SEC Football: 3 possible destinations for Texas A&M WR Chris Marshall

Oklahoma

If there were a team on the outside looking in on the recruitment of Marshall out of the portal, the Oklahoma Sooners would be a good option. Oklahoma is still trying to rebuild its wide receiver room after the departure of former head coach Lincoln Riley and ex-WR coach Cale Gundy almost caused a complete turnover on this part of the roster since last offseason.

Oklahoma already lost the former blue-chip wide receiver and senior Theo Wease to the transfer portal. Wease wound up finding a new home with the Mizzou Tigers. And if the Sooners see standout junior wide receiver Marvin Mims declare for the 2023 NFL Draft, that means they are down two of the best wideouts from this year’s squad.

And I have yet to see Oklahoma able to replace the production that was lost to the portal at wideout in the last year or so. Thus, the need to add an impact wideout on the outside like Marshall definitely exists in Norman.

There is also some familiarity that Marshall has with the Oklahoma coaching staff thanks to past ties from his recruitment coming out of high school in the 2022 class. OU offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby was the one spearheading the recruitment of Marshall out of high school in the 2022 class when he was on staff at Ole Miss in the same position.

Another coach on Oklahoma staff’s, co-DC Jay Valai, was a top recruiter that was after Marshall in the 2022 class. That stems from when Valai was on staff under Nick Saban with the Alabama Crimson Tide.

All in all, when Marshall first hopped in the portal, I thought the fit with Oklahoma made a lot of sense in terms of the impact he could make on this offense on the field. The culture fit with the program that head coach Brent Venables is trying to build would be the other question mark regarding how much the Sooners would be willing to exert in the recruitment of Marshall out of the portal.