The Football Brainiacs

 

I know a lot of you have sent us emails asking about recruit visitor reactions from this past weekends game. A lot of you have also asked questions about recruiting in general.

I’m going to be completely up front with you. There is an answer a recruit will tell a “journalist” and there is the actual response which may or may not coincide with that answer. We have relationships with certain players and their families and can get their actual response because they trust that we won’t publicize it.

I haven’t spoken to every recruit, but I have spoken with some and had a very candid conversation with a few.

You all saw what happened and so did the recruits. OU didn’t just lose. The crowd left. The game wasn’t competitive. There was a sideline blow up. There were boos from the crowd. It was an early game so most recruits had to get up early to make it there.

So I’m not going to offer up the quotes or notes the recruits I spoke to intended for public consumption, because they just aren’t all accurate reflection of where things stand and I think the fan base is a little sick of the bull right now. But I also won’t offer up the “behind-the-scenes” actual quotes, because they aren’t flattering and the program doesn’t need me piling on right now.

I will note that I do think that Will Lockett was genuinely happy about his trip. He even said the Sooners will “bounce back.” It’ll be interesting to watch his recruiting, especially if any other regional high major programs get involved (currently the Sooners are his only regional high major offer).

What I will do is say the actual availability of quality players is the least of my personal worries right now. Not only does OU already have a number of quality players committed, there are an ample number of excellent prospects out there for the taking. As a collective unit, OU might just need to start voraciously watching film (and some of them do I know for certain), doing collective evaluations, and getting some offers out to great athletes that fit what they want and who they want to be at Oklahoma. They need to figure that out quickly.

For example, if OU has decided they want to be an off-coverage team with a safety-type alignment across the board, then it’s not really in your best interest to keep trying to focus on length at the corner position. You want to find hyper, twitchy guys who can close quickly, have the snap in their hips, and the frame to actually hold the kind of weight you expect a sound tackler at this level to carry. But that shouldn’t be contingent on length. In fact, a lot of 6’2″ corners don’t actually fit that bill. Jaylon Lane might be the closest thing to a long corner that fits that mold in a longer frame. It’s interesting to me that people actually believe Julian Wilson would make a better safety than a corner. He’s basically being asked to play corner like a safety currently.

OU doesn’t have to get the Malik Jefferson’s or the Tarvarus McFadden’s of the world to be successful. In fact, OU is losing to teams that have few, if any, players on their rosters that OU even offered. If you do a detailed analysis of TCU’s starting team and who offered those kids or what positions they played in high school, you’ll get my drift. A close coaching friend of mine was talking to a coach from a major D1 program, and they were talking about TCU and he said, “they’re a team that can do it…they can take kids who play out of position in high school…coach ’em up and build something.”

But OU doesn’t even need to do that because for all the doom and gloom there is about recruiting, OU is still, for the most part, able to out recruit every team in the Big 12, with the exception of Texas (and, assuming he sticks, OU already beat them out for PJ Mbanasor this year). But you’ve got to have a clear vision to sell them, and you have to develop them. You want to say, “hey, you’re going to player Striker’s position.” Well, a month or two ago everyone knew what that meant. Now? Not so much. And you probably don’t want to tell recruits, “none of our CBs are very good” because the smart recruits (which are the ones you want) will wonder why there are so many cornerbacks on the roster and so few, if any, that are developed.

OU clearly doesn’t have the momentum they had after the Tennessee game. And nowhere near what they had after the Sugar Bowl. But that doesn’t mean they can’t finish with a darn good class of quality athletes and get back to what makes Oklahoma, Oklahoma…speed, sound scheme, discipline, and development. You want an example of what OU needs to get back to? Ohio State DBs do 1-on-1’s everyday. Houston DBs do 1-on-1’s everyday. Oklahoma? Once a week.

Based on what I’d like to see the defense become, I would say that recruiting should begin with an offer to Jordan Griffin but that ship has now sailed. So, in my opinion, it should begin with an offer to Dwaine Thomas, Mohamed Barry (who is going to give OU fits when he ends up at KSU), Adrienne Talan (who is going to give OU fits when he ends up at TCU), Colin Samuel, and Derrick Baity. There are other players I like but their personalities don’t, in my estimation, fit the OU staff’s personality.

Before wrapping this post up I will say that based on what OU appears to be trying to do in certain areas, there does seem to be a clear identity and a recruiting that coincides with that identity, at least with the following positions: offensive line, defensive line, and running back.

Anyhow, just one person’s opinion.