On Eve of ChampU BBQ, One Future Sooner Explains Why Oklahoma is 'Like a Mercedes'

Linebacker Kobie McKinzie has been committed to OU longer than anyone and says "I got a feeling" other prospects will join him after this weekend's big recruiting blowout.

Kobie McKinzie leans into his role as the longest-committed member of Oklahoma’s 2022 recruiting class. Embraces it, in fact, as an active recruiter himself.

When it comes to pitching OU to other prospects, he offers an intriguing selling point.

“Honestly, I feel like it’s kind of like a Mercedes (versus) a Volkswagen or something,” McKenzie told SI Sooners Wednesday in a phone interview. “OU is like an exotic car.”

And other schools?

“A minivan,” McKinzie said. “You lay out the brand, you let ‘em know how it is, you let ‘em know why you committed, and then you just give it a rest. Because the coaches do the rest.”

Kobie McKinzie and OU head coach Lincoln Riley / Kobie McKinzie via social media

The coaches are doing their part this weekend at Lincoln Riley’s “Champ U BBQ.” Along with the Spring Game, it’s one of the centerpieces of Riley’s annual recruiting efforts, an opportunity to bring back verbal commitments like McKinzie and let them mix in an intimate setting with other prospects who might be on the fence, like offensive lineman Jake Taylor, running back Gavin Sawchuck, linebacker Ish Harris or defensive end Derrick Moore.

Prospects who attend the barbecue often go home extolling OU’s “family” atmosphere.

For McKinzie, it’s all that and more.

“This weekend’s gonna be good,” McKinzie said. “First time I get to see the coaches again since freshman year.”

The 6-foot-3, 227-pound linebacker from Lubbock, TX, originally committed to the Red Raiders in February 2019. But OU offered the following May, and that got McKinzie thinking.

He soon got an offer from Texas A&M, and in July 2019 he took unofficial visit to College Station and Norman. In August 2019 he decommitted from Tech, and in January 2020 he flipped to the Sooners — and he’s stayed steady ever since, even as offers from Tennessee, Florida State, Notre Dame, USC and Arkansas came in, and even as the COVID-19 pandemic shut down everything but virtual recruiting.

McKinzie has been committed now for nine months longer than any other OU recruit, and although he originally wanted to reclassify and sign with the 2021 class, he said he enjoys being the “leader of the class” of 2022.

OU linebacker coach Brian Odom and Kobie McKinzie / Kobie McKinzie via social media

“It feels good to be known as a leader,” McKinzie said. “It’s like being the first guy to reach out to a new recruit or something, or being the guy that sets up things when we go to Norman. Or, ‘Let’s snag a picture’ or something. Like, it was me, Luther (Burden) and Talyn (Shettron) down in Florida (at the Under Armour Future 50 event in Bradenton), and I got us all in touch; I found out what room Luther was in, we hung out and we laughed — just certain stuff like that.”

McKinzie said it’s common for uncommitted recruits or those who might just be learning about Oklahoma to hit him up with questions.

“I get asked a lot, like, ‘Why OU?’ “ he said. “And I’m just honest with them. Like, it’s a family.

“A lot of people want to be lied to when it comes to a situation like this. You just can’t do that. You can’t lie about OU and tell ‘em something that they are. Because they’re truly a family, and they treat you like that. As soon as you touch foot on campus, you’re treated as if you already play for them. For a lot of guys, they truly come from nothing, so that’s what they lack in life until they fall in love with that.”

McKinzie will meet several prospects and some commits for the first time this weekend, and he sounded optimistic that the cookout will end up growing the Sooners’ 2022 class.

“A couple guys say they love OU, they just gotta get up there and see it,” McKinzie said. “So hopefully we get up there and snag about two guys.

“But I got a feeling … Hopefully it goes good.”