For as long as Harrison Utley can remember, he has been an OU fan.

The Norman native grew up watching Baker Mayfield dazzle on Owen Field. He was at the Norman airport on Dec. 5, 2021, when Brent Venables first arrived as the team’s new head coach. His mother is even OU’s associate athletic director of finance.

But when it came time for Utley to decide where he’d be playing college football, the Norman North offensive lineman chose Kansas over OU.

Utley is blazing his own trail, and he comes in at No. 14 on The Oklahoman's Super 30 list of the state's top recruits in the 2024 class.

"It's always hard turning down OU," Utley said. "Just seeing what Kansas' staff is doing and the belief in Kansas football, obviously their fan base is starting to believe in it too. … I always felt like I belonged in Lawrence."

Originally a baseball player, Utley didn’t begin to play football until the seventh grade. But by the time he entered his sophomore season, he was a force to be reckoned with on the field.

Utley had quick feet. He had good grip strength. He even had what Norman North head coach Justin Jones described as “a little bit of nasty” in him.

“We really started noticing and saying, ‘Hey, we’ve got a really special football player here,’” Jones said of Utley. “He’s just different.”

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Utley became Norman North’s starting left tackle as a sophomore, and he first heard from Kansas at the start of his junior season.

Utley was immediately drawn to the Jayhawks, who were in the process of reviving their program. After going 2-19 in its previous two seasons, Kansas went 6-7 in 2022 and even hosted ESPN College GameDay for the first time ever.

Utley also developed a strong relationship with offensive line coach Scott Fuchs. The two would FaceTime every week, which Utley quickly grew to enjoy.

“FaceTime definitely isn’t my expertise because I get a little weirded out looking at my face on the screen,” Utley said with a laugh. “But he would just call and ask how my week is going, and we would crack jokes. ... Kansas has stayed in touch with me very well."

Utley received an offer from Kansas on Sept. 4. And during an official visit on June 11, he committed to the Jayhawks inside head coach Lance Leipold’s office.

“Going on the official visit just reaffirmed that I wanted to be in Lawrence,” Utley said. “It’s definitely a nice place and a nice coaching staff.”

Utley figured that was the end of his recruitment process, but he was wrong.

Just one month later, Utley received an offer from OU. It was a dream scenario the Norman native had given up on after making countless unofficial visits throughout his high school career.

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But Utley was committed to Kansas. And after weighing out the pros and cons of each program with his parents, he maintained his loyalty to the Jayhawks.

"(OU) was the offer that I wanted growing up," Utley said. "But I feel like it coming late also helped me realize that I want to be at Kansas more. It gave me more time to get to know Kansas’ coaches and fall in love with Kansas.”

Utley’s decision to stick with Kansas might come as a surprise to people on the outside. Norman kids are supposed to jump at the opportunity to play for OU.

But Utley’s decision didn’t come as a surprise to his parents, who admit they had to convince Utley to even entertain the idea of flipping.

“He’s always been a kid who wants to do the right thing,” said Terry Utley, Harrison’s father. “He wants to be a person of his word. That’s important to him. … We’re really proud of him.”

The revival of Kansas' program remains a work in progress. The Jayhawks are still searching for their first winning season since 2007.

But the process is gaining momentum, and Utley is eager to help.

"Being able to see what they're doing at Kansas and turning the program around is amazing," Utley said. "It’s just something I wanted to be a part of and something that’s going to grow into something amazing.”

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The Oklahoman’s 2024 Super 30

Name: Harrison Utley

School: Norman North

Super 30 ranking: No. 14

Ht.: 6-foot-3 | Wt.: 280 pounds

Position: Offensive tackle

Recruited by: Kansas, Oklahoma, Air Force, Army, Columbia, Dartmouth, Harvard, Iowa State, Navy, Pennsylvania, Princeton, Tulsa, UNLV, Yale

About the series

The Oklahoman’s Super 30 feature series will spotlight each high school football player on the Super 30 recruit rankings for the 2024 class. The series continued Wednesday with No. 14, Harrison Utley of Norman North. See No. 13 on the list in Thursday's edition. Here are the last five players featured.

No. 18: LaDainian Fields, WR/DB, Del City

No. 17: Dax Collins, DB, Poteau

No. 16: Elijah Green, WR/DB, Classen SAS

No. 15: Red Martel, RB, Beggs

No. 14: Harrison Utley, OT, Norman North

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: The Oklahoman's Super 30: Norman North's Harrison Utley is loyal to Kansas