Sooners Stay In-State
If you thought the end of the recruiting dead period in June was just about 2022 recruits visiting schools, think again.
For some, it was finally that chance to make the impression they had been waiting for since March 2020 when COVID-19 shut down the visit process until last month.
Case in point is Broken Arrow (Okla.) High defensive back Robert Spears-Jennings. Went through the bulk of his recruitment as a wide receiver and earning nice offers. Once OU saw what he could do in the secondary, everything changed.
Like absolutely everything. Spears-Jennings was offered last month and now he becomes the 10th commitment of OU’s class, making the call Sunday.
After hitting a bit of a rough patch, at least perception-wise with in-state recruits, the Sooners have picked up back-to-back in-state commitments in two days. Spears-Jennings joins Edmond Deer Creek four-star offensive lineman Jacob Sexton, who announced Saturday.
Everybody knew about Sexton for a while, but Spears-Jennings caught a lot of people off guard. Part of that is because if he was gonna be a Sooner, it wasn’t gonna happen at receiver.
Give credit to Spears-Jennings for not tuning out the OU coaches when it was suggested to try defensive back. He came during a mid-week visit in June and worked out for defensive coordinator Alex Grinch and went back to Broken Arrow with an offer.
As other schools like Texas Tech and Ole Miss gave him something to think about as a wideout, the momentum from OU was simply too much to overcome. Spears-Jennings was open toward playing in the secondary. Once that was finalized and everybody knew where they stood, it simply became a countdown to when he would be a Sooner.
Spears-Jennings is the second in-state defensive back commitment, joining Tulsa Union’s Jayden Rowe. And OU hopes it’s not done yet as it continues to recruit Tulsa Booker T. Washington’s Gentry Williams as well.
When you see what OU has been recruiting in the secondary, it makes sense that Spears-Jennings’ size and length and speed fits in with what Roy Manning and Grinch are trying to accomplish. Instead of being an outlier, this is now the norm for what makes a Sooner defensive back recruit.
Two days, two commitments for OU, and the Sooners aren’t even close to done for the month of July. There’s more to come, but nobody is complaining about Sexton and Spears-Jennings getting the fireworks going a little early.