OU football recruiting update

BY ERIC BAILEY World Sports Writer
Sunday, January 27, 2013
1/28/13 at 1:38 PM

NEWS OF THE WEEK

Ready to work: Wide receiver Dannon Cavil is going to get a jump-start with the Sooners.

The San Antonio Madison player graduated high school early with the intention of being a mid-year enrollee. He is on campus and will take part in spring drills.

"He decided last spring that he was going to come out early," Madison coach Jim Streety said. "He went to summer school, cleaned up some things and got some required things out of the way. With that said, he's a very good student. He wasn't behind in anything. All he had to do was take some required classes to graduate."

Cavil had 33 catches for 720 yards and seven touchdowns in 2012. His numbers would have been higher, Streety said, but the coach said his offense is run-oriented and the team lost its quarterback at mid-season.

"If he was playing at a place that threw the ball a lot more, he would have caught 80 balls easy," Streety said.

Cavil committed to Ole Miss last summer before changing his mind and deciding on Cal. Shortly after the Cotton Bowl, the 6-foot-5, 205-pounder flipped to Oklahoma.

"This thing really went the way I thought it would," Streety said. "The longer we got into recruiting, the more people were going to get on him. I just think he handled it the way most guys do and, in the end, he did what was best for him."

What was Streety's favorite thing about coaching Cavil?

"His competitiveness," the coach said. "He is the kind of guy that I like - a good player that wants to have an opportunity to make plays. ... He was one of the best players in the area and he had a lot of confidence in himself."

Keep an eye on: Dominique Alexander. The Booker T. Washington recruit flipped his pledge to Oklahoma in early November after being committed to Arkansas for months.

Alexander (6-2, 195 pounds) took a visit to Arkansas last weekend and is believed to have maintained a connection with Kansas State.

One of the main reasons he decommitted from Arkansas was because of the coaching situation in Fayetteville. His decision to flip came before the Razorbacks named Bret Bielema as its head coach.

Alexander is one of only two players (Jordan Evans, Norman North) in the OU recruiting class projected to play linebacker.

Hitting the big states: The group of 20 commitments in Oklahoma's 2013 recruiting class comes from a total of four states: Oklahoma, Texas, Florida and California.

The Sooners have 11 commitments from Texas, five from Oklahoma, three from California and one from Florida.

Signing day countdown

It's never too early to start thinking about the Class of 2014.

Oklahoma will hold its Junior Day on Saturday, welcoming a number of players for the next recruiting class onto campus.

The event was originally scheduled for Jan. 12, but OU coaches decided to postpone the earlier visitation so they could focus more on finalizing the 2013 class.

The rankings

ESPN 20th (down two spots), Rivals 13th (up one spot), Scout 17th (down two spots).

Position watch: Punter

Jed Barnett, a junior-college transfer already on campus, is expected to challenge grayshirt Jack Steed for the vacant punter role.

Barnett had a long journey before arriving at OU.

He spent 18 months as a preferred walk-on at Cal before transferring to Laney (Calif.) Community College and averaging 41.3 yards per kick in 2012.

Barnett, who committed shortly after the Bedlam victory against Oklahoma State, flipped from a Louisiana Tech commitment to OU.

Steed, a 6-foot-5, 200-pounder, also played quarterback at Katy (Texas) Cinco Ranch.

Both are trying to replace Tress Way, a four-year starter at the position.

OU (SIGNED/ENROLLED 2)

Pos.	Player	Ht.	Wt.	Hometown/last school
K	Jed Barnett	6-2	215	Laney (Calif.) C.C.
DT	Quincy Russell	6-3	311	Trinity Valley (Texas) C.C.

Verbal commitments (18)

ATH	Dominique Alexander	6-2	195	Tulsa B.T. Washington
WR	Austin Bennett	6-0	170	Manvel, Texas
DB	Hatari Byrd	6-1	190	Fresno, Calif.
WR:	Dannon Cavil	6-5	205	San Antonio
OL	Christian Daimler	6-6	270	Houston
DE	Matt Dimon	6-2	252	Katy, Texas
LB	Jordan Evans	6-3	205	Norman North
RB	Keith Ford	5-11	195	Cypress, Texas
DT	Kerrick Huggins	6-4	283	Dallas
DE	Ogbonnia Okoronkwo	6-3	220	Houston
WR	Jordan Smallwood	6-2	190	Jenks
OL	Josiah St. John	6-6	305	Trinity Valley (Texas) CC
ATH	Stanvon Taylor	5-11	165	Tulsa East Central
DB	Ahmad Thomas	6-1	199	Miami, Fla.
QB	Cody Thomas	6-5	220	Colleyville, Texas
DT	Charles Walker	6-4	280	Garland, Texas
DE	D.J. Ward	6-3	245	Southmoore
WR	KJ Young	6-0	180	Perris, Calif.