It was the worst-kept secret during the early signing period. And it might have taken a few extra weeks, but it was worth it for all involved.

Hays (Kan.) High four-star athlete Jaren Kanak broke his silence by officially committing to Oklahoma on Wednesday evening.

The announcement ends nearly a month of speculation and connecting of the dots that made it pretty easy to figure out the one-time former Clemson commitment would be joining Brent Venables in Norman.

Kanak was actually offered by the former OU staff and visited during the summer, but once Clemson and Venables, who was defensive coordinator at the time, got involved, it was a done deal.

Once Venables took over as OU head coach, everybody pointed toward Kanak being the first Clemson recruit to come along as well.

It made all the sense in the world, and the early signing period gave everybody an idea when Clemson coach Dabo Swinney mentioned his class without saying a thing about Kanak.

Kanak is a mid-year enrollee, but as the early period came to a close, the belief was Kanak was simply going to announce he was a Sooner by showing up for the first day of class.

He’s already enrolled at OU, but that doesn’t make things 100 percent official. Everybody knew the story, though.

Kanak could have just shown up Jan. 18 and rolled from there, but he went through the process the last couple of weeks of decommitting from Clemson and now officially announcing for the Sooners.

His stock took off last spring when everybody could verify just how fast he is with his size. Venables, obviously, has a tremendous history of knowing what to do with guys like Kanak and Clemson was the easy choice just like OU is now the easy choice.

Adding Kanak means OU went 3-for-3 at the linebacker spot. Kanak joins four-star signees Kobie McKinzie and Kip Lewis.

Venables and the Sooners are looking for a strong close with the February signing period, and Kanak is just another bonus to get things going.

Kanak’s addition puts the Sooners at No. 10 in the Rivals team rankings and is the beginning of what should be a wild and fun month for Venables and his assembled staff to start making moves.