Open Post | Tuesday, February 18th
Posted on: February 18, 2020
Updates | Pryor, Montgomery & More
– Super K
***Last week, we mentioned that 2021 RB, TreVeyon Henderson will be taking an official visit to Oklahoma (here):
Henderson tells us that he will take an official visit to Oklahoma. I believe it will happen this spring but we don’t have the date just yet.
It looks like that date has now been confirmed as Henderson tweeted out the following, in response to Sooners OL commit, Cullen Montgomery…
***Another 2021 RB that we previously mentioned is Evan Pryor. Back in January when Murray was first hired, James said (here)…
Before the week is done Coach Murray will also see four-star running back Evan Pryor (5’10, 190) of Cornelius (William Amos Hough), North Carolina. OU had already offered but early Pryor is looking at Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio State, Oregon, and Penn State. Murray will work to get into the mix with Pryor.
It looks like Murray did, in fact, get the Sooners in the mix! Pryor released his top 6 which included most of the schools James had previously noted – UNC, Georgia, Ohio State, and Penn State. It looks Oregon was replaced with Oregon and the Sooners manage to jump in…
Pryor has told me that definitely plans on visiting Oklahoma.
As I’ve said before, I think Murray is going to land him at least one elite guy in this class.
***Dontae Manning was in the news again this week. With his primary recruiter, Donte Williams leaving for USC, there was some thought that Manning could look to get out of his NLI.
There were some rumors that it had happened but throughout the week we’d heard that although he was considering it, he had not made any actual moves in that direction.
Manning took to Twitter to seemingly reconfirm his commitment to the Ducks.
Probably time to turn the page on Manning. The Sooners have spent enough time on this one.
TFB Talking Point | Proposed Transfer Rules
– Charlie S
The ACC has reportedly discussed amending the transfer rules which would allow a student-athlete, regardless of sport, a one-time opportunity to switch schools without penalty in regards to eligibility. I am a fan.
K has long been a proponent of this and I am also in favor of it so long as it takes out some of the shenanigans that are currently taking place through the use of the transfer portal.
My biggest issue with the current set up of the transfer portal is the seemingly random way it is decided as to which kids can transfer without penalty and which kids cannot.
Some kids have been able to get around the issue of sitting out a year unless you are a graduate transfer. Tate Martel, Justin Fields, and Chris Steele are examples of players who entered the portal and found themselves to be immediately eligible at their new school.
Each of the players mentioned above used different reasoning to justify their transfers and subsequent requests for immediate eligibility. Martell transferred because he was recruited over, in my opinion, there was no way he should have been immediately eligible under the current rules. Fields transferred based on being uncomfortable at Georgia (there were rumors of racial slurs being tossed at him) and while I am not privy to the exact nature of the transfer request, I would certainly listen to the young man and take his request into consideration. Steele requested his transfer based on a toxic environment at Florida and at the time, from what I read, I absolutely agreed with him being eligible to transfer without penalty.
With all that being said, a one-time transfer rule would pretty much put the reasoning and therefore the subjective decisions to bed (in a perfect world).
My only concern with the one-time rule is that it will inevitably be tested by a student-athlete who wishes to transfer a second (or third) time without restriction. What I would be worried about is a kid, like Martell, getting a high powered attorney to make the case for him (as they did in his transfer to Miami) and blowing up the whole model again.
The rules should be uniform and it should not matter what type of attorney your family can afford.
All in all, I think the one-time transfer would clear up a lot of the nonsense that has taken place to this point with the portal. I, personally, would add some tweaks to it such as a GPA requirement and a disclosure of a clean disciplinary sheet, but that all could be worked out in the fine print. I would also include the same provision for a medical situation for a family member if a student athlete is considering transferring to be within a reasonable distance from home (again, ‘reasonable distance’ would have to be well defined).
What are your thoughts?
A Few Sourced Team Notes
– James Hale
*** It was a great find by K on how fast Bryson Washington can run. Getting times and results out of OU is like getting gold out of Fort Knox, but Robert Barnes was clocked at 4.61 at his new weight of 218 pound and that certainly is not bad.
*** Another freshman that I heard ran really well is wide receiver Marvin Mims that was sub 4.5 and in the lower 4.4’s.
*** Freshman linebacker Shane Whitter was also impressive at 6’0, 222 running in the 4.5’s.
