How Recruiting Came Early and Ended Quickly for Oklahoma Commit Zane Rowe

As he embraces the hard work, OU's first 2027 commit acknowledges other schools will continue to come after him in the coming years, but says "I’m bleeding the OU DNA."

Zane Rowe, Todd Bates / Zane Rowe via Twitter/X

Zane Rowe, Oklahoma’s newest — and youngest — football commit, remembers well his first Division I scholarship offer.

He was in eighth grade, so it was last year. And he literally jumped for joy — so high, apparently, he hit his head on the ceiling. Knocked a hole in it, actually.

“Pretty hard,” Rowe said.

Fast forward 14 months, and Rowe recounts a similar but different feeling of exultation when he committed to OU on Sunday.

“It was more of a heart-felt, really warm feeling,” Rowe told SI Sooners Monday in a phone interview from Denton, TX. “Like I found a new home. And I’d say it was about equal excitement, if not more. Just no ceiling to hit my head on.”

Rowe may be still a freshman at Guyer High School, but he’s mature for his age and wise beyond his years. 

His commitment to OU — to defensive ends coach Miguel Chavis and head coach Brent Venables shortly after the Sooners’ annual Red/White Game in Norman — was Oklahoma’s first in the recruiting class of 2027. It’s also believed to be OU’s first verbal commitment from a high school freshman.

But even more impressive than that, Rowe chose to commit to OU without even revealing those plans to his parents first.

“The recruiting’s been going on since he was in the eighth grade, so that’s not new,” said Rowe’s dad, Dustin Rowe. “And even when he was a kid, we couldn’t walk anywhere without coaches trying to get him to join their team. That’s just been part of the ‘Zane Life.’ 

“But as far as the commitment, that was a big surprise, because he did that — he went and talked to the coaches and did that even before he told his mom he was doing that. So that was a sudden deal on our end. He surprised us with that.”

On the drive home from Norman to Denton, conversation between Zane and Wakisha became sort of heavy.

“Me and my mom had a deep conversation about it,” Zane said. “It was like, she felt the same way, but we didn’t want to chance it. It was too early. Give it some time. Maybe we’d take another visit. Maybe that might be the school, or it might not be. 

“But I always felt a certain way about Oklahoma — in a good way.”

And how did that make his parents feel?

“Oh, real proud,” Dustin said. “He said he was feeling it and he likes his relationship with those guys, and they’re just ‘the guys’ right now.”

Dustin Rowe has taken his son on a number of recruiting trips — Texas A&M, Baylor and Georgia among them — but was unable to make any of Zane’s three trips to Norman because of work.

“I got to go to the Longhorn pool party,” Dustin said. “I tried to go to all the schools at least once. I took him all the way to Nebraska once.” 

Dustin said he “was raised a Husker” and wanted his son to experience that kind of rich culture from a football program. Zane apparently got enough of it at OU to commit on just his third visit, although his dad still would like to see more.

 FOR MORE: Oklahoma Lands Commitment from 2027 DE Zane Rowe

“Everything I’ve heard is great,” Dustin said. “I haven’t seen it in person  yet. So I have to reserve a little bit of judgment on that. But my wife says if I got to hear the coaches talk, I would understand completely.”

That’s how Zane Rowe feels about his future position coach and head coach.

“We come from similar backgrounds,” he said of Chavis. “We have similar mindsets. We just really are big family people and we just bonded that way and he just became my family.

“He’s probably the most chill, laid back (of the coaches who have recruited him). But at the same time, he’s gonna expect intensity and greatness out of you.”

Zane Rowe, Miguel Chavis / Zane Rowe via Twitter/X

Rowe said he established a similar vibe with Venables, whether it was at the Spring Game, at the OU “Future Freaks” camp he attended in mid-March, or at the Brent Venables Elite Camp he participated in last summer — as a tight end.

“I’ve always been cool with Coach Venables,” Rowe said. “He knew my name when I came to the Oklahoma camp. Just, they weren’t offering ‘27s at the time when I came to the Oklahoma camp, so I was just having fun. 

“Coach Venables, we have really the same mindset and similar backgrounds, so it was really cool to bond with him. We had a deep conversation when he accepted my commitment. He was just like, ‘You have a lot of determination in your voice,’ he told me about my decision. I was like, ‘Coach, I’m all the way in,’ and he was like, ‘All right,’ and he accepted my commitment.”

Rowe characterized himself and Venables as “from blue-collar families, hard working, underdog mindsets,” traits that Rowe — already naturally gifted at 6-foot-5 and 230 pounds — has used to his advantage.

He might be too young to drive, but he’s already embraced the kind of work ethic it takes to achieve at such a high level.

“We dropped him off before 7 this morning, and we’re sitting in the high school parking lot right now where I picked him up,” Dustin said, just before 7 p.m. Monday. “Twelve-hour days are typical for him.”

Guyer staged its first day of full pads at spring football practice on Monday, and from there, Rowe went straight to baseball practice. 

“If we have morning lift, I wake up about 6 o’clock, get ready, get to school about 6:50 for 7 a.m. lift, come in for 7 a.m. lift and lift from about 7:15 to 8:15, 8:30ish. Shower up, get to school. I’m in school from 9 o’clock to 3:10 putting my hours in as a student. Then from 3:10 I’m going straight to football. Pad up, or if we have lift that day, I’m lifting. And then straight after practice, which (lasts) from about 3:20 to I would say about 5 o’clock, and then I go straight to baseball practice. And then baseball from 5 o’clock to 6:30ish. 

“Every day this spring.”

Rowe’s dad played high school sports. He said his uncles all played, too, and his mom’s dad, Vertis Johnson, played at Baylor in 1995.

“So when I came up,” Zane said, “I was expecting nothing but greatness out (of) the womb. They just kind of groomed me to be the athlete I am today.”

“He’s the biggest,” Dustin said, “but my wife’s brother and her dad are both similar build.”

Being born bigger, faster and stronger helps, but it’s usually takes hard work and a winning attitude to produce elite success, like being named Freshman All-American by MaxPreps at a football factory like Guyer.

Where does that work ethic come from?

“It’s always been in me,” Rowe said. “Just, at one point when I was growing up, I was like, ‘Mom, Dad, this is my dream: I want to make it to the NFL. I want to go to college as a D1 athlete.’ And they were like, ‘All right.’ 

“They told me, ‘These are the things you have to do, and you can not let anybody outwork you.’ So I took that personal when they said don’t let anybody outwork you. So I kind of just use that as fuel and use it to drive my hunger.”

It’s one of the many reasons Chavis and Venables have been so impressed with Rowe — and why major college recruiters have been impressed with him since he was an eighth grader.

“You can tell a lot about a school by how they treat the kids that aren’t eligible to commit yet,” Dustin said. “You get to know some of the coaches and the personalties, and the dedication to their craft speaks volumes about the school. We can judge a school a lot by how they treat us.”

Recruiting happened fast for the Rowes. It came with an unexpected suddenness, and it ended with equally surprising haste.

Zane said he had just gotten home from a training session last year and his trainer, Danny Hernandez, told him then-Aggies assistant James Coley wanted to talk to him. 

“And I’m young, I’m an eighth grader, I’m not expecting anything,” Rowe said. “So I’m thinking, ‘Oh, he just likes my film; he’s calling to say they’re looking at me’ since I’m so young. So when Coach Coley, who was the tight ends coach at the time, called me and said, ‘You know, Zane, we would like to offer you,’ I was with my dad and we looked at each other and like, made eye contact and we were like, ‘Did he just say, like, what I think he said?‘ And so as soon as I hung up the phone, all I could do was just jump with excitement. When I jumped, I didn’t know I was gonna hit my head on the ceiling, but I hit my head on the ceiling. Pretty hard.” 

When the stars cleared, offers poured in from the likes of Arizona State, Arkansas, Baylor, Georgia, Houston, Kansas, Kansas State, Miami, Nebraska, Ole Miss, Oregon, Pittsburgh, SMU, TCU, Texas and Texas Tech, among others.

“All the offers, equal excitement,” Rowe said. “And then it just kind of came down to when I decided to commit, what school was really built for me and the way I am as a person?”

“(Oklahoma) really develop(s) you well off the field. They develop you from a boy to a man, and they really make you what they call the uncommon man, and that’s why I would like to be part of the program. They just really take care of the players, pour into them. They really make you a great person, man, player, and just set you all over for life.”

He said when he got the OU offer in March, it was a surprise.

“I was expecting to talk to all the coaches and get the feel of the place,” Rowe said. “I wasn’t expecting to get the offer. But when I got it, he just caught me and my mom by surprise. And it was something I was looking forward to. So when I got it I was like, ‘Wow, this is actually it.’ That was in the beginning of the visit, and then by the end, I was like, ‘Yeah Mom, I think this might be the place.’ ”

That feeling was reaffirmed at the Spring Game, when the Sooners put on an exciting show on the field and some 100 recruits from four different classes turned out among 45,000 fans. One of those recruits, former SMU center Branson Hickman, committed the next day out of the transfer portal. Rowe committed later that day. Another, former Louisville defensive end Jermayne Lole, committed Monday night. More are expected.

“I kind of already had the feeling after my second time at OU,” Rowe said. “Because I’m not really an outspoken person, but I felt comfortable enough, and I prayed about it to be comfortable enough with the program and the people, and I’d say it was really the people there that brought me there.”

Rowe said he will continue to play baseball and basketball and run track (he's a high jumper) as long as he can. If that means at OU, then yeah, he’ll give it a try in college.

Meanwhile, his new quarterback at Guyer — one Kevin Sperry, a member of the 2025 class who’s been committed to the Sooners for more than a year now — was a bit fired up when he heard the news.

“He kind of didn’t know I was gonna commit there,” Rowe said, “so when he found out, he was just pumped up. Nothing but big smiles. I’d say it brought us closer. Because we’re on a mission together. He’ll be at OU before me, then when I graduate, we’ll just be on the same field together.”

Sperry has been an active recruiter for Oklahoma ever since he committed in March of 2023. It’s very possible that he’ll have to keep recruiting Rowe as other schools continue to pursue the talented edge rusher.

But that’s OK, Rowe said. He knows he’s going to continue to get calls and texts and invitations from recruiters across the nation.

“Yes sir, and I’m completely ready for it,” Rowe said. “But I’m bleeding the OU DNA. I’m gonna stay strong with that. That’s where my commitment’s at, and that’s where I’m gonna stay committed at.”