Oklahoma had an in-home visit yesterday with California RB, Joe Mixon. And it sounds like UCLA will be visiting today. Again, we’ve been skeptical about Joe ending up at Oklahoma for reasons that even the OU coaches don’t know. We absolutely can’t divulge it and hopefully it can get worked out but as of now Oklahoma is fighting an uphill battle when it comes to Joe Mixon .
What we can tell you is that in addition to the “other issue”, Joe’s mother wants him to stay closer to home. The fact that OU has remained in this race this long is a testament to their recruiting ability and how much Joe actually likes OU as a school. But we still don’t feel confident about OU’s chances here. In our eyes he’s going to stay out on the west coast.
I know that isn’t what y’all want to hear but we don’t want to sugar coat this for y’all. We know other sites believe that Oklahoma is still in this one and we know they have reasons for that but we’ve had too many signs pointing the other way. This is recruiting so we could very well end up being wrong but right now we’re telling y’all what we think based on information we’ve received.
UPDATE: Since writing this post Steve Sarkisian has been hired at USC. Joe was being recruited by Washington and you’ve got to think that Sark may continue recruiting Joe. To us, unless something dramatic happens, that is the nail in the coffin. Even if he doesn’t end up at USC just the fact that USC has some stability for the moment will have some effect on the entire west coast recruiting.
UPDATE (2:52 pm Tues.): As most of you have noted, Joe Mixon announced his top 4 (in no order) as: Cal, UCLA, Wisconsin and Oklahoma. Some of you have asked if that changes our feelings on OU’s chances with Joe and it really doesn’t. We would have said that was his top 4 even before he announced and before we posted this initial post. I think most people in the recruiting world would have said that as well. Again, based on what we’ve heard we believe there are two issues that Oklahoma would have to overcome, the first being the distance and the second being one we aren’t at liberty to say (and no we’re not trying to be obnoxious or intentionally secretive). But because of those two things we still feel like Oklahoma is fighting an uphill battle that we don’t think we’ll be able to win. We also don’t believe Wisconsin is a real player here. Again, we’re not saying he didn’t like Wisconsin – we’re saying based on what we’ve heard we don’t believe he will end up at Wisconsin. We believe his real top schools are Cal, UCLA and USC – IF USC decides to get involved.
32 Comments
Why would the coaches not accept Stark’s commitment if this was an uphill battle. Not disputing your sources, but you would think they would have a better pulse on the situation.
Maybe Starks has other issues other than the coaches just waiting on Mixon…
Because they don’t know what the “issue” is. And the only reason we know it is because we got it from someone who knows Joe quite well.
That’s the first I’ve heard Starks tried to commit. Where did you hear that from so I could look it up. thxxxx
Not to question your sources by any means but if he liked OU why wouldn’t he divulge the information so that they can at least move on to other targets if he has very little chance of choosing OU?
I cant be certain there but take a look at how many twitter followers Joe has and then take a look at his tweet yesterday about wanting to get to “10,000”. Also could be torn on the issue. Also could simply be a case of someone not wanting to burn any bridges till then end. Lots of reasons he wouldn’t necessarily tell them to kick dirt. Could also simply be that we are wrong. Its certainly not out of the question but we feel comfortable enough with our position right now.
Ahhh recruiting. That’s to bad with Mixon. I hope C. Gundy and B. Stoops had a good in home visit. To be a fly on that wall, lol.
I didn’t know Starks tried to commit and we did not except it?
Any concern now for Bolton with the new hire at SC?
If USC offers Bolton he won’t come to OU in our opinion. But some coaches are just as fooled by corp evaluation star ratings as anyone. So my guess is Sarkisian is like a kid in a candy store and will be looking to pick up every 4 and 5 star kid he can get. And according to those sites Bolton isn’t one. Even though he’s a freakin beast.
Is that a hunch on Bolton or have you heard something?
It’s a hunch that USC won’t offer. It’s something we’ve heard though as far as how interested he would be if USC did offer…he’d be very interested.
Got ya. He seems to be excited about rooming with Todd and seems to like Kish a lot. Todd reiterated his commitment with OU today, so hopefully he stays in Bolton’s ear just in case.
Will you be able to divulge the information once he commits? I am very curious as to this ‘mystery reason’…
lol perhaps 🙂
I’ve posted this many times. Being involved in the process, I’ve encountered many Joe Mixons. These kids “love the process”. He’s the kind of player that may wait until after signing day. He was never going to OU. Once the coaches are confident with Warren qualifying, offer Warren and hopefully Hayes will come also and call it a day.
A question that I have is if Mixon has an issue that the coaches don’t know about, why wouldn’t he tell them?
Cuz he likes OU as a school a lot.
So wouldn’t you want to address all concerns?
I know it seems confusing. Email us after the commitment goes down 🙂
I’m guessing it may be an issue that can’t be overcome (ie distance) but he doesn’t want the OU attention to end. So mentioning it to coaches would only cause them to look elsewhere.
Sounds about right.
Mixon tweets his final four — OU, Wisc, UCLA, Cal. Was this expected? Do you still feel strongly that he really isn’t considering OU at this point?
Thanks for the comment SBC! yeah We knew his final four. We definitely haven’t been saying he isn’t considering OU. In fact note my comment above from yesterday where I said he liked OU. But we’re saying there is an issue that we feel will be too difficult for OU to overcome and as such we don’t feel good about OUs chances
Reading between the lines, the only kind of issue that would be too difficult to overcome would be distance. That is the one thing that OU can’t control. The subtle mention about his mom seems to further imply distance.
That’s one of the issues that we mentioned.
I bet number of caries has something to do with it also. I’m sure he wants to be the feature back. And he knows that for the last few years, OU’s backs have shared the load, getting 10-12 caries at the most. And with the logjam of good backs we have on campus, I’m sure he’s aware there may not be enough caries to go around for a guy that wants 25-30 caries a game.
So now that Mixon has listed 4 and USC isn’t one of them.. Still think we don’t have a shot??
We knew that was his top 4 before he tweeted it. We still think this is going to be a very tough one for OU to win. We’ll keep our ears to the pavement though.
if you dont mind me asking, what sources are you getting this from????
im not questioning them but im just curious and have you heard on Jonathan Thomas and Oklahoma and how close he might be to committing
Jonathan is still in touch with coach Kish on a regular basis.
haha Isaac if we gave away our source names we wouldn’t have sources for very long brother 🙂