Oklahoma DB Peyton Bowen Describes Paperwork Error With Oregon: 'I Should Be There'

Bowen also revealed a tidbit about how Jackson Arnold's recruiting efforts ultimately impacted his decision to sign with the Sooners.

NORMAN — Brent Venables opened the doors to his freshman class on Thursday because he said he wanted them to be able to tell their own story.

Peyton Bowen certainly did that.

The Sooners’ 5-star safety out of Denton, TX, revealed two semi-bombshells during his nearly 40-minute media interview at the Stadium Club.

One cleared up the misconception that he didn’t send his binding National Letter of Intent to Oregon.

He did.

But it was an inadvertent paperwork error on his part that prevented his NLI from being official.

“I sent it in,” Bowen revealed. “We just didn’t put the “a.m.” or “p.m.” On accident. So I should be there.”

“I wrote the time. But I didn’t write ‘a.m.’ next to it, and that was it.”

Bowen had been verbally committed to Notre Dame for almost a year. But on National Signing Day, he flipped to Oregon.

Oregon officials, of course, noticed the error. “Yeah,” Bowen said, “I just didn’t send (a corrected version) in.”

Bowen has talked a lot about his signing day flip to Oklahoma, but this was the first time he’d declared that it was actually a paperwork error that led him to signing with OU the next day.

He described the flip to Oregon and then the flip to Oklahoma as a “very hectic,” very clouded” period.

So clouded, that when he made the decision, Denton Guyer teammate and 5-star quarterback Jackson Arnold didn’t even know he had chosen OU.

That was another nugget Bowen revealed for the first time Thursday.

Arnold had been Bowen’s biggest recruiter to OU, but when decision day arrived, Arnold’s efforts were somewhat in vain.

“Man, he called me,” Bowen said with a laugh. “He called me at like midnight, so I had already signed. Like, he didn't know that though. He like he called me it was like, getting this big speech ready. And he was like, ‘Alright bro, listen.’ He was like, ‘I know, like, what you're doing and stuff like that.’ And I was like, ‘Bro, I'm Booming.’ I was like, ‘I’m Booming.’ He was like, ‘Stop playing.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, like, I'm Booming.’ And then he was like, ‘Stop playing.’ I was like, ‘I swear, bro, like, do you want me to send you the papers?’ So I sent it to him. He's like, ‘Bro, I had this whole speech ready. Like, I was fixing to like, pour my heart and soul out into you.’ So he didn't really say too much after that. But he was ready to.”

Bowen recalled a “great relief” when he finally signed with Oklahoma — and even wrote the correct time of day.

“Even my like parents could tell I was higher — like, my voice was better. Like, I was so down in the dumps, stuff like that. They could tell, it was gonna be like, just lifted a weight off my shoulders. So it was cool.”