Broken Arrow’s Robert Spears-Jennings Headed to the University of Oklahoma
By Mike Moguin
GTR Sports Writer
ROBERT SPEARS-JENNINGS
Advice from a rival Big 12 coach was what it took for Robert Spears-Jennings to decide Oklahoma was the place for him to be.
Spears-Jennings, who played wide receiver/safety at Broken Arrow, then informed OU coaches of his decisions.
“I was coming off a Texas Tech visit and I talked to (then) Coach (Matt) Wells,” Spears-Jennings said. “He said ‘If you know where you want to go, just go, don’t waste time.’ So I kept having dreams of going to OU and talking to Coach (Alex) Grinch and Coach (Roy) Manning. It helped me out so much. I talked to Coach Manning on July 2, then talked to my Mom for like an hour, before I called coach Manning and told him I was ready to commit.”
Spears-Jennings, who will play safety at OU, committed on July 4.
He chose OU over a handful of schools including Texas Tech. Other schools were Ole Miss, Arkansas, Kansas, Kansas State, Michigan State, Virginia Tech, Colorado, SMU, Houston, Arkansas State and Tulsa.
Spears-Jennings will be graduating from high school early and participated in the early national signing day this month.
He will be enrolling at OU in January.
“I’m ready to go,” he said.
It was near the end of his freshman year when Spears-Jennings came to Broken Arrow. The Sooner commit comes from a military family. Both parents served in the Navy.
Spears-Jennnings was born in South Carolina and moved with his family to Florida, Virginia, Maryland, Texas, Arkansas, back to Texas, Georgia, then back to Texas, before coming to Oklahoma. He came to BA from the Dallas-Ft. Worth area.
“Living in a family like this makes it more adaptable,” Spears-Jennings said. “And it helps with being more responsible and more coachable, just because I’ve been around so many different people and so many different cultures.”
Other players within the Tulsa area also committed to OU are Jayden Rowe of Union, Gentry Williams of Booker T. Washington and Luke Hasz of Bixby. Rowe and Williams are seniors who will be coming at the same time, while Hasz is a junior and won’t be coming to campus until 2023.
“I think it helps us out a lot, because most of us are going to play defense,” Spears-Jennings said. “So that is going to help with our chemistry because we already have a bond because we’re from the same area and we can see each other whenever, anytime during the day. So that helps us with chemistry just like motivation for the rest of the kids that live in the Tulsa area.”
When it comes to NFL favorites, Spears-Jennings likes Trevon Diggs of the Dallas Cowboys.
“Even though he gets beat sometimes, he is like a ball hawk,” Spears-Jennings said of Diggs. He is going to make a play. If he gets messed up, it’s because he was going out to make a play.”
Of course coming from the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, the Cowboys are also his favorite team.
What Spears-Jennings loves about playing football is “you can have 10 of your friends with you while having fun on the field, like when you’re a little kid. It’s just more competitive right now and you just have so many people watching you play. Nobody knew who I was until I started playing football and that gave me a little boost, because now, people actually know who I am, and I know people around Broken Arrow now.
“I love playing receiver because being able to make a play and change the game around,” Spears-Jennings said. “At safety, being able to hit somebody is like the greatest thing you can do, or pick the quarterback off and ruin their whole momentum.”
