Oklahoma football: How Andrel Anthony became a surprise star for Sooners

Michael Cohen

College Football and College Basketball Writer

In late October 2021, as Michigan prepared for an undefeated showdown with rival Michigan State, wide receivers Daylen Baldwin and Andrel Anthony engaged in a post-practice discussion at Schembechler Hall.

A senior and a freshman, respectively, the teammates had developed a ritual in which they sat together for conversations about football, school and life while removing the tape from their ankles following a hard day’s work. Baldwin, then 21, was playing for this third program in five years after earlier stints at Morgan State and Jackson State were disrupted by a series of coaching changes. And as the elder statesman in the Wolverines’ receiving room, he drew on his experiences to help the younger players adjust to college football.

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“Mentally he was getting into reading more, and the Bible, and just knowing how to control your emotions and stuff like that,” Anthony told FOX Sports. “Talking to him really opened my eyes. He’s like a big brother to me, you know?”

Their conversation in the days before Michigan’s trip to Spartan Stadium carried even greater importance as Anthony readied himself for the first start of his career. The former three-star prospect had been held without a catch in 76 snaps across the Wolverines’ opening seven games, but a highly anticipated matchup of top-10 teams gave the East Lansing native a chance to shine in the town where he’d made his name. Baldwin told Anthony to believe in himself the way Michigan’s coaches clearly did, and he encouraged his mentee to “go do what you do.”

What followed was the kind of performance many believed would catapult Anthony, who stands 6-foot-1 and weighs 190 pounds, on the path toward becoming Michigan’s next great receiver. He transformed his first catch into a 93-yard touchdown that stunned a crowd of 76,549 and finished the game with six catches for 155 yards and two scores, the best performance by a Wolverines’ wideout all season. His postgame text to Baldwin included both a thank-you and the sheepish admission that he’d been worried about proving he belonged.

“I knew he just needed a little bit more confidence,” Baldwin told FOX Sports. “And once he got his confidence, like in the Michigan State game, he went out there and balled, man.”

But Anthony’s breakout performance against the Spartans would finish as the pinnacle of his Michigan career. He never caught more than one pass in a game for the remainder of the 2021 season as the Wolverines stormed to the College Football Playoff, and the following year he managed just seven receptions for 80 yards in a receiving room bolstered by the healthy return of primary target Ronnie Bell. Anthony entered the transfer portal on Jan. 4 and committed to Oklahoma six days later.

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Fast-forward to the present and Anthony, now a junior, enters Saturday’s matchup with Cincinnati (Noon ET on FOX) as the leading receiver for an undefeated team ranked 16th in the country. His 14 catches and 254 receiving yards exceed the production of every wideout on Michigan’s roster to this point in the season, and quarterback Dillon Gabriel — a burgeoning Heisman Trophy candidate with 905 passing yards, 11 touchdowns and only one interception — has targeted Anthony more than anyone else. He’s found a scheme that fits his skill set, a coaching staff that designs plays to feature him, and the right environment to reboot a career that those around him believe is destined for the NFL.

“He’s just put his head down and he’s worked,” head coach Brent Venables said in a news conference earlier this week. “He started at the back of the line. And as of right now, he’s at the front of the line.”

Though Anthony had to work his way up the depth chart, he was always near the top of Oklahoma’s wish list in the transfer portal. Offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby, who was hired prior to last season, had recruited Anthony while working at Ole Miss in 2020. Lebby reached out within minutes of the former top-100 receiver entering the portal and made additional calls to Anthony’s coaches at Michigan, his high school position coach, and his parents to show how interested Oklahoma really was.

Incoming wide receivers coach Emmett Jones had also flagged Anthony as a potential target before leaving Texas Tech last winter. He aided Lebby’s pursuit by trading messages with Anthony after accepting a position on Venables’ staff in early January.

“I liked his skill set as far as what he could do once he got the ball in his hands, you know, yards after the catch,” Jones told FOX Sports. “I liked the way he moved with it, just liked his mentality when he played. I did my research on him as a high school player, and I just thought he had great quickness, great lateral speed. I thought that would be a huge upgrade to my current room and to the room that I was at in the past.”

Anthony committed to the Sooners in part because of what he believed both coaches could do for his development. Lebby, whom Anthony described as an “offensive mastermind,” runs a version of the Air Raid centered on choice routes for wide receivers, meaning the players choose the final destination of each passing pattern based on whichever coverage the defense employs. It’s an ongoing game of cat and mouse that Anthony said he gained a greater appreciation for during his sophomore season at Michigan, even though he rarely played. Bell, who led the Wolverines in receiving that year, spent time explaining the Xs and Os behind the team’s offensive philosophies so his protege wouldn’t just be “going out there and running routes,” Anthony said.

In time, that made Lebby’s willingness to design plays for Anthony more appealing to the newcomer after two years in Michigan’s run-heavy offense. Not only could Anthony grasp the concepts Lebby was using to find openings for him downfield, but he also felt more valued than during his final year in Ann Arbor. The 55-yard bomb from Gabriel to Anthony on Oklahoma’s first snap against Tulsa last weekend offered proof that the alignment between receiver, quarterback and coordinator is growing.

“It feels great,” Anthony said, “I’m not gonna lie. To start the game off knowing the coach and the quarterback have that trust in me to game plan for me to get the ball … it’s amazing. I’m just continuing to build that trust, you know? Keep making plays.”

What Lebby has done to help Anthony schematically is being augmented by Jones’ technique-heavy approach to daily training. “We started all the way over with him,” Jones said when asked to describe Anthony’s baseline. They’ve worked on things like improving Anthony’s releases at the line of scrimmage and sharpening his understanding of how body language can manipulate defenders. They’ve practiced stopping on a dime when Anthony reaches top speed to complement his deep-ball prowess with improved short and intermediate contributions.

“He’s kind of mastering the plan when it comes to telling a lie in the route phase and at the top of the route,” Jones said, before later adding, “If it started on a 1-10 level on Day 1, he started as a 1. … I would say he’s somewhere in between a 6 and 7 range [right now].”

Anthony’s combination of efficiency and potency has bolstered an attack that ranks eighth nationally in total offense at 534 yards per game and seventh nationally in passing at 358 yards per game. He’s caught 14 of the 17 passes thrown his way for a catch rate of 82.4%, dwarfing his mark of 51.4% over two seasons at Michigan. And he’s emerged as the team’s top deep threat with an average depth of target of 14.5 yards per throw, according to Pro Football Focus, turning six receptions on passes that traveled at least 10 yards downfield into 181 yards overall.

It’s exactly the kind of involvement Anthony hoped to have at Michigan, a place he called his dream school and a program he still adores. But the transfer portal led him to Oklahoma, and Anthony is certain it’s where he belongs.

“Everything is not going to happen how I want it to,” Anthony said. “But evidently it plays out the right way.”

Michael Cohen covers college football and basketball for FOX Sports with an emphasis on the Big Ten. Follow him on Twitter at @Michael_Cohen13.