As the Oklahoma Sooners have wrapped up their season by getting eliminated in the opening round of the College Football Playoff by the Alabama Crimson Tide, it looks like they’re now getting set for the offseason. And it sounds like that includes some transfer portal happenings that involve players leaving Norman, Oklahoma.
Like Kobie McKinzie, for example.
McKinzie is a linebacker for the Sooners who was a talented 4-star recruit out of high school and has shown some potential, but he’s yet to have a true breakthrough season thus far. This season, his most productive season up to this point in his career, he racked up 32 combined tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss, and one sack.
But now it looks like he might be leaving Oklahoma. And apparently there are some who are wondering if he could end up playing for the Texas Tech Red Raiders next season. Like Stormin in Norman’s Dekota Gregory, who listed the Red Raiders as one of three teams who could land McKinzie through the transfer portal.
Will Oklahoma Sooners linebacker Kobie McKinzie hit the transfer portal and end up with the Texas Tech Red Raiders?
To be completely transparent and honest, it’s hard to tell where any transfer portal prospect could end up these days (and I am certainly far from being an expert on recruiting), but I would think that Texas Tech would make a lot of sense for McKinzie.
The talented linebacker is from Lubbock and (though his recruiting was eventful and turbulent) he was once committed to play for the Red Raiders back in high school. McKinzie initially committed to play for Texas Tech way back in February 2019, according to his recruiting timeline on 247 Sports.
But he would later end up decommitting from Texas Tech after getting an offer from Oklahoma and then committed to the Sooners in January 2020. From there, he received a ton of different offers from teams all over the country and ended up decommitting from OU in November 2021. Shortly after that, he got an offer out of Austin and ended up committing to the Texas Longhorns.
On December 13, he ditched UT, committed to OU once again, and then ultimately signed with the Sooners on December 15.
So, yeah, that was his high school recruiting timeline. It was eventful. And I suspect there are going to be a large number of schools interested in landing McKinzie out of the transfer portal. Will the Red Raiders be able to snag him? I truly have no clue. It wouldn't shock me though given his ties to Lubbock and the way Texas Tech has thrived in the transfer portal.