Sad News: Sooners Star Player Has Gone….

We’re taking a look at each position group as Oklahoma prepares to open spring practice on March 11. The third of a 10-part series looks at the wide receivers.

A question mark for Oklahoma this time last year was the state of its wide receiver room following the departures of Marvin Mims and Theo Wease. That question was proved a resounding answer, as the 2023 season proved to be a breakout year for the unit on multiple fronts. Now the Sooners head into their first SEC season with an incredibly deep, talented wide receiver corps that has blossomed under position coach Emmett Jones, as first-year offensive coordinator Seth Littrell and new starting quarterback Jackson Arnold will have no shortage of weapons at their disposal.

Even with the loss of leading receiver Drake Stoops, who had 962 yards and 10 touchdowns last season, Oklahoma’s wide receiver room is a clear strength for the offense heading into the spring. There’s quality depth at each spot, and more looming on the horizon as Andrel Anthony — the team’s leading receiver through the first half of last season — works his way back from a midseason ACL tear.

Outlook: It’s not every day a wide receiver room can lose its leading receiver — and one as productive and reliable as Drake Stoops, at that — and barely bat an eye. Yet that’s the case for Oklahoma this offseason, as a position that was surrounded by question marks a year ago has developed into one of the deepest, most talented positions on the Sooners’ roster.

That speaks volumes about the work wide receiver coach Emmett Jones has done in his first year or so with the program. Jones has not only recruited at a high level (just this cycle the Sooners signed three four-star receivers, another three-star at the position and brought in highly regarded Purdue transfer Deion Burks via the transfer portal), but he has helped accelerate the development of Oklahoma’s wide receivers in a short time.

Even with Stoops out of the picture, Oklahoma’s returning production at receiver is impressive. Nic Anderson is back after a breakout redshirt freshman campaign that saw him break the program record for touchdown receptions by a freshman (10) while catching 38 passes for 798 yards. Jalil Farooq is back for his senior year after hauling in 45 passes for 694 yards and a pair of touchdowns. So, too, are Jayden Gibson (375 yards, five touchdowns in his own breakout campaign last fall), Brenen Thompson (241 yards, two touchdowns), Jaquaize Pettaway and Gavin Freeman.

That’s without even mentioning Andrel Anthony, who was Oklahoma’s top receiver through the first half of the year before tearing his ACL in the fourth quarter of the Red River Rivalry. Anthony will be back, in time, but it’s unlikely he’ll be far enough in his recovery to be an active participant in spring practices. That will leave Oklahoma with the likes to Anderson, Gibson, Thompson and Farooq on the outside, though Farooq mentioned in December that he could see time in the slot this season.

That would make for an interesting development at the position previously held down by Stoops. Farooq could factor in there, but it remains likely that Burks is primed to take over that job. The former Purdue standout played 92% of his snaps on the outside last season, when he caught 47 passes for 629 yards and seven touchdowns, but he played primarily in the slot the year prior and has the prototypical size (5-11, 195 pounds last season) and skillset to excel in that role. Depth in the slot is aplenty, with Pettaway and Freeman also vying for reps there.

Then there’s the incoming freshmen, two of which will be going through spring practices in four-star signees Zion Kearney and Ivan Carreon. Getting a jump on things in the spring will be beneficial for their development under Jones, but it remains to be seen how they might factor into the rotation in what’s already a deep group.