Sooners Suffer Another 2015 Decommit
Posted on: April 22, 2014
Image via scout.com
Tuesday evening the Oklahoma football program got some more bad news with respect to their 2015 recruiting class when Cypress Falls (Houston, TX) defensive tackle Du’Vonta Lampkin announced he was reopening his recruitment.
It is the second such instance for the Sooners after 2015 Casady (Oklahoma City, OK) offensive lineman Josh Wariboko made a similar announcement just last week.
Needless to say, this is a somewhat disturbing trend for a program and fanbase that was full of excitement after the Sugar Bowl victory over Alabama and considerable optimism for the coming season.
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We’ll have more on Lampkin’s decommitment and the current state of Oklahoma’s recruiting in the coming days, but wanted to get up a quick post just to make sure no one missed the news (even if you’d have preferred to).
50 Comments
That 15 minutes of fame is wearing off. The culture of OU and of the Big 12 needs to change. Think A&M, tradition in tact but also reinvented the brand overnight.
Also, anyone see the new SEC commercial on ESPN? Great for recruiting.
blah blah blah…just win and recruits will be begging for a spot
It’s not just about winning (proof with OU’s 11-2 season), have you seen the facility improvements, the crowd excitement, the national spotlight week in, week out? Personally if I was a 4 or 5 star recruit, I’d be looking to whom ever has the best to offer. Right now, you can simply be an SEC recruit and there’s a good chance you’ll see your name mentioned on a ESPN channel. I wouldn’t blame this all on OU, but more on the lack of effort on other teams in the conference to hold their programs to a national standard.
….unfortunately, there’s some truth here imo
Not blahblahblah, we are losing recruits because we are unable to adapt to changing times. Not saying that we need a rebranding, but something has got to give.
I agree. If you were a big time recruit would you be wanting to commit to OU at this time. Alabama has their Spring game and gets 5 commits whereas OU has their Spring game and ends up with 2 de-commits. It’s time our athletic director comes forth with some real news (not promises) about all these upgrades to OU facilities. It’s time for some positive news from Norman.
Not to mention ou had 2 junior days and the spring game and several unofficial visits and no commits.
Thank you! I don’t have that much knowledge of OU recruiting the past due to my age, but this is part of what I study in college and it doesn’t take a genius to see a decline. Its time to stop using older tactics such as “tradition” and really press hard on what the future holds for OU and their players.
While we don’t know what all is being said when these recruits are in town, but I can assume a majority of their interest isn’t in the program’s past. It would be like reflecting how cool flip-phones got in the early 2000’s.
I’m glad guys like Mixon and Quick disagree with you…were pulling in 4 and 5 stars from as far away as cali…guess they didn’t get the espn memo..Bob ain’t afraid of the big bad wolf…it’s just a nursery rhyme
Sweet shifty/ I’m glad I’m not the only one that feels like you do. We are about one more de commit away from being normal for this time of the year. Better now then in Jan..
While that is good that we picked up players late….the same Alabama team that was embarrassed on a national stage has more 5* and 4* recruits now than we got in our entire 2014 recruiting class. So it seems that winning doesn’t really solve everything.
Who gives a fuck…this is april..why worry about something for 10 months..we get our guys and have a pretty good history of winning with them..your rooting for the wrong team if you want us to have half of our class filled up before summer even gets here
Bawhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
You’re right, settle for mediocrity. Maybe you’re rooting for the wrong team.
Ok I will since I’m not a chicken little…A man in texas (they called him Mack daddy) won the recruiting titles every year in the b12…Bob just puts the hardware in the Switzer and scoffs at people with your attitude…I’m not gonna argue this anymore..I got better things to do
Where was it last year? OU didn’t even show up at the Cotton Bowl.
I used to wonder how the multiple recruiting pay sights stay in business until I started reading the reaction to these de commits. And it’s only April.
” unable to adapt to changing times” Give me an example of OU not adapting to changing times.
Be nice to get McKenzie and Settles and be done with big boyz
Amen to that brother!
Meh, we’ll get a three star to replace him and turn him into an all conference player like we always do.
We’ve got five redshirt freshman or sophomores. Overton is still in the fold. Lampkin still says OU is #1. Perhaps we don’t need to sound the alarm just yet. As Shifty said, McKenzie and Settle would be nice; wishful thinking maybe…
I also forgot about Orso. Put some weight on him and we’ll have another Jordan Phillips or Michael Brockers, or better.
I’m talking to myself.
Lol! I’m listening!
We are talking high school kids here. There is no shock factor here. They are like herding cats this early in the process.
When it rains, it pours. Don’t shoot the messenger.
https://twitter.com/BigBallin28/status/458774699732774912
Let’s fast forward to December.
This doesn’t tell me they passed OU. Just says they passed some to be “one of the top”. This is not good news or bad news, imo. Just means he likes AZ. I still think OU is in good position here.
You are probably right. I would sure like to hear one recruit say OU is my leader, or even better would be a commit. Something seems amiss with OU football at the present time.
it is every year yet we still end up better than most…I see no reason to worry about the state of OUr program because a few 17 year olds decide they want to take visits and receive gifts and attention from people. Our coaches prob prefer they not commit and then look around
Gary, we all would like for every 4 or 5 star kid in the nation to line
up at our door but that just isn’t reality. OU has always been a late
performer where recruiting is concerned. They evaluate and assess their
situation before going all in on a kid. We always get what we need in
the end so for now, I’m just going to sit back and enjoy my beer in the
off season. Just remember that these kids backing off right now haven’t
even started their Sr. year of HS, they will change their minds about a
lot of things over the next year. OU has never been in the habit of
offering kids this early so it’s a new game and other programs may be
promising the moon where OU is just being honest with them. A dominating
season and some serious ass whipping on our rivals will go a long way
towards our ’15 and beyond recruiting. Let’s be happy about the kick ass
class we have showing up this summer and worry about these youngsters
after the upcoming season is over. Have a drink on me bud, Bobby will
pay for it! HAHA. I copied this reply from the other thread, didn’t know if you seen it.
Well said!
Leave it too Sooner Ray to calm the waters. Good Post.
Excellent.
Thanks my man. Just read your post. We invite you over to Claremore Downs Casino and racetrack on Kentucky Derby day. Some of the people are going over around 9:30 on derby day (May 3rd) to get us a table. I will be there around 3 P.M. I can’t start drinking that early and still be able to stay for the dance that night. Bobby will be buying a few rounds of drinks. Let’s just watch OU win every game this year-one game at a time. I just need to develop some patience in regards to this recruiting thing. lol
Pretty much like what you said. But, OU has extended almost a hundred offers already. Wouldn’t really call that waiting before going all in on a kid. Although, I think you are insinuating they turn up the recruiting press a little further down the road. I sure wish OU could mirror the recruiting excitement at bama. Mainly because I feel we have earned it.
Yeah, I wish we were able to generate more excitement also. It makes no sense to me what other schools are doing that we aren’t. I think this offering 16 and 17 year olds is still relatively new to our staff and they will have to figure out some new recruiting techniques. Kids that age are so easily influenced, a little uncertainty is to be expected. I am hoping they come up with a new strategy over the summer and get some big things going during the season.
I think evaluating our recruiting program based upon the behavior of a few high profile, very young, celebrity recruits and their judgement or lack thereof, would be a mistake.
Nice job adding some calm perspective SoonerRay.
Well this sucks. The eternal optimist in me says OU is still in it with these guys. However, decommits from OU or from other teams most often end up going elsewhere.
I’m not saying there is not room for improvement with OU recruiting cause there always is, but it is all about WINNING. Alabama from the SEC with 5 commits from Spring Game has won 3 of the last 5 Championships. The SEC has won 7 of the last 8. TAM is hot because they moved to the SEC and had a great year (beat Alabama went 11-2 in the SEC)! ESPN covers whoever wins and right now the SEC is doing a ton of it. Texas Tech is the flavor of the month cause of their “Young Cool Coach” but if he puts together a couple of 8-4 or 7-5 seasons nobody will care anymore. The boat I think we missed is we should have jumped before TAM did to the SEC. All this being said if we make our way to the Play-off this year we will all be laughing and joking about you remember back last spring when we were worried about OU’s recruiting class. We went through a drought for a couple years and these top players didn’t even consider OU but now the are considering, they are commiting (unfortunatly with 17 & 18 yeard old kids decommiting to get a few free vacations) and if we keep WINNING we will close the door on a top 5 class!
Doesn’t sound good now but I’m sure we will be fine in the end.
we’ve lost 2 recruits in about a week and we just found out our recruiting coordinator left for Texas….anyone else smell a rat?
Wow…well if their heart ain’t at OU, someone else’s will be. We are as good as anyone at developing talent anyway. Boomer!
Honestly I am not surprised. At the time of his commitment OU was his only big time offer. Since then LSU, Texas, and Michigan have offered, along with a few others. Before he committed he said in an interview that Texas, A&M, and Bama were his favorites, no mention of OU at all. We will see where he ends up but if its somewhere else I will not be surprised at all.
Not to be cynical, but after reading that extensive “bag men” article, it makes sense that the de-commits want to experience the process for whatever reason, both in terms of what would be expected (free trips, seeing the country, etc) and under-the-table $100’s and females to show them around campus. Stoops doesn’t like commits to see other schools, so there you go.
Well…that certainly sucks. Not the news I was hoping to see this AM. Right now, for various reasons, struggled within the B12 last year, location, perceived ‘coolness’ with kids who don’t care what you did a decade ago, instant gratification, OU is back in the pack competing with the ‘also-rans’. And some kids just want to enjoy the recruiting process. It is what it is for now. Winning solves everything.
Prior to the Brainiacs I would have had no knowledge of these goings on in recruiting and I still enjoyed Sooner football. I suspect I still will in September.
I honestly think the staff is putting a little more emphasis on team chemistry in light of recent years. They want to get to know the kid a little better and also see how the recruit will fit once they are on campus. With that being said, talent is talent. If there are five star athletes coming in, obviously they want that caliber. But I think they are willing to take a little more of a chance on 3 or 4 star kids (i.e. Striker, Tapper, Dimon, etc.) if they are good for the team. That’s what it seems based on the banter coming out.