Oklahoma added a little more depth to its defensive line Monday night when Euless (TX), Trinity defensive end Polo Manukainiu verbally committed to play for the Sooners. At 6-6/256, Manukainiu becomes the 14th verbal commitment for Oklahoma's 2012 class. He's a 3-star recruit (per Rivals) and had scholarship offers from 17 other schools including in-conference rivals Baylor, Iowa State and Missouri. Defensive coordinator Brent Venables led the way in recruiting Manukainiu.
Welcome to Sooner Nation Polo!
jtesooner: I just wanted to chime in late since I wasn't able to beat CC (or OUPest) with the good news of Polo' addition to our 2012 class. I thought there were two good points made by commenters already. (1) He's already 6'6" 250+, so he clearly has the frame to get even bigger. He also plays TE for Trinity, so you know he's incredibly athletic for a kid that size. (2) This appears to be setting up a possible Euless Trinity pipeline to OU and maybe more importantly may be establishing a Polynesian pipeline to Norman as well. Which I think could pay massive benefits down the road. When talking about his commitment, Polo specifically mentioned seeing his former (now future) teammate Nila Kasitati do the 'haka' on the OU All Access show and how it made him "feel at home" with OU. (3) Again, as mentioned, this certainly can't hurt our chances with his current teammate and OU target LB Brian Nance.
I will say, from the extremely limited amount of film available on him, it looks like he just mauls h.s. offensive lineman, relying mainly on his brute strength. Obviously things won't be that easy at the D-1 level, so he'll very likely have to improve on his technique to become an effective pass rusher at this level. I also say that because it would appear that he doesn't have that incredible burst off the ball that you expect to see in a dominant pass rush recruit. But like I said, that was really just me following up on points already made by our readers. Man, do we have some smart readers! Super excited about this commit and what it could mean for future classes as well!
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