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Oklahoma Sooners Football Recruiting - Nike’s The Opening Finals: Oklahoma recruits and targets

Oklahoma commits T.J. Pledger, Ron Tatum and Brey Walker, along with a number of targets, will show off their skills at Nike’s The Opening Finals in Beaverton, Ore.

Student Sports

166 of the nation’s top high school football players will be at Nike Headquarters in Beaverton, Ore. for The Opening Finals, and three of the 2018 prospects in attendance are committed to the Oklahoma Sooners. Additionally, a number of Oklahoma targets will be present in Oregon, where they will take part in drills and a variety of competition-based events, including a 7v7 tournament, a lineman competition, and a Nike training camp. Testing takes place on Saturday, and 7v7 and OL/DL competition happens Sunday and Monday. The Opening Finals’ 7v7 championship on Monday, July 3rd will be televised on the NFL Network.

Be sure to stick with Crimson & Cream Machine for coverage. Additionally, SB Nation recruiting guru Bud Elliott will be on site, so make sure to follow him (BudElliott3) and SB Nation (@SBNRecruiting) for Twitter updates.

The three Oklahoma commits are:

Walker and Pledger will both represent Team Untouchable in the 7-on-7 tournament, and Tatum will compete on Team Mach Speed. Additionally, Walker will be one of 20 prospects to compete in the Lineman Challenge.

OU targets competing this weekend include:

Stills and Unije — both of whom are very seriously considering the Sooners — will team up with Pledger and Walker on Team Untouchable, which will give the Oklahoma commits a chance to give their recruiting pitches to the pair of highly-touted targets.

The Opening is the premiere showcase for elite college football recruits in the nation. And while it might not have every top player in the country, it has a lot of them. The five-day recruiting event is a showcase of athleticism, and Nike quantifies that with its Nike Football Rating Championship. If you’ve heard of the SPARQ testing that Nike did for a few years (and was even featured in the NCAA Football video game series), then you’re familiar with the format of the Nike Football Ratings. It’s essentially the same thing with a different name. It encompasses these events, and was Nike’s attempt to standardize test results for the best high school athletes with some sport-specific exercises:

40-yard dash: A measure of off-the-mark quickness and transition to top speed.

Vertical jump: Your vertical jump height and body weight are factored together to assess your peak power.

5-10-5 shuttle (also known as the 20-yard shuttle run): a drill demanding split second changes of posture, direction, and speed.

Kneeling powerball toss: a test designed to measure the ability to develop and deliver coordinated power.

A player's results in those four exercises, when normalized by weight, gives a number that measures the player's power, agility, speed, explosiveness, and overall athleticism.

Follow along with live updates from SB Nation: