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Oklahoma Lands Commitment from Local 2025 Defensive Lineman

The Sooners continue to dominate local recruiting, as OU picked up a commitment from one of the top defenders in the state.

Randall Sweet

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After getting two commitments in the 2025 class last week, Brent Venables and company closed on another junior prospect on Friday.

Alexander Shieldnight, a 3-star edge rusher from Wagoner, OK, announced his commitment to Oklahoma on Friday night ahead of Wagoner High School's first-round playoff matchup against Broken Bow. 

Listed at 6-foot-4 and 230 pounds, Shieldnight is one of the top 21 edge rushers in the 2025 class and one of the top eight juniors in the state of Oklahoma, according to Rivals. 

The Sooners were able to beat out Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech and others to secure Shieldnight's commitment. 

With Shieldnight's pledge, OU now has eight prospects in its 2025 recruiting class, with six of the commits being from the Sooner State. Shieldnight is the third recruit on the defensive side of the ball in the upcoming cycle, joining Lee's Summit North (MO) interior defensive lineman Ka'Mori Moore and Carl Albert (OK) linebacker Marcus James.

Earlier in the season, Shieldnight set Wagoner High School's career sack record, which is an impressive feat for a player who still has an entire season ahead of him.

The standout edge rusher is the latest in an impressive list of defenders to hail from Wagoner, as Detroit Lions linebacker and former Oklahoma State Cowboy Malcolm Rodriguez played for the Bulldogs during his OK Preps days along with former Arizona Cardinal and fellow OSU product Kevin Peterson. 

Texas Tech sophomore linebacker Isaac Smith also hails from Wagoner.

Shieldnight's pledge continues Venables' dominant run of in-state recruiting, which the Sooners head coach seems to have emphasized since arriving in Norman. With a solid base to OU's 2025 recruiting class, the team can start focusing on their national recruiting to strengthen what already has the makings of a solid group.

AllSooners will have more from Shieldnight after the game.

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Randall Sweet
RANDALL SWEET

Randall is a recruiting analyst and staff writer at AllSooners focusing primarily on OU Football and the recruiting trail. Working as a journalist, Randall has covered the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma City Thunder, and high school sports across the state. A 2022 University of Oklahoma graduate, Randall hails from Lubbock, TX. While in college, Sweet wrote for the OU Daily in addition to working with Sooner Sports Pad and OU Nightly. Following his time at OU, Sweet served as the Communications Coordinator at Visit Oklahoma City before leaving to join the team at AllSooners. The West Texas native has bylines in the Norman Transcript and is a Staff Writer for Inside the Thunder. Randall holds a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma in Norman, OK. 

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