Early Signing Period Notebook
Get 25% off your subscription by entering Knight25 in the coupon code area. Enjoy! Today was the first day that football athletes can sign with their colleges and make it official with their letter of intent. While the majority of…
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Today was the first day that football athletes can sign with their colleges and make it official with their letter of intent. While the majority of the state’s signees will sign in February, we saw a good number sign on the dotted line today, mostly players signing with D1 programs. We have a complete breakdown RIGHT HERE on each signing that happens across the state of Oklahoma today. More signing day content will hit the website throughout the week as well. But for now, we’ll take a look at some of the top stories from today’s early signing period.
Melvin Swindle Melvin Swindle 6'1" | OL Heritage Hall | 2021 State OK Flips On Signing Day
Since the early signing period was created for football a few years ago, this December signing day hasn’t had a lot of drama on the day itself, at least here in Oklahoma that’s the case. So we didn’t see hat ceremonies on Wednesday or big announcements but we did see a flip with one of the better defensive line prospects in the 2021 class.
Heritage Hall’s Melvin Swindle Melvin Swindle 6'1" | OL Heritage Hall | 2021 State OK signed today with Eastern Michigan. On November 25th, Swindle committed to South Dakota. And as we opened up the laptop on Wednesday, diving into the signings, the expectation was that Swindle would be signing with South Dakota. However, that wouldn’t be the case as Eastern Michigan tweeted out that they had landed the Heritage Hall big man as a signing.
Eastern Michigan has done a good job recruiting Oklahoma. They are a consistent brand and program in Oklahoma because of the coaches on their staff and their persistence recruiting this state. They’ve been able to land a few signings over the last several years and to not only land another one on this signing day, but to flip him from another school is quite impressive.
Notable Non-Signings
As mentioned above, we didn’t see much drama when it came to Signing Day in the terms of announcements or flipping, with the exception of Swindle. However, we did see some notable players that did not sign on the dotted line on Wednesday. Lawton MacArthur standout Nasir Kemper Nasir Kemper 6'2" | WR Lawton MacArthur | 2021 State OK is still available after reopening his recruitment less than a week ago. He had been committed to North Texas.
A current commit is Holland Hall defensive tackle Owen Ostroski Owen Ostroski 6'3" | DL Holland Hall | 2021 State OK . The Dutch standout did not sign with Army on Wednesday. He plans to sign in February and that plan also includes signing with Army. It goes without saying but in the wild world of recruiting, anything can happen between now and the first Wednesday in February.
On Thursday, we will have two top ten lists that drop on the website as today’s Signing Day dust settles. We’ll take a look at the top available offensive prospects in the 2021 class. And on the flip side we’ll take a look at the top available defensive prospects in the 2021 class. And for a spoiler, the two prospects listed above are your two top dogs. Kemper will be the top available offensive prospect and Ostroski will be the top available defensive prospect.
Oklahoma State Dominates In-State
It was apparent this summer that Oklahoma State was building a pretty special class, especially when it came to in-state prospects. The Cowboys have been hit and miss in Oklahoma and it really just depends on which class you’re looking at. Some classes, they bring in a prospect or two, in other classes, like this one, they absolutely rake in talent. The Cowboys signed seven in-state prospects today to letters of intent. We’re going to go ahead and bump that number up to eight because that eighth prospect is Deer Creek kicker Logan Ward Logan Ward 5'11" | K Deer Creek | 2021 State OK as a preferred walk on. As we mentioned in our Signing Day Breakdown, we’ll be surprised if he’s not on scholarship in the next year or so.
And they didn’t just sign eight prospects, they signed some of the best players in the state’s 2021 class. When it comes to our Prep Redzone Rankings for the 2021 class, OSU signed four out of the top nine prospects and six out of the top fourteen prospects in Oklahoma. The highest rated prospect is Muskogee safety Ty Williams Ty Williams 6'2" | DB Muskogee | 2021 State OK . The Cowboys absolutely dominated in-state this year.
And it should be noted that Arkansas came in as a close second to Oklahoma State. The Razorbacks signed six prospects from the 2021 class. Five of the top thirteen in our rankings signed on the dotted line with Arkansas. The only prospect not in that list is Cameron Little Cameron Little 6'0" | K Southmoore | 2021 State OK and he’s arguably the best kicker in the country. And just like it should be noted about the teams that did well, on the flip side, Tulsa signed zero prospects from Oklahoma in today’s signing period. That certainly came as a surprise.
And oh by the way, they already have a head start on the 2022 in-state class. They currently hold two commitments from Beggs’ CJ Brown CJ Brown 6'1" | RB Beggs | 2022 State OK and Stillwater’s Gabe M Brown Gabe M Brown 6'2" | LB Stillwater | 2022 State OK . Both prospects are rated in the top 15 in our 2022 rankings.