OU's silver lining appears
It took just more than six months, but Oklahoma did it. The Sooners and their quarterback recruiting went from an extreme low…
…to the highest of highs.
Nobody had any real idea what was going on when five-star quarterback Brock Vandagriff decommitted from OU seemingly out of nowhere on New Year’s Day.
A firm commit since June 2019, it was a real shock. Instead of taking Vandagriff at his word about wanting to be closer to home, the natural assumption was a terrible one.
You have to remember this was just days after OU’s 63-28 loss to eventual national champion LSU in the Peach Bowl. That loss combined with Vandagriff wanting out meant only one thing to a lot of people. There was zero question Lincoln Riley was leaving Norman to coach the Dallas Cowboys in the NFL.
Whoops.
Obviously, that wasn’t the case. Vandagriff has indeed stayed closer to home when he committed to Georgia later that month in January. As for Riley? It was back to the drawing board and trying to find that silver lining.
Except he didn’t have to go back that far. Vandagriff is the No. 2-ranked quarterback in the nation, so why not go for No. 1? OU and Riley made it clear that Caleb Williams was the target, the only target for OU’s 2021 class from that point forward.
Then something happened along the way. As OU showed the trust in Williams, Williams reciprocated that and then some with the Sooners.
There are going to be debates about Williams vs. Vandagriff. No clue at all if it ever reaches the level of 2018’s Trevor Lawrence vs. Justin Fields, but Williams and Vandagriff are always going to be linked.
And we won’t know for a while, at least, who is going to be the better college football prospect among Williams and Vandagriff.
That will all be revealed down the road. What is known, however, is that in perhaps the oddest way possible, Vandagriff’s decommitment became the best thing for OU’s #LincUp21 class.
Huh?
That’s just the way recruiting works sometimes. It’s not that Vandagriff doesn’t resonate with other top-tier recruits, but it’s hard to find an accurate comparison for what Williams means to the 2021 class, and OU’s in particular.
National names that you thought the Sooners were on the outside looking in have now become legitimate Plan A targets. And in the case of five-star receiver Mario Williams, an OU commit.
You knew Caleb Williams would help OU get involved in the east coast more, but you didn’t realize all the other ripple effects that would come with it.
There’s something about a quarterback being the face of the class. Spencer Rattler is a prime example when you talk about OU’s 2019 #NewWave19 group.
Rattler was out in the spotlight, recruiting all he could. You’d be foolish to not think he played a role in the five-star receiver trio of Theo Wease, Jadon Haselwood and Trejan Bridges.
That’s sort of where it stopped, though. OU didn’t become a bigger player in Arizona, and there weren’t any other recruits that you could point toward and say that’s the Rattler effect.
We’re still months from 2021 signing day, but Williams’ fingerprints are all over what the Sooners have been doing and are still trying to do.
Williams, despite only going public for OU on Saturday, has clearly been working hard behind the scenes. All you have to do is examine his social media and see most of his recent follows are OU players or coaches or recruits OU is pursuing.
Williams has been a player for OU in the east coast. He has put in the work with other top receivers, but it has stretched well beyond that. It’s gone to the offensive line. It’s moved into defensive kids. To not exaggerate too much, it feels like there are six degrees of separation with Williams to every notable 2021 recruit.
The doom-and-gloom of January is long gone. OU was on the verge of having a nice 2021 class if Vandagriff was still driving the bus. There’s just a different feeling, however, with Williams having his moment and officially getting to work.
It might not mean two commitments on one day all the time like July 4 was. But yea, there’s a feeling that something special can go down at any given time.
The Williams effect is real. And in a strange way, OU has Vandagriff to thank for everything that is about to unfold and seeing where Williams impacts next for this class and beyond.