{"id":203403,"date":"2025-07-13T07:54:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-13T07:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/203403\/"},"modified":"2025-07-13T07:54:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-13T07:54:11","slug":"sooners-absorb-blow-in-losing-4-star-te","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/203403\/","title":{"rendered":"Sooners absorb blow in losing 4-star TE"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/ncaa-football\/oklahoma-football\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Oklahoma football<\/a> appeared to be rolling recruiting wise. But one Lone Star State power handed the Sooners a massive loss on the trail.<\/p>\n<p>Zachery Turner went from OU target to newest addition at SMU. The Mustangs nabbed the four-star tight end away from the Sooners, who were one of the finalists for the Duncanville star. Turner <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/BillyEmbody\/status\/1944190331332735236\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">confirmed his decision<\/a> to join SMU over Oklahoma with Billy Embody of On3\/Rivals Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>SMU even out-dueled an Atlantic Coast Conference rival for the TE. Miami was in the last mix before Turner opted to stay within his home state \u2014 and near his native Duncanville.<\/p>\n<p>Pittsburgh <a href=\"https:\/\/247sports.com\/player\/zachery-turner-46136113\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">was one more power four team<\/a> considered \u201cwarm\u201d on Turner per 247Sports. But OU takes a key <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/tag\/college-football-recruiting\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">college football recruiting<\/a> blow here.<\/p>\n<p>Oklahoma remains outside of the top 30 in the national recruiting rankings for the 2026 class. The Sooners and head coach <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/tag\/brent-venables\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brent Venables<\/a> would&#8217;ve added their fourth four-star talent had they beat out SMU.<\/p>\n<p>Is SMU out-dueling Oklahoma on recruiting trail?\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3446704\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Kevin-Jennings-leading-SMU-offense.jpg\" alt=\"Southern Methodist Mustangs quarterback Kevin Jennings (7) in action during the game between the SMU Mustangs and the California Golden Bears at Gerald J. Ford Stadium.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"512\"  \/>Jerome Miron-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>The Mustangs boost their offense moving forward with the local talent. SMU has reestablished itself as a major force on the trail.<\/p>\n<p>Turner rises as the fifth different four-star commitment for the College Football Playoff team of 2024. All five represent the offensive side of the ball \u2014 also known as the area of expertise for head coach Rhett Lashlee. SMU sits at 19th overall in the team recruiting rankings per 247Sports. The Mustangs are also No. 18 per On3\/Rivals.<\/p>\n<p>But how is Oklahoma fairing for the &#8217;26 cycle? The Sooners have collected their share of recruiting wins and whiffs.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/ncaa-football\/oklahoma-football-news-sooners-land-supersized-4-star-weapon-brent-venables\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tyler Ruxer rose as one TE find for Oklahoma<\/a>. OU even edged Deion Sanders and Colorado <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/ncaa-football\/oklahoma-football-news-sooners-beat-out-deion-sanders-colorado-for-4-star\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">for four-star tackle Deacon Schmitt<\/a>. Quarterback Bowe Bentley stands as the top-rated commit for Oklahoma \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/ncaa-football\/oklahoma-football-news-sooners-beat-out-lsu-for-top-10-2026-qb-recruit\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">beating LSU for him<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>However, Oklahoma ranks lower than SMU for both 247 and On3\/Rivals. Even despite sitting at No. 22 overall for the latter outlet. The Sooners hold 15 current hard commits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oklahoma football appeared to be rolling recruiting wise. But one Lone Star State power handed the Sooners a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[33206,16074,7,49,48,11018],"class_list":{"0":"post-203403","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-brent-venables","9":"tag-college-football-recruiting","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-football","13":"tag-oklahoma-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114844851644896457","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}