Open Post | Friday Jan. 31st (Update 3:07 pm)
Posted on: January 31, 2014
– As everyone knows by now Courtney Garnett committed to Oklahoma last night. I know there is a lot of skepticism about the strength of the commitment since he still plans on taking the Notre Dame trip, but let me give you some additional context based on my previous conversations with him.
Something important to understand is that recruiting trips are fun. You spend two days in a place you’ve probably never been…and for a lot of kids they’ve never traveled much in their life…you’re treated like royalty…you go to parties…and it’s all paid for. When Oregon wanted Courtney to take a trip to Eugene, he and I chatted about it and I can assure you that trip was just for fun. There was no chance he was going to attend school there. It was so far away that in the end his mother wouldn’t even let him take the visit. I obviously can’t divulge everything he said because it was for the most part a more informal conversation.
Again, Courtney told me flat out that coach Stoops “let” him go on the Notre Dame trip. I know that may seem strange to some, but telling a commit he can’t take a trip is probably not the best strategy. Especially when you feel confident both in your program and in the players intent. Is there the slightest chance that something “magical” will happen in South Bend and he’ll end up rethinking his commitment? I guess…anything is possible. But given Courtney’s love of OU, hiss long standing relationship with Coach Montgomery, his Mama’s love of OU, distance, etc. is that chance really high enough for Coach Stoops to tell the kid “sorry son, you’re not going if you want to commit to OU” only a few days before signing day? I don’t think so.
– Wanted to share an incredibly talented DLineman name, Jake Pickard, that we Brainiacs love. We’re hoping OU gets involved. He’s a 6’6″ terror whose best football is ahead of him. We think he could be an absolutely devastating 4i DEnd in our 3-4 scheme. Jake has run a 4.25 shuttle multiple times at different venues! In the coming days we’ll have a more detailed breakdown. Go get him Coach Montgomery!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRuMmAXWLrc
– Also, we’re still waiting to hear confirmation one way or another on whether CB Kendall Sheffield will be visiting OU this weekend.
– (UPDATE 8:55 am): Saw it mentioned in the comments yesterday, but for those that may not already be aware Oklahoma made another 2015 quarterback offer. Allen (TX) QB Kyler Murray, who is the teammate of current OU commits Tay (2014) and Bobby (2015) Evans, was the recipient of said offer. Based on his film, seems to be very much in line with Josh Heupel’s other two QB offers (i.e. “athlete” playing QB).
Received an offer from the University of Oklahoma today! #Sooners
— Kyler Murray (@K1) January 31, 2014
– (UPDATE 9:35 am): Scout.com’s Bob Przybylo is reporting that Deondre Clark will be announcing on Wednesday, National Signing Day, after previous speculation that his announcement could come as late as Feb. 10th. Evidently Clark was at one point considering a spot in the International Bowl which, again per Przybylo, will now not be happening.
– (UPDATE 3:07 pm): Spoke with 2015 WR Ryan Newsome and sounds like he actually wanted to come to this weekends jr. day but had a prior commitment. He did say he will be down in Norman really soon and he’s “ready to see what it’s all about”. Ryan is being pursued by a ton of schools. In fact Alabama dropped by to see him last week. He’s a name to keep an eye on for Oklahoma’s March 1st jr. day.
68 Comments
“6.6 terror”….nice đ
Deondre Clark is going to ASU this weekend without his momma. I wonder why Momma Clark is staying home? Maybe it’s the “palm trees” (and by “palm trees,” I mean a plethora of beautiful women/crazy party scene that ASU is known for in recruiting). I think any straight male wouldn’t want momma to come along on a trip like that.
I read some comments from her that it was purely out of respect for his (Deondre) relationship w/ Jackie Shipp.
Hope that’s the case. I only said that because of previous ASU recruiting rumors I’ve read about.
Yeah, doesn’t seem like they have very many positive things to say about OU and as you’ve implied have been rumored about not being shy in sharing them.
she said it was out of respect for Shipp but some think that its because she wants her son to play at OU so she wont even take the visit with him
I believe Murray is an A&M legacy and the Ags have offered, so it remains to be seen what, if any, chance anyone else may have, IMO.
Kyler’s dad Kevin was an excellent dual purpose QB in the 80’s, his performance forced other SWC schools to do the same.
Kevin runs a QB guru school in the Plano area, called air14.
I would be amazed if he went anywhere but TAMU as long as Sumlin is there.
I first saw him play when the Allen Eagles won the state championship with him as their sophomore QB. This past season he didn’t have to run as much, his outstanding O-line kept him clean.
Pickard looks very good and he’s probably still growing, but I’m wondering what our chances will be of getting him from NJ. Have we had much recruiting success from that area in the past?
No, not really. Dejuan Miller is really the only guy I can remember OU somewhat recently pulling out of NJ. OU tried to go after his brother who was an o-lineman, but the father wasn’t a huge fan of how Dejuan’s career at OU played out so that seemed like a losing battle from the jump.
2015 TX WR Jaelan Austin
https://twitter.com/HE_GOING_PRO/status/429269867342995456
Bob out there working like a mad man!
Would also add that based on multiple accounts it seems as though Stoops & staff have started to take a bit of a different approach w/ their recruiting.
In the past, OU has always been a staff that didn’t pressure kids into committing. But recently more than a few recruits have made comments contrary to that approach from Stoops and his assistants.
Frankly, I think it’s a good thing. Assuming, of course, it’s done in a respectful manner. In the recruiting world today, you need to put a little pressure on a kid to make up his mind. If for no other reason than to get a better idea whether it’s worth your time to continue focusing on them.
Some will read “pressure” and immediately presume a negative connotation, but fwiw I don’t believe that has been the impression thus far and we have no reason to believe that w/b Stoops’ style.
I think it’s great to be able to tell kids that we are loading up some of the best talent in the country so if you want on this ride, better get on board while you can.
Yea. What I have heard are comments in the line of “I’d prefer if you didn’t take any other visits….” which in my opinion sound pretty reasonable. Definitely alot tamer than talling a kid that if he goes somewhere else we’re pulling his offer a-la Northwestern
Jordo you make some great points here. The key is respectfully putting pressure on the kid versus “you take an official here you don’t play for me period”.
Yes kyler is an athlete but he is a pass first qb.
And a pretty good one from the look of that highlight tape.
Do you believe this new QB strategy is a result of what Manziel did to us in the Cotton Bowl? Mike Stoops said he was the best college athlete he had ever coached against.
New QB strategy in terms of who they’re offering for 2015? If so, don’t really think it’s Manziel related so much as they feel good about the QB depth they have on campus and think they can risk going for a high upside “athlete” type QB in 2015.
We had already changed our strategy before the cotton bowl. We already had Knight…Thompson, Bell, and Allen were also capable runners..if anything it had to do with Knight running scout team as a true fresh. He was on a tear…then in the offseason the coaches knew they had to tweak the offense towards our qb strengths with the close of the Jones era..we will see tweaks next year with other parts of the offense with different guys coming in the pic..it’s all about personnel
Y’all need to take a look at Jalen’s main target Jalen Guyton. Dude is a beast! If Stanford offers he will take it. Very smart kid with his head on his shoulders.
*Kyler’s
Coach has been consistent on his allowing “certain” players taking visits w/o freaking out. It’s coach building his trust with his future players. Remember Dom’s visit to KState last year late? Dom had Stoop’s blessing. Being recruited is a once in a lifetime deal. I’ve been on the other side of the deal with a the HC of the scholly offer not allowing the kid to take an official w/o losing his offer. It alienated the kid and his family and the kid decided to not only take the official but DE commit from the coach/school that was threatening to pull his scholly.
totally agree, nothing to see here. obviously w/ Stoops being there last night, it was discussed, and Stoops signed off on it.
w/o speaking for coach I think there is such a strong relationship with not only Courtney but his mom with Stoops and Monte. I mean how many 17, 18 year old kids are proud to have their Mom come on an Official and brag about how much their mom loved Stoops and the assistant coaches on twitter? Just galvanizing that trust between player and coach here IMO.
I think there are two types of scenarios though.
With OU and Garnett, it appears we have a kid that is sold on OU, but wants to enjoy another free trip. Not much harm in letting him go, and the staff must feel confident that he is OU’s no matter what.
But some kids commit to a school simply to save their spot, while they keep looking. To me, that situation requires a different set of rules, and different handling by the OU staff. Those kids aren’t taking trips for fun, and aren’t 100% OU. Those kids are looking for the bbd (bigger better deal).
Absolutely soonerTU. Here is what happens sometimes. You know coach is trying to get a commitment last night from Courtney. Let’s say for discussion sake Courtney says ” I want to take the Official to South Bend first coach” . So Stoops fires back “Commit to the Sooners tonight and you have my complete blessing to visit South Bend”. I promise you Stoops and Co. feel better about Courtney visiting South Bend as an OU commit with his blessing versus Courtney taking that Official w/o committing yet.
If, and it’s a big if at this point, but if OU can establish a bit of a NOLA pipeline to go along w/ what they have out west and what they appear to be set on establishing in SEC country, then the future could be a really bright one.
I think it is a must to get some of those big southern boys over her in God’s country!
Yes sir!
My part-time LSU fandom says that those players would be ones who LSU doesn’t want/don’t have room for (see Frank Alexander) or ones who don’t want to go to LSU anyways (see Joe McKnight).
I’m loving the vibe coming out of Norman right now! Thanks for all the updates guys, this is the BEST site for quick and accurate information. keep up the good work!
Just keep coming back! đ
https://twitter.com/DeeChilllin/status/429277507490029568
https://twitter.com/Caileb/status/429285948807860224
If nothing else, gotta love his name!
Exactly. I was thinking the same.
Any word on Steven Parker? Seems it went from optimistic to pessimistic
Has been and will continue to be VERY optimistic. No pessimism here re: Parker and OU.
Figured this might be of interest. This is A.J. McCarron on why corporate rating sites often get it wrong, and why “success” was a curse at Alabama.
âYou have guys who have never played the game of football rating these guys that they are a 5-star, because theyâre sitting behind a computer screen watching their highlight film. Well, their highlight film is supposed to be good, the last time I checked. Thatâs the kind of thing that ticks me off about recruiting and when these kids come in and theyâre 5-stars and they expect to play right off the bat. Itâs a little entitlement and when they donât play off the bat, they get a little ticked off and they donât want to work.â -Interview with Jim Rome (Link: http://jimrome.com/2014/01/30/mccarron-in-the-end-success-was-our-killer/)
Ain’t that the truth.
A.J. McCarron seems like a good guy. I don’t pretend to know how he or any other QB will do at the next level but I’m rooting for him.
I like it that he has always been classy and tells it like it is. And he is speaking some real truth.
Kyler Murray listed his top five on Thursday (in alphabetical order) as Clemson, Florida, Oregon, TAMU, and Texas Tech.
https://twitter.com/DeeChilllin/status/429349974430597121
Jordan, can we share you link? Thought I’d ask before marketing it out in the public realm.
Which link are you wanting to share? A link to this post? If so, feel free.
Just the link to the site. I always ask first.
Oh man, please feel free. Tell all your OU friends!
Jordan, I have been friends with Kevin since Jr High and he did in fact post a link on FB with your blessing. With that said, might be a great idea to post an article asking everyone to post a site link via their social media accounts. Just a thought. Would love to see this site “blow up” as the new “go to” site for everything “BOOM”!
Good idea.
If you haven’t watched the video featuring Kyler Murray yet, you should. I came away very impressed. Has a good arm for his size. Very quick and twitchy when on the run. Reminds me a lot of Mariota from Oregon. He’d make for a good slot receiver wherever he ends up going IMO.
Looks like a slinger, too bad we’ve got only a slim chance. But at least the offer is on the table.
He has wheels for sure, but can he make all the throws? I didn’t watch the whole tape but seems like most of his passes are to wide open receivers or just tossed deep and the receivers went and got it.
I think we get 2 of 4: Quick & Parker in, Clark & Frison out.
My gut tells me 3 out of the 4 but that’s the same gut that usually tells me to stay for one more drink so maybe I should go with your prediction.
Your gut is a classy fella Ray. One more drink is always an option, as is a cab.
Lol! I hope your gut is right about this. Getting 3 of those guys (whichever 3) would be great.
Best site for Sooner Football news and updates………keep up the good work guys !!!
No go Bronco’s?
Go Manning …… Go Broncos !!!
Hey guys,
I have a small request. When you are listing players (like Pickard), can you put a location next to their name in parenthesis? I know it’s a small detail, but I like to learn more about the guys you “find”, and if I didn’t see the initial story, or forgot, it’s nice to know where the kid is located.
If not, it’s no big deal. Just a thought. Keep up the good work!
Just can’t thank you guys enough for these open posts that stick to the point. Information is shared along with opinions and no BS is allowed. Keep up the Awesome job fellas.
There’s an excitement, something building in the air around OU. I can feeling it coming.
So can this guy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkADj0TPrJA
Oh, lord.
HAHA, I was gonna go there last night but backed off!