When spring practice started on the Forty Acres on Monday, wide receiver Parker Livingstone wasn’t at Frank Denius Fields. Instead, he was 368 miles north in Norman answering questions from reporters.
Livingstone shocked Longhorn Nation in January when he unexpectedly entered the NCAA transfer portal, tweeted that “Some things are out of my control,” and then committed to Oklahoma five days later in the wake of reports that he was
offered a mid-six figure deal to remain at Texas.
The Lucas Lovejoy product solidified his villain status in that Monday interview, completing his heel turn in his transition from burnt orange and white to crimson and cream.
“When I was at Texas, I wanted to go and beat the crap out of OU. Now that I’m at OU, I want to go there and beat the crap out of Texas,” Livingstone said, providing rare March bulletin-board material.
Declining to get into the specifics of his departure, Livingstone did admit that he wouldn’t be in Norman without his agent, Ron Slavin, who is in as poor of standing with the Texas program as Livingstone is with Texas fans.
So that made the comments from Oklahoma general manager Jim Nagy all the more strange.
“We didn’t see Texas dropping Parker like that… That was huge for us,” Nagy said.
As big as Livingstone’s decision was for the Sooners, it also sent shockwaves through the Longhorns fanbase, prompting Livingstone to delete social media for two weeks after his decision to commit to Oklahoma became public earlier than he planned. Two months later, he’s still receiving messages and getting tags on TikTok about it.
“I just happened to cross the Red River,” Livingstone said, citing a desire to remain close to home in his decision to pledge to the Sooners over the national-champion Hoosiers.
It was crazy to be in Austin for two-plus years and then go to the rival school, but I’m glad to be here. Everyone’s welcomed me with open arms. I’m excited to be a Sooner.”
In 216 days, Livingstsone will be close his home in the Metroplex again, facing off against Texas in the Cotton Bowl, where he’ll now receive boos from the other end of the stadium, and cheers when he walks out of the tunnel.
