Sting Factor: WR Jordan Hudson backs off pledge to Sooners
When a major program loses a key recruit, Rivals.com takes a look at how big of a blow it is to the respective school, analyzing it from a local and national level. To quantify the “sting” of each decommitment, we assign a score from 1-10, with one being no big deal and 10 being a catastrophic hit.
*****
MORE: Rivals100 Five-Star Challenge - questions that could be answered
CLASS OF 2022 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | Position | Team | State
CLASS OF 2023 RANKINGS: Rivals100
RIVALS TRANSFER TRACKER: Stories/coverage | Message board
RIVALS CAMP SERIES: Info/coverage on 2021 camp series
*****
THE STORYLINE
Jordan Hudson loved all the attention Oklahoma paid him early in the recruiting process. It came from coach Lincoln Riley, assistant Cale Gundy and others.
The four-star receiver from Garland, Texas, really appreciated that the Oklahoma coaches not only recruited him but also his family, and that’s one of the big reasons why he committed to the Sooners last summer.
But on Monday, Hudson backed off his pledge and reopened his recruitment. The early rumor is that Texas has made tremendous in-roads with Hudson and the Longhorns could be the team to watch.
That’s not a complete surprise. At a 7-on-7 tournament in February in Arizona, Hudson said that first-year Texas coach Steve Sarkisian was aggressively trying to flip him and that the Longhorns were recruiting him the hardest, other than Oklahoma’s staff.
Now back on the market, Hudson could be leaning toward the Longhorns.
LOCAL REACTION
There's no doubt a sting here. Hudson was part of an offensive class that has a chance to be as good as any under Riley. When you add in that he was Oklahoma's only Rivals250 commitment from the Dallas metroplex it puts a bigger spotlight on the loss. That being said, Oklahoma's wide receiver recruiting has been nearly unparalleled around the country and with two of the best in 2022 already committed it's a loss that can be absorbed. The key will be going out and finding a worthy replacement, and two of the early favorites for that replacement could be Evan Stewart and Andre Greene. - Josh McCuistion, SoonerScoop.com
Sting Factor: 6
*****
NATIONAL REACTION
Oklahoma has commitments from the top-rated receiver in the 2022 class in Luther Burden and the fifth-best receiver in Talyn Shettron, so the Sooners are rolling at the position and they don’t have much to worry about. If Burden flips to Missouri or someplace else then that would be an issue, but losing Hudson is not a major deal in my book.
Plus, Oklahoma is after other receivers with elite ability in this class, so freeing up that space for Stewart or Greene or someone else the Sooners can now target is not a bad situation at all. Hudson is a talented prospect, and it never hurts when Oklahoma can dip into Texas for a four-star prospect but recruiting receivers is never an issue for the Sooners. I’d bet tons of talented ones are jumping at the opportunity now that Hudson opened up another spot. - Adam Gorney, Rivals National Recruiting Director
Sting Factor: 4