The Football Brainiacs

You probably don’t need me to tell you recruiting is a little slow for Oklahoma at the moment. It feels like forever since we’ve received a commitment, but I figured it’d be nice to look at some of the targets for each position group and, perhaps, look at how one might consider prioritizing the recruiting efforts based on perceived needs with the information we’ve received.

I’ve been working on a post about recruiting in general and what makes an effective recruiter, what challenges Oklahoma and other schools face in recruiting, and how to overcome them. Among the many challenges is always time. One thing I believe wholeheartedly is that, despite all the differences between programs, the most important quality a recruiter/staff must possess is the work ethic. It takes work to stay in touch with kids in order to build relationships. It takes work to assess how effective your pitch is and then figure out how to alter based on the particular kid you’re dealing with. In my experience, some staffs are very good at it while others are not. But there are only so many hours in the day, so I think it behooves a recruiter to really prioritize his efforts based on needs, likelihood of success, etc.

The CB targets I’ll look at are some of the top targets on Oklahoma’s board and they include: Isaiah Langley, Kris Boyd, PJ Mbanasor, Dechaun Holiday, Kendall Sheffield, Ykili Ross, Roney Elam (possible safety), Darreyl Patterson, and Jaylon Lane. These are all players that either have offers, or I know for certain are on OU’s board.

I believe the OU coaches want to take two cornerbacks this year. And my feeling is that if they want a shot at getting a first round type talent, it would be nice to always try and take one ‘big’ CB. Corners who are 6’0.5″+ always have at least one God-given trait that separates them in the draft, and if Oklahoma wants to really get to that next level of an elite recruiter, one of the things I believe helps a lot is having those 1st and 2nd round draft picks. I’ve spent some time with Van Malone, the CB coach from Oklahoma State, and I can tell you that having Justin Gilbert is making his job a lot easier. And Van is a really charismatic recruiter, so my guess is that combination is going to land OSU another nice CB this year.

The ‘big’ corners on Oklahoma’s board include Roney Elam, Dechaun Holiday, Jaylon Lane and PJ Mbanasor.

Roney Elam – Elam is a tremendous talent. I wrote about him in my piece called “The Big Texas Three.” I’ve had a few exchanges with Roney, and he’s a tough read in terms of recruiting but what I hear through the grapevine is that he’s a bit of an LSU lean. After all, LSU was his first major offer. And he’s from East Texas, so there is decent proximity. Additionally, he might be a hair too tall (listed at 6’3″) for the CB position. As a recruiter I’d continue to stay in touch with Roney, but I’d want to quickly assess how “warm” the situation felt. And depending on that, I’d adjust my effort accordingly.

PJ Mbanasor – Mbanasor just picked up and LSU and Nebraska offers Tuesday night. He was also featured in “The Big Texas Three.” Mbanasor is a true cover CB in my mind. He isn’t a big CB that you flip to safety, and I know that Oklahoma sees him as “the guy.” The guy that, if they can get, they can mold into an elite college CB and an early round type draft pick. And I completely agree with them.

Mbanasor is a guy the Sooners have to go all-in on. He’s a high ceiling, high reward type player that lives close enough to Norman, has visited campus, and made it clear that he plans to return for another visit. He also hails from the same school as 2014 RB commit, Samaje Perine. He’s someone that I would, if I were on staff, stay in touch with regularly, and I’d work to build as a strong relationship as possible and ensure that he knows he is a high priority. I’d take his recruitment to signing day if necessary.

Though I do know where Oklahoma stands on his current list, he’s asked me not to divulge that. So I’ll simply say…we’re in this one for sure.

Jaylon Lane – Though I wasn’t there, based on the reports from Rivals.com, Jaylon Lane apparently had a great showing at their camp in Houston. Evidenced in him winning the DB MVP award. He was yet another of “The Big Texas Three” that I featured a few weeks back. Lane doesn’t currently have an OU offer, but I know Coach Mike has been in touch with him. And I know that Jaylon is on Oklahoma’s board.

Jaylon is currently an Ole Miss commit, but also has offers from Oklahoma State and the University of Houston, among others. He has a lot of upside and proximity would be in Oklahoma’s favor, as Jaylon currently resides in East Texas and his father originally hails from Houston. He would be someone I’d keep regular contact with even if OU isn’t quite ready to extend an offer. He’s one of the few legitimately big CBs in Texas. I’ve spoken to him a number of times, and I absolutely believe he is flippable. As a matter of fact, I’d be surprised if Ole Miss holds on to him too much longer as it is.

Dechaun Holiday – Dechaun might be the biggest of all the CBs (listed at 6’2″ 207 lbs), though he’s one I’ve never seen in person. Despite having safety size, he’s being recruited by Oklahoma as a CB. And I’d be doing the exact same thing.

He closes fast, he can turn and run, and has some of the best ball skills you’ll find. He’s also got CB level start/stop ability. The only thing that’s hard to judge from film are his feet and the strength of backpedal, because their program seems to play a lot of that off-shuffle technique. But he apparently did pretty well in 1-on-1’s at the Rivals camp out in California. That isn’t necessarily definitive on its own, but for any recruiter it’s always about trying to gather as many clues as possible to lead to a correct answer.

I’ve spoken to Holiday previously, and he definitely seems to like some of the west coast schools. But I also hear enough excitement in his voice to feel like he’s definitely someone Oklahoma should work to build a relationship with. Why? Well, No. 1,  he’s made it clear to me that OU is a school that he seriously wants to see on an official visit, if not an unofficial as well. No. 2, the Sooners have had a lot of success in California. Most recently with guys that Holiday knows, and we all know effective a recruiter guys like Joe Mixon and Miciah Quick could be. No. 3, the biggest competition Oklahoma is going to have out west for guys like Holiday, Langley, Ross, etc. is going to be USC, and to some degree UCLA (in the case of Holiday, UCLA is a definite contender). However, those are just two schools and they can’t take all the top CBs in California. Just based on numbers, if Oklahoma is willing to put in the work, there is definitely an opportunity to steal one of the top CBs in the state of California. And Holiday could be that guy.

In Part 2 of this piece, that will post in the coming days, I’ll look at the other CBs I listed above. Including Ykili Ross, who should really be classified as another ‘big’ CB, but in an effort to keep this post of reasonable length, I’ll bump him to Part 2.

I absolutely believe that Oklahoma can win commitments, and fill their corner needs, from the list of CBs that they either (1) have on their board and/or (2) have currently offered (Langley, Boyd, Mbanasor, Holiday, Sheffield, Ross, and Elam). If OU can’t gain commitments from two of those seven CBs then, in my opinion, it will be due to lack of effort and salesmanship. It would not be for any reasons beyond Oklahoma’s control.

Also, of the four CBs I broke down above, I’d prioritize my efforts in recruiting and building a relationship with those in the following order: 1) Mbanasor, 2 & 3) Holiday and Lane, 4) Roney Elam. As much I like Elam as a player, I think the questions about what position he’s going to play (safety or CB), and just my sense of his recruitment, would probably cause me to spend the least amount of time recruiting him at this point.

NOTE: By the way, the image on this post was drawn by an artist that works for us. We’re working on some ideas for “super-hero” type football t-shirts. This particular one is called “The Warden.” Would love to hear any feedback about it in the comments section: love it, hate it, whatever.