Sooners after familiar face but competition looms

BROOKLYN, N.Y. -- Johncarlo Valentin signed with Oklahoma in 2016 but now spends his Saturdays paling from Brooklyn’s ASA college. The path isn’t exactly what the offensive lineman pictured, but he’s made the best of it. That much is clear. FBS offers are beginning to arrive once again. It’s not as though he’ll be without options when his junior college season comes to a close this winter.

The Sooners are already back at the table with an offer and other programs are considering pulling the trigger.

“A lot of big schools are starting to come into the picture now,” Valentin said. “It’s schools like Tennessee and Florida are talking to me.”

As for the offers he already holds, well, things are more complicate don that front. Valentin declines to name an early leader or discuss official visits just yet, but he tosses out the names of the programs he’s in contact with the most.

“I’ve been talking to Oklahoma, New Mexico, Memphis and a lot of other ones, really,” Valentin said. “It’s really just now starting to pick up a lot. Right now, I’ve been talking to a lot of schools. I’m all about grades. I’m all about getting back to where I was.”

Valentin, like most junior college prospects, is content with the offers he has. He knows he’s in no situation to get greedy. But that's not to say he doesn’t have goals. Asked if there's a school out there he hopes offers in the near future, the three-star prospect doesn’t even pause to think.

“If USC – Southern Cal -- were to pull the trigger, I would definitely consider them,” Valentin said. “That’s an offer I for sure want to get.”

Originally from Philadelphia, Valentin was a four-star prospect when he signed with the Sooners out of high school. He had a long list of scholarship offers that included Michigan, Miami, Auburn and South Carolina.