Laine Jenkins Surprises Everyone with Sooners Commitment
On Tuesday the Oklahoma Sooners landed one of the more surprising commitments in recent memory. That from El Dorado (Kan.) Butler C.C. defensive lineman Laine Jenkins. The 6-foot-6, 255-pound defensive lineman went from almost entirely unknown to a player with three power five offers in the matter of a few hours.
And following those few hours Jenkins made a public commitment to the Oklahoma Sooners who’d offered him shortly before.
The long and lean defender spent last year playing at Butler but originally hails from Naperville, Ill. The talented pass rusher put together a 2022 season that included eight tackles and 1.5 sacks on the year.
The surprise decision of Jenkins makes Oklahoma’s 2023 defensive line class a six man group that includes not only Jenkins but Ashton Sanders, Derrick Leblanc, and Markus Strong to join the talented defensive end duo of P.J. Adebawore and Taylor Wein.
Along with the recruiting class the Sooners also added Wake Forest transfer defensive end Rondell Bothroyd, who has 31 career tackles for loss as well as Oklahoma State transfer Trace Ford who, when healthy, has been highly productive for the Cowboys with 11.5 tackles for loss of his own.
Though the Sooners have a considerable class from the high school and transfer portal Jenkins is only the second scholarship commitment of the Brent Venables era following Kendel Dolby, also in the 2023 class as they’ve had a clear picture of how they wanted to build their roster.
And a big part of the movement of Venables and the defensive staff is trying to get bigger along the defensive front and Jenkins is a prime example of their belief in development. When he left Neuqua Valley in Naperville, Ill. as a 2021 graduate he was listed at 210 pounds but, after redshirting in 2021, he spent 2022 playing at 255-pounds according to the Grizzlies roster.
