Take Two: Can Oklahoma regain pair of five-star commits?

CLASS OF 2019 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | State | Position | Team

Take Two returns with a daily offering tackling a handful of issues in the college football landscape. Rivals.com National Recruiting Analyst Adam Gorney lays out the situation and then receives takes from Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell and a local expert from the Rivals.com network of team sites.

MORE TAKE TWO: Can LSU land pair of in-state five-stars?

Theo Wease is the top-ranked receiver in the 2019 class. Three spots behind him and the third-best wide receiver in the class is Arjei Henderson.

Both have already been committed to Oklahoma and backed off those pledges. But can the Sooners come back in and land the two five-star receivers?

It would certainly be a huge statement about Oklahoma’s recruiting prowess as Wease is from Allen, Texas, and Henderson hails from Richmond (Texas) Travis in the Houston area.

A lot of recent talk has been about how Texas landed five of the top six prospects in the state during the last recruiting cycle, something the Longhorns had not done in years. Tom Herman and his staff are off to a decent start in 2019 as well and recently landed top four-star athlete Jordan Whittington.

There has also been a lot of discussion about how new Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher would recruit the state as he tries to breathe life into a program that has been short on wins recently but has all the money and facilities to lure top talent to College Station.

It’s also rare that two decommitments in Wease and Henderson, who had also been committed to Oregon, would be so serious about Oklahoma, or be considering playing together in college. But it also speaks to how good the Sooners’ offense has been and how Lincoln Riley and his staff have made these two five-star receivers a priority.

After losing their commitments earlier, can Oklahoma swoop back in and land Wease and Henderson by signing day?

“I absolutely think that Oklahoma can land Henderson and Wease again, in fact there is ample reason to think that’s exactly what will happen. The duo, in spite of having very different travel setups, seems somewhat attached with their decision-making and there is a strong feeling that both are leaning toward Oklahoma.

There had been an idea that Texas A&M had slowed Oklahoma’s momentum which, particularly for Wease, had seemed to hold strong even after his decommitment last spring. However, following his trip to Norman last month for their second junior day it seemed that everything is moving right again with Oklahoma and the five-star. Quietly, much the same has happened with Henderson, which is interesting as he hasn’t been to Norman recently.

I think for Oklahoma to land Wease is a big deal but it’s a school, and area, where Oklahoma has always had a big presence. But to land a five-star Houston native like Henderson? That’s a huge statement just because Houston is such a hotly contested city and is rarely an area where OU wins a lot on the recruiting trail.”

“It’s hard to read both of these guys but if they went to Oklahoma it wouldn’t be a surprise. Thanks to the quarterback situation there and what Baker Mayfield did in Norman, it’s a little easier to sell that offense to kids than it is to sell the Texas offense.

“It would be quite a statement especially since they’re both five-stars but there is a lot of time to go in their recruitment."