Oklahoma Commits in First Rivals300 Rankings

Oklahoma football’s class of 2026 has been one of a lot of debate for Sooners fans. Is Oklahoma’s team ranking truly indicative of where the perennial top 10 recruiting program belongs? Have Brent Venables and Jim Nagy found some under valued talents in recruiting circles?

Now with the acquisition of Rivals by On3, an entirely new ranking gets to offer its take on Oklahoma football’s work in 2026. The Rivals300 was released for the first time on Monday and we take a look at where all the Sooners offers and targets found themselves.

Oklahoma Football Commits Maintain Lofty Rankings

A trio of Sooners found the newest update placing them in very familiar settings. After spending the most recent update on On3 at No. 41, quarterback commitment Bowe Bentley finds himself in the same spot within the new Rivals300 ranking. The talented quarterback has a chance to push for five-star status before the end of his campaign and seemed to only entrench himself with his strong Elite 11 showing last month.

Joining him from the Sooners commitment list and on the Rivals300 list are two more summer time commitments – defensive end Daniel Norman and tight end Tyler Ruxer. Norman and Ruxer are both pursuits initiated by Jim Nagy‘s front office staff and not surprisingly the rankings like the pair of prospects with high-end traits.

Norman moves up a spot from his former On3 ranking, finding himself at No. 151 in the Rivals300. Ruxer’s drop was comparable to Norman’s rise – largely negligible. He finds himself at No. 177 in the new rankings after his final On3 ranking having him at 164.

All three are well regarded prospects and have the traits and athleticism that both the Sooners and Rivals clearly are buyers in.

New OU Commit Moves Into Rankings

While all three of the commitments mentioned were already within the top 300 prospects in the country, a new Sooners pledge has moved into the ranking. That player has been the topic of a lot of discussion as of late, Windsor, Colo. offensive tackle Deacon Schmitt.

The Sooners have been pretty open about just how highly they valued Schmitt, who has been unrated by both Rivals and On3 to this point. In the new Rivals300 he finds himself at No. 253. Though he is ranked as an interior lineman the Sooners see the big man as a future offensive tackle.

His ranking makes Schmitt among the highest-rated offensive tackle commitments of the Brent Venables era.

Who Should Sooner Fans Still be Watching?

There aren’t many targets left at this point with roughly 90-percent of the top 100 already committed but the Sooners do have hopes of adding some more top-end quality to the class. Three prospects who find themselves in the Rivals300 are serious Oklahoma football targets at this point.

Of the three prospects remaining, one stayed steady, one took a slight drop, and another took a rather large slip down the rankings.

Davian Groce, who had been No. 43 with On3 and No. 53 at Rivals now finds himself at 54. The Frisco (Texas) Lone Star prospect has seen multiple predictions in for a Sooners commitment in the last several days. He would give Oklahoma a pair of receivers in the class and the dynamic pass-catcher they’ve been seeking.

Another prospect that Oklahoma is watching closely, though they may have further to go, is Joel Wyatt. Wyatt remains at the No. 69 spot where he’d already been for On3. The talented defensive target for the Sooners has recently talked about an official visit to Norman though the idea of home state Tennessee is hard to ignore.

Finally, one of the more surprising rankings to date is that of Bradenton (Fla.) IMG Academy defensive end Jake Kreul who had a ranking of No. 79 at On3 and No. 28 at Rivals but has seen his ranking fall to No. 175 for the Rivals300.

It’s unlikely but there’s a world where the Sooners could end up with seven Rivals300 prospects, including one of the nation’s elite quarterbacks. Should they pull such a coup off, it would be a rebound from a class that has been a bit of a roller coaster for Sooners fans.