Obi Obialo no longer on Oklahoma's roster

Scar-crossed wide receiver transferred from Marshall and never made an impact on the field after battling injuries his entire career

Oklahoma’s spring roster has shrunk by one.

According to the school’s official athletic department website, senior wide receiver Obi Obialo is no longer on the roster.

The development was first reported by OU Insider’s Parker Thune.

An OU spokesman confirmed Obialo's removal from the roster, but referred questions to head coach Lincoln Riley. Riley wasn’t available for comment Monday.

Obi Obialo
Obi Obialo / Photo: OU Athletics

Obialo spent just over a year with the Sooners and wasn’t able to make a big impact on the field after a series of injuries.

He played in just two games in 2020 but didn’t catch a pass.

Obialo, from Coppell, TX, started his college career as a walk-on at Oklahoma State in 2016. He said last September that he had gotten hurt in high school and “lost all my offers.”

He sustained more injuries at OSU, then transferred to Marshall, where he played three seasons for the Thundering Herd but still battled the injury bug.

As a senior, Obialo transferred to OU as a graduate student and was atop the Sooners’ opening day depth chart against Missouri State, but was unable to play that day and never got back into the regular rotation.

“I'm happy to be here,” Obialo said in a video press conference last fall. “Just whatever they put me at — wide receiver, special teams — I'm gonna take that role and do the best I can.”

His best season was 2018 at Marshall, when he caught 42 passes for 505 yards and four touchdowns. In his college career, Obialo has 998 receiving yards.


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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.