The Sooners, who own the nation’s No. 6 recruiting class, are set to ink 27 new scholarship players on Wednesday. So naturally, there’s hardly adequate time or space to devote to each of those 27 individuals in the span of 24 hours.

But with respect to every pending signee for Oklahoma, it’s worth highlighting a handful of players that have gone weeks or months without adequate recognition for what they’ll bring to the table as a Sooner. Here’s a glimpse at five players that might not be in the top tier of the class from a rankings perspective, but could drastically outperform their stock as recruits by the time their collegiate careers conclude.

He’s the only linebacker signee in the class for Oklahoma, and there’s a reason Brent Venables and Ted Roof hand-picked Nesta to join a loaded corps of ‘backers in Norman. Nesta is a remarkable overall athlete who will also join the OU baseball program as a right-handed pitcher, and though he held Power 5 baseball offers from the time he was in seventh grade, he continued to pursue football because he loved the sport. At the high school level, Nesta played in a defensive system modeled after Venables’ scheme, so he’s already relatively familiar with the mental calculus of what he’ll be asked to do as a Sooner. And at 6-foot-5 with a reported time of 6.84 seconds in the 60-yard dash, he’s got the athletic traits to be a major impact performer down the road. He also won’t be rushed in his development, as the Sooners’ roster is rife with depth and experience at the linebacker position heading into 2024.

When an athlete has the complete football package, i.e. size, speed, tenacity and instinct, sometimes it simply doesn’t matter how familiar he is with a given position. If the coaching is up to par, the potential is limitless, and that’s the calculated risk that the Oklahoma staff is taking with Boganowski. At 6-foot-2 and 205 pounds, he dominated as a roving linebacker for Junction City (Kan.) High, but the Sooners began recruiting him back in January as a safety. By October, he’d committed to Oklahoma over Kansas State, and is all-in with the unique vision that Venables and Brandon Hall pitched to him. Though he’s less familiar with the safety position than some of his peers in the class, there might not be a single Oklahoma defensive commit with a sheer ceiling as high as Boganowski. And there's always a safety net (no pun intended): if somehow things don't work out for Boganowski in the secondary, he'd make quite the fearsome cheetah, and could even slide down into a traditional linebacker role. Versatility and athleticism will always find a niche on the gridiron. But especially in the SEC, the Sooners need enforcers in the defensive backfield, and that's Boganowski to a tee. He's very much cut from the same cloth as Robert Spears-Jennings in that regard.

Autry stands 6-foot-7 with plus length and no bad weight whatsoever, and at least from a frame perspective, he’s somewhat reminiscent of Tyler Guyton. He’ll need to bulk up a bit when he arrives on campus, but he’s got the God-given measurables to be a truly special offensive tackle in the SEC. He chose Oklahoma over offers from Alabama, Oregon, Ole Miss and many other Power 5 programs, and the offer sheet alone speaks to the reality that Autry is not your average three-star prospect. Generally, an underdeveloped offensive tackle is a much better bet than one who’s already peaked in his development, especially if that particular individual signs to play with a coach with a penchant for developing talent. That’s certainly the case for Autry at Oklahoma, as he’ll be coached by one of the industry’s foremost offensive line gurus in Bill Bedenbaugh. Players with both a high ceiling and a high floor are tough to find from the three-star ranks, and Bedenbaugh managed to lock down two such players in the same class, which brings us to...

The epitome of a blank canvas, Akinkunmi is as raw as any prospect in the entire country, and that’s because he hails from across the pond. The 6-foot-5, 320-pound Londoner only took up football two years ago, but there’s a reason he ended up with well over two dozen scholarship offers and a slew of Power 5 opportunities. Unsurprisingly, Akinkunmi’s athletic background includes quite a bit of soccer, which gives him a natural advantage in the footwork department as he prepares to compete for a spot on the two-deep as a collegiate offensive tackle. Once Akinkunmi made the trip to Oklahoma and realized the true extent of Bill Bedenbaugh’s savvy, he cancelled visits to Clemson, Miami, Michigan and Ole Miss and committed to the Sooners. If Akinkunmi can grasp Bedenbaugh’s teaching quickly and hone the finer points of offensive line play, especially when it comes to the use of his hands, he’s more than capable of being a multi-year starter and All-SEC candidate. For a coach like Bedenbaugh, there’s virtually no downside in taking a player like Akinkunmi. The athletic tools are present, as is the drive to succeed. If he’s coached properly (and there’s no reason to believe he won’t be), Akinkunmi could make truckloads of money in the NFL one day.

The guy that takes the cake might be the least ballyhooed of the Sooners’ blue-chip commits, as Newcombe stays out of the limelight and is one of the group’s geographical outliers. Thus, it's not likely that the Oklahoma fanbase is fully aware of just how productive he has been at the high school level. An Arizona native who represented the first chronological commit of the cycle for Oklahoma, Newcombe was a four-year varsity contributor for Casteel High School, and picked off 11 passes at the varsity level across his freshman and sophomore seasons. Teams knew better than to throw Newcombe’s way with any regularity over his final two years of prep ball, so the numbers no longer jumped out of the box score. But one could argue a cornerback is at his best when he’s not recording any statistics, as it implies that teams are orienting their game plan to the opposite side of the field. The blue-chip defender has an excellent football pedigree (his father Bobby played wide receiver in the NFL), and he’s all about the game and improving his craft. The Sooners have good depth in the secondary for the moment, but Newcombe could absolutely be one of those players that gets to campus and makes instant noise despite the logjam — a la Jasiah Wagoner and Peyton Bowen this past spring.

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