Family Emotions Explain Why Oklahoma QB Commit Kevin Sperry is '100 Percent Locked In'

Sooner fans hope he can keep his pledge for two years, but Sperry and his parents reveal why at OU they immediately "just felt something ... it was overwhelming."

From the tears of his parents, Kevin Sperry decided Oklahoma was where he wanted to play college football.

Sperry is the impressive young quarterback prospect in the 2025 recruiting class who held some 20 high-level scholarship offers, but committed to OU just four days after the Sooners offered.

It was where he wanted to go all along, and once the OU offer came, he decided to waste no time. Sperry, who’s finishing up his sophomore year at Rock Hill High School in the DFW suburb of Prosper, explained that it all began last summer.

“I think just the way my parents felt about it,” Sperry told AllSooners recently. “My dad’s not an emotional person. He’s pretty tough. But he actually cried there when I went — I think it was a camp. But he cried. My mom cried too. They just felt something special. And I felt something special, too, so it all worked out.”

In June, at an OU elite camp that included then-verbal commit Jackson Arnold, 2024 5-star D.J. Lagway (then still uncommitted) and others, Kevin Sperry Sr. watched his son interact with the Sooner coaching staff and other campers, and he was suddenly and perhaps inexplicably overcome with emotion. The event was indoors at the Everest Training Center, and Kevin Sr. was in the south end zone with his back to the wall watching Kevin Jr. working with OU quarterbacks coach Jeff Lebby — and smiling the whole time.

“I just — I just felt something,” the elder Sperry said. “I just felt something like, in my spirit. It was overwhelming. Like, emotional. Like, ‘This is it. We’ve found it.’ And this was pretty much the beginning of the camp circuit. I just felt something. Kev felt something.

“ … Like, if Lebby would’ve offered that day, it would have been a wrap pretty much that day.”

Then a month later, in July, the Sperrys were back in Norman, this time on an unofficial visit, an elite recruiting event and cookout.

This time it was his mother who was brought to tears.

Most of the recruits were taking promotional photos for social media, but Kevin Jr. was meeting with the OU coaching staff and breaking down film. Meanwhile, his parents were meeting with Zu Losman, coordinator of the SOUL Mission and wife of assistant director of player personnel J.P. Losman.

Kevin Sperry :: John E. Hoover / AllSooners

Zu Losman found she had a captive audience as she hosted the Sperrys.

“What was sweet about that was she was explaining what her role is, Miss Zu, which I thought was very interesting,” Gabi Sperry said. “I didn’t know there was a role like that. It put me at ease. It gave me some peace that if, once we drop off Kev at college, like, he’s gonna be OK. Especially because Miss Zu is there. I loved her role. I loved the way she was explaining things. And I just started crying.”

In the moment, Gabi was virtually transported back to 2014, when the family lived in California and she was involved in a devastating car crash.

“It was horrible. It changed all of our lives,” she said. “After that, I was placed on full disability leave for over two years. So that was life-changing.

“I wasn’t able to walk on my own. I wasn’t able to work any more. It put me out of commission. I wasn’t able to take the kids to school. (Kevin Sr.) was working full time, so he had a long commute. We actually had to pull the boys out of school because I couldn’t drive, and started attempting to homeschool them. So they were taking care of me more than I was taking care of them during that time. That was for about two years. It was very traumatic.”

The family moved to Dallas in 2017. Kevin Sr. trained his boys in the art and science of fitness and sports performance, and they gravitated to football, the sport their dad once played as a linebacker at Washington State (he played against OU in the 2002 Rose Bowl). When young Kevin became a coveted prospect, recruiting seemed to come at them a thousand miles an hour.

But meeting with Zu Losman effectively slowed the process, Gabi said, and any trauma that lingered about taking care of her boys after the car accident was assuaged.

“It just gave me peace,” she said. “It put me at ease, if he ends up at OU, that he would be OK, especially knowing that Miss Zu’s there. Just additional support. Like, as a mom, it’s one of the things that we worry about. Where are we gonna drop off our boys, right? All that. So I cried during all that in her office.”

The SOUL Mission is still new, but it’s already well established within the OU culture.

“The way I understood it is she’s there as kind of another contact for the athletes,” Gabi said. “Like, if the athletes need anything through the SOUL Mission, she would be their contact — whether it’s help filling out paperwork or they have a question, just like a mom role.”

Kevin Sperry (right) :: John E. Hoover / AllSooners

Gabi wasn’t the only one impressed by their time with Losman.

“She’s very adamant about, ‘I really don’t care about wins and losses; I care about these kids,’ ” Kevin Sr. said. “And that’s her main responsibility, to make sure these kids are OK — and ‘Make sure I’m there for them regardless of any outcome on the field.’ She’s there 100 percent for them.”

“So that was nice,” Gabi said. “After we left, I told Kev, like, ‘OK, I’m ready for OU. This is it.’ “

All he needed after that was a scholarship offer.

That finally came on March 9, on a phone call from Lebby — while Sperry was taking an unofficial visit to Texas. While Sperry watched the Longhorns practice, actually.

The phone rang, Lebby offered Sperry, and they quietly and respectfully finished the visit. But in the car, on the drive back to Prosper, young Kevin couldn’t hide his smile, but he wasn’t sure how to express himself.

“We were driving home from Austin, which was quite amazing,” his dad said. “So I’m just talking to Kev on the way home, just trying to feel him out on what he thinks about the whole thing. He kind of knew. He just didn’t know how to say it at the time.

“Finally, he was like, ‘I’m committing.’ He gets home, sits on the couch, looks up, tells his mom, ‘I’m gonna commit to Oklahoma.’ ”

“You should have seen the smile on his face,” Gabi said. “From the moment he walked in, he had such a big smile. And I’m just looking at him, like, ‘What am I missing? What happened?’ Then he told me how he felt and I was like, ‘OK. You wanna commit, commit. We’re gonna support you 100 percent.’”

“Kev was completely free,” his dad said. “It freed his mind. His mind was kind of foggy throughout this whole process.

Kevin Sperry :: John E. Hoover / AllSooners

“He looked completely free when he said it. That was the sweetest part. His whole body looked completely free, no weight on his shoulders. He was just so happy. He’s still so happy. He’s just so happy. And as a parent, that’s all you want. You want your son to do the right things and all that stuff, and yeah, we’re just completely blessed and thankful.”

The Sperrys said they were “very intentional” about visiting schools, just trying to find the right fit for their son, trying to find coaches (and support staff) who would enhance his development as both a quarterback and as a man.

“And so when Oklahoma came through, it was easy,” Kevin Sr. said. “Because I think we already had our minds set — not made up on Oklahoma, per se, but what Oklahoma is doing, that’s exactly what we wanted. So why wait? Why wait? You found your home, you found everything that you wanted. There’s no reason — and there’s probably other great programs out there. And there are. But when you feel it, you feel it. When you know, you know.”

Gabi’s perspective is a little more succinct, and perhaps intrinsically tied to the car wreck.

“We don’t like wasting time,” Gabi added. “In anything that we do.”

Family, Sperry said, being close to home, “Was a big deal. “ … Of course my mom wanted me to. My dad, he didn’t really care. He just wanted me to go where I wanted to. But it was just a big plus for my parents that I get to stay home and they get to see my games or whatever.”

Ultimately, it was family that won out — his own family, and Venables’ constantly growing, extended family.

“I think the culture is the most important thing for me and my family,” Kevin said. “That’s where I wanted to be. Coach Venables has created a great culture there. Coach Lebby’s offense fits my playing style, too.”

Sperry isn’t just the Sooners’ first commit of the 2025 class. He was committed before OU had landed even one 2024.

“But I’m working on that,” Sperry said, a clear indicator that he’s now the program’s point man for recruiting other recruits. “I’ve got some guys that OU wants, and Coach Venables and Coach Lebby want. So I’m working on that.”

Kevin Sperry :: John E. Hoover / AllSooners

And not just 2025s, either.

“Twenty-fours, too,” he said. “I’m not selfish. I want OU to be the best.”

The Sperrys explained that Kevin’s non-binding verbal pledge is his word, and his word is his bond. That goes for the whole family.

“When that family gives their word, that is their word,” said Sperry’s sports performance trainer and 7-on-7 coach, Sean Cooper, who runs C4 Sports in Durant. “There is no going back. None of that. No. When that family says they do, that’s what they do. They’re committed, they’re very well thought out, very loyal, very driven and then very, very, very family-based.

“If OU got his word, or anybody got his word, they’re gonna get a family that is locked in, that is committed. They’re definitely not in it for the show.”

Hearing Cooper’s praise carries a profound meaning for the Sperry family.

“To hear it from somebody like Coop, who I respect a lot, it’s — it means a lot,” Gabi said. “It means we’re doing something right.”

“It means we put our money where our mouth is,” Kevin Sr. said. “It means we’re doers, not just talkers. We’re doers. When we say something, we mean it. And we just want to live by that. We want to raise our kids that way. Action means a lot more.”

In the age of the transfer portal and social media clout-chasing and last-second commitment flips and athletes endlessly empowered by what they think schools (and others) can do for them, Sooner Nation is prudent to ask the question: can OU keep Kevin Sperry committed for two whole years?

“Yes they can,” he said. “Yes they can. I feel my commitment kind of displays who I am. I don’t really like all the visits and the flashy stuff. I don’t even take pictures in uniform at colleges — I think I will for OU obviously now that I’m committed. I think that displays my character, and I’m 100 percent locked in.”

“Now he just gets to be with his teammates and his coaches and focus on training and getting better every single day and just being locked in that way,” his dad said, “rather than going on a bunch of trips here and there and kind of breaking up the routine of what he wants to do — which is just be the best version of himself.

“So now he gets to do that and just stay locked in representing Oklahoma, representing Rock Hill High School, representing his family and representing God.”

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