In Erik McCarty, Oklahoma Will Sign a Versatile Athlete Who 'Has a Gift'

The local prospect from McAlester will most likely begin as a safety, but he has shown the kind of big-play flexibility that is sure to get him on the field somewhere.

John E. Hoover | Dec 18, 2022

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Oklahoma Sooners

When Oklahoma finally gets Erik McCarty on the football field, the Sooners might need a little time to find the perfect position for him.

“He’s the most complete football player I’ve ever coached,” said McCarty’s high school coach, Forrest Mazey. “He’s one of them guys that, man, he’s done it all for us.”

McCarty rushed for nearly 5,000 yards and made almost 350 tackles in his four-year career at McAlester High School as one of Oklahoma’s best players on one of the state’s top teams.

On Wednesday, the first day of the early National Signing Period, he’ll officially sign on the dotted line, adding his name to the Sooners’ 2023 recruiting class of (currently) 23 prospects as a fearless, hard-hitting safety.

McCarty committed to the Sooners on Jan. 29, and chose OU over offers from Baylor, Kansas State, TCU, Nebraska, Pittsburgh and others.

OU’s class now ranks No. 8 nationally, according to the 247 Sports Composite Rankings, and the 6-foot-2, 180-pound McCarty ranks as a 3-star prospect, No. 735 overall in the nation and No. 10 in the state. His plan is to graduate in December and enroll at OU in January.

McCarty has more to overcome than the usual incoming mid-term freshman, however. His high school career was ended not with a Class 5A State Championship or a playoff loss, but by a knee injury.

He’ll sign Wednesday and begin classes next month amid the rigors of ACL rehab. He’ll move through Jerry Schmidt’s grinding winter workouts at a surgically measured pace, he has little chance of being available for spring practice, and it’s doubtful he’s on the preseason depth chart when August arrives.

But that won’t diminish McCarty’s enthusiasm for making a positive impact on the Oklahoma roster — wherever that may be.

“He’s thrown passes for touchdowns, he’s played defense, he plays safety, he can play linebacker, he can play running back, he has really good hands, he can kick return, he can block kicks,” Mazey said. “I mean, you name it, and he can do it. Just very, very impressive to watch his body of work through the last 3 1/2 years, 3 3/4 years.”

McCarty told the Tulsa World last summer he eventually expects to find a home at safety in Brent Venables’ defense.

“I’m not afraid to come down and rock somebody,” McCarty told the newspaper.

Nathan J Fish/The Oklahoman-USA TODAY NETWORK

BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN-USA TODAY NETWORK

It may not happen in 2023, but if rehab goes well and things work out, he could be competing for playing time as soon as 2024. That would not surprise Mazey one bit.

Of course, if the Sooners need a running back down the line, McCarty could most likely lend a hand there, too.

After playing almost exclusively on defense as a true freshman at McAlester, McCarty became a two-way superstar during his sophomore season, rushing for 1,966 yards and 34 touchdowns while racking up 88 tackles, three interceptions, two fumbles and two blocked kicks.

If those numbers sound impressive, McCarty really broke out as a junior in 2021, running for 2,005 yards and 38 touchdown and collecting 104 tackles with an interceptions, two fumbles, three blocked punts and a blocked kick.

In a championship game showdown of two 13-0 teams, his performance against Collinsville — 268 rushing yards, four TDs — went down as one of the state’s best ever in defeat, a 42-35 loss.

This season was truncated by injury, but McCarty still ran for 929 yards and 16 touchdowns on the ground to go with 86 tackles, one interception, three fumbles and four blocked punts.

In his four varsity seasons, McCarty finished with 101 touchdowns and added five 2-point conversions. In 47 games, he scored 616 career points. Underscoring his versatility, McCarty caught 37 passes for 745 yards and eight TDs, and finished with 5,863 all-purpose yards.

His career rushing total of 4,943 yards and his touchdown mark of 101 both stand as school records.

“Man, just athletically, he’s a gift. He has a gift,” Mazey said. “And more importantly, he’s got a gift to be a great person. Everybody matters to him. He doesn’t look down on people. It’d be easy for a kid like that to have the same kind of — especially all the social media he garnered over the last year-and-a-half — it’d be very easy for him to not be humble. It’d be very easy for him to be a, I guess, bigger-than-life guy. Especially in McAlester.

“Man, he is — you’ll never hear anybody say anything bad about him. I’ll promise you that. He is a great, great young man.”

Whether it’s safety or running back or as a gunner covering punts or an edge rusher trying to block them, McCarty would seem extremely likely have an impact of some kind in Norman.

“I’m excited to be able to watch him go to OU,” Mazey said. “I’m excited to be able to go and sit in the stands and say, ‘Hey, I coached that young man and hopefully I had an impact on his life as he moves forward.' ”

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Published Dec 18, 2022

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.