Oklahoma football: Highly touted Clemson defensive recruit now at Oklahoma

The 2022 Oklahoma football recruiting class has picked up its 17th commitment.

The mystery recruitment of former four-star prospect Jaren Kanak is now resolved with the official announcement that four-star recruit has flipped his pledge from Clemson to Oklahoma.

Kanak, who hails from Hays, Kansas, was recruited by Brent Venables while he was defensive coordinator at Clemson and committed to the Tigers in July 2021, but he did not sign with Clemson on early signing day in December. Speculation followed that he might be considering following Venables to Oklahoma.

Two weeks ago, Bob Pryzbylo of SoonerScoop.com reported that Kanak’s name appeared on the University of Oklahoma student database for the 2022 spring semester. What made that report interesting was, at that time, Kanak had not officially decommitted from Clemson. Despite that technicality, it has been pretty well assumed that he would be playing football at OU.

On Wednesday night, the highly touted prospect officially eliminated all doubt, announcing via Twitter that he had committed to the Sooners.

Kanak is a top talent, rated as the No. 10 athlete in the country by 247Sports. He is expected to be used as a linebacker at OU.

Venables had said previously that he would not recruit any Clemson commits to come to OU, and there is no indication that he had reached out to Kanak after leaving the Clemson staff. This appears to be all Kanak’s doing.

Getting to play for Venables and being closer to home certainly were considerations in Kanak’s decision to change schools.

Kanak joins Kobie McKenzie, Kip Lewis, both four-star prospects out of Texas, as LB commits in Oklahoma’s 2022 class.