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Ty Darlington Leaving Oklahoma Staff

After spending four years as the OU center and five years as one of Lincoln Riley's aides, Darlington will reportedly take a position with the Florida Gators.
John E. Hoover|
Ty Darlington Leaving Oklahoma Staff
Ty Darlington Leaving Oklahoma Staff

Ty Darlington is spreading his wings.

The former Oklahoma center and national academic award winner announced on Tuesday via Twitter that he’s leaving his alma mater.

Gabe Ikard — whom Darlington replaced as the team’s center and academic champion — reported on Twitter shortly after Darlington’s post that Darlington would be joining Billy Napier’s new Florida staff as a quality control coach.

Darlington, from Apopka, FL, played for the Sooners from 2012-15, and took home both the Danny Wuerffel Trophy for community service and citizenship as well as the William V. Campbell Award as the game’s top scholar athlete — college football’s “academic Heisman.”

Darlington returned to OU in 2017 as an offensive analyst, and was elevated in 2020 to graduate assistant, and helped Lincoln Riley working as OU's assistant quarterbacks coach.

Ahead of this year’s Alamo Bowl game with Oregon, Darlington helped exclusively with Oklahoma QBs, according to interim coach Bob Stoops.

In his farewell post, Darlington expressed an appreciation for getting to live his dream.

“My childhood dream was to wear the Crimson and Cream on Owen Field,” he said. “To play for coach Stoops and win championships here. Few gets get a chance to live ou their dreams, and I’ve gotten to in a way that has surpassed my wildest expectations.

“I am so incredibly blessed to have been a Sooner, and I will be a Sooner for the rest of my life! For the last 10 years, it has been an honor and a privilege to serve this University as a player and as a coach.

“This chapter at the University of Oklahoma is coming to a close, but what a ride it has been!

“I will be leaving to pursue opportunities elsewhere, but I will be a Sooner for life!”

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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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