Top 50 ATH Makai Lemon backs off his pledge to Oklahoma

Another prospect has decommitted from Oklahoma.

Los Alamitos (Calif.) athlete Makai Lemon is the fourth highly-rated prospect in the 2023 class to remove his name from the Sooner’s commitment list since Lincoln Riley left Norman for USC.

The no. 41-ranked recruit in the On3 Consensus committed to Oklahoma over USC in August. The 6-foot, 180-pound four-star had a strong connection to not only Riley, but wide receivers coach Dennis Simmons, and both are now working in Los Angeles.

“It has been crazy the last few days, and it was hard, but decomitting from Oklahoma is something I felt was right,” Lemon said.

“When I committed to Oklahoma, a big part of that was my connection to coach Simmons and coach Riley, so with those two at USC, I needed to do this.

“I am not sure what is going to happen next, who is going to be the coach there, and things like that, so there are a lot of questions around Oklahoma right now.”

Over the summer, Lemon thought he found his future home. He felt strongly about his commitment to Oklahoma, but things happen, and although it was not easy, he is ready to move forward.

“I thought I found the perfect place for me. I loved my visit to Oklahoma, the people there are great, and my connection with the coaches was great, so this was tough for me.

“This was a tough decision to make because of my feelings for Oklahoma. I needed to do though and I feel good about this decision.”

Makai Lemon is not completely opening his recruitment back up

Schools like Alabama and Oregon never stopped recruiting the No. 4 prospect in California. Of course USC will be all over him now with Riley leading the Trojans.

Lemon is not going to open his door up to everyone though and start over again.

“I am just going to take some time, see how things play out, and go from there,” Lemon said. “I am not going to start talking to a lot of different schools and all that again, so I am just going to watch what happens with all the coaching changes.”

USC will definitely be a factor.

“I was fully locked in with Oklahoma, so yeah, USC is a school I am definitely going to look at now. I grew up a big fan of USC, when I committed to Oklahoma, USC was No. 2, so I have always had an interest in USC.

“Coach Riley is bringing Norman to Los Angeles now, so I have to consider USC.”