Bowl Practice Notes (12-21)

When we’re able to get some inside reports about practices we will try to bring you information. Obviously we’re limited in what we can say because we wouldn’t divulge anything that would adversely affect the program in any way. We are fans too. However we know fans, like us, just want some information to make them feel close to their favorite team. In our estimation passing a few notes on to OU fans only helps our program by increasing the sense of interest and excitement that we all share for Oklahoma football.

Yesterdays practice was iced out so most of the players weren’t able to make it in. However the young guys that could walk from the dorms did make it and they ran some 7-on-7.

Earlier this week Eric Striker and others praised KJ Young’s play in the bowl practices. In fact according to ESPN Striker said: “Man, K.J.’s got stick ’ems, he’s got some hands. Good hands, good routes, too. He doesn’t drop the ball. K.J. has been doing it all season so it’s not a surprise.”

Well Eric was right because KJ killed in 7-on-7 yesterday…he looked GREAT! According to our source he was the young player that really stood out.

OU fans might recall that KJ Young was an under the radar WR that OU picked up at the very end of the last years recruiting class. In fact KJ was a 2 star by corporate recruiting sites up until Oklahoma got involved. He was then bumped to a 3 star.

It’s still early but it sounds like KJ is starting to really shine! And it just so happens that KJ Young wears the number 85…the number of our very own Ryan Broyles.

Oklahoma will resume bowl practice on Monday.

77 Comments

  • ToatsMcGoats says:

    Makes me miss Broyles! Looking forward to seeing this kid next season!

  • Ed Cotter says:

    Since we are talking about KJ Young, the pride of Perris, CA. Here is hudl video of Ykili Ross, a junior at Riverside Poly, another Inland Empire product. A WR, Ykili was a student of mine in middle school. Spoke with his mom a few weeks ago and she said USC and Cal are interested in her son and I told her that OU wouldn’t be a bad school either. Ross has great measurables, 6’2″, 185 and returns kicks also.

    http://www.hudl.com/athlete/1341155/ykili-ross#
    If videos aren’t allowed then delete this post. Just wanted to share about another athlete from the IE.

  • Paul Warfield says:

    The ax is site grinds against “corporate sites” is a joke! Stop carrying that cross as though you are some martyr who is out to save the masses. This is a “fan site” that comes at everything from that angle. It is nice to get some extra information but to always put down “corporate sites” at every chance is childish.

    Nobody was on to Young because he was a late bloomer who had a big SR season. The west coast programs weren’t after him either until he had a big SR year.

    And let’s remember this, all the kid has supposidly done to date is practice well and look good in 7-on-7…so lets not pretend as if he is some All American breaking records. Let him at least become a starter before you say he is the burden of proof as to why these “corporate sites” do such a bad job.

    Corporate sites are about making money, but to do so they also host dozens of camps and all star events. And at the end of the day providing information and giving the best possible breakdowns is also what they do. Their employees are all ex players and scouts as well.

    • Super K says:

      Paul you’re free to comment here and we appreciate it but just as we expect you to be respectful to others on here we ask that you be respectful to us. I’ll try to be brief in my response to you. First of all there is a game behind the game in the recruiting world that I know you don’t know anything about. Go around and talk to HS coaches about how they feel about those “star ratings”. One of the key factors those sites take into consideration are offers. And there are guys that will bump a player as a “favor” to a coach. And I say this publicly as an attorney and I’m happy to defend that statement in a court if any corporate sites want to litigate what I’ve said in a defamation claim. If you know anything about how the recruiting process works then you know that you cannot in good conscience base your evaluations on that system and then present yourself to the world as an evaluator. If your evaluation is based on whether OU or Alabama offered then it’s not an evaluation of talent. It’s your evaluation of OU or Alabama’s evaluation of talent. And what happens when OU happens to not see a kid because he wasn’t savvy enough to put his tape online or to cut his tape up right to make it appealing to a recruiter? Well then all the out of state schools who did happen to come across him won’t offer…why? Because they’re thinking…he must not be good enough if Oklahoma didn’t offer. I will tell you that 2 days ago a coach from a particular school told a friend of mine that he would offer X player if Y university offers that X player. That doesn’t even scratch the surface of how ridiculously odd the recruiting world is. Chris Trulove who we’ve had on here and was a former NFL scout for many years had a conversation with me about this very issue and talked about how fearful coaches are of offering kids if they don’t have other offers even if they believe they’re good because they don’t want to lose their job if the kid doesn’t pan out. The problems in the recruiting world are too deep to explain to you here but we know those problems well enough to know that you cannot base your talent evaluation on them. And we also know that its unethical to put yourself out as a talent evaluator when a primary factor in how you rate a kid is based on offers. I’m certainly not saying that there isn’t evaluating going on. But it’s to the standard, protocol or level that it should or can be. Now as for KJ Young…it had nothing to do with being a late bloomer. That’s just the line they sell you. Was Trey Carter a late bloomer? Only a month ago he was a 2 star and now a top 20 DEnd in the country on Rivals? Hell man Trey’s coach is a good friend of mine and Trey’s JR film is as good or maybe better than his SR film! But Trey got the offers. And what about kids like Papi White who literally the day before we featured him held exactly one offer…to UCO. And within a week Bobby Petrino from WKU had called an offered. He now holds multiple offers and is going to actually get to play division 1 ball. Maybe you don’t care. But we do. We know whats wrong and we are going to do what we can to fix it. Tristan Hill will be another example of that. Literally held zero D1 offers and didn’t exist the corp. site evaluation databases 1 week ago. After our feature he got two division 1-AA offers and NC State is now interested in him and I will bet my bottom dollar that he will get an FBS offer before its all said and done. It won’t even shock me if OU offers. And I don’t know where you get the belief that the employees for scout/Rivals are primarily made of former players or talent evaluators.

      • Sooner Ray says:

        Brief like only a lawyer could be HAHA, Nice job man, keep up the good work!

      • Paul Warfield says:

        What, did my post on my experience and your lack of get deleted?

        • Super K says:

          Because you aren’t responding to anything substantive. You said yourself that you didn’t even what I wrote. So why would I allow you to grandstand on our site without even attempting a substantive response to the points? We have an All-American and NFL player and an NFL scout on our site that agree with my points. Do you want to put your resume up against theirs? Because if that’s the determining factor in whether you’re right or wrong then by that logic you would be wrong every time. Your ability to play football doesn’t do anything for your ability to a) counter the points I made because they aren’t particularly relevant or b) give you insight into the underground happenings of the recruiting world. I talk regularly to people in this business. If you want to respond to my points in a substantive and a respectful way you’ll be allowed to comment. Otherwise, like I said if you want to be “martyr” for the other sites or you want to be, ironically, burn our house down then do it somewhere else because this site isn’t for you. I don’t care where you played or where you coached if you don’t know that the recruiting process is incredibly flawed you don’t know anything about it. In fact I will humor once more. I’m good friends with some coaches in Alabama. In fact that’s how I knew Dwayne Orso got the offer from South Carolina before anyone else. South Carolina knew about Dwayne Orso…in fact the Homewood coaches tries to turn them on to Dwayne and they didn’t give him the time of day. All of sudden Oklahoma comes in and offers and here comes South Carolina finding this talented DE. Again, there are too many things wrong with the recruiting process to explain to you. And any system that uses evaluations as part of their evaluation process will by definition be flawed. Being wrong isn’t a problem…but having a flawed system is. If you want to discuss this further you can send an email to me.

    • Shelby is a Patriot says:

      Done ranting? Feel smarter, and better than everyone now?

  • Paul Warfield says:

    And lets also remember this is a fan site that spins everything in favor of OU.

    OU loses a kid and it’s because they backed off due to reasons that can’t be mentioned. OU signs a kid nobody has offered and he is underrated. Than Texas signs a kid everybody has offered and he is overrated.

    OU has an OK staff…it’s not near as good as past staffs they fielded. And the reality is they aren’t smarter than almost every other staff in the country. OU hasn’t won an outright Big 12 championship in 3 seasons. And they failed to do so when the Big 12 was at it’s worst it HS been in it’s existence. They couldn’t even fill all of their allotted bowl spots this season and had their reigning champion lose at home to a D1AA program.

    All is not perfect in Norman, losing recruits to Baylor, Texas Tech, Arkansas, Oklahoma State and failing to beat both Texas and Texas A&M on a single player head to head are all massive warning signs of issues that need to be addressed.

    And maybe those issues are being addressed for future success. But lets not pretend that OU being forced to recruit lesser players because they can’t beat UT and A&M is good.

    • Tim Ballard says:

      Why don’t you go back to catching passes for the Browns and save the negativity for your wife I’m sure she’s used to it.

    • Super K says:

      If TAMU and Texas are getting so much talent how come they can’t field a decent defense? lol. And we spin everything OU?? We certainly like OU but if you haven’t noticed we’re the guys who break down film and point out what OU players did right AND WRONG. But we do it in a respectful way because their young men who deserve that.

    • ToatsMcGoats says:

      Paul, you must be kidding about not beating these teams for a single player. Trevor Knight, Justice Hansen, Mark Andrews, Corey Nelson, and, coming soon, Steven Parker….issues have been addressed and are continuing to be addressed in the coaching staff. Do you even read the news?

    • Indy_sooner says:

      I tried to stay away from your post but whatever
      first, K, JY et. al. provide evaluations even for kids that are committed elsewhere and for some, backs the rating with a transparent audit. see-Goolsby, Trai Mosley, Leonard etc- and how they would fit at OU. I don’t think they have killed a kid just for committing to Tx (See Dorian Leonard) so you must be confusing this site with others.
      That is also where your rant loses credibility and since it’s clear you have not read though the site, you are wasting people’s time. You are ranting just for sh*ts and that’s a problem. I would be interested in hearing your proposal… What is it? Shut down the program and get back to whining? Fire stoops? “past staffs”…. really?

      Lastly, the whole idea for this site (and correct me if I am wrong admins) is to provide a *different* holistic (non segmented/ knee jerk) outlook on the program, the recruits, games and development. That is where FB differentiates themselves. If that pisses you off, stay away – simple, but bashing folks that put in time and effort just for the sake of arguing is the childish part

    • pitbull17 says:

      Dude, you’re wrong, just give it up. And you want to talk about texass. Look at their recruiting, it’s a prime example of recruiting problems. They aren’t evaluating talent at all. Just going by the stars next to their name.

      • Sooner Ray says:

        That’s been their problem for years Pit, They’ve got stars on the brain, and stars don’t have heart.

    • Shelby is a Patriot says:

      Oklahoma hasn’t fallen behind anyone. We’re recruiting the same type of kids we always do. A&M is 8-4, Texas is 8-4, we’re 10-2, and that’s with several key injuries, our starting RB being kicked off the team, and juggling QBs…Yet we went 10-2, I think we’re doing alright. Do Texas, A&M, Baylor, etc go 10-2 on their rebuilding seasons with all that adversity? Yeah, didn’t think so.
      The fact is, we’re still Oklahoma and you’re…I don’t know, some whiny Texan? Why are you here again?

  • jesse says:

    Paul….you don’t have to come here…your choice…If you don’t like it don’t come to this site.
    Plain and simple

    • Paul Warfield says:

      Like I said, the extra news on the program is enjoyable.

      It’s that everything comes from that same angle of “us vs terrible corporate sites” is what gets tiresome.

      That….and the ever so consistent tone of posts that explain how X player OU is recruiting as their 5th option is underrated, while Y player whom OU offered and is headed elsewhere is overrated or has issues.

      • Kyle says:

        They simply mentioned he was a 2 star by recruiting services.

        I think you’re imagining this “us vs terrible corporate sites” stuff. Things here have an OU lean to them because it is an OU site. Other than that their evaluations of players are very unbiased.

      • JY says:

        The thing that is tiresome is that these sites are completely missing on these kids and it absolutely affects these young men in an adverse manner.
        One of the primary reasons we started this site was to shine a light on young men who were getting overlooked by a lot of people. We just say what we see on film man, and report what we hear on why this player or that player did or didn’t make it. You want us to lie to you?
        We have a current NFL player as well as a guy who was the director of pro scouting for the Denver Broncos for many years doing evaluations along with the rest of us. We just say what we see. Then when you compare it against what other sites have up about a guy, the evidence speaks for itself. When you have a guy who can play, he can play. Doesn’t matter what anyone says about him. We have nothing to lose though, and we’re willing to get up on the table and stump about a kid if we believe in them.
        If we can shine that light on a guy who would have been playing D-2 ball or not at all, and through that light expose him to an offer that could change his future. Yeah, that’s something we’re gonna do. If it makes another site look bad so be it.

        • Paul Warfield says:

          Than go about it in that manner. Don’t constantly attack “corporate sites” and reference them every time in an attempt to tear them down. Burning your neighbors house down doesn’t make your look better!

          And Jy, let’s remember this is a site run by fans. You being the one who said Brannon Green and Sam Grant would be day one upgrades as blockers over Ratterree and Hanna. The guy who said Tony Feo and Savage would be studs. And the guy who went to war with another scoop poster on how great Kyle Marrs was going to be. That fan perspective impacts your opinions.

          And back to the “corporate sites” vs you guys. Your post touched perfectly on the overall tone of you all being martyrs crusading against evil people keeping those kids down. Thank you for making my point very clear.

          • Super K says:

            Criticizing sites that we believe affect how kids are viewed by the public and by the schools isn’t like burning your neighbors house down. And being right or wrong about a kid isn’t the point…its whether you are actually evaluating or not. No one can be perfect one way or another but basing your evaluations on someone elses evaluations and then claiming they are your own is wrong and we are going to continue to point that out and if you don’t like it then I will reiterate what someone else already said don’t visit or read our site. You are very close not being allowed to comment anymore. You can take the negativity and go to the many other boards where that stuff is the norm. But its not going to be allowed here especially by someone who clearly knows very little about recruiting, evaluation or anything else related to it.

          • Paul Warfield says:

            Negativity?…I believe you are the one saying that Bob Przybylo and Josh McCustion are incompetent individuals who can’t and don’t evaluate talent for “corporate sites”.

            And Jy, I think you are confused. You are the guy who said those players would be immediate upgrades from day one, implying they would be starters…not me. I just was recalling your track record for it, just like the Marrs discussion you had with another poster.

            And yeah, when you constantly attack others and even in this discussion label them as somehow negligent and to blame for kids futures…that is the definition of attacking others.

            It is humans judging and evaluating humans, it’s not going to be perfect and a lot of misses are going to occur. Just as they do with NFL organizations, it’s far from perfect. It is just immoral on your behalf to label others as dirty or incompetent because they make mistakes. Bill Belichick isn’t either when he misses on top round pick after top round pick.

          • Kdubracing says:

            Guys like Josh McCuistion at Rivals’s SoonerScoop and Bob Pbrzybylo at Scout do a fantastic job. They are real journalists who do a great job bringing Sooner fans news and recruiting information and we encourage our readers to purchase subscriptions to those sites because they offer information that we do not provide. And we actually respect their football opinions.

            Quote from their post on the recruiting sites. You should probably read what they write rather than what you want to see. As some others have said, it’s simple, if you don’t like it…..leave.

          • JY says:

            We are fans of Soonerscoop and Scout, and have been for years. We absolutely enjoy the content they both provide.

          • Super K says:

            Thanks Kdub. I think people who have followed our site know that we have gone out of our way to say that we disagree with the rating process but we support people like Josh and Bob and recommend people join their sites.

          • Super K says:

            That’s completely untrue. In fact we have gone out of our way in posts to say quite the opposite. You can read this old post to prove the point: https://thefootballbrainiacs.com/?p=1523 That post will also show you that the remainder of the points in your points are flawed as well. In fact I have personally told Josh that if he were the person deciding what a kid is or isn’t rated in the state of Oklahoma then we’d never criticize Rivals because that would be a sound system. But Josh doesn’t determine those things. He has input but those ratings end up being changed/altered for a number of reasons that aren’t based on talent or tape. The issue isn’t being wrong. We are all wrong. The issue is when your protocol is flawed and non-transparent. I have been told first hand stories about ridiculous things other sites have done to alter a kids rating. Again, I’d suggest you read the link I’ve posted above and it should address many of the points you are attempting to make.

          • Indy_sooner says:

            Beat me to the link. Didn’t see this first

          • Indy_sooner says:

            Again, with the baseless crap. I suggest you read the rebuttal to Dean Blevins. It’s looking more and more clear you have no idea what you are talking about
            https://thefootballbrainiacs.com/corporate-evaluation-sites-a-response-to-dean-blevins-and-the-stargazers

          • JY says:

            If you look back at it, though Brannon Green was a starter from day one. He actually won the UTEP game for us on that nice TD catch. Do I think he’s still an upgrade as a blocker over Hanna and Ratterree. Yes I do. I never said that Marrs was a day one starter. I said that he was worthy of an offer when other people were bashing him with baseless claims. In my opinion, Kyle is right on schedule as he’s only in year two in the program with three more to go. If you want to quote my previous posts from two years ago, you can’t pick and choose about what you talk about and what you leave out. In that same thread I spoke to the fact that Oklahoma needed guys like Kyle Marrs and Farniok because they were guys who would come in, work hard and be two year starters. I talked about how Wisconsin makes a living off of guys like them as well as Stanford because guys are brought in and developed. Oklahoma shouldn’t have true freshmen or even redshirt freshmen starting or getting significant snaps unless they have a lot of injuries. This is why you need to take three to five o linemen per year. 17-18 year olds are a heck of a lot different both physically and mentally right out of high school than are 22-23 year olds in their fifth year in the program. Get back to me when Kyle doesn’t pan out. I still maintain that I think he’s gonna be a good player for us.

          • Jerry reid says:

            These’s guys have said numerous times how they like Bob from scout and Josh. Never have bashed either of those guys.

          • boomersooner says:

            negativity? i guess if you wanna see it that way..more power to you. but, if you look at it from the kids’ point of view. nobody’s lookin at me, my coaches can’t any calls returned, i’m a 2 star on 3 different sites, etc..etc. now all of a sudden, there is a website that no only shows OU stuff, but shows off kids not only off OU’s radar, but off everyone’s radar. i see it as finally someone like papi has a voice. had you heard of him before these guys spotlighted him? i sure didn’t. now how many d1 offers does he have? i don’t know if it’s just b/c of their spotlight but i damn sure it didn’t hurt. by the way it looks like you have no response to any of these retorts..shocker..taking your ball and goin home seems about right for the internet.buhbye

          • JY says:

            Green has looked good when he gets to play. I’ve illustrated time after time after time how he should be getting more play, but he doesn’t. Grant looked great in spring ball, but is nowhere to be seen this year. Explain to me how Green is good enough to come in on short yardage power sets when we absolutely need a yard, but he’s not good enough any other time? Also, Savage and Feo aren’t done yet as Marrs isn’t either. Savage has gotten a lot more play as the year has worn on, and again it’s in short yardage. You’re just like everyone else who thinks because a guy gets an OU offer that he should be a starter from day one. Brannon Green absolutely is good enough to play, but our offensive coordinator is in love with the 10 personnel packages.

          • JY says:

            http://youtu.be/3MHrkW314AM
            Tell me what is bad about this film.

  • Sooner Ray says:

    I visit this sight because there is an OU spin, that’s what I want. You can’t get that on espn. I also get information on kids here that you don’t get elsewhere, and if reasons are given for a kid being good for OU or reasons given for a kid going to another school, I don’t really care if there is an agenda or not ( if you ask a girl to dance and she says no, you tell your friends that she wasn’t that hot anyway). The point is this is a fan site for OU fans and they excel in getting recruiting information that other sites don’t provide. I’m fine with whatever they want to put out because If I ever become tired of it I know how to change channels.

    • JY says:

      Well said sir.

      • soonermusic says:

        This site has a perspective and is completely open about where it stands. Coming on here and criticizing an “us versus them” mentality is just looking for something to complain about, and doesn’t add anything constructive.

        Here’s a probably silly question: I love it when OU finds a player that no one else has considered and they become a top player. Any concern that by putting these guys on everyone’s radar, it makes it more difficult for OU to get them?

        • JY says:

          somewhat, but our first concern is shining a light on a player that could potentially change their future. All the rest of it actually depends on the player. Whether they really want an OU offer or if they feel jilted etc. You never know. Some kids are really excited about OU, and others maybe not as much. Being fans though, we do hope that kids get an OU offer if they can play at that level and accept.

  • Paul Warfield says:

    Hey, like is said I love the extra info.

    What I don’t like is tearing others down. And 95% of articles and posts do just that.

    • Super K says:

      You’re done brother. Any other comments you post are going to be deleting.

      • jmac says:

        Thank gawd. Don’t get sucked into those conversations. JMO 🙂

        • JSam says:

          Ditto! You guys were more than gracious to let him last as long as he did! Longer than I would have. Thing is, if there is a legitimate beef someone has, there is a link right there in the right-hand column where the Brainiacs may be contacted. But, if it’s about hi-jacking the comments to be adversarial… there’s the door.

          (sorry, jmac, that was a reply to the Super K post – not necessarily yours… can’t figure out this reply thing…)

    • JY says:

      Then go away dude. If you don’t like Coke…don’t drink it, same thing applies here.

      • connie usa says:

        Thank you Super K and JY for dropping Paul. I like coming here to get my fill of everything Sooners!!!

        • Super K says:

          Thanks connie! We’ve all discussed this and the one thing we don’t want on this site is adversarial posters. People can disagree without being adversarial and if any of y’all genuinely have an issue with the way we write we definitely encourage you to write it and let us know. But this place is not going to turn into a negative place. We can all be honest without being negative. If people cant find something right with a 10 win season then this probably isn’t the site for them.

    • Kyle says:

      I would wholeheartedly disagree with your analysis of their posts. 95% just shows your ignorant or not really reading the articles.

      Go pay Rivals or Scout if you only want to agree with the analysis they provide.

    • boomersooner says:

      holy uncle, brother. i just got here and started scrollin and it’s but your drivel. uncle. you come here to whine about people tearin people down, but let he who is without blame throw the first stone. amscray

  • Rees Bear says:

    Who is Paul Warfield? Never heard of him. Perhaps he wasn’t covered?

    • Sooner Ray says:

      He’s that guy who said he doesn’t like tearing others down….. so he comes in here and tears others down. Yeah he’s that guy.

  • Sonny Schovanec says:

    Keep doing what your doing FB’s. Do you know that some of the corporate sites exact same info about KJ as this site did as part of their “inside scoop” limited to paying customers. Also the story about Mayfield transferring was blocked for VIP members only when the news broke. The exact same info that FB’s, ESPN and newsok was offering. Breaking scoop eh??

  • godman says:

    Appreciate all this provides and though I know you know, I thought I’d throw in a twist of a phrase I see used here in evaluating players which, is also applicable in evaluating people, that “good knows good” just as it is written in the good book that “to the pure all things are pure”! Keep doing what you are doing the way you are doing it for those who “get it” and appreciate it! God bless

  • ohiosoonerdevildog says:

    If you have a daddy issue, grab a daddy tissue. Holy crap. If this site is so negative, why come waste your time whining about it? You blast the admin for being supposed martyrs, but yet you are doing the same thing.

  • Sonny Schovanec says:

    What is funny FB’s is people are starting to use your links as information on the corporate sites message boards. Keep up the good work. I think some of the corporate guys are getting butt hurt because you guys offer the same and better info for free.

  • Jesse Wall says:

    Loved the film on this kid coming out, there are a couple guys in this state remind me of young…. Good write up brainiacs!!

  • Jesse Wall says:

    Good work brainiacs !!

  • OUFan123 says:

    So not trying to change the subject from all the drama (I’m glad y’all are striking down the negativity- take that mularkey somewhere else)…but I would certainly hope OU would retire Broyles’s number #85. He was a legend at OU, it should be retired in my opinion. What do you guys think?

    • JY says:

      I think that Coach Stoops touched on it when asked about the subject of retiring numbers. He said something like that if we started retiring numbers, that there have been so many great players, we wouldn’t have any numbers left to play with. Nothing against Ryan, he’s definitely an all time great Sooner and worthy of the honor for sure.

      • OUFan123 says:

        Haha gotcha, talk about a great problem to have. “We’d love to retire numbers, but we’ve had so many great players we’d start running out.” I love that.

  • ChickenWingKing says:

    Keep doing what you do guys. I enjoy what you guys being to the table. You evaluate who OU is interested in and kids you guys thank are under rated. I’m thankful for your guys in depth analysis. Something you guys could charge for if you wanted. Please stop trying to fabricate lies towards admirable group of guys doing sooner fans a great and free service. I appreciate what you guys do.

  • Michael Pendley says:

    Straight to the point good info. This is what the paid sites are missing.. Thanks guys. #BoomerSooner

  • OklaSooner says:

    Corporate Sites Suck ! lol