Football Recruiting Update: Sooners Add A Pair of Juco's

by ccmachine on Jan 23, 2008 1:38 PM CST in Football Comment 0 comments

Granted the Sooners are still a fairly young squad and have much to look forward to in upcoming seasons they did take a significant hit with three juniors declaring themselves eligible for the NFL draft.

Last week depth was added to the receiver position where the addition of Muskogee standout Jameel Owens will help fill the void left with Malcolm Kelly's departure. The two positions affected the most by graduation and early departures to the NFL were the linebackers and secondary and two commitments over the weekend from the junior college ranks could prove to be worth their weight in gold.

Because of the departures of Lewis Baker and Curtis Lofton the only returning starter at the linebacker position is Ryan Reynolds. This makes the perfect scenario for a juco linebacker to come in and immediately make a difference and Mike Balogun is jumping on the opportunity. The 6-foot-2, 250-pound linebacker from Scranton, Pa.'s Lackawanna College is expected to come in and immedietly make a splash. The thought here would be to move Reynolds to the middle spot, left vacant by lofton, and let Balogun take over one of the outside spots because he would be better in coverage with 4.6/40 speed. The third linebacker position would still be up in the air but you have to consider Mike Reed as a frontrunner but an offer is still out there for Garden City (Kan.) Community College's J.R. Bryant as well.

In the secondary, David Sims from Butte College in Oroville, Calif is extreemly confident that he'll be filling DJ Wolfe's old spot.

"It looks like I'm going to start at free safety, return kickoffs and also punts next year," Sims told the Chico Enterprise Record. "They told me they definitely want me on special teams, too."

There is still plenty to time for everything to shake out but the pieces are coming together for a very nice recruiting class for 2008.

2008 Football Commitment List
Mike Balogun LB, 6-2/248
Jermie Calhoun RB, 6-0/210
Daniel Franklin LB, 6-2/210
Stephen Good OL, 6-5/290
Ben Habern OL, 6-3/270
James Hanna TE, 6-5/216
Joseph Ibiloye S, 6-2/195
Joshua Jarboe WR, 6-3/195
Justin Johnson RB, 6-1/210
Landry Jones QB, 6-4/224
David King DE, 6-5/238
Stacy McGee DL, 6-5/275
Dejuan Miller WR, 6-6/207
Britt Mitchell OT, 6-8/315
Jameel Owens WR, 6-4/225
David Sims S, 5-11/200
Casey Walker DT, 6-2/303
R.J. Washington DE, 6-3/245
Tress Way K, 6-2/190