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Oklahoma Target Micah Tease Commits to Arkansas

The Sooners have been recruiting Tease as a defensive back, but with an eye on being close to family, Tease also has been leaning toward playing receiver.
John E. Hoover|
Oklahoma Target Micah Tease Commits to Arkansas
Oklahoma Target Micah Tease Commits to Arkansas

Oklahoma lost a big one on Monday.

Micah Tease, a 4-star athlete in the 2023 class from Booker T. Washington High School in Tulsa, gave his verbal commitment to play college football at Arkansas.

He picked the Razorbacks over OU, Notre Dame, USC and Texas A&M.

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The Sooners have been recruiting the 5-foot-11, 180-pound Tease as a defensive back ever since Brent Venables arrived and made his first recruiting trip up the Turner Turnpike.

But OU and Tease, who told SI Sooners this spring that he wanted to play wide receiver, couldn’t reach an accord, and now he’s verbally committed to the Razorbacks.

He took his official visit to Notre Dame on June 10, then visited USC on June 16 and finished with Arkansas on June 24. He didn’t take an official visit to OU, but has been on campus and around the team numerous times — especially being best friends with current Sooner and former BTW teammate Gentry Williams, who got an in-home visit from Venables the day after he was hired.

Tease said in March that he’d mostly been in communication with OU defensive back coaches Brandon Hall and Jay Valai but said he’d also talked to offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby and asserted that the idea of playing defense in Norman wouldn’t be a hangup for him.

“Wherever I can go and play,” Tease said then. “That's kind of like my ordeal. I'm not necessarily focused on like, I have to go here and play defense. You know, I'm just trying to get on the field and work. That's how I look at it.”

Tease's older brother, Myles Tease, was an OU walk-on in 2017-18 after transferring from Central Oklahoma.

It’s a tough one for the Sooners, who lost 4-star tight end Luke Hasz in January when he flipped his commitment from OU to Arkansas and then last week missed out on 4-star slot receiver Cole Adams to Alabama after getting in late on his recruiting.

“For me,” Tease said in March, it’ll be definitely a place to (call) home, a place away from home, you know, it’s not a transactional relationship, it’s a genuine bond between me and the coaching staff, the players. Somewhere for my family (that) it's not hard for them to always come up; definitely somewhere where they can be able to get there. Somewhere where my family can trust the coaches.”

As of Monday, three of the state of Oklahoma’s top five prospects are headed out of state, per Rivals. Using the 247 Sports rankings, it’s three of the top four.

OU could be considered a frontrunner for two still-undecided OKPreps prospects in Norman edge rusher Bai Jobe and Mustang athlete Jacobe Johnson, although Jobe may be leaning toward Michigan State and Johnson has offers from Alabama, Michigan and Stanford.

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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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