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Last Member of Sooners' 2020 Class Finally Arrives

Junior college safety Justin Harrington tweets that he'll get going in Norman on Monday.
John E. Hoover|
Last Member of Sooners' 2020 Class Finally Arrives
Last Member of Sooners' 2020 Class Finally Arrives

The final member of Oklahoma’s 2020 recruiting class has finally arrived.

Junior college safety Justin Harrington tweeted Saturday that he has arrived on the Norman campus and will begin working out on Monday.

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Harrington originally intended to enroll early after signing last December, but his arrival was delayed by a transcript technicality.

When the Sooners reported for voluntary offseason workouts on July 1, his situation still hadn’t been clarified.

But the 6-foot-3, 210-pound Harrington, who hails from Raleigh, NC, and played juco football at Bakersfield (CA) College, is apparently now in the fold.

If he arrives ready to play, Harrington, who earned first-team All-America status from the California Community College Football Association, lends immediate depth and skill to a position that needs help.

The Sooners return both starting safeties in Delarrin-Turner Yell and Pat Fields, as well as backups Justin Broiles and Woodi Washington.

But Harrington’s size and skill put him in the conversation to compete for immediate playing time. He was the No. 10-ranked juco prospect in the country, according to 247 Sports.

Turner-Yell and Fields led the defensive starters in snaps last season largely because defensive coordinator Alex Grinch said repeatedly that no other safeties stepped up to contend for reps.

Harrington is expected to challenge that narrative in 2020 as Grinch recruits bigger, more physical defensive backs.

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. 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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