Open Post | Monday, July 21st (UPDATE 2:17 pm)
Posted on: July 21, 2014
Image via gwinnettprepsports.com
– Reader Feedback: We’ve had some folks suggest possibly adding a message board feature (or something similar) to our site. We have discussed with each other and are a little torn about the idea. So we wanted to get y’alls feedback. Obviously, it would need to be moderated to ensure that the site remains a civil/non-hostile place for discussion and debate.
So in the comments section below or via email, please let us know whether you would like us to add a message board. Also, feel free to add any suggestions, qualifiers, etc. to your comments.
– Tyrell Jacobs: Tyrell made the trip from Louisiana to Norman yesterday. He and his family arrived in town around 3:00 pm and stopped by to see the campus briefly. Interestingly, the first people the Jacobs ran into while on campus happened to be some folks from their hometown of Kenner, Louisiana. Tyrell said they told his family that they love it in Norman, which was obviously a good thing. He also said “they wanted to take a picture with me like I was a celebrity.” So he got a kick of out that. Either way, can’t be a bad sign when the trip starts out that way.
Tyrell will be back on campus today to meet with the coaches and tour the facilities. We will bring you updates from Tyrell later today as we receive them.
– Josh Moore: 2015 TE target Josh Moore (Olathe, KS) tweeted out yesterday that he now expects to make his final decision before the season starts. So we could get a decision from Moore sometime in August.
– Orlando Brown: 2014 OT signee Orlando Brown is someone a lot of OU fans are interested in, as he’s yet to make it to campus and plays a position of significant need. As many of you know by now, some qualification issues have delayed his arrival. Not long ago we noted that we’d heard some positive things in regards to Brown’s chances of qualifying (here). This past weekend we talked to another source, and he let us know it does indeed look likely that Orlando will make it. We don’t have a 100% thumbs up just yet, but we’re being told things look good in terms of him qualifying – even if it isn’t until after fall camp.
Again, this would be big because it would give OU two young very high ceiling OTs (Brown and Kenyon Frison) in this 2014 class.
– Michael Williams: OL/DL Michael Williams, from All Saints Episcopal in Fort Worth Texas, is one of the top prospects in Texas 2016 class. He already holds a number of offers including Michigan, Kansas State, TCU, and UCLA. He doesn’t currently hold an OU offer, but he’s hoping that will change soon. He’s planning on heading up to Norman this Friday for a visit. He’s currently being recruited by OU as an offensive lineman, and he would be a very athletic one.
– Big 12 Media Days: Starts today. You can watch it today on Fox starting today at 9:00 am CST or stream it live here. We’ll try and update you here if (and that’s a big if) anything of relevance is discussed.
– UPDATE (10:32 am): A quick Tyrell Jacobs visit update.
– UPDATE (11:05 am): 2015 LB David Long (Cincinnati, OH) is also in Norman on an unofficial visit. He does not yet hold an offer from the Sooners, but that could change depending on how things go.
In Norman at OU #BoomerSooner pic.twitter.com/CD6plviR1T
— Dayx2 (@David__Long) July 21, 2014
– UPDATE (12:05 pm): Tyrell Jacobs has committed! More to come, but wanted to get this up real quick with the news just breaking.
– UPDATE (2:17 pm): 2015 WR & OU offer John Humphrey has told the Texas Rivals site that he has eliminated the Longhorns after being in Austin this past weekend.
268 Comments
Thanks Guys, after family, and breakfast, you guys are the next thing that I check out. I really hope Orlando can make it in anytime this year.
thanks for reading!
Well done as always. IMO, I would be against a message board. Yeah, there is some upside but it tends to bring out the trolls, people posting non-viewer friendly material and trash talk.
I agree with BigJoe. I also think that part of the intrigue with what you guys have done exists because there is no message board. As a business model, are you guys really wanting to compete with the other sites or continue to maintain this as a blog where you can share information and let others comment? I think if you started a board and had to monitor (which in the Oklahoma football internet world is an ever continuing requirement), then whoever is in that position will eventually need to cover their time with salary, as it will most likely become full-time, and you will then need to turn this into a paid site.
Agree.
I agree. I think it would distract from the excellent work you guys are doing. Since you are taking a more modern approach, I think having some more navgation aids such as categories, tags etc would be helpful especially as the amount of information here expands.
No message board for me, but I would like more links to recruits that you have stories on
I have found entering a player’s name in the search bar returns articles written about them without a lot of other clutter. I did a search on Julian Wilson and found exactly the article I was looking for.
Great point on the recruits/coaches/etc. These people seem to trust TFB because you only put stuff out there that they say is OK and it doesn’t get put on a “premium info message board”, so they can see what you’re putting out there and no issues are created.
No to message board. Yes to changes that allow us to more easily follow ‘new’ comments. I don’t post much, but visit the site 10 times of so daily. Reading through 100+ comments to find out if something new has been added gets tedious.
I agree. The one consistent aspect of every OU message boards since the beginning of the internet has been the sheer level of automatic ‘xxxholism’ involved. Someone posts an opinion, good, bad, or indifferent and it’s like it is the 7th grade all over. No, you’re an idiot! And then it’s off to the races with name calling and the like. Mostly moronic, but lots of moronic. I don’t know what it is about us, but there we are. I may have even been guilty of it myself in the past. And then you have the censoring, which just ‘pxxxes’ people off. Remember the Weather Nazis?
One thing that made this lucky place different is that, pretty much til now, everyone treated each other as a decent human being. No stupid namecalling. No internet blustering. Or at least not much.
So, for once, can we not try to fix something that isn’t broken.
This works. So far. Leave it be.
ps. thanks to the powers that be here for the wonderful (free) info. Keep up the good work.
Not to mention message boards attract idiots that say stupid things sometimes that might turn off a recruit!
Agree +1,000,000. They def attract the dummies. No MB sets this board apart. That, and the incredible information. Ok, so it’s the information.
This!
NO MESSAGE BOARD please and thank you. Rather than the focus there just continue with the open forum where you guys with obviously more knowledge than your average 13 year olds which dominate message boards. Then you have the literary vultures who feel its there place in life to pick apart every opinion other than their own. I’m not sure how this site could be more perfect because all of you guys ideas have been home runs
Amen !
Hope the sooners get Jacobs. Really like this kid. Hmm looking good on my suggestion that Orlando might qualify. When me and JY suggested that OU was done with placing kids and that would be a good indicator of how close Orlando was to qualifying we got ridiculed pretty good back in Feb by a few posters.
I personally, like it the way it is. I don’t see what the benefit would be. I’ve been on oui going on 9 years and it’s gotten to where i hate going over there. they have 8 to 10 moderators and its still not enough. They have a few posters over there that continually cause problems,yet it’s never fixed. Then there is the problem of certain reporter who wears his feelings on his sleeve and gets extremely defensive with subscribers. he never has with me or i would be gone. It gets really old in a hurry.
Not much on the message boards. But I would like to see recruiting list on your menu bar. I would like to see OU offers and TFB’s evals. For example, I would like to see guys who “may” get an offer like Whitfield, Clay Jackson, or Sternberger.
Agree. An easy place to find the offers, etc. would be a nice touch.
Great ideas, but those are always difficult to keep up to date. Not saying it can’t be done, but we’d need more ppl here on our end contributing on a regular basis.
Jordan, I’ve sent in a spreadsheet with all offers and where they committed. It’s less work than monitoring a message board. I don’t mean 2016 or 2017 recruits, only recruits for the current year.
As an example, I think it would be cool to see the offers for S and then the ones that may get an offer. Reid, Sundlerland, Haughton then say Whitfield etc. We love following the players TFB’s bring to the table. To me, that may be my favorite part is watching players get noticed and receive scholarships. Gives you that good feeling for the young man.
Message board would be good and bad. It’s good because you can have an easier, more focused place to have conversations. If it’s a go, I would suggest making it a no-tolerance policy for trolling, abusive stuff, spam, off-topic posts, etc. Not just a username band, but an IP ban. That would stop a lot of nonsense from the get go.
Not really for it. Look at some of the other boards. It’s not just the trolls but long time posters seem to love bashing each other. They all have monitors but they can’t seem to stop it. Believe you would be opening up a can of worms. Why mess up a good thing.
Well if you added a message board I can pretty much tell you that you will suck the little life that is left out of that Scout board. THE ONLY REASON anyone goes there is for the message board and to have their input. They sure as heck don’t go there to read anything that Bob Prsybylo writes which is always half of a day after you guys post the information anyway. Plus if you started a message board that would eliminate their terrible mods and some of the butt kissers like Jnevel. LOL I love this board and what you guys do but I would like to be better able to comment on some of the post or topics without having to put up with the nonsense that happens on the scout board. From what you guys have done over here I trust that you would run your message board much better . Just ban the trolls and be consistant with your rules and everything will be fine. Scout doesn’t have any idea how to run a message board any better than they know how to get breaking news before you guys do. . You guys are very good at running this site and I am sure you will make the message board just as good. It is not the message board that is bad , it is only how it is managed that makes it bad. Does it seem like that little weird Bob Pryzbylo really works hard at anything on that board ????LOL He is always 3 days behind you guys on anything important and has no consistant way about him on the message board. You have to keep the anti Oklahoma people off the board. They simply do not do that .
WHATEVER YOU GUYS CHOOSE I WILL SUPPORT BECAUSE YOU HAVE DONE SUCH A GREAT JOB ON THIS SITE . CONGRATS ON YOUR SUCCESS!!!!! BOOMER SOONER
very much appreciate the insight
Message board is a good idea as long as the ppl in charge are strict & promptly ban any trolls or ppl that are just there to either cause conflict, post unrelated material or talk bad about recruits
What about Vontre McQuinnie?
Still working, has a lot more work to do than Brown. Odds probably aren’t great, but we’ll know more in a couple weeks.
For the sake of full disclosure, I’m against the message board idea. That said, if it’s what people want I absolutely will not stand in the way of it happening.
I think even if you went into w/ the best intentions in place, as is clearly the case here IMO w/ the community we continue to build, I just don’t see any way it doesn’t eventually devolve into so many of the things I hate about other message boards.
Anyway, just my two cents.
Agree, not to mention the man hours it can take to moderate them.
I’ve been a mod on another type message board. One that had the joy & responsibility of being a support group and now it’s nothing but a wasteland of regurgitating robots. Throw in certain subjects and the best of sites with the noblest of intentions can dissolve into a vat of acidic hatred. This site, its founding fathers and the fans deserve a longer, healthier, more successful run. FWIW, it’s a no vote from me.
No, stand in the way of it happening. PLEASE.
lol
From the look of things, I won’t have to
Great the way it is! I would like to see a section that celebrates our tradition at all positions. Maybe videos of our former great players so recruits could see (i.e….Sims, Peacock, Selmons, Peterson, Strait, Hunt,Bosworth,Brown, and on and an on and on and an on, on,on,on,,,:-) So,so many!
No message board, please.
I think a message board feature would be nice. Just a simple one. The comments get drawn out on the page so far now that I never read them. Some way of organizing comments into a more readable setting would be good.
And to add to this, I think new threads should only be opened by moderators for the day about the open post, etc. and then people can organize their comments there. I wouldn’t enjoy it if it became like other sites that are a bunch of nonsense threads opened by everyone.
I don’t like the idea of a message board, but I too would like a better organized commenting system. When you get 100+ comments, it’s hard to see new replies to comments on the post.
If this site had better organization to the comments section, I don’t think a message board is needed. My only complaint about this board is that it is sometime hard to tell which comments are actually new when you come back several hours later.
You can select how you want to see the comments at the top, right under the # of comments (ex. 71 comments). You can sort by newest, best, and oldest.
This is true, but IMO even doing that it still doesn’t sort them right and can be hard to follow.
Yeah, if newest actually gave you newest that would be great. But when I select newest it gives you the newest top level comment. But if someone relies to an old comment it does not get moved to the top. It gets buried some where in the two hundred some odd comments.
Yeah, I’ve noticed that too. I was on here for awhile before I noticed the option, so I thought that may the case here. Sorry I couldn’t help.
Forget the message board idea…message boards suck. That will quickly devolve into something you have to moderate constantly, and you’ll get site trolls and people who just cannot take it when someone disagrees with their point and resorts to flaming and name-calling. You already give people the opportunity to reply here anyway.
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” You’re trying to fix an unbroken machine.
The question you have to ask yourself, Jordan, is do you really want that message board headache? I’m betting you don’t.
This site is perfect the way it is.
https://twitter.com/ryaber/status/491227605509472256
wow…
No on the message board. Thanx for the Orlando update. Can’t find B12 media days on Fios.
No message board please.
I don’t support a message board. There are plenty of those out there. You have created a unique site.
That’s just the thing. Message boards are a social place. This board is, in essence, a news service. It’s kind of like the old CNN, where you got 4 X 15 minute news cycles per hour vs. the new, where you can literally go hours without hearing about the nuclear war that just broke out in South Asia, but are breathlessly updated about how to boil eggs, or some such.
Keep the message board type stuff out of this site. It’s antithetical to what this site’s about.
https://twitter.com/davidubben/status/491231183691198464
Really appreciate all the feedback on the message board question. Please keep your thoughts coming. I do want to make sure it’s clear that the message board would be in addition to the current set up. It would not replace our current format. It would just be an addition to the site that gives people a place to start their own posts if there is something they want to discuss. Just wanted to make sure that was clear if it wasn’t in the OP above.
SuperK, I always assumed message board would be an additional feature. Even as an additional feature, I still hate the idea. This site is unique. It’s unique in it’s simplicity. It isn’t like the others, which is one reason I love it.
What draws 99% of the people to this site is the information YOU guys provide, particularly the QUALITY of information you provide. Even those of us who played football in their lifetime likely didn’t play D-1 ball, and we enjoy hearing the perspective of people who have played sports at that level or higher. I really enjoy it when you begin to talk alignments, technique and coaching points. The videos you had breaking down defensive back play for Julian Wilson and others, then for the HS ballers last week…GREAT STUFF! You don’t get that anywhere else. The guys who report for other sites are mostly jock-sniffers who never strapped on a helmet and pads in their lives.
It is extremely rare that an anonymous poster on a message board with dubious (at best) sources is going to break a story that you haven’t already broken. But you will get a ton of useless posts full of garbage (“This is my 100th post! Woo hoo!!!”), name-calling, and flaming trolls. Forget that!
People have a means to post comments if they want as it is.
I would prefer you redesign your site to work better on mobile devices first before doing a message board. The comments and threads are a really nice way to keep track.
Good suggestion!
This site works fine on my mobile…
Please no message boards. TFB is killing it on all things OU football and what I like best is the Evals and film on OK high school players. The exposure you provide on HS player from OK and other states wether they are OU offers or not is a great tool to help underrated kids get noticed.
https://twitter.com/jasonkersey/status/491237315918839808
No to the message board. I really like the civility and class on this board. Don’t allow the bad manners to take over.
Love this site but would have to say no to a message board feature.
Don’t fix something that’s not broke.
Great news (so far) on Orlando Brown. I think only Joe Mixon had a more impressive offer list than OB. Hope he becomes an official Sooner ASAP.
No on message board. I enjoy the civil-ness of this site with all the great insight from TFB staffers. I can go on LT for the arguments, false info, soft porn and all the other fun stuff.
Think about it. 99% of us are on message boards and we are here. Please don’t ruin this great thing you have. The best upgrade would be to have categorized information, helping people find the latest on a given player or topic. Thanks for asking our input and keep up the great work. I can’t wait to see what you bring in the fall. LOVE THE BREAKDOWN that you do on plays and schemes with video. More of that type stuff would be the best improvement. It educates us on the little things that we all love about football (and the Sooners!).
This is the first site of this nature I’ve ever participated on and have never even been to a message board much less commented on one so I can not speak to the merits of adding one here. I will say that I very much enjoy the site as it is now. I feel like the discussions are civil and actually add to the quality of the site. I’ve often scrolled through the comments sections after reading stories on other sites and it never fails that it simply turns into insults and derogatory comments about posters’ opinions and schools/teams and of course grammar lol… Even over the very divisive DGB issue, when things got a little heated on here, it did not reach the low points that I have so often seen elsewhere. Keep up the great work and ONLY 40 days till Football Time in Oklahoma!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_aj9uglPQg
More from Jacobs, w/ the fam
http://instagram.com/p/qt-FvgoegR/
Thanks Jordan! INO this is the best info in the Post so far today! You don’t bring this much family with you if you are just looking to take a trip. This kid got da whole family here so you can tell he is very serious about OU!
Commit already!!
Ask and you shall receive 😉
Ha! You’re welcome. Invoices coming to you guys shortly
I know which one is Tyrell, but who is the big rascal on the far left, little brother?
Not sure, looks like it could be.
Great looking clan. Welcome to the Sooner Nation, Jacobs Family.
No message board please. Things get out of control way too fast and there are enough out on the internet already.
On the subject of message boards I got no up or down vote but the one concern I would have was the statement “
Well said sir!!!!!!
much appreciated
Put me down in the group that enjoys this site “as is”. You guys do a great job. Take a peek at the OUI message boards, and all the infighting there should make the decision pretty easy.
You guys do a great job, and I appreciate it.
Patrick
I agree I don’t mind passionate discussion about OU IN FACT I LOVE IT! But on message boards people argue over the stupidest things like who was the best OU recruit signed “last year”, name calling threats cursing, and for what THEY ARE ALL PLAYING FOR OU NEXT YEAR! SMH I love TFB as is!
I do find it amusing that most of us are (1) both members of some various message boards and (2) we don’t want to see a message board here.
That means that we do not like message boards, but we need feel we still need them in some way to get what we want. TFB are a way to bypass message boards to get real info, and that’s what we like and want.
I think venting is about the only useful function of a message board
Dr., I go to message boards to jack around and have fun. I come here to follow recruiting and learn things about football. Totally different intents.
I also vote no on the message board. This site is great just as it is.
This site doesn’t need a message board fooling around with its integrity. Its perfect how it is. People are for the most part really civil here. Little to no trolling. I’ve always gone by the motto “don’t fix something if it ain’t broken.”
I would have to agree that the message boards tend to de-evolve rather quickly into nothing of substance, just my 2 cents.
Is there a worse coach in the big 12 than Charlie weis?
Speaking purely as a Dallas Cowboys fan I would say Dave Campo! LOL!
Objectively? No.
AND he’s cocky about it! LOL This will be his last year, I bet.
I’d love to have a really good message board here, but I’m not sure there is such a thing as a really good message board. It is so hard to keep quality posts and contributions coming in.
Don’t think we need a message board here..this site already rocks…a few tweaks here and there are fine but that’s a big move for a free site..I don’t see any ads so I’m assuming there is no revenue…Rebel (and Jordan) just give me some sooner intel
Doobie said it best- time spent moderating a message board is less time spent doing the good stuff. On a personal level, y’all have careers and family and don’t need the extra stuff.
we were gonna ask y’all to do it! lol 🙂
Now you’re thinking with your noggin.
I’d vote no on the message board as well.
My only site issue is I sometimes find it hard to get the comments to line up in a coherent fashion when I review a lengthy post that I’ve missed. No matter whether I choose sort by oldest or newest, it often seems that some comments appear out of context. Usually by checking to see whom the comment was responding to, I can figure it out, but sometimes it’s confusing. Maybe that’s just operator error on my part, or maybe it’s just me, tho. Great site, great material, great work by all y’all.
this has always been my biggest complaint as well. especially coming from SB Nation where I felt the comment section was much easier to navigate and presented more cleanly (if that makes sense).
In a perfect world, I’d like something more similar to that (i.e. organized better, easier to recognize/scroll to new comments) and have discussed w/ K on multiple occasions, but also appreciate it would be a significant undertaking thus I try to remain patient.
I’ve made due w/ what we have (and have been surprised how many other sites use this same format, which I was previously unaware of), but I’d agree it could certainly be improved upon.
For whatever their faults are, SB Nation’s standard comments sections are fantastic. Easy to navigate and check on new comments, follow threads, etc. Only big problem is when people think they are replying to the bottom comment, but are actually replying to the original post.
I agree
Nope. The way I see it also too. At this time, the information given to open the forum is worth its weight in gold, so the comments are icing!
I vote no on the message board… I like TFB just the way it is.
The “other” OU fan message boards seem to get way too argumentative with people personally attacking each other.
I’d agree with most of what is being said here so far against having a message board. I think it would be a distraction to say the least. All the sports msg boards I’ve seen read like cheap tabloids which is in sharp contrast to the central theme of this site. I believe TFB has enjoyed much interest in a short amount of time precisely because it is simple, concise and accurate and offers insight from experienced “insiders”. My only suggestion would be to keep it simple (KISS) with changes only in making navigation more concise such as high lighting each initiated comment and then abbreviating all subsequent responses under each comment. I like the “follow” option which I only recently discovered. God bless…
I agree with everybody about the combative, juvenile nature of the message boards. Of the OU message boards I’ve seen and/or been a part of, the ESPN SoonerNation was the only one I’ve seen where everybody was pretty much respectful and didn’t come on there to troll or insult others. The likelihood of finding another like that is very low.
Maybe you guys could do a scheduled weekly chat or something where people can come ask particular questions and not have to do it in the comment section where they can get lost at times.
Great suggestion.
Agree on the sEcSPiN site. It was pretty tame. Even made quite a few friends over there that I still keep in touch with today…..7 or 8 years later. Also attend at least one game each year with some of them. Now it’s a ghost town because they linked it with Facebook…….which I don’t use(which is a whole other discussion). There is still some discussion over there, but nothing compared to what it used to be.
I’m w/ you. Never have and never will use Facebook
Me either.
There was a good message board there. Coach Stauder, Neal Kennedy, and a few others I see on here were there all the time. ESPN pretty much ditched the individual teams sites almost entirely, in spite of some pretty good traffic on some of them.
I love this place the way it is. No message board and all!
Don’t change a thing guys! Best site out there!!!
Boards tend to bring out the worst characters and usually have to be heavily moderated. Either way, I see no pertinent value to adding them, IMHO.
IMO the only way you could make it better is if you paid me. 🙂
I wouldn’t change a thing about this site. It’s not broken, no reason to try to fix it.
To me you’ve always got to do new things at some point but as far as a board I vote no. I like the idea of a weekly chat mentioned by vargo. I know I’ve seen the idea of a podcast and that’s a good one.
Perhaps I’m missing some distinction, but seems to me what tfb has here, for the most part, is a disorganized message board. Anyone can post and say practically anything. I would rather see some topic organization, or thread segregation, so I can find what interests me. If there’s been some conversation on some item, it’s annoying to have to wade thru all the recent posts to find it again, esp if it was from recent days. Have to search for the little blue marks for the recent replies. I basically use tfb as a complement to a paid site for your info on recruiting and any other insights you might have on what is going on. Unfortunately, tfb is limited in some respects to program access. Perhaps you guys could have categories based on your strengths……eg, a current recruiting news section, new talent you find section, etc……poster remarks are limited in a section to the topic………keep an open post section for all the random remarks people get into. Perhaps you get what I’m driving at…….didn’t do a good job of presenting my thoughts. One criticism…….on a few occasions, I’ve posted a question directed to whoever the current mod is because I want their opinion. For the most part, they go unanswered. So, if one is seeking a tfb opinion, what is the best way to ask questions and get an answer. …………..thxs.
well, my apologies if I’ve missed any of these questions. I try to monitor these regularly for stuff like that, but I do also regularly check my direct replies w/ that little bubble next to the login name. i’ll try to be better at it and not miss them in the future
j and k…….I misspoke in a way……..when I asked a question I did not address it by name to a mod……….I might say tfb or it would be imbedded in a reply and I assumed the mod would pick up on it……….I’ll try to be more specific in the future………thxs for both the responses
Jordan, I’ve gone through every post up to this time, you would be shocked to see how many people (who have obviously been reading) used their first post ever to vote no to the message board. If you expand that to 25, 50, 100, it grows at a tremendous pace. It’s pretty clear how important this current platform is to the readers. Like many have said, the site has grown BECAUSE it’s different, not because it was lacking what other boards have. You can share this with K and anyone else who thought it might be a good idea if you want. Just keep on keepin on.
will do
As Jordan said, our apologies for that bud. If we miss something you can always try us at [email protected] as well.
My 2 cents. Agree w/rph. Just find a way to categorize what you already have and spend your time doing what you do best….players who are able to write about their analysis and have built a network of contacts compared to reporters who can only parrot what they’ve heard. Sort by topic with replies sortable by most recent or ‘best’ (most up’s). Don’t give us more of the same. We already have that. Give us more of what makes you guys unique. Give us football knowledge. JY’s trench articles. Player/recruit evals. Breakdowns of games and plays. And thanks for the op to give input. Love TFB.
Agreed on the no message board feedback. I don’t see anything that a board would add to this site and only see ways it could detract.
I don’t see anything wrong with a message board on a trial basis. Obviously, that’s not a popular opinion on here. But, expanding the format in some way will help this site grow and field more frequenters. I truly believe TFB has laid a foundation of what could end up being the gold standard in collegiate recruiting sites. I would like to see more evaluations and comparisons. I don’t know if it’s possible, but I’d love to see players in our 2014 class interviewed on why they ended up choosing OU and include any personal info on them. It doesn’t hurt to feel like you know the players when you watch them all season. Like I said, I think the groundwork is established for something special. Although, I think there is potential for a lot more OU player and recruiting information. I do appreciate TFB very much.
Great post Kody. Great suggestions. Interesting note about a “trial basis” too.
https://twitter.com/OUgridiron/status/491268573998768128
https://twitter.com/tyrelljacobs98/status/491268689501503488
Good one for the Sooners!
Great get for the Sooners for sure! Watching his tape, like most high school juniors, his technique is pretty sloppy but he was still an extremely disruptive force. Once Coach Montgomery gets a hold of him and he learns proper technique he could be a special kid.
https://twitter.com/tyrelljacobs98/status/491270307680763904
Look at Coach Stoops rocking his casual Monday attire!!
Just got off 18
1) mont should start an ou clothing line……..he should have designed the alt jerseys
2) stoops could use some schmitty time…….headed for the ‘bro’/’mansierre’
FANtastic!
I vote no on message board too. Just to pile on. There was once a “secret” OU basketball message board, which was amazing. No random sacrcasm and endless bashing of other posters, just people that love OU basketball. Good dialouge, a few inside sources and great comments about hoops.
Love some of the suggestions about making the comments more user-friendly, but the content and idea of this site is unmatched.
BOOM! Jacobs commits….
https://twitter.com/OU_CoachStoops/status/491275287070400512
ABout David Long: He also holds an offer from Kentucky. Will Stoops recruit against his brother? Haven’t seen any tape on Long. I am sure his height (5-11 or 6 ft) will scare some off but I remember a not so tall linebacker by the name of …uh….hmmm… Lofton… that’s the guy who tore it up his junior year.
Please no message board. This site is doing great without one.
Is the Jacob commit a good thing or a sign that OU isn’t in a good position to get the guys they had initially recruited?
Taking a coveted player from SEC territory is always good.
I think he’s an underrated prospect I read one tweet that said he’s not even in the top 1000. C’mon this kid looks like a top 300 talent. And I think a lot of people will say they like him better than lampkin. And some people list him as a DT but he’s going to be a DE and a good one.
Think Tapper. Think Striker. Think Walker. Think Orso. Guys that have huge upside and just need what OU does best, coaching them up. Reminds me a bit of ‘Old Nebraska’. Take walk-ons, put them in S&C, coach them and roll them out.
I like these types of players that have been evaluated by Mike Stoops (and asst coaches like Monty) on D that they feel havethe talent set to play in our system. Dvoracek (unrated, worked up to 2 stars after committing to OU on scout), 3* Derrick Strait who didn’t even get a UT offer while being from Austin, and 3* Dan Cody come to mind…
No message board please. Glad we got Tyrell Jacobs on board!
I was hoping he would commit. Congrats to him and his family
https://twitter.com/OU_CoachJerryM/status/491279687063056385
BOOM! Glad we are keeping that Louisiana pipeline going!!!
Hopefully he’s still on campus when Kenneth Mann shows up. Those 2 on the ends would be just what we need with Overton in the middle.
Nice to see another New Orleans kid join the fold. So much talent down here. I don’t know much about Jacobs, but I do know he plays in the toughest district in the state and he is very well coached. A quality program that has won 2 consecutive state championships.
Message board isn’t necessary, but I’ve gotten to where I don’t hardly read the comments because of how the system operates. If you could make it in chronological order then it would help tremendously.
Also, I think the recruiting coverage is a good mix of just posting what has happened with K’s blend of sources and talking with the players. That’s not what makes this site unique, however, and I wish you guys would get back to the evaluations that have grown further and farther between. Joseph Paul is the last recruit you guys put a TFB # to, and while the other news is great, this is the feature that sets you apart, imo. You rip other sites and their ‘flawed’, priding yourselves on being college football players (all but 1 anyway) that can more intimately describe a players game. I just think this part of the site should be more of the focus than regurgitating news stories and twitter posts.
I fully understand you guys have full time jobs other than this, just my two cents on what makes you guys different and thus what should be more of the focus. However, I am NOT saying to discontinue actual recruiting inside info as that drives a lot of the conversation and I’m sure everyone loves it.
You can make your comments show in chronological order. Right under the ticker that shows the total number of comments there’s a ‘sort by’ option where you can sort comments by newest, best, or oldest.
….yes, but that doesn’t apply to replies …….hence the scattered blue marks
Okay, my excitement is now tempered…#dreamcrusher
I thought I even looked for that…I feel dumb, but VERY grateful! Thanks.
Thanks for the well thought out feedback as always coach! And thank you for the kind words. I will say that we try not to “rip” other peoples evals. What we’ve always been critical of is the methodology of the rating system. Those are two very different things. I have plenty of friends that coach at a high level and agree with me and disagree with me on a kid and I’d never say they are wrong because it’s an inexact science. But if they told me that they like one kid over another because USC offered that kid…then I’d disagree with their process. Having said that, I think you’ll find that we have avoided those subjects all together in the past many months and tried to simply do what we can to promote players we like to our readers and the coaches that read our site (which are many).
On the subject of the evaluations, I’m glad you brought that to our attention. We are honestly having a bit of an internal discussion about it because we’ve been torn about the idea of rating kids. With all the variables it just doesn’t quite feel right. We’re brainstorming ways to contextualize a players ability without necessarily rating them.
Again, great feedback!
I wasn’t trying to convey any negativity on the “ripping of evals” but I can see where I could have worded it better. I also understand about not placing a number, but getting each person’s eval on paper with a closing sentence about how you project that player (same thing the TFB #’s stand for without actually representing it numerically) to the next level would be great.
I get ‘not assigning a #’ as it’s just another way of handing out stars. But an honest eval of what a kid is doing right, his natural abilities and areas where he could improve is called critiquing. Giving positive feedback along with areas to improve is important for all of us in any endeavor. TFB has brought more ‘under the radar’ guys into the spotlight and earned them scholarship opportunities than any other site. Even if it’s not with OU. I love that. Keep up the great work!!
Good points coach!
Super K – see your point ( and the sadness in that family story). If you maybe revisit your evals though, maybe refreshing the scores once or twice from your first write up, you add another dimension I think…
By doing this you put a “narrow” score in due context and merely a temporal judgement on what are almost always going to be rapidly developing kids assets. This would make the assessment deeper and richer by drawing in the reasons why that score is valid at that point in time but importantly points out HOW the score could be better. (Nb these are actually TFB key strengths also so your deepening your value source by this approach too) by revisiting we see if the kid is growing his assets or focussing on the wrong things (or his coaches are!)
be sure to brand it the “TFB score, and TFB trajectory” or something snazzy too…
Baron Boomer.
K-Do you feel contextualizing a players ability is a more delicate way as to not hurt the kid’s feelings? Personally, I like a number placed at the bottom of an evaluation. It puts an exclamation point on the assessment. Plus, if kids are stepping up into big time college ball, they better get acclimated to being critiqued.– No place for thin skin! I’d like to hear your reasoning?
I think it’s a combination of things. I think part of it is simply feeling that the numbers too narrow and that unlike kids coming out of college, HS kids get huge variations in the quality of their development. Whitfield is a great example because I recognize that he’s tremendously raw but I believe in his upside. Meanwhile Reid is a great combination of upside and polish but it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if McKinley exceeds him by the end of his college career. So how does one place a narrowly defined metric on that? It feels unfair to both. It makes more sense when it’s college talent going to the NFL because most kids in college get access to similar nutrition and physical development…plus their bodies have fully developed. As an example, I talked to a kid in Florida one time that has tremendous upside but I felt he was too small in terms of weight. Turns out the family doesn’t have enough money to feed him. It’s hard for me to put a number by that kids name. Sorry if this response turned a little melodramatic 🙂
K, I think you just answered your own question. What I want as a reader is, what does the player do well now and what they will need to work on moving forward. Whitfield is a perfect example. I want to know if a kid is almost a final product going to college as compared to a raw but ultra athletic kid who has more upside. Don’t need a #, but could discuss the upside potential.
I respect Coach’s Stauder’s insight and thoughts and always look forward to his comments. I, like him like the evals too. I want to learn more about recruiting and what to watch in a player. Flexibility, hips, hands, etc. This is educating the readers on the player, not the star. Great stuff and as always, thank you.
I’m liking were Coach and Boom are headed! I too like the number but I see what you mean with only one number how do you assess a kids talent, development, & potential. What about a assessment based on Three numbers First number 1 to 5 on Raw Ability. Second number 1 to 5 on Development. And a Third number 1 to 5 based on potential growth/upside. Might be a way we can know how his is playing now and where he has the ability to go. I know it all gets crazy when start trying to rate players but like the other guys said it would be great to be able to see current ability compared to potential growth somehow! You guys do a great job and I will read what ever info you put out!
signed Hopelessly Addicted,
Doob OUt!
You could look at different ways of grading or give a “current” and “projected” number rather then limiting yourself to a star or number code. Or three, one for athleticism, present rating of skills and a third for projected upside? But giving some sort of rating does force you to commit to your true feelings on the person, subjective or not. It’s like performance ratings on a job. In business school they taught us that none of them were particularly good, (and there are a lot of variations including being ranked by your bosses, your peers and your subordinates or “in the round”) but that the only thing worse then performance ratings was NO performance ratings. The feeling is that if at least one other person that knows your work isn’t at least trying to objectify where you are, and what you need to work on, then that’s worse then the variously poor performance ratings that different companies use. I would miss them if you guys stopped, and I think everyone understands that they aren’t perfect.
Very impressive answer!
I guess I always felt that the number score you guys gave was a composite between where the kid is now and his ceiling.
Come on, you can’t be serious, idiot, that’s the dumbest thing I have ever heard, well my cousin walked by Hwadington one time so I should know. Don’t do it…many people cannot discuss things without personal attacks. Why take time away from life to babysit these people? If you are wanting to become a pay site, I think with the volume of info you give out, you would be fine. Just go read the various free boards for a day…you’ll want to slit your wrists and bathe in it.
Kenneth Mann is next on wednesday
No message board just my opinion
https://twitter.com/EricBaileyTW/status/491291826733588480
https://twitter.com/EricBaileyTW/status/491292066391937024
Kingsbury is showing no sympathy for Mayfield. Probably even a personal vendetta.
I’m thinking Mayfield was taking Kingsbury’s wimmens away from him and Kliffie got mad.
That’s what I’m thinking.
Funny, and Kingsbury is just that conceited.
Not totally buying this. I just have a feeling Kliffy is just another snake in the grass down at TT.
neither am i
I think kingsbury may be a little butt hurt but who knows. I’m just excited Mayfield is one of the good guys now.
no to message board and yes to more recruits break down and potential
Honestly I dont think we need a message board. i like the standard format of daily news, plus an open post most days, plus the special articles that come through as well. We can chat in the comments section of all the posts. If the site was less frequently updated, it might be needed, but you guys are always putting something out there constantly.
I went over the the landthieves site and browsed a few boards, and good lord a lot of them are immature, no thank you. I know we have a lot more mature posters on here, but message boards are just a flame war waiting to happen.Id rather you guys spend your time digging up information for us, than moderating morons trying to have an epeen contest.
Like to take this time to thank you guys for everything you do for us, and thank you for allowing us to voice our input. I think the site rocks as it, keep up the great work fellas.
I like it here. I no longer have to post on a message board.
When season starts it would be nice to have a message board for discussion and a game day thread to follow. jmho
Nah, ya’ll don’t need a message board. This site is perfect! This comment section is just fine…
Do you think Jacobs projects as a 3-4 DE?
Yes. Unless his body drastically changes.
I think that one of the benefits to the change to the 3-4 is that OU can go after “tweeners” and guys who may not be as highly rated by the recruiting services but fit the defensive scheme well. Right now it seems like the big time recruits, particularly on defense, want to play in the SEC. Guys who aren’t prototype as far as size for the position they play (Striker, for instance, when he lines up as OLB) aren’t rated as highly even though they may be very talented. This COULD be another example of a kid who is too small for 4-3 DT and maybe a little heavy-footed for 4-3 DE (just based on the film), but fits the mold of a 3-4 DE well. Big, strong, able to shed a block and make a play but can hold up to occasional double teams.
Dude tfb just got “kuzied”!!!
oh dear lord
Dude we just got a “kuzi” !
I don’t like the Idea of a message board at all, there are enough of those already and all of them have their problems. I visit a couple and actually post but I always come here because it is different/better. The comment section took me a week or so to get used to and displaying the way I wanted and now it’s fine on PC or Mobile. The only draw back now is the length of the threads, there are a lot more people posting here now than than in the earlier days and you do have to do a lot of scrolling, but that means you guys are doing a good job and attracting people so that’s not something that would qualify as a complaint. 🙂
The only improvement I would like to see, and I don’t know that it is even possible in your framework, is a way to PM another user for side conversation on a subject.
Great job again today, got a good fix to start the week. As far as the message board I’m really against it, love that this site is all about the info an not BS, way to much BS on them, but what ever u guys go with I’m down with but I just really like how this is all going here
……per 247…….ol akamnonu is coming sat for visit
Is that public info rp? I only ask because I want to make sure their pay info doesn’t get posted. Thanks!
it’s info on the oui site I belong to and the hog board linked to it…….nevermind, I’ll delete it the way I posted………don’t want to create legal waves
thanks RP!
Dang I missed it!! What was it? 🙂
My 2 cents is NO ON THE MESSAGE BOARD!!
My 2 cents….Yes! to more recruits committing
According to the Update at 2:17pm 2015 WR John Humphrey says that Texas is “OUt”
Yeah caught up with him after the camp and he was pretty salty. Said he wasn’t happy with Texas at all.
I remember him saying he wasn’t happy! Another team we don’t have beat for his services is ok by me!
I still wouldn’t count texas out
No never can totally eliminate Texas from contention on a Texas kid but they have a long way to go now. He was mad they didn’t offer early and even madder they didn’t offer him on his visit, and sounds like even madder still they haven’t offered a couple weeks after his visit!
was his motives for being mad totally geared toward not receiving an offer from Texas?
Help us older folks on OUt. What is that. Thanks
Nothing fancy Just “out” with OU capitalized. I’m not overly sophisticated. LOL!
I’m gonna say no to the message board and heck yes to the commit!
No message boards please. No matter the intention it always produces a need for some posters to be a>%’s more than usual.
No message board.
LOL
Baylor player providing OU with bullet board material:
http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/ou/ouhomepage2/ou-sports-baylor-s-shawn-oakman-expects-big-things-from/article_a2b28f44-b1e2-5634-b4d4-ba3d8138d1c1.html
OK He is pretty confident in his team and that is the way it should be! I don’t agree with it being a one sided game this year at all though I think this will be a great game! With OU winning of course!
I love it when teams come to Norman expecting to win. Its usually not pretty for them. Boomer
I like it ! It’s on !
Any word on whether david long received an offer?
I think it would be dumb not to the kid put ou in his top 5 and came for an unofficial visit all with ou having an offer. It’s safe to say ou is high on his list.
We chatted a little yesterday and no offer had come at that point. I suspect he would have let me know if it did.
No message board. I could go into the reasons, but most of them have been covered. I really like the set-up here, and I think not having a message board, helps keep things more civilized.
I love it! I love scrolling down the open post page to see what the update is. The anticipation is almost to overwhelming! When I saw Jacobs committed and Humphrey threw the cowhorns in the trash, it made this Monday bearable. Thanks so much you brainiacs for everything yall do. JY hope the little man is doing well. On a different note, I personally think the site is fine without a message board, it would keep the trolls away and help keep the civil substance this site flourishes with and is known for. One thing I was thinking about the other day is maybe adding some more player evaluations. I understand you guys work and still find time to make us SOONER fans even happier with all the info yall provide, so I am not saying I think yall have all the time in the world. But the evaluations are partly what drew me to the brainiacs to begin with. Just a thought. Thanks again for all yall do!
Were taking those evaluation notes very seriously and already discussing with all our guys how we can do more of those in a context that we feel comfortable with. So thank you for the great feedback!
Three things:
1) I’d like to congratulate Mr. Jacobs on his commitment; I think that OU is very fortunate to have this young man join the OU family, he will be a great Sooner.
(2) I want to again say how grateful I am to have this site as my main source for Oklahoma sports-related news, evaluations, educated opinions and feedback.
(3) Related to #2 as far as the feedback goes- please leave the message board(s) out of your equation. You’ve got a winner here, don’t tinker with it. There is plenty of opportunity for us fans to leave commentary on what’s posted here. I believe that if you were to offer a message board, TFB would regret the move. I for one know that the monitoring/moderation of message boards, in the long run, takes a lot of wind out of the sails of the folks who run the site- it becomes a huge baby-sitting ordeal and would be a huge distraction to what you and your staff are trying to accomplish.
My $.02 anyway- keep on keeping on.
BOOMER!!!
SOONER!!!
If anyone hasn’t watched david long’s highlights, do yourself a favor and check them out. The kid is not shy about contact.
http://www.hudl.com/athlete/2016116/highlights/65030375
Thanks I forgot to attach a link. What do you think of him? He’s undersized but man he’s a headache for anyone thinking he won’t “bring the wood”
You’re right, that kid goes looking for contact! He has good size too. I wouldn’t mind a commit from this kid, but I guess the offer has to come first!
I’m with the “No Message Board” crowd. I like what you guys are doing…..a no-nonsense platform to get good, honest information with what appears to be an excellent network to draw from. THANKS for putting this site together and keeping it fueled!
Any idea why Texas passed on Humphrey? Did he perform poorly? Or something else?
Thanks
P.s. Happy with the site without boards (discus works fine) – focus as you are on the content, updates and evals and you’ll thrash all pretenders…
I thought I heard he wasn’t actually participating in workouts that he was there more or less to meet coaches. And his brother was there to work out
You’re right…he didn’t partake in the camp.
I’m ready to hear in depth details on Humphreys Texas visit and what they did to turn him of do bad.
Hey.. first time posting on here. I know this is extremely random but any word on Martez Ivey? I know it’s a long shot but never heard that we were officially ruled out
He and Chandler Cox planned on playing together but I haven’t heard anything about them since back in March.
Yeah he’s a no go for OU bud. Thanks for posting!
cbertus. Welcome friend.
I vote NO message boards.
Yeah, no message board, however it would be nice to be able to reconfigure this system somehow to make it less cumbersome. Maybe hide the secondary comments or something. Also, any word on Barnett visiting the hogs today?
First post but read every day. I agree, no message board. Top notch website without the message board egos and drama.
Louis brown to ut. Became more and more obvious over the last few weeks.
yeah felt that Brown would head there for a while. Really felt he would have been a great stand up LB. Feel like he’d get to showcase more of his abnormal fluidity for a kid with his length.
What position will he play at UT?
rush DE
LOVE the site the way it is. I am against the message board feature. There are OU message boards out there if you are after that kind of website. The way this one is set up is what sets it apart. Just my $0.02.
No on the message board idea. Not having one sets this site apart from all of the others. People can leave comments and interact just fine now. If you make things complex your problems will multiply. Keep the site simple.
Regarding a message board, I’ll let Mr. Horse speak for me.
Lol horse for president!
He’s very thoughtful. :}
Happy about the commitment. But holmes needs to LOCK himself in the weight room.
Jacobs? Yeah he’s going to need some time in the gym but he’s definitely been developing since his sophomore year. Still a ways to go but he’s come a long way
Good to hear!
This is by far the best site for OU football or anything related to OU. I agree that we don’t need a message board. When I was a paying member on two of those other sites, everyone thought just because you paid you can do or say as you pleased. I finally had enough and let it go. Now that we have this site, it seems like everyone has their opinion but for the most part respect what people say. Keep up the great work guys. Some of you posters need to get a life 😉 LOL!!!!!! Great site.
Thanks hotrod!
Don’t add a message board. That’s the reason most of us came here is to stay away from the OU message board sites with the trolls and the harassment. What you do here works so if it ain’t broke don’t fix it
…….lampkin wants to visit lsu this week then decide next week………looks like it’s ut/lsu
I think he’s been a UT lean for a while.
NYET on the message board.
Here is a suggestion. I don’t like message boards because internet tone of voice is hard to get right and it would regress into soapboxing and trolling. Even these well meaning comment sections have gotten less than classy at times (being a passionate sooner fan is no excuse btw).
However, if there are some people who want to do the full research and edit what they say etc and then submit it to the brainiacs for review…then there may be a number of submissions per day and the brainiacs can publish as few or many as they want…that may increase readership and interest. Or they could do what the ESPN blogs do and post user questions then answer them but those are really never satisfying content wise. Just a thought. I personally don’t think I would submit anything for the record.
Good suggestion!
Message board…..not so much.
Baylor really is insecure about being relevant…hilariously insecure.
I had no idea they had DQs in Oregon, can’t hardly find one here in Dallas.
I agree with all the please no message board comments. This is a perfect site for die hard Sooners who want to keep up with happenings at OU. Those who want to get involved in discussions have lots of message boards to pick from. But there’s only one TFB.
Thank you!
I like every aspect of Jacobs game. His athleticism, size, strength, his arm length and the way he uses his hands, his sense of where the blockers are trying to take him and his body control in resisting blocks and finding the ball.
I don’t care who or where he is ranked nationally, my eyes tell me this young man will be a force for OU’s DL for years to come. He may not be another Tommie Harris, but he could approach that level with the strength training he will get.
No message board for me!
No soup for you! 🙂 I hope you used to watch Seinfeld or that reference is going to be completely lost on you haha
I agree with CoachStauder’s comments below with the exception of one thing. I think the addition of a Q/A style message board would add value to your site if and only if you kept it clean and to the point. The true value of your site is the technical/evaluation info that is sadly missing on all the other sites. Adding a Q/A message board that extends or goes in depth on these topics would be great for us fans to have organized, topical info divided by specific subjects. I like organization of data – it’s what I do for a living. But I also like this free-style format too. The addition of structured topical data would be a nice addition to me. How to pull it off? I do not know. But I am ever so grateful for what you provide so far. Absolutely love the site. TFB rocks!!!
Great feedback. And thanks for the kinds words. I think you hit on the key point that we are pondering…that among other things we want to figure out how to organize things a little better and also allow readers a sort of open place to share their own thoughts, points, questions that might not necessarily be related to the topic that we start.
I would welcome some extensive coverage of Tyrell.