As a result of the bye week, I’ve been struggling with the boredom I suspect many of you have also been suffering from. So one of the things I’ve been doing to fill the time is going back to past OU recruiting classes. I didn’t start with any particular goal or topic in mind, but I have found a couple interesting trends that I may write about at some point. But there was one in particular that definitely stood out, so much so that I felt compelled to bring it to your attention.
As you may or may not be aware, we are currently in the year 2014. And this is going to focus on OU’s 2011 recruiting class, meaning the players who signed with the Sooners that year would most likely be either redshirt juniors or seniors at this point in time. At which point you would expect, or at least hope, that most would be contributing in some way, preferably in a significant way if you’ve done your job in first identifying and then developing talent.
Just a quick reminder this 2011 class was somewhat unique in its size as it was one of the smaller classes (17 signees*) in Bob Stoops’ tenure. Doesn’t really affect anything per se, but obviously the smaller the class, the smaller your margin for error.
*And it wasn’t really even 17 because Trey Metoyer was initially counted as a member of this class, but he failed to qualify academically and didn’t enroll until 2012. Then proved to have some pretty serious other problems, we’ll just leave it at that.
So let’s take at that 2011 class as we’ll just see if you find the results to be as disturbing as I did.
Oklahoma’s Class of 2011 included (in alphabetical order):
*DT Marquis Anderson – Was a U.S. Army All-American in h.s., never really played for OU, wound up leaving the program.
*OL Dylan Dismuke – local(ish) kid, never saw the field, had to give up the game because of a bum knee
*OL Derek Farniok – monster of a man, has seen some time both as a starter and backup, currently a reserve tackle
*DE Nathan Hughes – never really got on the field as a DE, switched to OL, transferred
*WR Kameel Jackson – showed some promise early, got suspended, left (or was asked to leave) the program
*OL Nila Kasitati – Signing day steal from Baylor, current “starter” at OG and valuable member of the o-line
*LB P.L. Lindley – played some, been moved around quite a bit and asked to put on quite a bit of weight, currently a reserve LB/DE
*WR Trey Metoyer – addressed above
*DB Bennett Okotcha – seemed to perform well during practice redshirting in 2011 season, then unexpectedly transferred
*DT Jordan Phillips – currently the most valuable player on the OU defense
*LB Frank Shannon – multi-year starter, not currently with the program/school (you know the story)
*TE Max Stevenson – never played, gave up the game because of an injury
*TE Dan Tapko – don’t believe he ever actually enrolled, also because of injuries if memory serves
*QB Kendal Thompson – OU legacy, couldn’t get on the field, graduated in three years (which is ridiculously impressive), currently in-and-out of the QB1 spot for Utah
*DT Jordan Wade – showed a ton of promise last year, has now clearly apparently pissed someone off enough to see fit he basically hasn’t played this entire season
*RB Brandon Williams – 5-star RB, redshirt year burned for no apparent reason (my words) at the time, transferred to TAMU
*RB Danzel Williams – moved from RB to DB back to RB, never saw the field at either, transferred
So you’ll notice I put some in ‘italics’ while others are in ‘bold’ and I did so for a reason. The two, yes just two, guys in bold are the only members of that entire 2011 class who are significant contributors on this current OU team. And that, my friends, is pathetic.
Now to be fair, so of these are simply victim of circumstance as obviously no one can control injuries or something like the Frank Shannon debacle. But never the less, this is a results business and 2-of-17 are some pretty crappy results.
31 Comments
I know you cant be questioning the recruiting and (development) the ou coaches do every year this is a complete joke coaching and recruiting. But the 2 that are playing are really good lol.
Some eye popping stats there. Crazy.
2010-2012 were not good years as far as how many guys actually contribute or contributed. But the 2012 guys still have a shot to contribute so I won’t write that class off
When adding in injuries & factoring in transfers during coaching transition, scheme changes, year of gutting team from locker room cancers, guess it doesn’t surprise with such a small class. Terrible year as far as end result. But didn’t we know the old regime wasn’t getting it done?
Obviously can’t plan on RB’s getting homesick…etc.
Does this speak more of bad recruiting then or higher of recruiting/development since?
I think the Brandon Williams transfer had more to do with lack of playing time than being homesick. Either way, I wasn’t too upset with that situation.
I think it’s a combination of former coaches a) coasting and b) not really knowing what they were doing. Looking at Jackie Shipp as an example, I think he was still able to identify quality talent, but I think he mailed it in once they got to Norman. And we all know the situation with the OL/TE coaches.
It’s clear that we now have guys that work hard on the recruiting trail and appear to be solid teachers.
Anytime there is turnover in the coaching ranks (I’m not referring to one guy leaving, but when several are let go) there’s going to be a pause in the activity (as it relates to recruiting, a bad/poor period that will surface at some point in the future). You can only hope the next guy (or in this situation, guys) can make do until their recruits are able to contribute. So far, it’s still kind of unknown but it appears both Bedenbaugh and Montgomery are better than their predecessors.
2 out of 17? hell, I know guys doing worse than that with wives. 🙂 Seriously though, we went through some bad coaching/recruiting years that have started to be addressed. Not sure the entire problem has been fixed but it is better now than a few years ago.
Could be that some of these guys just weren’t getting it doneon the ffield for the new defensive scheme Mike was bringing in. Other guys may not have had the proper attitude the coaches were looking for. Wasn’t 2011 the year of the sharks and the internal locker room issues? Why Wade isn’t playing boggles my mind. And where the hell is Tyler Evans?
My typing on my phone sucks.
That’s why I try to avoid using my IPad except for reading.
You are correct, there were lots of problems between players and coaches, then there are the scheme changes/ coaching changes and on and on. It only takes a couple divas to sour a locker room and if a coach rubs the team the wrong way you have a cancer that can’t be cured. I don’t think we’ve seen the best or worst yet with this current team,I just hope that everyone gels and starts playing with some passion again.
I thought the dame thing about Evans. He played ALOT in the first three games and he has not played at all since then,
Will be interesting to see how the other years stack up.
That’s pretty crazy. After reading this I looked back and ’08 was nothing to write home about outside of Landry and some other contributors but a lot of busts in there. 2011 was pretty awful though. Tough to complain about though, hard to predict what teenagers will do mentally and physically in their maturation process.
Am I the only one that see the irony in the fact that the position coaches that recruited the two contributors were subsequently fired for not recruiting well.
If you look hard enough I guess you could claim some irony there, but you have to admit that there was some big disappointments during their time that warranted the change. Whether it was entirely their fault or not, who knows, but I’m happy with their replacements. When there is a let down at any position someone has to have the finger of blame pointed at them, that’s the college football way.
No I don’t think the two who did recruit them needed to stay. Just point out the irony in the situation. It does point out that the recruiting and development needs to be improved across the board.
Jordan, this is pretty interesting. I like to check out this stuff as well. With the number of players who have left the program,surely it allows for more scholarship opportunities upcoming recruits or current players.
Jordan’s article provoked me to look at the numbers more closely:
First, I wanted to identify how many players “should” contribute from each class.
– 23 commits per year (avg.)
– total commits over the course of 4.5 years = 103 players
– 44 are considered “contributors” i.e. contribute on the 2 deep
– 44/103 = 43%
Target/Goal: every class, needs about 43% of that year’s class to contribute
Next, I wanted to identify how many players actually contributed and compared that to our target.
– 2011 Goal – 17 * 43% = 7 contributors
– 2011 Actual – 2 *although an argument could be made for 3 as Shannon has started for years, so I will use 3 contributors
– Difference / Variance = 4 or 57%
I would say Jordan highlighted a very important point about OU’s recruiting, specifically 2011. Along with a higher attrition rate, the situation was compounded by a lower talent rating.
wow. thanks for the breakdown. very cool to see the math put to it. i agree with super keith in that this was the last straw for the line coaches. i think, also, that its easy to look at a websites star rankings and then anothers and see how they vary(i love recruiting but haven’t gotten so deep in it that i know the drastic nature of varying rankings). its also easy to look at a sites star rankings and be so in love with those rankings that they lead my mind in certain directions. i like that we do our own evals. i think super k is spot on with his view of if bama offers that will earn you at least a star. also, depends on the year with what positions do we need, where are those guys ranked, where are those guys from, etc. it also depends on which highly ranked guys are delta bravos and which guys are really team guys, etc. sorry for rambling. just got me to thinking how much goes into it and how easy it would be to write some of those things off
Love to see factual data represented in the debate and discussion. It definitely helps add some subjectivity that may be lacking elsewhere.
The one point left out here is that in such a small recruiting class, the percentage of quality contributors needs to be much higher than in a typical class. The stats are great but they do not offer an apples to apples comparisons of the situation.
Could you please do my 2014 tax return?
I think this class had went into the decision to replace the line coaches. The few exceptions that nobody could have foreseen (Metoyer and Thompson), round out a truly craptacular class.
I think you are correct. The 2011 and 2012 classes were the “prove why I should keep you” tests and they failed big-time.
Ditto
This is interesting for sure, and surely it’s not normal to go 2/17 on your recruits, but that begs the question – what is normal? Better yet, how many need to pan out to be truly successful? I know someone had a little formula, but I wonder what guys like Nick Saban’s contributor: non-contributor rate is.
Hey just take 2 seconds and look at the number of players that are contributing from 2012 and 2013. WOW! Little bit of a difference.
Jordan – I think you need to struggle with boredom more often. This is great stuff!
2011; This would have been the last year of Venables and the year before Shipp and Patton would get the axe. This was at the height of apathy/complacency of the OU staff. It really doesn’t really surprise me that so many did not pan out for us from that season.
This is actually a very normal and common thing for Oklahoma. Under Bob their consistent track record has been every third or so recruiting class will be an absolute bust almost across the board. 2003 is a good example, and both 2007 and 2008 help to make up for any success Oklahoma may have strung together from after that horrid 2003 recruiting class. I can still recall Holtz pointing out what a failure the 2003 class was when Oklahoma was struggling so badly in 2005. The consistent cycle of Oklahoma having almost entire classes of failures points out a deeper internal issue within the program in my opinion.
I’m just wondering what the hell happened in 2014