Sooners lose commitment from defensive end graduate transfer
Notre Dame graduate transfer Jay Hayes announced he's not heading to Norman after all.
Instead, Hayes, a defensive end, is going to Georgia.
“This is it,” he tweeted. “In a month I’ll be heading down to Athens to play for the Georgia Bulldogs. Go DAWGS!”
Hayes initially announced his decision to transfer to Oklahoma on April 14, following a visit during the spring game mega recruiting weekend.
Hayes started all 13 games for the Fighting Irish last season and recorded 27 tackles.
At 6-foot-3, 289 pounds with 26 games of experience, Hayes' presence would've been a big boost for the Sooners this season with the graduation of D.J. Ward, last year's starting defensive end.
OU lands 4-star guard
Recruiting never sleeps in, and OU got on the board early Wednesday morning with the verbal commitment of 2019 Rivals four-star offensive guard E.J. Ndoma-Ogar.
Ndoma-Ogar, the 11th commitment of the 2019 class, has long been an OU target.
He was offered by the Sooners a year ago, but he visited the university for the first time in the summer of 2015.
“This same university that has shown a consistent and genuine interest in me since the summer of 2015 has welcomed me on campus multiple times, holds a locker room of familiar faces and teammates and represents where my older brother will soon earn his college degree is the university that proudly look forward to spending my 4-5 years of college,” NdomaOgar wrote in a Twitter post.
A product of Allen, Texas, Ndoma-Ogar is also teammates with OU wide receiver commit Theo Wease, and the two were on campus for the spring game.
Ndoma-Ogar chose the Sooners over offers from programs including Alabama, Texas, Georgia, Nebraska and USC.
The 6-foot-3, 310-pound guard is ranked as the 10th-best player in his position by Rivals and as No. 218 prospect in the 2019 class.
He's also the first offensive line commitment for OU's top-ranked 2019 recruiting class.
McShay: Andrews made the right decision
Mark Andrews likely won't hear his name called during the first round of the NFL Draft on Thursday night, and he might not even hear it on Friday.
But that doesn't mean the tight end made the wrong decision by leaving the Sooners with a year of eligibility left.
"There was just nothing left that he was going to prove at the college level," ESPN NFL Draft analyst Todd McShay said on a teleconference. "When your quarterback at that high of a level leaves, if you’re at all ready, it’s the right decision."
The Mackey Award winner finished his OU career as the Sooners' all-time leader in receiving yards by a tight end with 1,765 yards on 112 receptions.
He averaged 15.8 yards per catch and had 22 touchdowns.
Though McShay called Andrews a third-tier tight end in this year's draft class, he said Andrews' intangibles could help him sneak into the second or third round.