Deion Burks Commits to Oklahoma in Transfer Portal; Was 2nd Team All-Big Ten WR

Wide receiver Deion Burks announced on Tuesday that he has committed to Oklahoma after entering the transfer portal.

Burks spent the past three seasons at Purdue. As a redshirt sophomore in 2023, he caught 47 passes for 629 yards and seven touchdowns and earned second-team All-Big Ten honors.

The 5'11" wideout was the No. 19 player in 247Sports' portal rankings.

After losing head coach Jeff Brohm to Louisville and starting quarterback Aidan O'Connell to the NFL, Purdue took a step backward this past season. The Boilermakers went 4-8 with Ryan Walters at the helm.

It's not hard to see why Burks thought the grass might be greener elsewhere.

Thanks in part to UCF transfer Dillon Gabriel, Oklahoma hardly missed a beat on offense following Lincoln Riley's move to USC. Gabriel threw for 6,828 yards and 55 touchdowns in his two seasons with the Sooners.

Somebody new will be running the offense in 2024, though, with the southpaw transferring to Oregon to replace Bo Nix. Jackson Arnold, a 5-star recruit who was the 10th-best recruit in the country, is the logical candidate to take over for Gabriel.

Sooners fans will point to Spencer Rattler as a prime example of how recruiting ratings aren't a surefire indicator of a player's skill level, though. As much potential as Arnold may have, he's still largely unproven at the college level.

His supporting cast shouldn't be the issue, though. Burks joins a receiving corps that loses yardage leader Drake Stoops but is in line to return Nic Anderson, Jalil Farooq and Andrel Anthony. Anthony in particular could be headed for a monster campaign after having 27 receptions for 429 yards and a touchdown in six games before suffering a season-ending injury.