The Football Brainiacs

Image of Chauncey Gardner via cleveland.com

– Nigel Knott & Parrish Cobb: If you read (and paid attention to) yesterday’s Open Post, you’ll probably remember both 2016 DBs were prominently featured. And then not so coincidentally Oklahoma also extends an offer to both Knott and Cobb yesterday. – (Jordan)

– Trayveon Williams: And in a busy day for new OU offers going out, the Sooners also extended one to 2016 RB Trayveon Williams (Houston, TX). Thus far it was only OU’s third RB offer in this 2016 class with the presumed early favorite, prior to yesterday, being Abdul Adams (Washington, D.C.).

Admittedly these highlight are fairly old, but what you will see is presumably the style of back Lincoln Riley and co. are expected to target going forward as the Sooners shift back to a “modified” version of an Air Raid offense. More versatile, dual-threat backs who are just as much of a threat catching the ball out of the backfield as they are running the ball.

Williams certainly isn’t the biggest of guys listed at just 5’8″ 188 pounds, but he’s a shifty runner who is still stout enough to run through arm tackles at the h.s. level. – (Jordan)

– Pernell Jefferson: Yet another recipient of an OU offer yesterday was 6’3″ 232 pound 2016 DE/OLB, Pernell Jefferson (New Orleans, LA). As mentioned in yesterday’s OP, Jefferson is actually a teammate of 2015 OU signee Arthur McGinnis. Which one would have to believe could only help OU’s chances. But, more to the point, it was one of several recent offers that shows how different of an approach the OU coaches are taking in this 2016 class compared to last year in terms of LB recruiting.

I had a chance to catch up with Jefferson yesterday shortly after the OU offer, and as one would expect he seemed pretty excited about things. “They’re my biggest offer, in my opinion, so they are really high on my list.” Mind you he’s been offered by Missouri, Ole Miss, Mississippi State and TCU to this point, so it’s not exactly as if he’s holding offers from a bunch of stiffs.

Jefferson also shared with me that McGinnis has already been selling him on OU, and the former is currently working on plans to try and make it up to Norman for OU’s March 7th Jr. Day.

This will be a building process between Jefferson, Tim Kish, and the OU coaching staff, so we’ll just have to wait and see how things continue to progress. But even in my conversation with him, I could tell there was at least some reason for optimism. – (Brandon)

– Chauncey Gardner: Continuing with the theme of guys who OU offered yesterday, Kerry Cooks set his sights on one of the top 2016 DBs in the country when offering Chauncey Gardner (Cocoa, FL). The 6’0″ 190 pound stud DB actually had a preexisting relationship with Cooks from back during his time with Notre Dame. While speaking with Gardner yesterday after news of the OU offer, I asked him about that relationship with the new OU defensive backs coach. “We have a great relationship,” Gardner said. He also went on to say that Cooks is a big reason for his interest in the Sooners, and that he isn’t really in a rush to name any top schools at the moment rather he’s just trying to “keep an open mind to everyone.”

Which is somewhat of a pretty standard answer from a prospect at this point in the 2016 recruiting cycle, so I thought I might push him just a little bit to see if I could get any more out of him. “It (OU) is somewhere I can see myself playing at and it’s a blessing to be recruited by one of the best programs in the nation.” Again, maybe not earth-shattering per se, but still obviously a positive review in OU’s favor. And given the relationship he and Coach Cooks already had and are continuing to develop, there is no reason to believe at the moment the Sooners won’t be right in this one.

However, it is probably worth noting that even though we’re still pretty early in this 2016 cycle Gardner has already had a bit of a whirlwind recruitment. He already been committed at one point to Miami, only to then later decommit, then flip to Florida, only to then decommit once again. So this one could definitely have a few more twists and turns before it’s all said and done. – (Brandon)

– UPDATE (4:52 pm): You have to love recruiting. No less than telling our guy Brandon around 48 hours earlier that he wasn’t really focused on a list of top schools, 2016 DB Chauncey Gardner then puts out a Top 10.