How QB Jackson Arnold Helped Convince Oklahoma's Newest Commit to Choose OU
Oklahoma’s Bedlam victory — and everything that went into it — left an impression on the Sooners’ newest verbal commit.
“A big impression,” said Kendel Dolby.
Dolby, a junior college All-American in the 2023 recruiting class, was among the dozens of recruits who watched OU beat OSU 28-13 on Saturday night. He told AllSooners that he loved his visit so much he wasted zero time in pledging to Brent Venables and the Sooners.
“After the Bedlam game, I was in the locker room with Coach V and them, and I told them I was gonna go ahead and commit,” Dolby said.
Dolby said he was simply blown away by the magnitude of OU football, from meeting safeties coach Brandon Hall and Venables to the game atmosphere itself.
“Like, the fans were crazy,” Dolby said. “You can tell, OU fans go hard behind OU, the football team and OU in general. The fans were crazy. The atmosphere was also crazy. I could tell, like, even though it was a 5-5 Oklahoma football team, the fans didn’t care. They still were gonna come and show out.
“As far as meeting the coaching staff, being able to meet Coach Venables for the first time in person, it was truly a blessing. He was very excited to see me. I got to meet the whole coaching staff and it felt like family, man.”
Dolby said Venables told him he’d been eager to meet him, and of course Venables showed that. But it was what Venables did next that really impressed Dolby.
“The biggest thing to me was when I first met Coach V,” Dolby said. “I had met him and he was in a meeting and he was like, ‘I want you to walk out the tunnel with me.’ So I got to walk out the tunnel with Coach V. So yeah, it was cool.”
The 5-foot-11, 180-pound Dolby plays corner, slot corner and safety at Northeastern A&M College in Miami, OK. He played in eight games for the Golden Norsemen this year as NEO fell short of the postseason and Dolby decided to opt out.
“t was more about a business decision to not play,” Dolby said.
Another thing Dolby liked about his visit to OU was meeting 5-star 2023 quarterback Jackson Arnold. Hearing so much about Oklahoma from such a high-profile recruit really cemented everything Dolby thought he was seeing and hearing.
“They had me talk to him and he was basically telling me about the family here at OU, why he committed,” Dolby said. “He told me he didn’t have an offer when Lincoln Riley was there. He just told me he fell in love with the program and fell in love with the coaching staff. He told me that’s why he committed — not trying to pressure me to commit or nothing like that, but just he gave me every reason in the world why he felt like OU was the best spot for him. I was really taking it in.
“And I agree with him as far as that coaching staff. Like, that coaching staff truly is family. And me being a juco dude, family is big to me. Being able to experience that and meet different players and the coaching staff, the fans, everything was just genuine. Coach (Brandon) Hall was the first coach to greet me and I felt like he was very genuine. Everything that they talked about over the phone, everything about me, they displayed that in person. It’s definitely genuine.”
Dolby he drew Division I interest at Springfield High School in Ohio, but acknowledged he “wasn’t mature in the classroom” and didn’t take care of business academically. He said then-NEO defensive coordinator Cory Sullivan checked in on him during his senior year and told his high school coach that if he got his grades ironed out, Dolby could definitely be a D1 talent.
“So I decided to take the juco route at Oklahoma, where he was at.
“I ended up playing as a true freshman. Locked in in the classroom. My spring semester last year I had a 3.4 GPA, and this summer term I had a 4.0. I just really locked into the classroom and everything’s been history since then. Literally what he said: if you take care of them grades, there’s nothing stopping you, you can play at the D1 level.
“I was hungry. It made me even more hungry. Like, you gotta do this. It took a little extra to figure it out, but I figured it out.”
