We knew it would be an uphill battle for the Oklahoma Sooners after they reshuffled the offensive staff, and the early returns aren’t overly promising. The Sooners made a splash by hiring former Washington State Cougars offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle, but they haven’t closed on Early Signing Day to the level they’d hoped.
That’s evidenced by the Nebraska Cornhuskers’ flip of Homestead (FL) receiver Cortez Miles. Is losing Mills a one-off loss or an indication that things could go south in Norman?
Cortez Mills Flips from Oklahoma to Nebraska
Oklahoma was devastated by injury at the receiver position last season. However, the coaching staff was optimistic that reinforcements would come soon. They wanted Mills, and they thought they could keep him.
However, Nebraska pulled off the flip, and Oklahoma was left to hold together its offensive class.
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Mills is on the lighter side, just 165 pounds, but he has track speed and knows how to separate. Those traits led to his ranking as a top-100 prospect on multiple recruiting sites. He held offers from multiple Power Four schools, including the LSU Tigers, Florida Gators, and Clemson Tigers.
But he’d been committed to Oklahoma since the beginning of July, and it wasn’t until late in the season that things began to trend away from Norman.
What Losing Cortez Mills Means for the Sooners
In my opinion, this is an excellent win for the Cornhuskers, but it’s a more impactful loss for the Sooners.
The Sooners have only four four-star-or-better offensive prospects in the class, a small number considering a lack of high school recruiting and development got them into this predicament.
The Sooners struggled offensively for three primary reasons, all related to failures in high school recruiting.
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First, there was a lack of depth at wide receiver. When players like Deion Burks and Nic Anderson went down with injuries, the Sooners struggled to replace them.
That’s understandable in the transfer portal era, but the portal doesn’t excuse the other two problems. From 2022 to 2024, the Sooners landed just one nationally ranked high school offensive lineman, forcing them to rely on the transfer portal to build an offensive line that was understandably poor.
Finally, Oklahoma incorrectly put its faith in Jackson Arnold after one decent bowl game.
From what I’m told, the Sooners coaching staff was so sure of Arnold being an elite quarterback that they didn’t make a real attempt to keep Dillon Gabriel from transferring. Gabriel is leading the No. 1 team in the country; Arnold needed pick-sixes from his defense against multiple opponents to eke out six wins.
I’m not ready to hit the panic button on Oklahoma’s future yet. Still, if five-star offensive tackle Michael Fasusi flips to the Texas A&M Aggies or Texas Longhorns later this afternoon, I’m sounding the alarm.
Oklahoma cannot build a consistent offensive unit by taking just four players in a high school class. The timing of the staff changes certainly didn’t help, and I love the Arbuckle hire, but it will take more than a few talented portal transfers to bring lasting change to a poor offense.
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