Oklahoma thrived on Group of 5 transfers, but could be even better in 2024

Over the past three offseasons, Oklahoma has done quite well in the NCAA Transfer Portal.

The Sooners received participants or major contributors from Michigan, Texas, Tennessee, TCU, Oklahoma State, Indiana, Stanford, Cal, Notre Dame, Wake Forest, Texas Tech, Arizona, Arizona State, UCLA and North Carolina, plus potential starters from Washington , USC, Michigan State, Purdue, Baylor and Missouri.

But that’s just one side of today’s college football coin.

OU coaches have also struck gold — and occasionally struck it rich — at schools in the Group of 5 conferences.

“As we know,” the head coach said Brent Venables“some of the best players in the NFL are Group 5 players.”

For starters, Venables’ first team in Norman featured a left-handed quarterback from the American Athletic Conference. After transferring from Central Florida, all of them Dillon Gabriel did in two seasons at OU completed 66 percent of his passes for 6,828 yards and 55 touchdowns with just 12 interceptions, plus scored 10 TDs himself.

That 2022 OU team also included defensive starters from Hawaii (Jonah Laulu) and Wyoming (CJ Coldon).

The 2023 Sooners rolled the dice on players from the state of Utah (Phil Paea), the state of Texas (Davon Sears) and Miami-OH (Caleb Shaffer) that didn’t produce much playing time, but Appalachian State’s (Troy Everett) and central Michigan (Luke Elzinga) did.

This year’s roster went after even more G5 talent, and so far, the returns are good.

Branson Hickman is projected to start at center after playing at SMU. Febechi Nwaiwu is projected to start at guard after two great seasons at North Texas. Caiden Woollard will get significant snaps at defensive end after stellar career at Miami-OH. Dez Malone impressed everyone at cornerback after standing out at San Diego State.

Beyond the G5 schools, OU appears to have landed two or three major transfers from the FCS level: running back Sam Franklin (Tennessee-Martin), tight end Bauer Sharp (Southeast Louisiana) and kicker Tyler Keltner (East Tennessee State, followed by a year playing for his hometown Florida State Seminoles).

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Venables said he doesn’t know if Group of 5 (and FCS) recruiting is replacing what some power conference schools have always brought in from the junior college level — but it could.

“It’s proven in a very short period of time that the transfer window has been open, or rather it’s been a thing, that some elite players can come from there and close the gap,” Venables said, “it can give you give a little better depth at that position, game, things like that.”

Tight end Jake Robertsa Norman product who transferred to OU from Baylor, played the first three years of his career at North Texas under current Sooners offensive coordinator Seth Littrell.

What qualities translate from the G5 level to what is now called the Power 4?

“A lot of people have asked a similar question, and first of all, they’re playing great football over there,” Roberts said. “The competition is great. I think the biggest thing for me is that I was able to get some good experience as a younger player. You know the best teacher is repetition and experience. I think coming from North Texas, being able to get on the field a lot, get a lot of snaps, game experience, make mistakes, learn from them, I think that’s what helped me the most.”

Nwaiwu was a freshman All-American and All-Conference USA guard at UNT before deciding to come to Oklahoma.

“North Texas not being the biggest school, and especially me and my situation in North Texas, it teaches you how to work extremely hard,” Nwaiwu said. “And when you come here, it’s a little bit easier because you’re blessed with a great coaching staff — not to say North Texas has a bad coaching staff. They have a phenomenal coaching staff and a phenomenal head coach. But you know what they say. In Oklahoma, it’s a little different.

“…But I think North Texas helped me be tough and take some losses and not look too much at my wins and keep my head in the right place.”

Malone, who earned All-Mountain West honors as a two-year starter for the Aztecs, said when he left San Diego State, he simply wanted to go somewhere that would push him.

“Somewhere where I can grow as a man,” he said. “That’s why within 10 seconds of talking to Coach V, I knew he was a good guy that I could watch and beat. That’s something that I’ve been looking for that I’ve kind of valued in a lot of different places.”

The talent gap, Malone said, is very small.

“I would say, you know, there’s probably a little bit more athletes that are all capable of doing better things on the field,” Malone said. “It’s not a crazy transition for me, I would say. I feel like confidence is everything. I feel like if you’re confident enough to stand up to someone, it really doesn’t matter. We definitely have a lot of great guys on this team where you have to come to work, you know?”

Hickman was a two-time All-American Athletic Conference starter and a three-year starter at SMU. The Mustangs start in the ACC this year, but Hickman will play in the SEC.

“I wanted to come to a big school and play in a big environment in the SEC,” Hickman said, “and OU is close to home (Dallas), so I couldn’t be more excited.

“It was really hard because, I mean, I have a lot of friends at SMU. I respect the coaches at SMU. It was a really hard decision. But I felt it was what I needed to do for myself to get a new experience.”

Hickman played at OU last year as a member of SMU’s offensive line, and his trip to Memorial Stadium and his performance against the Sooners in front of 84,186 fans left an impression on him.

“I remember it was red and white everywhere,” he said. “It was pretty cool. I came out of the tunnel and I was like, ‘Wow, this is real college football, right here.’ I just knew it was something I wanted to be a part of one day.”

Roberts saw a step up in competition when he moved from C-USA to the Big 12. He anticipates another step this year to go to the SEC.

“Well, we know it’s going to be a high level of play in the SEC,” he said. “I think the biggest difference is that every week is going to be a challenge, and I think what I would say I’m most curious about — I’m excited to play against the best competition every day, so that’s why I chose Oklahoma. I’m excited to be back playing against the best every week.”

G5 transfers have always looked for bigger opportunities at the P5/P4 level, though in most cases it has been tied to the NFL draft. Now, in addition, they also know that there is an opportunity to get a potentially much more profitable NIL business at a football powerhouse – which can be life-changing and family-saving. And OU and other bloods are able to use this potential to their advantage to land talented players.

A conference player at a G5 school should be able to come in and help a program like Oklahoma. So far, that has worked well for the Sooner coaching staff.

“It helped us who came,” Venables said. “They were very good players and even starters at a very good level and a kind of glue. And that’s what I’m looking for. Instead of thinking about all the different kinds of parts, I think the glue is the magic of putting a good list together.”