OU reportedly steals a recruit of their own, CB Bennett Okotcha drops Notre Dame for Sooners

Full credit to leatherneck for breaking this story last night on CCM, but I wanted to get something up with a little more detail on the kid.  Now as we're all aware, nothing will be "official" until Wednesday but reports from just about every recruiting service are that Okotcha has switched his commitment from Notre Dame to OU.  CCM was all over this before the weekend and with word coming out on Saturday that Okotcha had made a visit to Norman, it started to seem like when not if the Coppell standout would switch to OU.  For those not familiar with the situation, Okotcha was originally committed to Wisconsin, then dropped the Badgers for Notre Dame, and now has apparently dropped the Irish for OU.  So I really did mean it when I said nothing will be official until Wednesday and that signed LOI gets faxed in.  That said, to switch (reportedly) this late in the process you have to think OU will be his final choice.

Now as we discussed with Josh from SoonerScoop on Sunday night, it's yet to be seen how OU is going to make the numbers work but there people at OU who get paid a lot more money than I do to figure that out.  OU is also still in on the TE/o-line prospect from Euless Trinity as well, but we probably won't nothing anything on that until signing day.  Instead let us focus on the latest (possible) addition to the 2011 OU recruiting class.

Video and more after the jump.

 Prior to this news, OU was looking at a 2011 class with zero CBs so by that fact alone Okotcha's verbal is a welcome addition.  Couple that with the fact the kid is a very underrated prospect that will have a year to develop under the tutelage of Willie Martinez and OU might have just stolen a real diamond in the rough.  Okotcha isn't your typical corner in that he loves to come up and defend the run.  He is a physical DB and is a guy who is considered to have a high football I.Q., so he is almost always in the right spot.  At 6'0" 175 with a 4.47 forty, he is a kid who has the speed to close and deliver a big hit.  Given the time to add some weight, he will be an ideal fit for OU and their defensive system.

Now unfortunately, there isn't a ton of video available on this kid.  The video below is from an OU camp that was originally designed to feature one-time OU target Josh Turner, who sadly decided to commit to the hated whorns.  However, at the time of this camp Okotcha drew considerably higher praise for his performance which is also evidenced in the video.  He probably doesn't have the same fluidity in the hips that Turner does, but just in appearance he looks like a more physically ready to play CB in my opinion.