Four-star ATH Michael Boganowski goes in-depth on his pledge to Oklahoma

Michael Boganowski lives about 20 minutes from Bill Snyder Family Stadium.

Kansas State gave him his very first offer.

And if he needed another reason to stay home and wear the purple and silver, he had one in the form of a relationship that was borne nearly three decades ago in Nebraska.

“Steve Stanard, he coached my dad at New Mexico State,” Boganowski explained. “And he happens to be the linebackers coach at K-State. So that relationship goes a little bit deeper. That’s a deep relationship, for sure.”

Boganowski’s father, the man known colloquially as “Bigger Mike,” has great faith in Stanard. How much faith, you ask? Back in 1997, he committed blindly to a school nearly a thousand miles from home in order to play for Stanard.

A native of Bellevue, Neb., Mike was a two-way standout on the gridiron for the Bellevue West Thunderbirds (the same program that would send blue-chip tight end Kaden Helms to Oklahoma a quarter-century later). He had an opportunity to walk on at Nebraska, which was the unquestioned titan of college football at the time. But coming from a single-parent household, Mike needed a scholarship.

Stanard was the head coach at Nebraska Wesleyan from 1994-1995, and it was there that he made Mike’s acquaintance. Their relationship continued when Stanard accepted a role as defensive coordinator at South Dakota for the 1996 season, which was Mike’s senior year of high school. At the conclusion of that season, Stanard joined the New Mexico State staff to coach defensive ends and outside linebackers, and he took Mike with him — on a full athletic scholarship.

By the end of his career in Las Cruces, Mike was one bookend for New Mexico State’s defensive line, and the other bookend was a fellow named Jamar Cain. Mike graduated in 2001, but years later, he would cross paths with both Cain and Stanard once again.

After college, Mike entered the military and was eventually stationed at Fort Riley, which sits a few miles north of his current home in Junction City, Kansas. He’s counting down the days until next July 13, the day that he’ll clock out for the last time and retire from the U.S. Army. He’s eager to spend more time with his wife and his three sons, of which Michael is the eldest.

Michael demonstrated athletic prowess from an early age, and when he enrolled at Junction City High, he made an immediate impact on the gridiron as a freshman. He earned second-team all-conference honors as an outside linebacker, and come the offseason, Mike was ready to show his kid off at college camps. In June of 2021, father and son made the four-hour drive south to Norman, Oklahoma — where they reconnected with Jamar Cain.

Though Michael was no less impressive on the field as a sophomore, it wasn’t until midway through his junior year that he finally received a scholarship offer. That offer naturally came from the school right up the road, and it came courtesy of another familiar character. Since leaving New Mexico State in 2022, Stanard had made stops at Colorado State, Ohio, Tulane, North Dakota State, Wyoming and Syracuse. But as luck would have it, that serpentine journey had ultimately led him to Kansas State, where he now coaches the very position that Michael plays.

It was deja vu all over again, as Stanard found himself recruiting another member of the Boganowski clan after twenty-five years. He had the relational advantage, and he had the geographical advantage.

It was October 2022 when Kansas State made the offer to Michael. One year later, in October 2023, the recruiting journey is over for the 6-foot-2, 200-pound phenom.

But he won’t be heading to Manhattan. He’ll be heading to Norman, Oklahoma.

And given that backdrop to this recruitment, it’s a monumentally impressive victory on the trail for the Sooners, especially safeties coach Brandon Hall. But for his part, Bigger Mike says the decision makes perfect sense.

“If you can’t sit for 20 minutes with Brent Venables and say, ‘I’m with this guy,’ there’s something wrong with you,” the elder Boganowski declared.

From Michael’s standpoint, Oklahoma always had his attention, and he remembers feeling an instant connection with Hall from their very first phone conversation. The Sooners offered in January, and over the course of the next eight months, Michael visited campus a half-dozen times.

“I remember when I got the offer — the interaction on the tweet, it went crazy,” he recalled. “And then getting there on campus, the whole staff just showing me love, it was a great feeling… Just made me feel at home. It’s Oklahoma. It’s a big brand. The good football they played in the past, that was a big draw and factor — the culture they have down there.”

Oklahoma’s offer was different from the rest in a very literal sense, as the other programs vying for Michael’s commitment wanted him to play linebacker. At face value, that seems like a no-brainer; after all, linebacker is his primary position and has been for years.

And then here came Brandon Hall and Brent Venables, asking Boganowski to play safety — in the SEC, no less.

“So they said I definitely have some stuff to work on, like backpedal and break and stuff,” Michael remarked, “but they said [I] have the quickness and the speed [that] they think I can play safety. And somebody like Brent Venables — if he believes in you, he thinks you’re a safety, you’re a safety.”

Michael eventually collected nearly 20 FBS scholarship offers, and by the time summer rolled around, he’d visited nearly all of the schools that had offered him. He went to Michigan; he went to Washington; he even made the trek down to New Mexico State to check out his dad’s old stomping grounds. However, five top contenders emerged by June, and they became his official visit destinations. Stanford got him on campus for his first OV, but the Cardinal were never any higher than fourth or fifth on Michael’s list. He initially planned on arriving at a decision in July. Those plans evolved in real time as the other four schools gave him plenty to think about.

“K-State is right down the road,” said Boganowski, “[and] the family aspect — they’re all showing love. KU, they’re all showing love. Florida State, I got Randy Shannon. He’s coached Hall of Fame-caliber players. It just made it all tough. I was kind of, like, lost and didn’t know where to go. But I just did some thinking, bouncing ideas off my coaches and my family, and I think I made the right decision.”

Indeed, Kansas State, Kansas and Florida State all made consistent — and strong — overtures to Michael in the months that followed his quintet of official visits. But an April visit to the Sooners’ spring game had helped sell him on a future at Oklahoma, and his official visit only enhanced his strong attraction to Norman. In the end, though, his first game-day experience at Owen Field sealed the deal.

After recording 21 tackles and two touchdown receptions in Junction City’s 2023 season opener, Michael set an alarm for 5 a.m. and lay down for a few hours of sleep. When morning came, he and his family piled into the car to drive down to Norman, where the Sooners were set to host Arkansas State for their season opener. He witnessed a workmanlike 73-0 win for Oklahoma, and though he took subsequent trips to both Kansas and Kansas State, he admits he had his mind made up after watching Brent Venables’ defense in action.

“That was really all I needed to see,” he said. “So I just started doing some thinking, and I was kind of like, ‘I think this is where I want to go.’ And then I slept on it for a few nights, and then finally I hopped on the FaceTime with Coach V and I let him know. He was really excited.”

However, saying yes to Oklahoma meant that Michael had to say no to Kansas State, and that meant saying no to his father’s former coach. Fortunately, Stanard took the news in stride, and no hard feelings linger between Michael and Kansas State with the decision in the rearview mirror.

“I think he was very understanding,” Michael said of Stanard. “At the end of the day, I think he kind of wants what’s best for me, with him coaching my dad. So the relationship’s deeper than football. He just wanted what’s best for me.”

And what Michael feels is best for him has certainly been validated this season, as Oklahoma is 6-0 and ranked sixth in the nation. Michael was never deterred by the Sooners’ mediocre first year under Venables, and he’s stoked to watch Oklahoma’s resurgence take place in real time.

“ I remember Coach V, he told me, ‘I’m [going to] get it done at Oklahoma,’” Michael noted. “And kind of just seeing that unfold — it’s just like, yeah. that’s something I want to be a part of.”

And in the long term? Sure, Michael wants to play NFL football. That goes without saying. But his primary goal for his collegiate career is to see the giant number 7 — which represents the program’s national title tally — vanish from the stadium’s south facade.

“Whenever you walk through the university, I want [people] to be able to see championships that I was a part of,” he proclaimed. “I think the ceiling is a national championship, and I think that’s going to happen a lot faster than people think.”