A Bigger and Faster Striker?

The player that friends and family call 'Peanut' and teammates call 'the destroyer' picked up plenty of offers while going through the process. But for Riviera Beach (Fla.) Suncoast three-star defensive end K'Jakyre Daley (juh-k-EYE-ree) it was the call he'd make that each time he picked up a new offer that was always a clear indicator of his thoughts on the recruiting process.

"Ever since they offered me I’ve been yelling out ‘Boomer Sooner’ and schools would call me and say ‘we want to offer you’ and I would get off the phone with them and I would say ‘Boomer Sooner’. I just liked Oklahoma so much that I talked to coach (Mike) Stoops and everything and he just got me interested and once I went out there I was amazed and everything. Even though we lost I was still amazed by the atmosphere, coach Stoops walked me around and showed me around the campus."

As Daley mentioned, during his official visit weekend in Norman things didn't come out the way the Sooners might have hoped but that didn't stop him from enjoying himself and was far from his focus on the trip.

"Well, you win or lose, but I’m just quoting what my cousin said – you lose but you still win by learning. I learned that it’s a great atmosphere, a lot of stuff that I can touch up on and I saw it and thought ‘how can I help this program get to where it wants to be’. It was just amazing to be on the field," he explained.

Oklahoma's defensive coordinator has been the primary catalyst behind Daley's recruitment but also has been pursued by Oklahoma's rising star assistant Chip Viney. The 6-foot-4, 215-pound edge rusher has spent plenty of time talking to both but says that it was after an in-person viewing when the Sooners truly got serious about him.

"Coach Stoops came up there and asked my coach to see me in my pass rush and once he sees me, he said ‘we definitely need him’ and from then on he really pressed hard on me," he said. "He sees me as Eric Striker, but a bigger, faster, and more violent version."

That Striker role has been discussed by a lot of Oklahoma recruits and has helped in landing a pair of other highly sought after outside linebackers, Addison Gumbs and Kenneth Murray. And though Daley realizes the challenges such competition will present he also understands the reality of a quality defense.

"Yeah, they are going to make me better, even if, say we do play next to each other. We are playing defense together. There are times I’ve got to play on every down and so do they, congratulations is for the family and no family member gets left behind," he said.

"My best part of my game is my pass rush so I can utilize that. The two other guys, they are really good, I love competing and I want to get better and improve in my game.

"We'll meet at the quarterback."

Though Daley is still getting familiar with the entire 'SoonerSquad17' contingent he had a chance to meet a few of the star outside linebackers of the class of 2016 during his official visit.

"It takes some time but once you get hooked up with guys who have the same goals, and have the same drive. It won’t take that long [to get acquainted with his classmates], soon we’ll call ourselves brother and teammate. We all want to do big things in life, it makes SoonerSquad17 great," he said.

"[On the visit] they were really showing me Eric Striker film but they set me up with my hosts – Mark Jackson and Caleb Kelly. Both freshman outside linebackers, they told me about their experience and working with Mike Stoops and were saying 'you will love it'. They said they are still experiencing coaching because they are freshmen and going through it."

Though many were worried that players like Daley would be lost causes once Oklahoma lost to the Buckeyes, he admits that before he even left Norman he was well aware of what his choice would be.

"I was thinking about doing it right after my Oklahoma trip. I wanted to do it right away but I decided to wait and wanted to pray a lot. We got another commit on that Monday [Kennedy Brooks] so I was like, maybe we can pout the Horns down [for Texas week]. I thought let’s get this fanbase jumping and commit on Friday and then on Saturday morning we go handle Texas," he said. "I called coach Mike, he was trying for the longest to get me, he was just saying ‘Boomer Sooner!’ He stayed pretty calm but he may have had to take some Tylenol after he got off the phone."

Not surprisingly for the player who had been yelling 'Boomer Sooner' for quite some time he couldn't help but to immediately dive into all that is OU-Texas.

"I know, I was with my friend and he is a Texas fan and I was throwing down Horns in his face, I told him I had to show some disrespect. I was jumping around when they were making plays. I feel like I can play next to 'Obeezie' (Ogbonnia Okoronkwo), I can see myself in that stadium rushing the quarterback. So when he took off I was thinking that was going to be me one day.

"I can see myself putting on that golden hat."

Though Florida isn't an area that Oklahoma has traditionally found ample amounts of recruiting success in according to Daley there is no doubt about his decision amongst both he and his family.

"My family has been singing Boomer Sooner with me, they loved the trip, they love the coaches, they love everything about Oklahoma because there is only one," he said.

"I’m done, committing is like marrying a girl, you can’t go to different schools and talk to different girls."