If I’m Oklahoma State, I’m putting a wall around the state for the 2022 recruiting class.

A few days ago Nomad put out his annual “Where Coaches Should Be” — in the case of this year, of course, it was “Who Coaches Should Contact” on the first day they’re able to call wrestlers in the 2022 class. The article gave me an opportunity to take a deeper dive into the ‘22 class for the Cowboys.

OSU had the #1 class for 2020 and looks as though they might have another one again for 2021. How could they find a make it three in a row? Here’s one possible way: Just lock down all the guys in Oklahoma and the younger brother of your top 2020 commit.

Right out of the gate, I think the Cowboys’ top priority and most feasible recruit to get is the #15 prospect Anthony Ferrari. They’ve already got his brother and would certainly want Anthony as well — and even their younger brother Angelo in a few years. Hopefully this won’t be a hard sell with big bro already in Stillwater. From there, if the Cowboys can just get the guys in-state to buy in, OSU will have another stacked recruiting class.

The #5 overall prospect is Jordan Williams. Jordan was Nomad’s recommendation for John Smith to call on Thursday. He’s big-time, the highest-rated prospect in the state, a Super 32 champ, and Fargo champ as well. With the COVID-19, coaches aren’t making physical visits, but OSU would be wise to contact a few other wrestlers from Collinsville as well. 

Troy Spratley is the #13 prospect in the 2022 class and also from Collinsville. The school Nomad recommended to contact him is OU. If OSU can manage to do something like what they’ve done with Luke Surber and Dustin Plott for 2020 and get these two as a bit of a package deal, it would be a big coup and go along way in giving OSU another shot a top recruiting class. 

Certainly there will be a lot of schools pursuing these two, but an interesting caveat is that there will probably be a bit of an OSU-related recruiting battle here. Gary Wayne Harding is now coaching out at North Carolina with Coleman Scott, Jordan Oliver, and Kenny Monday, and Harding’s dad Wes is the coach at Collinsville. Naturally you expect that Coleman has probably already reached out at this point as well. Cameron Steed is another ranked on the big board from Collinsville at #99.

#28 is just down the road from Collinsville in Bixby. Zach Blankenship is another elite prospect inside the state of Oklahoma and some project him as the one most likely to end up in Stillwater. The buzz is he’s a long-time Oklahoma State fan with pretty deep ties. Two years ago, I was in OKC covering the state tournament and watched him warm up in an OSU Barry Sanders jersey. That’s a pretty positive sign if you’re an Oklahoma State fan.

One of the best HS freshmen in the country, Zach Blankenship, warmed up for the state finals in a Barry Sanders jersey. pic.twitter.com/aRDGylRqhd

— Seth Duckworth (@Seth_Duckworth) February 24, 2019

OSU has two pretty high-level guys coming in out of Tuttle this next year with Dustin Plott and Luke Surber. There’s another one in this 2022 recruiting class in Harley Andrews. Andrews is the only upper-weight with all these 2022 Oklahoma kids and projects as a 184-197. With Plott, Jezik, and Ferrari the Cowboys have some guys to fill in those spots for a bit, but by the time the 2022 class gets settled in the 2020 class will have exhausted some eligibility and Andrews could get some time to develop and eventually step in. Andrews is ranked #49 on the 2022 Big Board.

The final nationally ranked Oklahoma kid for 2020 is #19 John Wiley out of Mustang. He’s a middle-weight and is coached by Brian Picklo. He is teammates with OU commit Tate Picklo. OSU typically has a pretty strong grip on recruits inside the state, but with the ties to Picklo and OU, I have to think the Sooners will have a very good chance.

Oklahoma State probably has a shot with some out of state kids as well, but ultimately if they can just somehow find a way to reign in all these in-state kids and the younger brother of AJ Ferrari, they would be looking at a recruiting class with the #5-, #13-, #19-, #28-, #49-, and #99-ranked prospects. This would be on par with what they had this year and what’s on the way for 2021.

Seth Duckworth is a Stillwater-based writer who covers Oklahoma State University wrestling for Pistols Firing Blog, the best OSU news and community site on the internet. Follow Seth on Twitter.