The Football Brainiacs

Image of Alex Criddle via The Tulsa World

Every time it’s asked why OU may not consistently recruit as well as some other similar nationally prominent programs, inevitably at least one person always reminds everyone that Oklahoma’s in-state recruiting base isn’t as a rich as states like Alabama, Louisiana, Florida, Texas, etc. For the most part OU recruits well, but it doesn’t always feel “easy” like it may for some others. And while I don’t personally believe the perceived lack of in-state talent is the sole culprit for any recruiting struggles OU might have, I do recognize that it plays a role.

If Texas, LSU, Florida, USC, Ohio State and others were forced to only recruit their home states, they could — assuming the evaluation, development and coaching were good — probably still manage to put together a darn good starting lineup. And while that may not be the case for OU, is it possible the Sooners aren’t getting enough out of their own state?

You don’t need to spend much time here or on other online OU gathering spots to know there are many an OU fan who feel the Sooners can, at times, have a tendency to overlook in-state talent. One of the common complaints is that OU will sometimes leave the state to find a kid that is similar to someone already in-state. But that’s not really what I want to focus on with this post.

What I want to talk about is why you, as an OU (or OSU, or Tulsa) fan, should be excited when an OK Preps player receives an FBS offer (high or mid-major) besides, of course, the joy many feel when a young person achieves something so noteworthy. I’m going to include western Arkansas in this discussion due to its proximity and because I feel it is an area OU could (and should) recruit that has gone largely untouched by high major recruiters, OU included.

A couple years ago the Sooners fought off a number of top programs to win the commitment of Steven Parker. The former Jenks standout is an Oklahoma kid, and I want to use him as an example of what the state of Oklahoma can potentially produce if talent is properly cultivated.

Parker is a fine athlete. He has great length and size coupled with good speed. But the reason Parker is the player he is at safety has a lot to do with the support and development he received from his family growing up. Skill development was a big part of Parker’s life coming up. You can see the same kind of thing in someone like 2017 LB Levi Draper, who is similar to Parker in that both are long, athletic kids. But what separates Draper, who (as many of you know) has already received a number of FBS offers, from a number of other OK Preps prospects is the skill development and training he has received growing up as well the efforts put forth by people around him to ensure that his talent doesn’t go unnoticed.

The closer you look, the more you find excellent athletes in this area. Athletes with good size for their respective positions, but maybe the development or the ‘marketing’ in the state just isn’t what it is in some of the bigger states. Let’s look around the region at some prospects to illustrate the point I’m trying to make.

Ask any secondary coach and they’ll tell you they like at least three primary things in a cornerback: speed, length & ball skills. Each coach will of course have their own preference in terms of how they prioritize those particular assets, but almost universally those three aspects of a kid’s game will be priorities coaches look for in a corner.

Six-foot corners who have the speed to run with elite receivers are pretty rare. In relatively close proximity there are potentially three of those type of cornerbacks I’m describing: Kyle Mayberry (Tulsa), Kiondre Thomas (Ft. Smith) and AJ Parker (Bartlesville).

Mayberry may not be as tall as Parker or Thomas, but he isn’t short by any stretch measuring in at a SPARQ verified 5’11″ flat-footed. Mayberry went out to California for one of the regional Opening events and ran the fastest SPARQ verified 40 time at the event (4.5 laser). A kid from Oklahoma, went to the big bad state of California, and proved to be at least one of the fastest guys in attendance on that day.

Thomas measured in at 6’0″ flat-footed and ran a 4.46 SPARQ verified laser! Meanwhile, Parker is a guy who appears to have pretty good speed on film and having seen him live, we can tell you he also has good height (6’0″), length and twitch.

And yet not one of these three kids has a single offer from a Power Five conference school. The reasons for that — skill development, film, etc. — may vary for each respective kid. But these are the type of players who if they lived say somewhere like Miami, they would likely have received more specialized training which is simply more prevalent in the areas we’ve talked about above than it is in the state of Oklahoma. They likely would have played with and against elite 7-on-7 teams, which helps lead to more exposure with both coaches and recruiting services. They would probably have college coaches from all over coming to their high schools. In short they’d be an environment that fosters their development and promotion.

Take a look at a kid like Jace Webb, the 2016 OK Preps offensive lineman we told you about earlier this week He’s a giant human being with an explosive first step off the line; a type of explosiveness that may rival many of the best and most coveted OL in the country. But there simply aren’t a lot of scouts going through Hollis, Oklahoma. As you’d imagine, there also aren’t a lot of private skill development clinics in Hollis either. Additionally, Jace plays in a power I scheme so an evaluator from the Pac 12 or some other far away conference would likely want to see him in person to determine whether he has the requisite feet and athleticism. But in the end he’ll say, “can I really justify going to a state we don’t recruit to see one kid who might be great? And even if I love him and offer him, is there any chance he leaves the area once all the regional schools decide to offer?” It no longer becomes a question of talent. It becomes a question of recruiting efficiency. And it’s understandable.

Tyler Brown is another similar example. This is a kid who, had it not been for his coach’s relentless efforts to get Brown’s name out there, would have gone largely unnoticed. And now you see Brown picking up two Power Five offers just this week from TCU and Arizona State, respectively.

Then you look at a kid like Alex Criddle (Tulsa, OK), who is a monster of a human being at 6’3″ 310 lbs. He is that rare “drive you back” 2-gap war daddy. Put on Criddle’s film and you’ll see a young man with quickness, power, good pad level & a desire and ability to absolute destroy the person in front of him. He benches over 400 lbs, plays some DL, OL, and even TE for his team. You know what else? Criddle is a great kid, he is already NCAA qualified!

I’ve mentioned Markell Utsey (Little Rock) and Nick McCann (Texarkana) on TFB in the past. These are two defensive tackle prospects in Arkansas that are more physically gifted than any number of the more highly recruited defensive lineman in some the bigger markets. McCann is beginning to gain some attention now that more and more coaches are going to Texarkana to see Lagaryonn Carson out of Libery Eylau. In fact, McCann picked up an offer from Kansas, Texas Tech & Texas State just this past week. But a kid like Utsey, a 6’4 290 lb DT that plays flat backed, fires out low, uses his hands, has good quickness off the ball & great closing speed (and sporting a 3.2 GPA, by the way) but has to receive a single FBS offer. In fact to date very few schools have even stopped by Parkview to see him.

This is something you’ve heard us mention here before, but the sentiment from many out-of-state coaches is “well if there was a kid worth a darn in a place like Oklahoma or Arkansas, then the in-state schools would have found them.”

But let’s examine that sentiment a little closer.

I can’t tell you how many defensive tackles the University of Arkansas is taking this year, but in general most schools will not take more than three in a given year regardless. And right now, Arkansas has in-state DT, Austin Capps, committed as well as Rummel’s Briston Guidry. The Arkansas staff is also holding a spot for another in-state DT prospect, McTelvin Agim.

Do they like Markell Utsey? I believe so. They’ve visited him multiple times. Do they like Nick McCann? I believe so. They’ve also visited him multiple times. But for whatever reason Arkansas determined their board priorities and Capps, Guidry and Agim ended up higher. Are they right? WHO KNOWS?! This is football. It’s not a race where 1^st place and 2^nd place are clear cut. There is a lot of differing opinions, subjectivity, scheme fit, preference, bias, etc. within this sport. Even if Arkansas’ staff is correct in their board, that doesn’t mean that McCann or Utsey or Criddle or others can’t play for someone. Trust me Iowa State, West Virginia and any number of other FBS programs can’t look around their state and find the kinda prospects we have down here.

So much of recruiting is about perception, especially that which exists early on. When Oklahoma/Arkansas kids get FBS offers, it heightens the perception of the talent in this area. It attracts more recruiting, media attention and, most importantly, coaches to the region. It also attracts more private skill development. For example, Clay Mack and the Quick Twitch clinics are now operating in Oklahoma. And a kid like AJ Parker can now attend every week, getting a kind of skill development he would have likely never received otherwise. Whether AJ or any other regional kids can play at Oklahoma is a matter of opinion and the only one that matters is the coaches. But AJ and others receiving specialized instruction and attention certainly helps.

If you’re a player from a school in Dallas, Houston, Miami, etc. many of the top programs are likely to come to you. That’s why, often, when you hear about that diamond in the rough it comes from Canada (Neville Gallimore) or Teton Saltes (New Mexico). It doesn’t mean people in big cities don’t also get overlooked, many do, but the exposure and perception of talent in the major cities is just overall much better. Even if a particular player in that location isn’t as good as a “smaller market” player.

Naturally doing what we do here at TFB, we get excited when we see the small state kids get FBS offers. They are going to have an opportunity to demonstrate the talent in this area on a big stage. They raise the football brand identity of the region. I’m sure many of you folks, who are originally from this area, love that as well. But what it also does is create a better developed foundation for talent in the state. The athletes are there but when there is competition, proper skill development, media coverage and, perhaps most importantly, a belief within the local talent that FBS level football is a real possibility, it creates a better local talent pool.

I once asked a Power Five conference player, who came from a lesser recruited area, what inspired him to work towards a D-I offer. He said, “I saw a local kid get an offer and I felt like I was a good athlete like him…it made me think if he could do it then maybe I could do it.” That same player was actually a track star, who may have chosen to go the track route had it not been for this belief that was inspired by seeing it done in another. This player ended up earning more than 15 FBS offers.

Do you how many athletes there are at schools like Tulsa Edison, Star Spencer, John Marshall, Southmoore, Booker T Washington, North Side (Fort Smith), Parkview (Little Rock), or countless other high schools in this part of the country? A lot.

Oklahoma and Oklahoma State need this. They need a better developed pool of local/regional talent from which to draw. But they also need a heightened (or perhaps I should say “more accurate”) view of local talent. Why? It’s really simple.

The way recruiting works isn’t just about finding talent. For a position coach, it’s also about job security. No one gets fired for signing a “4-star” kid from Texas that doesn’t end up being as good as folks thought. In fact, you get fired for not getting those kids. But if you’re the lone coach standing on the table for the small town kid who doesn’t have an offer…and he doesn’t pan out…you might be coaching high school ball in that same small town the next year.

What’s more is these days coaches and programs also have to at least be cognizant of fan perception. Take somebody like 2016 Sooners commit, Jon Michael Terry. This is a kid I’ve been told the OU staff really likes. Duh, right? I mean otherwise why offer and/or accept his commitment. And what’s not to like? Long – check. Kid can run – check.

But did his commitment make a splash with the fans? Certainly not as big as it would have had Terry been a kid from Dallas, that had every school coming through, had built an impressive offer list with a ton of publicity and then committed to Oklahoma. That splash would have been ‘fat kid cannonball in the pool’ level and the fans would have sung the praises of the coaches.

This post was a lot longer than I anticipated so I’ll kindly end it here. But for those of you who made it to the end, I’ll end by saying that the next time you see regional kids getting offers, whether it’s Ohio State or Ohio, that’s just another step towards the Oklahoma area developing a better and more fertile recruiting base.