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Sooners Looking to UCLA commit for OT Help

The latest offensive tackle the Sooners signed that is actually still apart of the Sooner program is Derek Farniok, who signed with Oklahoma in the class of 2011. Since then classmate Dylan Dismuke has seen his career come to an end due to an injury. Will Latu was a four-star prospect the Sooners signed with the 2012 class that never made it to Norman due to academic issues.
Dalton Rodriguez and Matt Beyer have already jumped on board in this year's class with offensive tackles coach, Bruce Kittle and the Sooners, who are still looking to pick up a third prospect at the position.
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Sean Dowling is a 6-foot-6 and 265-pound three-star prospect out of Fallbrook, Calif. that has been committed to UCLA since April. Not too long after he committed to the Bruins Dowling picked up an offer from the Sooners. Since then the Nation's No. 43 ranked offensive tackle has been staying in contact with Kittle quite often over the phone.
"Yeah I think we talk once a week," Dowling said about him and Kittle. "I think he is a great coach, a great guy and I think we have a lot in common."
It didn't take them long but Kittle and Dowling have already been able to schedule a visit for later this season on October 19 when the Sooners take on the Kansas Jayhawks.
"I really just want to go out there and see what Oklahoma is like and see if Oklahoma is for me," he replied. "It's probably one of the most storied football programs in college football history. I feel like the tradition behind it speaks for itself. I've never been there and I have never been to Oklahoma so I don't know if I will like it or not."
While in Norman Dowling just wants to see what a football players experience is like at the University of Oklahoma.
"I really just would like to experience what the football players experience while going to Oklahoma. That's pretty much what I would like to do on all the visits I take if I decide to take more than just this one and to UCLA," he explained.
Michigan State recently offered Dowling and is a school he is considering taking a visit to along with some others but says he has not talked about it with the coaching staffs or his family. Vanderbilt may also become apart of that group as they have started to show interest as well.
An overall change of the UCLA Bruins football program can be credited to the newly hired head coach, Jim Mora and is a key reason why Dowling decided to commit back in the spring to the former NFL coach.
"Coach Mora is changing the environment up there," Dowling began late last week. "I haven't seen them play a game yet but I can already tell the environment is changing and the players want the environment to change. It's just a changing environment and I would like to be a part of that. The new UCLA Bruins is what I said when I committed."
Now being from California and committed to an in-state team will distance play a factor with Dowling when he travels halfway across the country to see the Sooners in a little less than two months?
"I am from a military family and they may have to relocate after I go to college. I don't really think distance will play a factor with me because I don't know how close my family will be at whatever school I end up going to," he stated.
Over the summer Dowling did quite a bit of driving in order to become a better overall offensive lineman.
"Well the things I worked on over the summer was with my pass protection," he said. "Our school, we didn't pass a lot last year. I went and trained with Prime Time Polynesian, which is like an hour and a half away from my house out in Corona, Calif. The coach there played at Utah. I feel like I came out a better offensive lineman. I am definitely more powerful. A side effect I got from training so hard was I lost a lot of weight."
The Fallbrook prospect says he is currently at 260-pounds and is well aware he will need to put on more weight by the time he gets to the next level. Recently, Dowling says he was invited to play in the Semper-Fidelis All-American Bowl.
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