Before the mid-year enrollees arrived on campus at Oklahoma last month, SoonerScoop.com caught up with some of them for one final interview.

After some crazy times that saw Lincoln Riley leave and Brent Venables enter, there is no more fitting title for the 2022 class than welcome to OU.

Welcome to OU – Kobie McKinzie.

For most of the recruiting period for the 2022 class, the Sooners didn’t have a quarterback anchoring everything. You could have made a real argument that McKinzie, who had been committed since January 2020, was the face of the class.

He had stressed it for nearly two years about his relationship with then-OU coaches Lincoln Riley and Brian Odom and how Norman had felt like home.

So if anybody felt the jolt more on the recruiting trail than McKinzie, that’s tough to imagine the afternoon it was revealed Riley was leaving for USC.

What now for McKinzie?

“I thought it was a joke,” McKinzie said. “It was a huge shock. I texted Riley about 10 minutes later to see if it was true. It was about 4 a.m. (next day) when he texted it was true.”

McKinzie reached out to Odom on that Sunday afternoon as well, with Odom replying an hour or two later, telling the McKinzie family that Odom had no idea what was going on and how everything was new to him as well.

Patience was preached, but this was McKinzie’s future here. He had to figure things out and fast. He decommitted, and Texas became the school to watch.

It didn’t take long, with McKinzie taking an official visit to Austin the next weekend. And in one of the strangest coincidences, McKinzie was committing to Texas on the same night (and nearly the same hour) as Venables was flying to Norman to be welcomed back into the OU family.

“That’s what was so weird,” McKinzie said. “I was already back at the house. I was committed to Texas, then I heard Brent Venables is hired.

“Coach (Cale) Gundy texts me ‘you see who we just got?’ I didn’t text him for two days because I was trying to figure everything out.”

Gundy and Venables spent that next week trying to convince McKinzie to flip back in the Red River battle to the Sooners. That included an in-home visit later that week, and then McKinzie and his secret return to Norman the weekend before signing day.

That was the clincher. An in-home visit can tell a lot, and it did, but there’s only so many hours in a night to ask and answer everything.

The trip back to OU calmed all fears. It was time to be all about the crimson and cream again.

“I got a chance to talk to Coach Gundy and Coach BV,” McKinzie said. “It’s me. This place is me. I would be stupid to not be back here. It’s about facts, not feelings. He had a chance to sit down and tell me who he really is. He called previous players, and you could tell how much they love the guy.

“They’re telling the truth because it stays the same. Can’t run away from it. A lie? A lie changes all the time. The truth is the same.”

With the writing on the wall, McKinzie opted to avoid the signing day drama. He flipped back to OU a day before the period began and signed with zero lingering questions a day later.

“He’s had much loyalty to this program and committed for close to two years,” said Venables back in December. “As I told each and every prospect that I sat in front of, I don’t blame you. Let me reevaluate the situation.

“But what I appreciated about Kobie was his willingness to continue to be open, to, ‘Alright, let me hear you out.’ He’s done his homework. He’s done more homework than most prospects just in regards to knowing your background.

“We watched a bunch of football together and talked about life, what he wanted to achieve in his life, just all the normal things that you do when you’re trying to develop relationships and the trust that goes along with that.”

Venables is pumped because of the character that McKinzie and his family are bringing to the program. But yea, some of that is because of the potential he has at becoming a difference maker at inside linebacker.

“If you are going to build a great defense, it starts up the middle, inside and up front,” Venables said. “That middle backer and safeties, you have to be really strong up that middle. His presence, his size, his strength, his physicality, gives us that chance for exactly that.”

Venables credited Gundy and Bob Stoops for keeping the door open with McKinzie and then allowing himself to let the family know what Venables is all about.

With McKinzie locked in, it was about looking ahead to his days in Norman. And looking ahead to rooming with fellow inside linebacker, Jaren Kanak.

“Me and Jaren actually talk quite a bit,” McKinzie said. “We were talking, and Venables really wanted us together. He’s a great guy with a very unique story. We can connect in a way not a lot of people can. That connection means a lot.”

McKinzie, who said he was 6-foot-3 and 238 pounds entering OU, put on his recruiting hat for as long as he could. He was going to do all he could to bring the best of the best with him to Norman.

From committing to Texas Tech to OU to Texas back to OU, it was one whirlwind recruiting journey for McKinzie. But he knows he’s home.

“Crazy, truly crazy,” McKinzie said. “Words really can’t describe what it’s been like. From when it started to when it ended, just an incredible journey. But it was all worth it.”