OU Football Recruiting - Prepping For Signing Day

[UPDATE] - Edmond Santa Fe DE Michael Onuoha will not be annoucning today as previously reported. Instead, he will be announcing his decision tomorrow on NSD. (Or not. Welcome to Sooner Nation Michael!)

Wednesday, which is National Signing Day, will be some degree of crazy for teams all across the country, but the Oklahoma Sooners got a preview of said craziness on Monday. The first of several developments came when TE Sam Grant very quietly let it be known that he had verbally committed to Oklahoma after many expected Michigan to be the choice. Grant was never one for many interviews during the process so few people knew where he was leaning, so his commitment kind of came out of left field.

Then the Sooners were waiting on announcements from two of their remaining targets that took place almost simultaneously. CB Zack Sanchez announced via his Twitter account "Officially a Oklahoma Sooner!!!" just minutes before five star OT Zach Banner, on a live webcast mind you (oh, technology!), disappointed some OU fans who had held out hope that USC would not be the choice (it was).

Tuesday could provide a bit of news as well as DE Michael Onuoha is rumored to be announcing his decision. The exact time has not been released, but it's believed to be sometime in the morning. So as we do here, we'll be monitoring all the available options to try and get you the decision as soon as it's known.

As for Wednesday, well quite simply it's the busiest day of the year for anyone who follows recruiting. Nothing is official until that LOI is received by the player's school of choice and to OU's credit, they do an outstanding job every year of constantly updating their live page and will even host a live webcast featuring pretty much all the OU coaches. We'll definitely have you covered here, but if you can multi-task would definitely encourage you to check out the quality work SoonerSports.com puts in every year.

After the jump, we'll give you a breakdown of the known announcement times of OU commits and remaining targets so you can plan your Wednesday accordingly.

First, these times are all CST. Second, OU may very well receive the player's LOI before their actual announcement ceremony. So on Wednesday, keep CCM up on your browser and do some finger exercises so you don't cramp up hitting that refresh button every five seconds. Because we'll be updating the received LOI list as soon as they come in.

As you likely know already, all the early enrollees are on campus/in classes already so there won't be an drama of waiting for them on Wednesday. Those players are: Kass Everett, Brannon "Moose" Green, Taylor McNamara, Trey Metoyer, Chaz Nelson, and Jordan Wade.

Here is a list of announcement times that has been confirmed thus far thanks to the always exceptional work of SoonerScoop ($).

COMMITS

Trevor Knight - 8am

Zack Sanchez - 8am

John Michael McGee - 9am

Kyle Marrs - 9am

Laith Harlow - 9am

Ty Darlington - 9:15am

Sterling Shepard - 10:25am

Daniel Brooks - 11am

Derrick Woods - 11am

David Smith - 12pm

Sam Grant - 1pm

Durron Neal - 3:15pm

Will Latu - unknown at this time

Alex Ross - unknown at this time

Eric Striker - unknown at this time

Charles Tapper - unknown at this time

UNCOMMITTED

Gary Simon - 9am

Courtney Gardner - 11am

Nelson Agholor - 11:05am

Damien Williams - unknown at this time

Michael Onuoha - unknown at this time (decision could come Tuesday)

At this point, there aren't any expected bad surprises (think Cooper Washington last year). There has been some talk that Mizzou is pushing hard on Durron Neal, but that's nothing new and Neal has been adamant that he's OU all the way.

Now of the potential good news variety, I think there could be several instances. Gary Simon is all but expected to choose Oklahoma Wednesday morning. There has been talk every since his visit last weekend that Courtney Gardner has essentially committed to OU (Zack Sanchez let it slip in a radio interview as well), but the young man wants to enjoy his moment on Wednesday and he should have the chance to do so. That said, we'll go out on a limb (uh, not so much) and say OU will very, very likely be adding to their already #1 WR class.

Damien Williams has said it's down to OU and Texas Tech and the talk, even from Tech people, is that if it's not Oklahoma everyone would be very surprised. Which if true, could possibly be one of the best JUCO classes in a long time when you look at OU potentially landing the #1 o-lineman, the #2 WR, the #3 RB, the #4 DB, the #6 DE, and the best blocking TE. Wow!

Finally, there are some whispers out there that Nelson Agholor and OU isn't as ridiculous as once believed. He has developed a real friendship with several OU players, including our best recruiting asset - the Cali Trio, and some think that could potentially sway his decision. We're not going to predict he "shocks the world" on Wednesday and chooses OU, but his decision will definitely be one we're watching with great interest.

Then you also have Davonte Neal who won't be deciding until after NSD and OU is in on because of Neal's connection to new LB coach Tim Kish. There has been some talk that if OU can get him to campus a chance of a commitment would be very high. Neal only has one official visit remaining and it's currently scheduled for in-state Arizona, but we've heard some talk that might not be happening now.