OU lands 2012 verbal commitment #7, FL LB Eric Striker

First of all, props to OUPest for breaking the news about the Sooners latest 2012 commitment.  Now, onto the young man himself and seriously, can you have a better name for a linebacker than 'Striker'?  And if the name alone doesn't impress you, check out the kids highlight tape above.  He looks like an absolute animal on some of those clips, a relentless motor towards the QB.  

A cool story here from a local source about Striker and his commitment, but I'll give you a couple of the choice quotes.

Striker's coach on his starting outside linebacker:

Striker has said he wanted to play for the Sooners since his freshman year at Armwood.

"When Eric was a ninth grader, he told me two things, that he wanted to be a wide receiver and play for Oklahoma," Callahan said. "I knew I was going to win one of those things and it turns out to be Oklahoma."

Striker said when it came to the recruiting process, one of his primary motives all along has been to attend college outside the state of Florida because he wanted to "grow" as a young adult. So after receiving an offer from his dream school and taking a visit there, Striker said it was an easy decision to commit early.

"I always hear about guys wanting to stay home to play college football, to stay close to their mom and family," Striker said. "But I’ve always wanted to leave Florida so I can grow and learn to take care of myself on my own."

At the same time, Striker was looking for what he called "high-level football" outside the state. Once he saw Florida play Oklahoma in the 2009 BCS Championship game as an Armwood freshman, Striker was sold on Sooner football.

"From there on out, I’ve been watching Oklahoma," Striker said. "They’ve got seven Big 12 championships and they just won the last won under Bob Stoops, who’s a good coach."

For Striker, one of the biggest selling points of Oklahoma is the lack of turnover on their coaching staff.

"They’ve got guys on their staff that have been there 10, 12 years, including the coach who recruited me, coach (Brent) Venables," Striker said. "That’s just a good sign of stability."

Sounds like the kid has clearly done his research on OU and given the extremely limited number of open spots for OU in the 2012 class, clearly OU has done their homework on the young Florida linebacker as well.

Striker's commitment makes it the second player this week the Sooners have landed from the state of Florida.  Which is a testament to their recruiting approach for 2012, focusing more on out of state prospects as opposed to the heavy emphasis placed on Texas and Oklahoma (though we do already have commitments from the top two OK prospects) than in years past.  

Striker had turned down offers from Cincinnati, Indiana (sorry Kev), Iowa, Tennessee, and West Virginia.  So, welcome to Sooner Nation Eric!