Transfer Tales: Why Oklahoma Was 'a Pretty Obvious Decision' for DL Rondell Bothroyd
NORMAN — Rondell Bothroyd insists he’s shy.
That’s why leaving Wake Forest and entering the NCAA Transfer Portal and beginning a whole new recruiting process wasn’t exactly what he wanted out of 2023 — but turns out to be exactly what he needed.
“It's a blessing in disguise,” Bothroyd said.
Bothroyd doesn’t come across as shy. When OU introduced its large class of newcomers to the media in February, he was engaging and likable and confident.
“Obviously you want to make friends, you want to make relationships with your teammates,” Bothroyd said. “And it's cool just because it's a whole different group of guys. I was with a group of guys for five years. So you get comfortable with that and then you get here and it's like, you got to relearn people, which is fun.”
Simply put, Bothroyd graduated from Wake Forest and decided he needed a new start. At first, the 6-foot-4, 270-pound defensive lineman figured the NFL was in his immediate future. Instead, he gathered enough information to realize he needed another year of college football to maximize his pro potential.
“I was close (to declaring for the draft) just because I didn't want to do college football again,” he said. “But you kind of like talk to people, and there's not really a point of not using your last year to try to make your name go higher on the draft.”
Notre Dame had been at the top of his list. He also took a visit to Auburn.
But then Oklahoma called.
“I was waiting to see if I got more offers,” he said, “but you can't let stuff like this pass. So you take your visit and roll with it.”
Being a recruit all over again, Bothroyd said, “was wild. It was a lot more than high school. My phone was blowing up, kind of, which I didn't fully expect. Obviously I know I was a good player, but you don't really know how good you are or how good people think you are until stuff like that happens. But it was cool — but it was also overwhelming.”
The overwhelming part was the speed at which everything unfolded. He announced his entry into the portal on Dec. 26, and he announced he was headed to OU on Jan. 8.
“I had like four days to make a choice,” he said. “Yes, it was hard to turn Notre Dame down, obviously. Once I got here, I just think it was a pretty obvious decision.”
Wake Forest quarterback Sam Hartman also left via the portal, announcing on Jan. 5 that he was headed to Notre Dame. That’s another reason for the assumptions that Bothroyd was headed to South Bend.
But four days, it turned out, was enough. Bothroyd quietly visited the OU campus with his family (no social media posts declaring his location, no photos of his visit) and immediately found a home.
“I got here and it just felt right,” he said.
“I didn't have that much time to make a decision or talk to a lot of people, but it was kind of right away. Just, they reached out. we texted each other here and there and then worked out a visit probably like a week or two later.
“But then the visit window was really small. It made everything tough, but it worked out good.”
So what ultimately tipped Bothroyd toward OU?
“I mean, it's a beautiful place,” he said. “But I think the biggest thing is the coaches. Because they were — they didn't do, like, the big recruiting pitch. Like, when I got here, it was just them. We watched film. We talked. My mom and grandma liked the coaches. They brought us around, they were honest with us, which you can tell, it was like, genuine interaction. And I think that was the biggest thing.”
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He said he wished he knew the things as a 17-year-old that he now knows at 23.
“Yeah. Most of it, actually,” Bothroyd said. “Becuase you don't really know how to deal with it when you're in high school. And then when you get to college, you know the ins and outs of like, how coaches kind of BS you, or how programs work, and you can do your own research, which you don't do in high school.”
Bothroyd was a 3-star prospect coming out of Manchester, CT, in the class of 2018. He was largely underrecruited, with offers from Temple and Massachusetts and Delaware and Yale. He committed to Temple in the summer before his senior year, but after Wake Forest offered, he flipped to the Demon Deacons.
Wake and Boston College were his only Power 5 offers. Now he’s at Oklahoma trying to pave a path to the NFL.
Bothroyd, who played against Clemson plenty in his first five seasons, explained the process of getting to know Brent Venables from the inside.
Rondell Bothroyd
BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN-USA TODAY NETWORK
“I played Clemson every year,” he said. “You can see — Coach Venables, he’s a genius. And just his scheme puts people in the right place to make plays. And I think I have what it takes to make those plays and make even more plays.”
Bothroyd explained how taxing and even frustrating it could be to be on defense when playing Clemson with Venables on the other sideline.
“I feel like they dominate people,” he said. “Like, you get off the field and then next thing you know you're already out in the field. Even games I wasn't playing, like watching on TV because he was in a lot of championships, and it’s just like, ‘What? Like, what the heck is going on? We can't move the ball.’ So it was cool.
“It was cool to see the other side of that when I watched film with him. Just dominance, kind of, which is what I think is gonna be the best part of my game when I get here.”
In five seasons at Wake, Bothroyd delivered plenty of highlights, but also experienced some tough times.
Rondell Bothroyd
James Guillory-USA TODAY Sports
As a true freshman in 2018, he played in four games (maintaining his redshirt status) and made one quarterback sack. He was a regular in 2019, playing in 12 games and accumulating 31 tackles, including 1.5 sacks and four tackles for loss. In 2020, injuries limited him to action in six of Wake’s nine games, and he finished with 11 tackles. And in 2021, he broke out with 63 tackles, a team-high 16.5 TFLs and eight QB sacks.
In 2022, Bothroyd missed two games and was limited in three others as he dealt with an ankle injury, but still finished with 30 tackles, eight TFLs and six sacks.
In each of his final two seasons in Winston-Salem, he received honorable mention All-ACC accolades. His decision to leave was seen by many as a surprise.
“I think the expectation was for Bothroyd to return to Wake Forest or declare for the NFL Draft, but most thought he was leaning back to Wake,” said Essex Thayer, managing editor and football beat writer at Deacons Daily.
“Honestly, there was not a lot of clarity on what Bothroyd would do until he announced Oklahoma. What I will say is I did not have the Sooners at the top of my list when Bothroyd entered the portal.”
Said Bothroyd, “I graduated from Wake, so that was — I kind of felt like I was kind of done there. And then I just felt like I needed a market that was kind of bigger (and) known for football. And I think Wake is underlooked because they're not seen as a football school. So stuff we did there and stuff we built there is kind of underlooked. And obviously they're building it way up now, which I hope they continue to do. I think it was just time for me to try to get in a market to put my name on draft boards and stuff like that.”
Once he got to know Venables, defensive tackles coach Todd Bates and defensive ends coach Miguel Chavis, he immediately felt that Oklahoma was right for him — especially knowing their track record for producing successful defensive linemen.
“They just kept emphasizing like, 'This is a place where you can make plays. The plays you made at Wake, you can even make more plays,' ” Bothroyd said. “Coach Venables’ mindset and how — they call it layups; they want lobs and layups. You’re here to make plays. And if you make them, you make a lot of noise.”
Bothroyd said his campus visit was strictly business. No photo sessions, no uniform try-ons, no light shows.
“When I came to visit, like, I didn’t want to take pictures,” he said. “ … It's more of a business decision. Like, the football stuff. I'm ready to get rolling with the plays, get healthy and just get my feet wet.”
Spring practice starts in three weeks, and Bothroyd said his ankle is “still lingering just because it was a pretty bad ankle sprain. But I'm doing all the drills. It's perfectly fine. Just takes a little bit of warm up. Which goes back to me being old.”
Bothroyd will play both defensive tackle and defensive end at OU. He’ll try to get his weight up to around 280 so he can play more 3-technique, but he wants to maintain his explosiveness and speed to play on the edge.
Rondell Bothroyd
Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports
“Oklahoma is getting a really good player who has a knack for getting to the football and making tackles,” Thayer said. “ … While his statistics won’t always blow the doors down, Bothroyd’s ability to create pressure in both the run and pass game will be a boost to the Sooners.”
With 30.5 tackles for loss and 16.5 quarterback sacks in 48 career games, Bothroyd already brings more production than any of his OU teammates have. Now his personal goals are to get his ankle fully healthy, project that production in crimson and cream and improve his skills for the NFL Draft.
“I think just pass rushing, because the NFL is a pass rushing league,” he said. “And then getting opportunities to rush on the edge, rush inside. And then just getting more physical at the point of attack, rip off blocks and make plays I should be making.”
