When Nathan Rawlins-Kibonge arrived for the start of a new semester it was his first time stepping foot in Norman.

Before the 10 mid-year enrollees for Oklahoma’s 2021 class arrived on campus in January, SoonerScoop.com caught up with a bunch of them for one last interview.

It was a wild, crazy recruiting ride for the 2021 class because of COVID-19 altering things like never before, but they’re all in Norman now and ready to get to work.

Welcome to OU – Nathan-Rawlins Kibonge.

There isn’t a recruitment for OU that says COVID-19 more for the 2021 class than Rawlins-Kibonge. The first time he met head coach Lincoln Riley was the weekend Rawlins-Kibonge was moving in back in January.

That’s just how it worked out for some of the #LincUpXXI signees, but Rawlins-Kibonge said he had no regrets or second-guessing about how everything turned out.

“It’s really strange,” he said. “It’s even crazier that I’m going for football. Trying to determine it was going to be football was the toughest part. Once I started playing, though, I knew this is what I wanted to do.”

Rawlins-Kibonge is one of those players who had an option in two sports. Before he was committed to OU for football, he was pledged to Washington State for basketball.

He opened the door toward playing football as a junior and immediately the offers started to come in. The first one was Arizona State, and the Sun Devils were a factor for the majority of his recruitment.

That recruiter at ASU? Jamar Cain, who obviously would end up at OU following the 2019 season.

“When he left (ASU), I was upset,” Rawlins-Kibonge said “He was the coach I messed with the most. Like, I know what OU is. I’ve watched them kill everybody. I figured I probably was never going to see him again.

“Then it was two-to-three weeks later after he got the job that he hit me up. He told me he was going to try to bring me out there. I was like don’t get me hyped like that. Then I was in class one day, and Cain offered me.”

It has been a long time since the Sooners have had someone the size of Rawlins-Kibonge. A long time, or you could argue they’ve never really had anybody like this.

As OU continues to turn around its defense under defensive coordinator Alex Grinch, Rawlins-Kibonge is another example of a player the Sooners simply wouldn’t have been able to secure before.

“In NRK’s case, you see potential,” Grinch said. “And in all cases, whether you play 40 games in high school, or like you’re saying, 10, it still comes down to some level of potential at that age. Meaning do they have the speed potential, the size potential and that’s across the class. The speed potential and size potential with the development at the University of Oklahoma is to be an elite college football player.

“He’s one of those guys from a size standpoint that checks the boxes from an athletic standpoint. We think that it’s a very high ceiling. And part of that is his makeup. It’s not just the measurables or the film that shows some explosion. It’s the conversations that we’ve had. His desire, his want-to.”

Rawlins-Kibonge said relationships were a huge reason for his choice. It started, obviously, with Cain, but it had to go beyond that.

Going up against Arizona State and the academic reputation of Stanford, the Sooners had to stick out from the rest of the crowd.

The virtual visit all but sealed it.

“Coach Grinch was saying to me, as they were doing their pitch, they can sit here and throw my name on everything and all that is good,” Rawlins-Kibonge said. “But the bottom line is if you don’t want to come here, then you don’t want to come here.

“Once I saw he was real, it became really easy to talk with him.”

His decision was justified even more after an outstanding 2020 season by OU’s defensive line. Instead of preaching about promises of being better, he was able to see the proof of it being the case.

That helped make the OU decision.

“A lot of it was based on mentality,” he said. “Going to Stanford and falling back on my degree. Or going to OU and playing against the best in the country every day, competing at a high level. That’s national championship football.”

Oregon was one of several states to not have a fall high school football season, and there was a part of him that was thinking of sticking around for a chance this spring. But going to OU early made the most sense.

It remains to be seen what Rawlins-Kibonge can do on the court for Lon Kruger and company, but he really wants to try to explore that two-sport option.

“It’s definitely realistic for the first two years,” Rawlins-Kibonge said. “Getting to the league, the third year, is all about football. But I don’t want to give up basketball just yet.”