OU Football Recruiting - Sooners Suffer Another 2013 Decommitment

Just decommited from OU and now im going to TU! It was a decision that was best for me!

— Dalton Rodriguez (@DaltonFromTheU) December 13, 2012

Oklahoma's one and only offensive line verbal commitment in the Class of 2013 just up and vanished. Tulsa Union's Dalton Rodriguez announced via his Twitter account Thursday afternoon that he was switching his commitment from Oklahoma to Tulsa.

To be frank, this had been brewing for some time. Not the Tulsa part necessarily, but the decommitment part. I'll explain. Despite playing his entire high school career on the defensive side of the ball, the Sooners had recruited/offered Rodriguez as an offensive tackle prospect. At the time of his commitment, Rodriguez was obviously aware of this fact and open to the switch. As time wore on however, the appeal of this began to wear off and in recent weeks he had been hinted at the fact he was no longer very high on the idea on making the transition from defense to offense. It was never a matter of if but when some school would present him with his now seemingly preferred option of staying on defense. The only question would be whether or not it was going to be tempting enough to sway him.

Well, we have our answer.

While Rodriguez's decommitment is obviously disappointing, the much larger concern lies in what remains in this current Oklahoma 2013 class. Namely, zero offensive line AND defensive tackle commitments. That's right, ZERO. Less than two months away from national signing day and the Sooners, at two of their most important positions of need in this entire class, have zero verbal commitments.

Needless to say, it's more than a little alarming. In fact, we discussed just how worried OU fans should be on a special mid-week podcast with SoonerScoop.com's recruiting guru, Josh McCuistion.

Look, things can and very likely will change between now and National Signing Day. That said, this Oklahoma coaching staff has a lot of work to do between now and then. They need players, at least at defensive tackle, who can come in and contribute immediately after losing three seniors following the bowl game. With respect to offensive tackle, they should be fine (even with the loss of Lane Johnson) with the return of Tyrus Thompson and Daryl Williams. However, the list of guys behind those two is incredibly short and we all witnessed this year just how important offensive line depth is to a team and their season.

If there wasn't a sense of urgency before, there sure better be one now. Amazingly though, from an outsider's perspective, even prior to today you really don't get that feeling from this Oklahoma coaching staff. Which makes absolutely zero sense to someone like myself who follows recruiting (probably way too closely), but that is certainly the impression they have given off.

That needs to change and it needs to happen in a hurry.