OU Football Recruiting - Sooners Land Four Star Cornerback & Former Notre Dame Signee

UPDATE (Jan. 16th, 2013): After some academic issues between Shepard, Notre Dame, and the NCAA, the former Golden Domer is going to have to go the JUCO route. He will now be a member of the 2014 class and while you can expect Oklahoma to remain in the mix, things are far from as close as they were portrayed in our initial report below.

There have been rumors about former Notre Dame commit and four star cornerback Tee Shepard and his supposed interest in Oklahoma. Tuesday evening, SoonerScoop.com was able to confirm ($) with Shepard that the rumors were in fact true. According to SoonerScoop.com, Shepard intends to enroll in January.

Shepard was originally a member of the 2012 class and signed with the Irish before enrolling in the spring as an early arrival. At the time, Rivals had him rated as the No. 4 corner and No. 76 overall player in the 2012 class. However for reasons that have never really been revealed, he left the team prior to their Spring Game. He's bounced around a little bit both prior to signing with Notre Dame as well as since his departure, but appears to have settled on Oklahoma.

Shepard is a gifted athlete who often got by on those physical gifts in high school as opposed to a refined technique. He has some natural instincts as a defender and plays the ball in the air exceptionally well. Confidence has never been a problem, which can be a good thing for a corner but might also explain some of his past issues.

Shepard will have some rust to work off to be sure after not playing for the better part of the last year. He could certainly fill a need at corner for Oklahoma who will have a starting spot up for grabs with the graduation of Demontre Hurst.

If you include Shepard with Oklahoma's current 2013 class, he would be the third defensive back assuming Stanvon Taylor stays on the defensive side of the ball. Mike Stoops has said he would like to sign as many as five defensive backs in this class, so don't expect the Sooners to be done in the secondary even with this news.