.”

Gilmore is Oklahoma's tenth commit of the 2024 cycle and the fourth in the month of June, and his announcement comes scarcely 24 hours after three-star RB Xavier Robinson also jumped on board with a verbal to OU. Gilmore is the first public defensive line commit of the class, and now that he's officially on board, the Sooners can put forth even more effort in their pursuit of their other top targets. That list includes Williams Nwaneri, Dominick McKinley, Nigel Smith and David Stone, all of whom have taken official visits to Norman this month.

Gilmore is regarded as the No. 52 strongside defensive end in the 2024 class, per the Rivals rankings. If you're an OUInsider premium member, click HERE to read Brandon Drumm's full commitment Q&A with Gilmore. If you're not yet a member, click HERE to get started today!