The Oklahoma Sooners have done a strong job over the years of keeping plenty of elite talent inside the state lines. But the misses always hit harder when the player who got away was already right there in Oklahoma, waiting to become a star somewhere else.
That’s the theme with a handful of in-state names whose careers make OU fans wonder what might have been. Some were overlooked.
Some were recruited hard but still slipped away. Either way, the Sooners never got the chance to see what they could have done in Norman.
Daxton Hill was one of the biggest what-ifs. Oklahoma was his first FBS offer, and the Sooners made a real push for the top safety in the 2019 class and No. 14 prospect.
He visited Norman multiple times, but the race was crowded, with Oklahoma State and Tulsa in the mix too. Hill briefly committed to Alabama before landing at Michigan, where he became a First-Team All-Big Ten selection in 2021, a first-round draft pick, and is still with the Cincinnati Bengals.
The source also notes that OU might have benefited if it had offered his brother, future NFL running back Justice Hill, though that still wasn’t enough to sway the Cowboys.
Josh Jacobs is another painful miss. At McLain High School in Tulsa, he was going largely unnoticed as a scrambling quarterback before Nick Saban identified him and brought him to Alabama as a running back.
Oklahoma signed Abdul Adams from that 2016 class instead, and Adams managed just one touchdown in two seasons before transferring to Syracuse. Jacobs, meanwhile, quickly got on the field at Alabama, became a first-round pick in 2019, earned three Pro Bowl nods, and was First-Team All-Pro in 2022 with the Green Bay Packers.
The idea of Jacobs in Norman is the kind of backfield fantasy that practically sells itself.
Then there’s George Kittle, whose recruiting profile barely registered at the time. Listed as a two-star wide receiver, he played at Norman High School and somehow never drew an offer from the Sooners.
Iowa was his only Power Four offer, and that’s where he headed. He didn’t do much there, but the NFL turned him into one of the league’s best tight ends for nearly a decade after he went in the fifth round.
For Oklahoma, it’s the kind of miss that lingers because the talent was right down the road.
Tyler Lockett was another in-state star who left without ever hearing from Oklahoma or the other Oklahoma schools. At Booker T Washington High School in Tulsa, he was a gifted athlete, but in 2011 he was viewed as undersized at 5-foot-10 and 160 pounds, with some projecting more cornerback than receiver.
Kansas State took the shot, and Lockett became an All-American all-purpose weapon as a receiver and returner. The Sooners never got the chance to use him alongside Landry Jones, and in 2013 he reminded them what they missed by catching 12 passes for 278 yards and three touchdowns in one game against Oklahoma.
Chris McClellan rounds out the list. The four-star defensive lineman from Owasso High School in 2022 had plenty of attention, but he chose Florida over his in-state Sooners before later transferring to Missouri.
At Mizzou, he became Second-Team All-SEC in 2025 and was picked in the third round of the most recent NFL Draft. The source points out that if he had been just a year younger, he might have jumped at the chance to play in Brent Venables’ defense, and Oklahoma could have had another difference-maker on an already loaded defensive front.
In Other News...
Where Oklahoma Stands In The SEC Enrollment Size Debate
The SECs enrollment conversation has become another way to measure the conferences reach, and the latest fall 2024 figures show just how wide the range can be. Texas A&M sits at the top with 60,710 undergraduates, while Vanderbilt is at the other end at 7,221, a spread that helps explain why school size can matter well beyond the classroom.
For Oklahoma, the interest is in where it lands inside that mix as the Sooners settle deeper into the league. Enrollment does not decide games, but it can shape student sections, ticket demand and the size of the alumni base that follows a program into the 2026 college football season, which is why this ranking has become more than a curiosity for SEC fans. [Read more 🡒]
Phil Steeles Oklahoma List Says Plenty About National Respect
The preseason respect keeps piling up for Oklahoma as the Sooners head into 2026 off their first College Football Playoff run as an SEC member. Phil Steeles preseason All-America teams included five Sooners, a sign that the national conversation has already started to catch up to what Brent Venables roster looks like on paper. Defensive tackle David Stone and linebacker Kip Lewis landed on the first team, while longsnapper Ben Anderson earned first-team honors and kicker Tate Sandell was placed on the second team.
Still, the list also shows there is plenty left for Oklahoma to prove once the games begin. The Sooners did not put an offensive lineman on Steeles preseason All-America teams despite returning four starters, a reminder that the front still has room to turn reputation into recognition. For a team trying to build on last seasons breakthrough, the early accolades are nice, but the deeper test will come from whether the rest of the roster can match the billing. [Read more 🡒]
Oklahoma Could Be Sitting On A Late Summer Roster Opportunity
The late-summer roster market may not be done shifting just yet, and Oklahoma is one of the programs positioned to benefit if it does. The NCAAs new five-seasons-in-five-years rule is being challenged in court, and while the policy is not retroactive for now, the legal fight has already produced temporary injunctions in some cases, keeping the door cracked for former players to regain eligibility and re-enter the transfer portal.
For the Sooners, the timing matters because they still have one open roster spot and enough flexibility to create room for another if needed. If the court battles continue to tilt in that direction, Oklahoma could have a chance to take advantage of a late wave of available talent without having to scramble to make the numbers work. [Read more 🡒]