All Sooners

OL Aaryn Parks Exits Transfer Portal, Returns to Oklahoma

The Sooners' backup offensive tackle entered the portal on Wednesday but tweeted Friday that he's had a change of heart.
John E. Hoover|
Aarryn Parks via Twitter

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Oklahoma Sooners

The NCAA Transfer Portal is a strange place.

Just ask Aaryn Parks. Oklahoma’s backup offensive lineman spent not quite 48 hours there this week before deciding he wanted to return to the Sooners for 2023.

Parks has been a reserve throughout his four seasons at OU, but was thrust into action last year for the Cheez-It Bowl against Florida State. He held his own at left tackle against FSU All-American Jared Verse and seemed to be in the mix for more playing time in 2023.

But on Wednesday, it was reported that Parks had entered the transfer portal.

OU recruited Walter Rouse, a four-year starter at Stanford, out of the transfer portal, and the return of sophomore Jacob Sexton from his Cheez-It Bowl injury seemed to cast Parks back to third string.

But Parks had a change of heart on Friday.

“Every setback is an invitation to grow, to evoke and come back better,” Parks wrote in his tweet. “That being said … I’M BACKKKKKKKK.” 

The 6-foot-4, 300-pound Parks didn’t play during his first two seasons as a Sooner but got on the field for five games last fall, including an emergency replacement of  Sexton. Sexton, a true freshman, drew his first career start after Anton Harrison declared for the NFL Draft, but then suffered a knee injury on the Sooners’ opening drive against FSU. Parks came in and played the rest of the way as OU produced two 100-yard rushers, but quarterback Dillon Gabriel was sacked six times.

Parks joined OU out of National Christian Academy in Seat Pleasant, MD, in the 2020 recruiting class. He was a 4-star prospect, according to 247 Sports, and the No. 7 offensive guard in the nation.

He was the seventh OU player to enter the portal since spring practice, and is the first of that group to come back.

The spring transfer window closed on April 30, but graduate transfers can opt to leave at any time and still be eligible for the coming semester.

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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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