Oklahoma Sooners Football Recruiting: 2018 TE Brayden Willis signs with Oklahoma

UPDATE 2/7 (7:14 a.m.): 2018 TE Brayden Willis has submitted his National Letter of Intent and has signed with Oklahoma.

ORIGINAL (1/29): For a pretty long period of time, it looked as if the Oklahoma Sooners would not sign a tight end in the 2018 recruiting class. The outlook changed eight days ago when OU offered Arlington (TX) James Martin prospect Brayden Willis, who announced his commitment on Monday afternoon.

Of course, Lincoln Riley made sure to let us know it was coming (as he always does).

At 6’4” and 220 pounds, Willis is a pretty big kid who possesses the size, speed and athleticism necessary to play the Y-receiver position in Lincoln Riley’s offense. OU and Bennie Wylie will have him add a bit to that frame (perhaps getting him up to the 235-240 range), but he has the chance to become a major weapon in Oklahoma’s offense down the line.

Grant Calcaterra will likely be the starter at the position for the foreseeable future, and Lee Morris was able to do some good things there early in 2017. However, Willis could easily see some meaningful playing time early in his career if he does what he needs to do. He’ll also likely get a look at H-back, so we’ll see how that race develops.

Willis is listed as a three-star prospect in the 247Composite rankings and has received offers from Arizona, Wake Forest and a number of G5 schools.

Oklahoma’s 2018 is currently sits at No. 7 in the 247Composite team rankings. In addition, the class is ranked 6th by Rivals and 9th by ESPN. Oklahoma currently has 19 signees entering the Feb. 7 signing period and still has a number of targets left on the board — namely Michael Thompson, Moro Ojoma and Tank Jenkins.