Oklahoma football: Sooners get verbal from 4-star LB for 2022
By Chip Rouse
Oklahoma football is still working on adding a couple more players to its 2020 recruiting class, but while that is going on Lincoln Riley and his staff are already at work on outlying classes beyond that.
On Tuesday, Oklahoma announced that it had received a verbal commitment for 2022 from four-star linebacker Kobe McKinzie out of Lubbock, Texas.
According to 247Sports, the 6-foot, 3-inch 227-pound McKinzie is the nation’s 38th overall prospect in the 2022 class, the top-ranked outside linebacker and No. 2 prospect in the state of Texas.
McKinzie announced his decision on his Twitter account:
"“After thoughtful consideration and multiple conversations with my family and coaches, I am extremely blessed to have the opportunity to verbally commit to play football at the University of my dreams…the University of Oklahoma.”"
In addition to Oklahoma, which made a scholarship offer to McKinzie as early as last May, he had offers from Oklahoma State, hometown Texas Tech, Texas A&M and Kansas, to name just a few.
The Sooners have 23 commitments in their 2020 class, all but one or two of which have signed national letters of intent. ESPN ranks OU’s 2020 recruiting class as the ninth best in the country.
Oklahoma did have three verbal commitments for its 2021 class, but early this month, five-star, pro-style quarterback prospect Brock Vandagriff, out of the state of Georgia, decommitted from the Sooners. He was the No. 1 quarterback recruit in the national 2021 class, and will probably end up committing to Georgia, which was his second choice at the time he committed to Oklahoma last June.
That leaves two commitments — a four-star wide receiver (Cody Jackson) and a three-star defensive end (Ethan Downs) — currently in the Sooners 2021 class.
McKinzie is Oklahoma’s first verbal commitment for its 2022 recruiting class.
In other recruiting news, OU welcomed 12 early enrollees from the 2020 recruiting class and graduate transfer Theo Howard, from UCLA, when spring semester classes began Monday.