The Football Brainiacs

– Team Note | Ricky Deberry:  If you came to our Town Hall chat on Tuesday you may have noted that we were asked if there was a possibility of Ricky Deberry moving to inside linebacker. I wasn’t privy to this move but Brandon was and he quickly corrected me…

If you heard coach Stoops’ press conference yesterday then you know Brandon’s information was indeed accurate.

I asked around and was told that Ricky has been extremely serious about his physical development since coming off the bowl game. I’m told that he’s still somewhere around 245 lbs but has been on a strict diet and is much more mobile. I was also told that during testing period he performed very well both in terms of his 40 time (the number I heard was around 4.7 which, if true, is excellent) and strength (I heard he did well on the bench press). – (Super K)

– Moving On to 2018: McKinzie will continue our series looking at the talent of the 2017 class but in recruiting it’s on to 2018 and Oklahoma already has an early start with their 2018 QB committed, a top tackle prospect in Brey Walker committed and CB Jordon Austin committed.

In 2017 OU did a few things better than they have in recent years. Here are a couple:

Communication – In the past it was common to find other staffs communicate more consistently with recruits and it wasn’t uncommon to find high priority recruits who would complain about not hearing from Oklahoma for periods at a time. That wasn’t the case this past year. A source close to the program told me that the communication was far more organized and scheduled. It paid off. It was a regular thing to hear recruits say that Oklahoma showed “more love” than any other school. The Sooner staff recruited as a staff. They ensured that multiple coaches recruited each player. I am told that it was scheduled so that each coach knew which recruit they were to communicate with on which day.

Communication in 2018 – Oklahoma has already had a jr day this year. Compare that to Texas who doesn’t have one scheduled till later in February. In other words OU has already had face to face communication with a number of their top targets and the early reviews are good.

Building a Core of Local Recruits – Proximity matters. Coach Stoops talked about that yesterday in his press conference. Poaching off guys nationally is great. But Oklahoma has a strong local recruiting base and they tapped into it. The local kids go to the local camps. So, it gives them a chance to meet more regularly and strengthen that bond. If memory serves Oklahoma only had one local decommitment which came from Ceedee Lamb who ultimately signed with the Sooners anyway. Trajan Bandy and Jacob Phillips were national guys who ended up signing elsewhere.

Local Recruiting in 2018 – OU has already identified a number of Texas targets and had quite a few on campus this past weekend. But what I really like seeing is the Missouri offers. By my count Oklahoma has already offered five defensive linemen from the Missouri/Kansas region. In Texas, Oklahoma has to compete with a lot great schools that have the same or even more of a proximity advantage. In Missouri/Kansas region, OU has the proximity advantage over Texas, Texas A&M, etc. and it’s a lot easier to fight battles against Missouri or Kansas State in general. – (Super K)