Once thought to be a key future piece of Oklahoma’s secondary, Hatari Byrd will instead finish his collegiate career at someplace other than Norman.
With speculation swirling regarding Byrd’s status with the football program, Bob Stoops confirmed after practice Monday that the defensive back had been dismissed from the Sooners. The head coach would only cite “unspecified violations of team rules” as the reasoning behind the dismissal.
Stoops added that Byrd will transfer to another program and continue his career.
Byrd’s time with the Sooners was lowlighted by a pair of not-so-flattering incidents. In September of 2015, Byrd was disciplined by Stoops after he was caught on camera flipping off Tennessee fans following a come-from-behind wins over the Vols. Several months before that on-field episode, Byrd was cited for drug paraphernalia and unlawful possession of alcohol.
A four-star member of OU’s 2013 recruiting class, Byrd was rated as the No. 16 safety in the country and No. 23 player at any position in the state of California. In his three seasons with the Sooners, Byrd played in in 30 games, starting two of those contests. Both of those starts came during the 2015 season.
This offseason, there had been talk of Byrd moving from the secondary to linebacker.