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Oklahoma’s 2018 signing class re-ranked No. 34 by The Athletic

1
Josh Helmer
·3 min read

There’s always excitement on national signing day when a class is officially inked. It’s hard to argue against the importance of signing one of the nation’s best classes, too.

In the five signing classes leading up to its national championship season, each of college football’s past five national champions had at least two top-10 classes in the 247Sports composite rankings. Clemson in the 2018 college football season was the only national champion of the last five to not have recorded three or more top-five signing classes in its five most recent signing classes.

Ahead of their respective championship seasons, the average rankings for each of the past five national champions’ last five recruiting rankings in the 247Sports composite rankings look like this: 2021 Georgia averaged out at 2.2, 2020 Alabama at 2, 2019 LSU at 6.8, 2018 Clemson at 11.8 and 2017 Alabama at 1.

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So, it makes sense why Oklahoma fans would be pleased with what is currently rated as the No. 8 signing class in the 2022 cycle according to 247Sports, Rivals, and On3.

It’s fair to argue that signing classes are perhaps best judged several years later. That’s what The Athletic has been attempting to do over the past couple of years.

In The Athletic’s look back at college football’s 2018 signing classes, Oklahoma’s 2018 class was re-ranked No. 34 nationally (subscription). OU’s 2018 signing class was originally the No. 9 class in the 247Sports composite rankings.

Here are the criteria that The Athletic used to re-rank the classes:

The scoring system for grading these classes remains the same, a 0-to-5 scale. We’re assessing scholarship players and walk-ons who earned scholarships by what they’ve achieved in four years, not projecting what they could do in the future.

5 points: All-American, award winner, top-50 NFL Draft pick
4: Multiyear starter, all-conference honors
3: One-year starter or key reserve
2: Career backup
0: Minor or no contribution, left the program

Because class sizes vary, we focus on class average (total points divided by total signees) as the measuring stick. A wins bonus is added to each class based on its four-year record. The attrition rate listed counts all signees who left school due to transfer, grad transfer, dismissal, ineligibility or injury.

Which programs minimized their misses and developed true difference-makers over the past four years? – Max Olson, The Athletic.

In The Athletic’s 2018 class re-ranking, OU earned an average of 2.44. Fourteen classes that were originally in 247Sports’ top 25 of the 2018 composite team rankings fell out of the top 25 in this class re-rank.

In some ways, it may still be too early to fully judge Oklahoma’s 2018 signing class. For example, defensive tackle Jalen Redmond, linebacker DaShaun White and tight end Brayden Willis were members of that 2018 class, and all three figure to have important starting roles for OU in 2022.

The 2018 class also included defensive starters Brian Asamoah, Nik Bonitto, Pat Fields, Ronnie Perkins, and Delarrin Turner-Yell. Still, Oklahoma’s 2018 class has been ravaged by attrition and the highest-rated player in that OU class, offensive tackle Brey Walker, has been primarily a reserve and special teams player.

Out of that 2018 class, the following players transferred elsewhere: cornerback Brendan Radley-Hiles to Washington, defensive tackle Michael Thompson to Missouri Southern State, running back T.J. Pledger to Utah, defensive end Ron Tatum to Northeastern Oklahoma A&M, wide receiver Jaqualyn Crawford to Arkansas, quarterback Tanner Mordecai to SMU, wide receiver Jaylon Robinson to UCF, cornerback Miguel Edwards to Independence Community College and cornerback Starrland Baldwin to Laney College.

Offensive tackle Tramonda Moore was also dismissed from the team during the 2018 season.

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