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Former Oklahoma OL Announces His Transfer Destination

Ty Kubicek, a preferred walk on in last year's freshman class, will be playing for championships at his new school.

John E. Hoover

Oklahoma offensive lineman Ty Kubicek
Oklahoma offensive lineman Ty Kubicek / Ty Kubicek via Twitter/X
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A former Oklahoma offensive lineman has found his new home.

Ty Kubicek, a backup offensive lineman from California, announced Thursday that he has verbally committed to play at Harding University Searcy, AR.

“Honored and excited to commit to (Harding) to help win another national championship,” Kubicek wrote.

Kubicek entered the transfer portal on Monday. He was a preferred walk-on for the Sooners in the 2023 recruiting class, signing with Brent Venables’ team on Dec. 19, 2022. OU offered him a preferred walk-on spot in November 2022.

So far, 19 Sooners off the 2024 roster have entered the NCAA Transfer Portal. Kubicek is the first to announce his new destination.

Kubicek was a 2-star prospect at Capital Christian High School in Sacramento. He signed with OU as a 6-foot-3, 277-pound offensive guard and was rated the No. 241 interior offensive lineman in the country and the No. 495 recruit in California by by 247 Sports .

Kubicek didn’t have any other Division I offers, but he did decide to walk on at Oklahoma rather than accept scholarship offers from Lewis & Clark State, Linfield College, Pacific and Southern Oregon.

Kubicek was in the same class as Bill Bedenbaugh’s efforts to rebuild the offensive line last year. Bedenbaugh added 4-star Cayden Green and Joshua Bates and 3-stars Logan Howland and Heath Ozaeta. Green broke into the starting lineup halfway through his freshman season, but then transferred to Missouri. Amid injuries at the center position, Bates was a starter earlier this year but now has entered the transfer portal. Howland and Ozaeta, due to more injuries, moved into starting roles on the left side of the offensive line and showed progress and improvement over the second half of the season. 

Kubicek, a redshirt freshman, was a versatile member of the OU scout team during his two seasons and frequently made the travel squad. The 290-pound Kubicek leaves Norman without having played in a game.

Harding won the Division II National Championship in 2023 when they finished a 15-0 season with a 38-7 win over Colorado School of Mines. The team went 12-1 this season before losing in the quarterfinals of the D2 playoffs.

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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