Oklahoma (5-0) vs Texas (5-0); Dallas; Noon ET, ABC … Its been awhile since the Red River Rivalry has meant much outside the two states, but in this, their final meeting as members of the Big XII, the stakes are more what he came to expect of Texas and Oklahoma: both are unbeaten and both are ranked with the winner to grab the inside lane on the conference championship as well as keep their national CFP playoff hopes alive. Of course, its also another chance for pro scouts to check out Texas QB Quinn Ewers (#3, 6-2, 195), arguably one of the most polarizing prospects in this year’s draft class. The former #1 recruit in the country who originally signed with Ohio State before transferring home to Texas prior to the 2022 season has the elite tools including a big arm and enough athleticism to at least keep opposing defences honest to be very much in the mix to be the next QB drafted after USC’s Caleb Williams and Drake Maye of North Carolina, but had been too inconsistent last fall and wasn’t even necessarily a lock to even keep the job with a couple of other A-list young QBs, including Arch Manning, also looking for playing time. Ewers, though, has started to make believers of NFL scouts again. It certainly helps that he has a bunch of outstanding receivers to target in WRs Xavier Worthy (#1, 6-1, 175), AD Mitchell (#5, 6-3, 200), and Jordan Whittington (#13, 6-1, 205), along with TE Ja’Tavion Sanders (#0, 6-4, 245). Worthy and Sanders, in particular, are considered to be among the top prospects at their respective positions with at least some late first-round potential, while Mitchell, who has both size and speed, could ultimately be the best prospect of the group. The Longhorns also have something of a rising prospect on the OL in RT Christian Jones (#75, 6-5, 325), while sophomore G/T Kelvin Banks (#78, 6-4, 325) has all the look of a potential top 5 prospect for 2025. The Longhorns don’t have quite the same talent level on defence, but do have several prospects solid second-day candidates on that side of the ball including massive DT T’Vondre Sweat (#93, 6-365), LB Jaylon Ford (#41, 6-3, 245), CBs Jahdae Barron (#23, 5-11, 195) and Jerrin Thompson (#28, 6-0, 195) and S Ryan Watts (#6, 6-2, 210).
Meanwhile, Oklahoma certainly appears to have made strides under Brent Venables who took over the program after a celebrated tenure as Clemson’s defensive co-ordinator. However, the Sooners aren’t likely to have much of an impact at the 2024 draft, although veteran LB Danny Stutsman is a decent latter second-day candidate. They also have a proven college QB in Dillon Gabriel (#8, 5-11, 205) who has been averaging over 300 passing yards per game so far this fall as he has completed a healthy 75% of his passes including 15 for TDs against just 2 picks. The Sooners also have a couple of solid second-tier OL prospects in LT Walter Rouse (#75, 6-5, 325) and C Andrew Raym (#73, 305).
While Texas-Oklahoma is probably this week’s only game with major national implications (barring upsets of course) there are in fact a number of other games to check out either because of really intriguing individual match-ups or just because! One of those individual match-ups that pro scouts are interested in comes up when unbeaten and 21st ranked Missouri (5-0) plays at #23 LSU (3-2) at Noon ET on ESPN in a battle of SEC Tigers, literally! And the head-to-head confrontation to watch in that game has Missouri CB Kris Abrams-Draine (#7, 5-11, 180), a rising second-day prospect who already has three picks this fall, going against LSU WR Malik Nabers (#8, 6-0, 200) who is very much in the conversation to be the second receiver selected this coming April after Ohio State’s Marvin Harrison. And lest anyone thinks Missouri’s unbeaten run this fall must be some kind of fluke, the SEC East Tigers do have some other decent prospects including QB Brady Cook (#12, 6-2, 205), yet another QB putting up terrific numbers (almost 300 yards per game, 75% completion rate, and 11-0 TD-to-IC ratio), OT Javon Foster (#76, 6-5, 320), DE Darius Robinson (#6, 6-5, 295) and LB Ty’ron Hopper (#8, 6-2, 230).
The other really fascinating individual match-up this week features Irish LT John Alt (#76, 6-8, 325) against emerging Cardinals’ DE Ashton Gillotte( #9, 6-3, 275) when Notre Dame (5-1) plays at Louisville (5-0) at 7:30 PM ET on ABC. Alt, of course, is a legit top 5-10 candidate for the upcoming draft, while Gillotte is a rising edge-rusher who already has 5 sacks for the surprisingly 5-0 Cardinals. Gillotte combines with fellow DE Stephen Herron (#14, 6-4, 240) to give the Cardinals a pretty good set of book-end edge-rushers. The Cardinals also have a good college pass-and-catch duo of QB Jack Plummer (#13, 6-5, 215), who is the guy who played for 4 years at Purdue and one at Cal before transferring to Louisville and is NOT related to former NFL QB Jake Plummer, and WR Jamari Thrash (#1, 6-1, 185) a big-play threat who is averaging over 20 yards per catch to date.
