The Football Brainiacs

Image of Dwayne Haskins Jr. via scout.com

– 2016 Recruiting: With the 2015 class in the books, we can now turn our focus to 2016. The OU coaches have already been hitting the trail hard, offering numerous prospects across the county. Two of those offers were made recently right here in the DFW metroplex where I (Alex) am at.

Fort Worth All Saints DT Mike Williams is a well-known name on the recruiting scene having already pulled in almost 20 offers to this point from programs like Baylor, Michigan, Ohio State, Stanford & Texas just to name a few. This past Tuesday, Jerry Montgomery extended an OU offer that Williams stated on Twitter he had been wanting.

When we caught up with him and talked the offer as well as what he thought about Montgomery, he seemed to really like the Sooners new Co-DC. ‘That’s the man right there,’ Williams said. He went on to say OU is recruiting him as a DE in their 3-4 scheme, which is a position he is familiar with having played there before. Williams also stated he plans on getting up to Norman for OU’s March Junior Day.

However, the Sooners will have their work cut out for them in this race. Williams seems to have more and more suitors joining the picture on a near daily basis. Another potential issue, despite his familiarity with the position, could be Montgomery having to sell him on playing the 4-tech instead of inside.

The other offer we referred to above went to another DE prospect in the DFW metroplex in Christian Daniels out of Trinity. Daniels told us he is currently 6’4″ 300 pounds and is currently in track season, where he throws the shot and discus. But, get this, he also runs the 400 meters! He even said he has put up a time as fast as 52 seconds recently. For a guy of his size, that’s not something you hear about every day. Daniels is right under the 10 offer mark from schools such as Baylor, Ole Miss, Oklahoma State, TCU & USC. His OU offer was extended about two weeks ago, again, by Montgomery.

What’s interesting about this is that Daniels actually lived in Michigan for a short time his freshman year. During that time he picked up his very first offer from Western Michigan, but that was also when he met Montgomery and the two first started to develop their relationship. In talking to him, you can tell Daniels thinks highly of Montgomery. But Daniels also mentioned that Bob Stoops has been in touch recently on Twitter, which he seemed to really like as well. The Sooners are in a good position at this point with Daniels thanks in part not only to their tradition, which he is a big fan of, but also because of the relationships he is forming with the OU coaches.

Another class in the books and Montgomery just keeps on plugging away. Not hard to see why he is such a successful recruiter.

– OU Junior Days: As we continue to shift the focus to 2016, a big part of that involves Junior Days. OU currently has two scheduled, the first in a little over a week on Feb. 15 and the second set for March 7. We will continue to try and hunt down word of invites and provide updates as names become available. Right now we’re hoping to have a full list up for the Feb. 15 event to you by the middle of next week.

2016 DB Eric Cuffee (Waco, TX) is a recent OU offer, and we had a chance to catch up with him yesterday. He said he plans to head up for the February Junior Day, and to say he is excited about it would be an understatement. “OU is a great school, and I grew up a huge fan of them,” Cuffee said. He continues to develop a good relationship with OU’s Chip Viney, who has quickly become one of the coaching staff’s go-to recruiters.

As many of you know, Oklahoma’s lone 2016 commit is North Mesquite offensive lineman Jean Delance (Mesquite, TX). He had plans on attending several junior days in the coming weeks, but has recently decided against it. Delance did, however, attended Texas A&M’s Junior Day a week or so back and enjoyed the experience. For now, though, unless things change, his next Junior Day will be with the school he is committed to, Oklahoma (March 7).

– Dwayne Haskins Jr.: Jordan mentioned this in today’s links post, but we wanted to be sure to include here as well. Oklahoma made a big offer yesterday to Dwayne Haskins Jr., who is a 2016 quarterback out of Potomac, Maryland. And while it hasn’t traditionally been a part of the country the Sooners typically recruit all that frequently, Haskins has said previously that OU is one of his favorite schools and an offer he would really like to have.

Speaking of offers, the list of schools Haskins already holds one from is pretty ridiculous. Alabama, Auburn, Florida State, Michigan, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Texas, Texas A&M & UCLA just to name some of the heavyweights.

Needless to say based on his offer list alone, Haskins will be able to go wherever he wants. We’re hoping to try and catch up with him at some point to try and gauge just how much this OU offer could affect things for him. As it’s one thing for a kid to say OU is one of his favorite schools, but when you’re holding an offer list like he is one could have any number of ‘favorites.’

Regardless, on film Haskins looks to be a near perfect fit for what everyone is expecting Lincoln Riley to try and do with this OU offense. So if Haskins doesn’t immediately jump to the top of OU’s board at the QB spot, we’d be pretty surprised. And unlike a lot of schools, they have the sales pitch of not having brought in a QB in this past class thus potentially making it easier for Haskins to see the field early in his career.

– Quick Team Update: We also have a little team info to pass along. With the new offense obviously still in the very, very early stages of being installed, the players haven’t actually start doing any 7-on-7 work quite yet. They have, however, been working some 1-on-1 one stuff. And while we’d always caution you from taking any of this and running wild with it before the offense is even in and/or the players are in pads, we have heard about some of the players who have stood out.

If you’ve seen any of the highlights from his previous h.s. camp performance, it should come as very little surprise that RB Joe Mixon is one those who has stood out early on. We have continued to hear overwhelmingly positive reviews with regards to Mixon’s work ethic, with one source going so far as to say “he (Mixon) will always be good with Schmitty because that guy brings it every day.”

Another guy who has performed very well is one of OU’s early enrollees, Dede Westbrook. We know there has been some talk from other OU sites about Westbrook already, so this may not come as news to some. But the information our source had was a little different than what has been put out there, so we figured it was still worth sharing. “He (Westbrook) may not be the strongest guy in the weight room, but football isn’t played in the weight room. It’s on the field, and that guy can play. Probably the fastest guy on the field.” It’s still very early, as we’ve said, but it sure sounds like Westbrook is on track to live up to the expectation of being a great fit for Riley’s offense and immediately helping this OU wide receiving unit.

Sticking with wide receivers, redshirt freshman Dallis Todd was another name we were told has looked good so far. As you’d expect, sitting out last year allowed him to develop both his game and body.

On the defensive side of the ball, two names that won’t surprise you but Steven Parker and Jordan Thomas have also looked good in 1-on-1’s we’re told.

– UPDATE (Fri., 1:55 pm): Brandon has learned that 2016 DB & recent OU offer Eric Cuffee will in fact be attending OU’s March 7th Junior Day.

– UPDATE (Fri., 1:57 pm): Former Sooners Blake Bell, Adam Shead, Tyrus Thompson, Daryl Williams, Jordan Phillips, Geneo Grissom & Julian Wilson have all received NFL Combine invites. You can see the full list of invitees here.