Open Post | Weekend, December 14th – 16th
Posted on: December 14, 2018
TFB Talking Point | College Football Playoff Expansion?
– Charlie S
Lot’s of chatter on
In the simplest version, the eight teams would be comprised of the five P5 conference champions, the highest ranked G5 conference champion, and two at-large bids with a Notre Dame inclusion based on where they are ranked.
Just for fun, let’s take a look at how that would translate to this year.
This year’s bracket would look something like:
1. Alabama vs 8. Washington
2. Clemson vs 7. UCF
3. Notre Dame vs 6. Ohio State
4. Oklahoma vs 5. Georgia
What are your thoughts to the possible expansion?
Jeremiah Criddell Post In-Home Update
– Super K
Last night the Sooners head coach, Lincoln Riley
Before anyone asks, the “O” symbol in the picture doesn’t stand for Oregon. It’s a zero which stands for Ground Zero 7v7 organization.
I spoke to someone close to Criddell and I was told the following about Criddell’s recruitment and the in-home.
***In-home went great but I’m told what’s really helping OU with Criddell right now is “the glitz and glamor of Oklahoma. Oklahoma is prestigious. It says a lot about a player to go to Oklahoma and there really isn’t any other schools he’s considering that are like that. I mean, during the in-home the TV was on and they were talking about Lincoln Riley on the TV!”
***Source said it’s less about who the coaches are and more about Oklahoma as an institution and a brand. Additionally source said that Criddell sees a real opportunity to start right away at Oklahoma.
***Coming out of this Oklahoma visit I’m told that mom and the family are sold on Oklahoma. The Sooners are the team to beat with Criddell and the mother.
***However, something to keep an eye on is the fact that Criddell will take his official visit to Oregon this upcoming weekend. He took an unofficial visit to Oregon a couple weeks ago though, and that didn’t seem to change things. So, I’m not sure what kind of impact the Oregon OV is going to have.
***Another thing to watch however is that Criddell is very close to being able to graduate early. He needs one more class. Oregon is on a quarters system so the source tells me he could take the class and enroll early at Oregon, something the source noted that Criddell cannot do at Oklahoma.
***Also, the relationships Criddell has at Oregon are very strong, “he knows everyone there, from the janitor to the head coach”.
***Again, though, Oklahoma being in the play offs, in the media…this is a situation where Oklahoma is having that Alabama/Clemson affect on a West Coast kid. The brand of OU may be too big for Oregon to counter but because Criddell still has this Oregon OV coming up this weekend, I’m staying a bit cautious on this one.
***Finally, I’m told a decision has not yet been made about whether Criddell will sign early or not. There is still uncertainty about who the coach will be and from what I was told, it doesn’t sound like Lincoln showed his hand one way or another to Criddell and the family at the in-home.
Trending: OU
Sooners Offer 2020 WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba
– Charlie S
Earlier this week, 2020 wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba reached out and let us know that he has received an offer from the Sooners…
The 6’1″ 190 lb Smith-Njigba out of Rockwall, TX, is currently an Ohio State commit. He also holds offers TCU, ND, and Ole Miss.
Smith-Njigba visited Norman for the UCLA game this past season and Super K had a write up on him at the time.
In the write-up, Jaxon revealed that he had some connections to OU:
“It appears Jaxon has ties to OU, he tells me that his uncle is former OU wide receiver, Ahmed Kabba.”
Smith-Njigba said that the Sooners have been down twice to see him in the past couple weeks and Coach Gundy pulled the trigger on the offer tonight when he called him and let him know that the Sooners were offering him.
We will catch up with him again in the near future and let you know if there are any plans for a junior day visit or anything.
Notebook | Ike, Davis, Haselwood & More
– Super K
***Early in the week, 2019 OT, Danielson Ike (KC) had confirmed that he indeed set up his visit to Oklahoma. He planned to be in town this weekend.
However, he let me know last night that he will now take his visit following the holidays.
Ike tells me he will sign in February.
***Butler graduate transfer, Tommy Kennedy made it to Norman for his official visit. It looks like it will come down to OU and Miami as Texas did not end up extending an offer.
***After confirming that he would be taking his official visit to OU this weekend, I’m now being told that 2019 LSU RB commit, Tyrion Davis has cancelled his visit.
I will work to confirm this with Davis tomorrow but that’s the information I received this evening.
Obviously if he doesn’t make it in then OU’s slim chances went to zero.
We have been told that Lincoln Riley is still trying to make this visit happen, and if anything changes, we will let you know.
***As I mentioned previously, JUCO RB, Rhamondre Stevenson is confirmed he will visit this weekend.
However, something to keep an eye on is the fact that he did pick up a USC offer. It looked like this one would come down to OU and Texas but with USC jumping in the mix, I would imagine they will be a big player in this recruitment.
Again, he isn’t planning on signing till February, however, once in Norman, you never know if things could change.
***I am told that OU was back in Georgia Thursday to do their final in-home visit with 5-star WR, Jadon
This one is a tough one to read right now. I continue to believe the top three are Miami, Georgia and OU but am really uncertain about the order.
It’s been thought for a while that Miami was Haselwood’s leader and they may very well still be. But I can’t discount the fact that OU really wasn’t able to recruit Haselwood earlier in the fall because of their desire to not disrupt the wide receiver class they had committed.
Now that OU is able to really make it known to Haselwood just what a priority he is, I believe that is having an impact.
We will have a write up detailing the final in-home in the near future.
Quick Hitters | Pierce, Mater Dei & More
– Charlie S
*** Been in touch with JUCO WR Brandon Pierce who let us know that OU and he are kind of at a standstill at this point due to the fact that while he has put in his request for his transcripts and paid for them, there could be up to a 30 day wait before the Sooners receive them.
Now for Pierce, that really doesn’t affect him as he will be a spring enrollee and his potential offer would not have any connection to a wide receiver such as Jadon Haselwood. We will keep you up to date on this as things progress.
*** Touched base with 2019 offensive lineman and Sooners commit EJ Ndoma-Ogar this morning.
EJ let me know that he hosted Coach Bedenbaugh on Monday evening for an in-home visit.
He said he had a great conversation with Coach B and is fully locked in with OU.
As we have been saying, nothing really to see here and we fully expect Ndoma-Ogar to be a part of this class.
*** Sooners hit the west coast hard today in the 2021 class as they extended two offers to players out of Mater Dei
– First OU offered 2021 outside linebacker Raesjon Davis.
Davis is a 6’1″ 210 lb sophomore who already holds offers from Oregon, Utah, and Arizona State…
– The Sooners also offered 2021 defensive back Jaylin Davies…
Davies is a 6′ 150 lb sophomore who currently holds offers from Oregon, Utan and Arizona.
The offers are obviously a sign that Lincoln Riley is following through on his notion that “We are OU and we can go into any school in any part of the country and pull kids to Norman”.
I will be in touch with both of these recruits in the near future and I will bring you their thoughts on the Oklahoma offers.
Notebook | Defensive Coordinator Search
– Super K
James and I spoke yesterday and compared notes. Wanted to pass along some of the things we’ve been hearing.
***First, yesterday I mentioned that I started hearing some additional names but was waiting for more confirmation before I mentioned those names. I have heard one particular name from multiple people this week as a person of interest, namely, Utah defensive coordinator, Morgan Scalley.
Scalley is widely respected and a guy who recruits SE Texas pretty heavily. Right now it’s just a name I’ve heard from enough people to believe that he’s a name that’s on OU’s radar. Nothing more.
***We’ve been told that Lincoln Riley seems extremely relaxed and calm about this defensive coordinator search. The gist of what I got was that Lincoln knows what to look for in a defensive coordinator because, simply put, as the best offensive coordinator in the country, he sees things other people don’t. He knows what works on defense and what doesn’t. So, he’s confident he can find and bring in the right guy.
***We’re told that money has not been discussed. That the general sense is that Castiglione and company are willing to go higher than usual for this hire but things have not progressed far enough with any person to really discuss money.
***This brings us back to Golding. There was some thought that things had progressed further and perhaps Golding had turned OU down. We are now getting the sense that though it appears Golding was/is a guy Lincoln really likes, true to his word, Lincoln simply had not made a decision. That doesn’t mean there hasn’t been contact. I believe there has been. But it’s our understanding that Lincoln will evaluate everything after the bowl game, including Golding.
***One thing James specifically mentioned to me which very much jives with what Lincoln has said in public and what we know about Lincoln’s personality is that if Golding is still a co-DC after it’s all said and done and Lincoln believes he’s the guy, he’ll go after him. If he’s somehow bumped to defensive coordinator, he likely wouldn’t pursue him.
An import thing to note about Lincoln is he doesn’t give up when it comes to a recruitment. I can tell you there are kids that the staff wanted to give up on that Lincoln Riley himself refused to give up on.
***But again, it’s our sense that Riley isn’t sweating this because he believes in this program, in himself, and his ability to identify a guy whether the price tag is $800,000 or over a million.
***To kind of wrap this part up with Golding, with Riley leading the charge our sense, and that of folks around the program is that the Golding deal isn’t necessarily dead and that despite some of the rumors it never actually progressed as far as people believed. We are told that when Riley says he’s committed to the current team and that his focus is on the championship and the people on this staff at the moment, he means it.
***Now, while it’s our understanding that Lincoln would not pursue Golding should he somehow be bumped to primary DC at Alabama, it sounds like that isn’t the case for Grinch. James and I both heard something similar here – that Lincoln thinks he could potentially land Grinch even if Ohio State chose to bump him to DC.
***The case to be made to Grinch would be a) Come to OU and build a dynasty. It’d be a pretty easy argument to make when Riley has been two playoffs in two years without a defense. b) Grinch doesn’t have some long-standing ties to coach Day at Ohio State and like it or not, there are some question marks now that Urban is gone. c) Come to OU under Lincoln Riley and your job is pretty dang easy. Riley’s offense is always going to be explosive. I know some may argue that Baker and Kyler are a big reason for Lincoln’s success. From everything I’ve heard, Lincoln is a much bigger reason for Baker and Kyler’s success (perhaps I’ll write something about that later). d) The draw of Lincoln himself. There are a lot of coaches that are tough to work for. Lincoln is considered in the industry as a guy who you absolutely want to work for. He’s young, sharp and has an amiable disposition and he treats his coaches with respect and does a lot of the heavy lifting on the recruiting side himself. e) Mike Leach. I wouldn’t be surprised if Leach would put in the word for Lincoln. I can almost here Leach saying to Grinch, “you’re an idiot if you don’t want to coach with this guy”.
***So bottom line here is, the reason for the sense around OU that Lincoln could get Grinch isn’t because they aren’t privy to the fact that Ohio State may bump him to DC (which was my working theory yesterday). It’s because there are some who believe that if Lincoln decides to go full force after him (and yes, I’m told they have spoken but no offer was made) he could potentially sway him, anyway. Again, they don’t feel that would be the case with Golding but it also doesn’t look likely that Golding will be bumped to DC.
***A last note, we continue to hear the refrain that Lincoln will be looking for someone similar to himself – as in young, innovative, easy to work with, etc
Jordan Battle and Chris Steele | The Latest
– Super K
This is the latest I’ve heard on both Battle and Chris Steele…
Jordan Battle
***I am told that as of right now, Battle still plans on announcing today. He has three schools in mind – Ohio State, Alabama
***From what I’m told, Ohio State is out. I was told just a little bit ago that they are running third behind Alabama and OU. I’m also told that Battle has let Ohio State know their fate.
***Alabama is the likely pick today however, OU went out to the school yesterday and I’m told were are continuing to recruit him last night.
***As I said earlier this week, I’m told Alabama doesn’t technically have a spot for Jordan but they do believe they will be losing a particular safety recruit to LSU. I don’t know if that means they’re going to push someone out or if said person is someone they simply believe will flip. Said recruit isn’t signing till February so they’ll be able to take Battle’s signature this Wednesday.
***What OU is trying to impress on Battle is playing time and not having to go in and compete with Dax Hill. Just my opinion but you’re not giving yourself much of a chance if you’re trying to compete with Dax Hill.
***All that said, again, Bama continues to be the team to beat but it sounds like OU is above Ohio State in this one. Unfortunately, there is no prize for coming in second.
Chris Steele
***This is the one where the Sooners refuse to go quietly into the night. I would’ve assumed that Steele not ever having made it back to Oklahoma would’ve put OU out of it. But based on my conversations with a number of people, that is simply not the case. Folks around the OU program that I’ve spoken to are adamant that they have a real shot at Steele and some of that is coming from what appears to have been an epic in-home visit by Lincoln Riley the other night.
***When I spoke with Steele’s father on the phone following the in-home visit earlier this week, our initial exchange went as follows…
K: So, how did it go?
Troy Steele: Man, it went good.
K: How do you mean?
Troy: Man, when I tell you it went good, I mean it went really really good. Like, really good.
Hearing it in his voice, it was clear that Lincoln Riley knocked it out of the park but as I spoke to other folks tied into this recruitment they echoed the sentiment. Lincoln Riley made a massive impression on the family. Apparently the Steele family had like 50 questions for Riley and word is he answered every question.
***Troy Steele said as much, “They answered a lot of our questions and we had a lot for them”. When I asked Troy Steele about the uncertainty around the DC position and then asked him how that compared to some of the uncertainty at USC he said, “it’s a big difference between a team that’s in the final four and USC’s season. One uncertainty aint like the other. We understand that it’s hard for Lincoln to address things right now. He has to focus on the team he’s got. He has to focus on the guys he’s got and that’s what we would want if Chris was there. We believe he’ll (Lincoln) get it (the defensive hires) right”.
***And that’s the big thing at play here, there is a trust in Lincoln Riley. In fact one source I spoke with today told me that Steele’s mother wants him to be at Oklahoma because she wants him to be coached by Riley. The family believes Lincoln will take care of Chris.
***Now, something to watch is Troy tells me they will visit USC this weekend. He’s a local kid so I always see USC as a threat. How big of a threat? At this point, it depends on who you talk to. So I’m reserving my judgment here a bit. But if you talk to folks around the OU program, they aren’t as worried about USC as they are about Oregon which surprised me.
***Florida is a team that has been around for a while and Chris has visited them a number of times. I’m told that Chris really likes Florida but the hang up with Florida is a) it’s very very very far from home and b) it doesn’t sound like the parents iare as sold on Florida and their staff as they are on Lincoln Riley and OU. But again, I’m not ready to dismiss the Gators but the word I’m hearing right now is that Florida still has some work to do with the family.
***One of the things that’s continued to be a strike against Oklahoma in my mind is the fact that Chris only visited OU one time and that was back in April. But someone close to the situation reminded me of something, saying, “yeah but what happened when he went there? He committed. He’s committed to them once before”. And that is true. In other words, that one visit was enough to make him feel like it was, at the time, the right place for him. Additionally, the Sooners have Bookie and other California kids on the roster, something Florida doesn’t have.
That’s the latest information I have on this. I’ve tried to talk to people who see this from different angles and I’ve come away believing that, as of now, the Sooners are still very much a serious contender in this one and may even be the favorite.
I know what you’re thinking…
