Open Post | Wednesday, January 23rd
Posted on: January 23, 2019
Recruiting in Times of Staff Turnover | The Good, The Bad, and The Bizarre
– Charlie S
Typically, whenever a football staff goes through personnel changes, there is a period of time when things can get really weird on the recruiting trail.
Coaches who leave and find other employment tend to seek to continue recruiting kids they were familiar with while at their former place of work. Incoming coaches have to find a way to quickly connect with recruits who are already committed to their new place of employment in order to solidify their commitments and squash any doubts they may have.
It’s a tricky situation for all involved. Fortunately, the new OU staff only has to combat one former coach’s push on the recruiting trail as former secondary coach Kerry Cooks is the only recently dismissed coach who has continued his coaching career at this point.
Cooks landed at Texas Tech under their new head coach Matt Wells. Cooks, who coached the entire secondary at OU and held the title of ‘Assistant Defensive Coordinator’ is now the safeties coach in Lubbock.
Cooks has extended some of those
The next day he offered the other current 2020 Oklahoma defensive back commit, Jalen Huff out of Buford, GA…
While that is not uncommon, and I suspect those offers will have little effect on the two commits standing with the Sooners, there were a couple offers I did find interesting.
The first offer that I noticed which made me sit up was when Texas Tech offered elite 2020 defensive back Jordan Morant out of Bergen Catholic in New Jersey. I caught up with Morant two days ago when he was offered by OU and he let me know that new Sooners defensive coordinator Alex Grinch is the person who extended the offer and he pointed out that he is the first, and only, representative from OU that he has spoken with. I asked him again if he had any prior interaction with the Sooners and he said ‘No sir, Coach Grinch was recruiting me when he was at Ohio State, I had never heard from OU before he got to me and offered’.
Follow the leader type of offer from TTU? Maybe. It happens. Perhaps someone else on Wells’ staff at TTU had a relationship with him. Regardless, that was an offer that makes ya go ‘hmmm’.
The second one that made me tilt my head while reading Twitter was when Cooks and TTU offered 2020 defensive back Myles Slusher. Slusher is out of Broken Arrow, OK, and has been a topic of discussion on our board for months. Everyone has been asking ‘when is OU going to offer Slusher’ and ‘why doesn’t Slusher have an OU offer yet’.
When I tell you we have had the same questions and asked sources about it dozens of times, I would not be exaggerating. Each and every time we have inquired about Slusher, we got the same answer, something along the lines of…’Cooks isn’t as high on him as he is on other targets’.
As Michael Scott once said…
This offer by Cooks appears to me to be a ‘get ahead of the narrative’ type of offer. TTU has a much smaller pond to fish for recruits in, and by extending the offer as soon as he got to Tech, Cooks may be creating himself a small platform to stand on by saying ‘wasn’t me who didn’t want you at Oklahoma’ before the new Sooner staff does their evaluations and perhaps extends him an offer. Clearly I am speculating here as we do not know this to be the case, just showing an example of what could be taking place.
With Tim Kish retiring, and no idea where Bob Diaco is right now, Cooks is the only former OU coach on the trail recruiting and he is a smart and savvy recruiter when he wants to be so this will be fun to watch for a little while.
As for how does OU go about combating Cooks’ influence on the two current commits…easy…they have Lincoln Riley and Texas Tech doesn’t.
As we have mentioned previously, Riley, very wisely, inserted himself into each and every defensive recruits recruitment following the dismissal of Mike Stoops back in October of 2018. He planned ahead. He knew changes were coming and he wanted to be sure he built those relationships that needed to be strong.
Riley was the reason many of those defensive recruits signed with OU. Jaden Davis,
2020 Defensive End Recruiting | Names To Know
– Charlie S
Alfred Collins
Strong Side Defensive End 6’5″ 245
Bastrop, TX (Cedar Creek HS)
Sooners outlook: OU will have an uphill battle here, but it is one they are willing to wage. While Collins doesn’t have a timeframe for a top group or commitment date, Texas is very high on his mind early on. His mother having gone to Texas does nothing but help the Longhorns case. Sooners need to get him on campus soon if they want to make an impression.
Princely Umanmielan
Strong Side Defensive End 6’4″ 240
Manor, TX (Manor HS)
Sooners outlook: Princely was in Austin last weekend which he will follow up with a trip to Oklahoma for their junior day at the end of the month. This one is shaping up to be another Red River battle as both OU and Texas view him as a priority. Both schools feel as though they are in a good spot, however, OU will get the next chance to take their swing and grab the lead heading into the spring.
Jay Hardy
Strong Side Defensive End 6’4,5″ 260
Chatanooga, TN (McCallie School)
Sooners outlook: Hardy is a new offer for the Sooners but OU is wasting no time in getting out to see him as they will be heading down to Tennessee to pay him a visit this week. Hardy expressed some excitement about the OU offer to me earlier this week and he is very interested in setting up a visit. OU will have to work to pull him out of SEC territory but as I mentioned, he was very excited to get the offer and OU will have their shot to become a factor in this recruitment.
Vernon Broughton
Strong Side Defensive End 6’5″ 280
Houston, TX (Cy Ridge HS)
Sooners outlook: Texas and Oklahoma are two schools that offered this past summer and Vernon has had a chance to see both. The family attended the USC vs Texas game and had a chance to speak with coach Giles and coach Herman. They visited the Sooners this past summer for the ChampU BBQ and spent time with Lincoln Riley and Calvin Thibodeaux. Broughton also was at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas where they saw Texas and OU battle it out in the Red River game. Right now, I would give Texas a slight edge in yet another Red River battle, but the Broughtons are not a football family and they are basing their recruitment off of relationships and you can never count out Lincoln Riley and staff when it comes to developing those connections.
Kedrick Bingley-Jones
Strong Side Defensive End 6’4″ 270
Charlotte, NC (Providence Day School)
Sooners outlook: I have not been in touch with Kedrick to this point so I really cannot say too much about his recruitment. I will say that he is friends with 2020 WR Mike Wyman who will be taking an official visit to OU for the Spring Game in April, so that may be a possibility. I will work on getting in touch with him in the near future but I do believe he will be a major Sooners target going forward.
Alec Bryant
Weak Side Defensive End 6’3″ 230
Pearland, TX (Shadow Creek)
Sooners outlook: Bryant has visited Norman on multiple occasions. The Sooners are a very real player in his recruitment and may even be considered the favorite at this time. My question is in regards to where he fits in at OU. Will the new staff view him as a priority as the old staff did, or will they focus more on a little bigger body type as they move forward? We will see how this plays out but should the Sooners remain in pursuit, I would not be surprised to see him end up in Norman.
Prince Dorbah
Weak Side Defensive End 6’4″ 210
Dallas, TX (Highland Park)
Sooners outlook: Dorbah looks to be pretty much the same boat as Bryant is in. The Sooners could be a real player in his recruitment should they choose to be. He has visited Norman on multiple occasions and has always spoken highly of OU. The question again is, where does he fit in the defense and what level priority does the Sooner staff hold him at? We will see going forward, but as with Bryant, should the Sooners push, they will be a player in his recruitment throughout.
Other names to know (Guys who have OU offers and will get attention from the staff)
Bryan Bresee
Damascus MD
Tyler Baron
Nashville TN
Jacolbe Cowan
Charlotte NC
Kevon Billingsly
St Louis MO
James Sylvester
Newton TX
Sav’ell Smalls
Seattle WA
B.J. Ojulari
Marietta GA
Jason Harris
Gilbert AZ
Devon Betty
Ft Lauderdale FL
Myles Murphy
High Point, NC
Upcoming Weekend Visitors
– Super K
This weekend the Sooners will be hosting a few recruits. It is normally a junior day event but with the new staff, I think they are still working on who their primary defensive targets will be.
So far we’ve confirmed the following visitors for this weekend.
***2020 OT, Seth McLaughlin (Buford, GA). This one is interesting because this will be a return visit to Norman for Seth. For a player to come all the way out of from Georgia on multiple occasions would seem to be a good sign.
McLaughlin is teammates with Sooners DB commit, Jalen Huff.
***2020 running back. Sevion Morrison (Tulsa, OK). Morrison is a well known in-state prospect and an explosive running back. No OU offer yet but does carry a number of other early offers from schools like Arkansas, Missouri and Mississippi State.
***Jase McClellan, Sooners 2020 running back commit. Good to get him back on campus as he did take a return trip to Texas last weekend.
***Tunmise Adeleye, 2021 Defensive End (Katy, TX). Tunmise is just a sophomore but he’s one of the most highly coveted 2021 players in the country. It appears he’s going to be a high priority for the Sooners, Alabama, Texas and a lot of other schools.
I get the sense that Lincoln Riley is going to start prioritizing defensive linemen himself – as in, be heavily involved in the recruiting process. In the 2020 class, Lincoln has been personally recruiting Princely Umanmielen. In 2021 he is recruiting, among others, Tunmise.
In fact, Tunmise told me his main reason for visiting this weekend is, “I just want to have a one on one with coach Riley. That’s it to be honest”.
*** Brennon Scott, Outside Linebacker also tweeted out yesterday that he would be heading to Norman this weekend.
Scott, from Bishop Dunne in Dallas, TX, is a kid OU will have the opportunity to get on campus multiple times due to proximity. Will be interesting to see if he makes a return visit for the February date as well.
*** 2021 LB Kendrick Blackshire is expected in Norman per James. Blackshire is a kid who is blowing up on the recruiting trail early and that is a positive for OU to clearly make him a priority.
*** As I mentioned in the chat, K came up with a few other names we had heard would be visiting Norman Saturday…one of those names we were waiting to confirm was 2021 OT Bryce Foster out of Katy, TX (Taylor)…
Team Note | Effort Defense
– Super K
As I mentioned last week, I’ll try to throw notes up about little things I hear from behinds the scenes about the new defense and defensive hires.
One thing I was told that Grinch and the new defensive staff keep repeating is the words “effort based defense”. Last week I noted the simplicity of the defense. But what you’ll see them look for is guys who are willing to do everything they do at 100%.
This is a Grinch thing which I imagine comes from his Mount Union background but also an Urban Meyer influence. Herman has a similar philosophy. In fact, the way Herman and Orlando teach their defense is, if you don’t know what to do then do what you think you should do but do it at full speed every time.
In other words, getting everything correct at first isn’t the big priority. Attitude and effort are.
I can tell you that the previous defenses at Oklahoma were lacking in this department. The accountability just wasn’t there.
Here’s to
*** If you would like to read Super K’s Team update…please click the Donor Board link! https://donors.thefootballbrainiacs.com/team-updates-quick-hitters/
