Oklahoma football: OU gets commitment from 2023 LB Phil Picciotti

Oklahoma football recruiting was hoping for a two-fer celebration on July 4. It ended up being just one commitment, but an important one nonetheless.

LB prospect Phil Picciotti announced his verbal commitment to Oklahoma as a member of the Sooners 2023 class.

Picciotti is only rated as three stars by 247Sports, but don’t be fooled by that because Rivals gives the Pennsylvania native four stars and he was being heavily recruited by such national powers as Penn State, Michigan, Auburn, Notre Dame, USC and Wisconsin.

Per the 247Sports Composite, Picciotti is rated as the No. 40 linebacker in the 2023 class. Listed at 6 feet, 3 inches and 225 pounds, he will probably play an inside linebacker at the college level.

In his junior high school season in 2021, Picciotti led the team with 144 tackles along with 19 tackles for loss.

The scouting report on Picciotti says he features a combination of impressive speed for his size, physicality and awareness. He displays elite closing speed, which enables him to chase down quarterbacks and running backs in the backfield for lost yardage.

Picciotti becomes the 10th verbal commitment in Oklahoma’s 2023 class. He joins Kaleb Spencer of Chester, Virginia as the two LB commits for the Sooners thus far in the cycle.

Oklahoma was also hopeful of gaining a commitment from in-state four-star athlete Micah Tease from the Tulsa area on July. Tease did announce his commitment on Monday, as expected, but it was to Arkansas and not OU.

The Sooners were recruiting Tease as a defensive back, but he really wanted to play wide receiver. That may have been the defining difference in his selecting the Razorbacks over his home state Sooners.