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Oklahoma Lands Former Pac-12 Defensive Back From Transfer Portal

The former Bethany defensive back began his career at Utah and also has a little brother who's been offered by the Sooners.
John E. Hoover|
Oklahoma Lands Former Pac-12 Defensive Back From Transfer Portal
Oklahoma Lands Former Pac-12 Defensive Back From Transfer Portal

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Oklahoma Sooners

An Oklahoma kid is coming home.

Jocelyn Malaska, a former 3-star defensive back from Bethany, OK, who began his college football career at Utah, announced Tuesday he’s committed to Oklahoma.

The 6-foot-1, 178-pound Malaska was a redshirt freshman with the Utes this season and played in five games on special teams.

He’ll be a preferred walk-on at OU and is the seventh player this cycle to commit to the Sooners from the NCAA Transfer Portal. OU has lost 19 transfers.

2023-24 Oklahoma Player Tracker

Malaska played in three games in 2022 as a true freshman, including the Utes’ Pac-12 championship game. This season he played against UCLA, Oregon State, Arizona State, Arizona and Colorado. He played 19 special teams snaps this year and 11 last year, according to Pro Football Focus.

In high school, Malaska compiled 1,182 all-purpose yards, including 1,148 yards and seven touchdowns on 93 career receptions. He also scored three touchdowns on returns.

He originally picked Utah over offers from Texas Tech, Kansas, Vanderbilt, SMU, Hawaii, Tulsa, Eastern Michigan, Utah State, UTSA and South Dakota State.

Malaska's younger brother, Evenson, is a 2026 defensive back at Bethany who holds a scholarship offer from OU.

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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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