Sears transferring to OU
The Oklahoma football staff knew even before the season ended just how big of a priority defensive tackle was going to be in the transfer portal.
It’s also an incredibly tough position to find top-tier candidates, but it all came together for the Sooners and former Texas State defensive tackle Davon Sears.
Sears announced his commitment to the Sooners on Monday, with OU beating out Penn State and Tennessee in the second go-around for Sears’ recruiting process.
He becomes the fourth prominent defensive lineman to pick OU in the portal, joining former Notre Dame defensive tackle Jacob Lacey and former Oklahoma State defensive end Trace Ford. And former Wake Forest defensive end Rondell Bothroyd, who announced for OU on Sunday.
Sears was a two-star prospect coming out of high school, with hopes of going to Houston. Instead, he went the junior college route where he had a stellar freshman season that opened the door for him at Texas State.
At TSU, Sears played in all 12 games this season with 15 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss and one sack. He will be a junior for 2023 but also has a redshirt year available to him.
Even before Sears took his visit to OU on Wednesday, you had a feeling that things were coming together very quickly for Sears and the Sooners.
Just based on his social media posts and interactions of the last week, Sears clearly had made a connection with OU and its fans. All that needed to happen was a good visit, which definitely seems like it was checked off as well.
Sears went from Norman to visits with the Vols and Nittany Lions to close out the visit weekend, but it just felt like the Sooners were still sitting pretty.
It’ll be interesting to see if OU attacks the defensive tackle position anymore the rest of the portal cycle. You can never have too many, but OU still has positions like offensive line and wide receiver to address in the next couple of weeks before the winter portal window closes.
Landing Sears, at least, allows OU to know it has hit on a big-time priority.