Brent Venables secured a massive recruitment win on Tuesday as elite linebacker Cooper Witten committed to Oklahoma. Cooper is the son of the new Sooners tight ends coach and 11x Pro Bowler Jason Witten.
While Cooper played under his father for three seasons, he will now compete on defense as Jason focuses on coaching the tight ends.
Football Analyst Hails Brent Venables After Recruitment Win Over Kirby Smart
Cooper’s commitment landed less than two months after Venables hired his father to be Oklahoma’s next tight ends coach on Jan. 8. He committed to the Sooners after being recruited heavily by Texas A &M and Georgia.
This is a big recruitment win for Venables, as football analyst Young said in his “Adapt & Respond” podcast on Tuesday.
“It’s the win over Georgia more than the win over Texas A&M that matters to me because when you think about defense in college football, it is really difficult not to think (about) Kirby Smart and what he has done, particularly at the linebacker section,” Young said.
“If you’re a linebacker that is being recruited by Glenn Schumann and Kirby Smart, usually you say yes. Did it help that Jason Whitten is the tight end’s coach at Oklahoma? Absolutely, it did… This relationship had been developed over time…One of those things that Brent Venibals does, I think, better than most as a head coach. He is an outstanding and excellent recruiter of people.”
Cooper attends Liberty Christian School in Texas. The school coach, Josh Martin, told the Dallas Morning News in February that the linebacker is expected to remain with the program for his senior season in 2026.
Cooper is ESPN’s No. 2 outside linebacker nationally and the No. 30 overall recruit in the 2027 class. Rivals Industry Rankings also lists him as the No. 2 linebacker in the class and the No. 4 recruit in Texas. Playing primarily at safety as a sophomore before transitioning to a more traditional linebacker role, he has recorded 214 tackles across three high school seasons.
Cooper joins an Oklahoma class now ranked second in the nation in Rivals’ 2027 team rankings, behind only Ohio State. The class is No. 1 in the SEC with 14 commitments, including blue-chip prospects like offensive tackle Cooper Hackett, wide receiver Demare Dezeurn, and defensive lineman Elija Harmon.
Oklahoma’s 2027 class also includes linebacker Taven Epps. The Sooners finished last season as the No. 3 team nationally in PFSN’s College Football Defense Impact Metric.
