The Football Brainiacs

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Hey all, I hope that you and yours had a great weekend.  Personally, I’ve never had a bad weekend.  Some may be better than others, but a weekend is a weekend you know!

Now that we’re all back at it, a guy I wanted to bring to your attention is another OK Preps product in Ringling’s Riley Daniel. Ringling is a perennial power in Class A, which is the smallest classification of 11-man football in the state. For as long as I can remember, the Blue Devils have been collecting gold balls. They got their fourth in 2012 and part of the reason for that was left tackle, Riley Daniel.  When you watch Riley and his teammates play, you can’t help but admire the effort and desire they play with.  You can tell that hard work and effort are some traits that Coach Gandy and his staff have instilled into these young men.

For Riley specifically, the first thing you notice is that he has great size.  Being 6’6″ 325 lbs, you’re going to get some attention. And Riley is already at the size that college coaches covet. The next thing I noticed was just how quick he is for his size. The best example of Riley’s quickness I could find was at the 3:00 mark of his Hudl film. He just explodes off of the ball and crushes a linebacker. However, he’s still little raw and needs some footwork refinement. Mind you, he doesn’t have bad feet, he just needs to improve his technique a little bit. Sometimes that can mean stepping with the correct foot.

On a down block, for example, stepping with the foot closest to the man he’s blocking will improve his power and his quickness. It’s something that was a conscious effort I had to learn as a college lineman. The second thing I’d like to see Riley focus on are his hands. Right now he hits with his chest and is bit of a forearm blocker. Riley needs to shoot those hands up in there to the chest of the defender like he’s doing an incline press or power clean. He’s negating a lot of his natural power and strength by hitting with his forearms.

It probably won’t shock you to hear Ringling runs behind Riley a lot, and he really moves people when he hits ’em. He’s very strong and as he learns to stay low in his pad level, he could be a guy that college coaches come after. Getting back to his tenacity, what shows me that he can be a really good college offensive lineman is how he stays with blocks and ends up finishing people off. As he learns to do those small detail things, he could reinvent himself as a player. When you step with that front foot on different blocks, you become a lot more powerful.

If you want to see what I mean, pretend a guy is to your right and you have to block down on him. When you step with the left foot, as is the natural instinct, you unwittingly cross your feet and can be overpowered rather easily. Now do the same thing and step with your right foot first. You see the difference? Stepping with that right foot first, you can really explode into a defender. Now if you combine that with shooting your hands and focusing on pad level, you went from being really strong and really raw to being an explosive steam-rolling type of offensive lineman.

I would love to be able to work with Riley for a variety of reasons. He’s got great size, he is plenty quick, he appears to be tough and a hard worker. So, in my opinion, whatever he wants to do he could, if he’s willing to work hard enough.  I’ll try to reach out to him in a few days to see what he’s hearing from college coaches then report back.

In my opinion, he can definitely play at the D-1 level. What level exactly depends on Riley and taking advantage of the time he has between now and his senior season. As well, of course, as next year’s offseason between his senior year and freshman year of college.  Tough, aggressive, tenacious, quick, and huge.  That’s your usual checklist for an o-lineman who is looking to get his school paid for, and Riley has all of those characteristics.

RECRUITING NOTES FROM SK (UPDATED 10:55 am)

Folks, JY wrote this piece a little while back but we’ve since spoke to Riley on multiple occasions. So I wanted to update you on how his recruitment has been going, and what you might be able to expect from this massive OL.

– Riley has already been offered by Tulsa, Houston and North Texas. Houston actually came down just before the spring evaluation period ended to see him and offered.

– Coach Bedenbaugh is a tireless worker and if there is a player anywhere near Norman, you know he’s seen him. Bedenbaugh went by to see Riley as well, and he asked Riley to come to an Oklahoma camp. Riley will be at the camp this coming weekend.

– Arkansas coaches apparently really like Riley as well. The word I got was that they saw his film and came for a visit the very next day during the spring evaluation period. They also asked Riley to come to camp, and they’ve told him an offer would likely happen at the camp. He will also be attending the Arkansas camp.

– OSU is also recruiting Riley and have asked him to come to camp as well.

– I asked Riley if all three schools offered if he’d have a favorite out of the three and he said “no, not really.”

– I’m sure a lot of you are wondering if OU will offer and we don’t know that answer to that question, but I’m sure a lot more will be known after the camp this weekend. I will say that if anyone can put Riley in a position to succeed and develop the raw tools that are there, it’s Bedenbaugh. In his career as a coach, he’s done a stellar job at taking talented but raw kids and turning them into NFL quality players.

2015 OK PREPS FEATURES:

Week 1 – Kaden Clay Jackson

Week 2 – Dahu Green

Week 3- Akylen Mayfield

Week 4 – Joshua Little

Week 5 – McKinley Whitfield

Week 6 – Shane Block