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Jim Nagy, Oklahoma Hire Former OKPreps, Air Force Quarterback Kale Pearson

Pearson won three straight state championships at Tulsa Union and returned to the Falcons as director of recruiting before the Sooners landed him as Director of High School Recruiting.
John Hoover|
Air Force Falcons quarterback Kale Pearson
Air Force Falcons quarterback Kale Pearson | Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images

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Oklahoma Sooners

Jim Nagy’s personnel staff at Oklahoma continues to take shape.

OU on Wednesday finalized a hire by adding Kale Pearson to Nagy’s staff as Director of High School Scouting.

Pearson, who was General Manager, Director of Recruiting and NFL Liaison at Air Force Academy, changed his bio on Twitter/X and on LinkedIn on Wednesday, one day after his first tweet as a Sooner welcoming OU’s two newest transfer portal arrivals.

Pearson was a Falcons quarterback and graduated from the Academy in 2015. He was a three-time letterman at Air Force and was a team captain as a senior in 2014, when he won the Brian Bullard Memorial Award — the highest honor an Air Force player can earn — after leading the Falcons to a 10-3 record, the Commander-In-Chief’s Trophy and a victory in the 2014 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.

In 23 games at AFA, Pearson completed 118-of 208 passes (56.7 percent) for 1,764 yards with 14 touchdowns and seven interceptions across three seasons. He also rushed for 751 yards and eight touchdowns on 199 career carries.

Pearson played high school football for Kirk Fridrich at Union High School in Tulsa, where he helped lead Union to three straight state championships and a 26-2 record in two years as the starter.

Pearson served his active duty requirements as a logistics officer, according to his Air Force bio. He served as the Maintenance Operations Officer and Deployment Officer of the 552nd Air Control Wing at Tinker Air Force Base in Midwest City from 2019-21. He was responsible for the planning and execution of the wing deployments and training exercises.

Prior to that assignment, Pearson served as a Flight Commander and Logistics Readiness Officer of the 49th Logistics Readiness Squadron at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, from 2016-19, where he was responsible for ensuring the receipt, storage and issue of aircraft assets and jet fuel totaling $94 million. He deployed with Special Operations Joint Task Force between assignments.

Pearson began his post-football Air Force career as a graduate assistant coach at the Academy from 2015-16. He helped the Falcons to the 2015 Armed Forced Bowl and a Mountain West Championship appearance while on staff.

Among Pearson’s achievements in Colorado Springs was a degree in management, completion of Astronautical Engineering and  Operation Air Force in the summer of 2013 as well as working on the leadership group for Basic Cadet Training and completion of Combat Survival Training and the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles program.

Pearson’s father Preston Pearson was on Fridrich’s staff at Union and is now head coach at Skiatook, OK.

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John E. Hoover
JOHN HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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