The Football Brainiacs

Alright, the plan on this NSD eve, is to try and address the remaining realistic targets on OU’s board. So if you don’t see someone below, just hit us up in the comments and we’ll do our best to answer any questions you might have.

– Riley Cole, Something Changed?: Two days ago, the father of 2016 LB Riley Cole (Oneonta, AL) let me know that Oklahoma had extended his son a scholarship offer. It came shortly after Cole’s decommittment from Alabama, which resulted in the Tide asking him to take a grayshirt. However with regards to Cole & OU, last night I received a text his father that read, “I don’t think the offer (from OU) is still good.”

Whatever changed with respect to the offer at this point probably isn’t relevant, and it’s our understanding Cole is likely to stay somewhere down south regardless. However, this development did make me wonder if something changed between Sunday and Monday night in terms of how OU feels about LB targets that prompted such a sudden move.

Although we aren’t really sure what exact LB position Cole would’ve played for the Sooners, this is probably coming down to a simple numbers issue. Obviously, the Sooners picked up Mark Jackson yesterday but he had made that decision on Sunday. And if we (and others, I’m sure) got wind of the decision then, I have to assume the staff knew as well.

Which leads me to Caleb Kelly….

– Caleb Kelly: I go back and forth on this one. I’ve talked to numerous people about Kelly and even having done so, I still can’t settle on a decision. The Sooners have long been the favorite, and for a while Michigan loomed as the primary threat. However the Wolverines would eventually go another direction for whatever reason, at which point Notre Dame then stepped in.

I look at that two ways. The Sooners have been near the top for so long, there’s no way a late comer like Notre Dame could win. Or maybe Kelly is looking for a reason not to go to OU so as soon as Michigan was out of the picture, the Irish came into the picture.

Kelly has close ties to both members of the Oklahoma staff and several players, and he has visited Norman on numerous occasions. But I’ve been told he also has a close family member who accompanied him on a visit to Notre Dame and said family member may be pushing him towards South Bend.

These things usually play out with the most familiar school winning out and that would clearly be Oklahoma. But right now, I still think there is a chance it could go either way. – (Super K)

– Marcel Southall: Not much to say here, we’ve talked to a few sources on both the OU and Texas side of this and from what we can gather, the Sooners figure to be a very, very unlikely pick for Southall. Frankly, we aren’t really sure how heavily the Sooners even really pursued Southall over the past few weeks. – (Brandon & Super K)

– Parrish Cobb: Yesterday, K mentioned there was a lot of confusion inside the Cobb household with regards to where the 2016 CB may eventually land. I was told that Cobb and his father sat down with the rest of the family to hash the whole thing out.

I’m told the family is still giving the OU staff assurances that Cobb will sign with the Sooners and that certainly jives with what K has said time and time again; the father wants Cobb at Oklahoma. – (Brandon)

– Jared Mayden: Earlier this morning, I was talking to a friend of mine who is a recruiting expert and I asked where he felt Mayden would end up. “I’d bet Oklahoma…he won’t disappoint his family twice,” he said.

Mayden’s family has made it clear to us, and others, that they would prefer their son end up at Oklahoma. But that’s been true for a while now and yet early in his recruitment, OU didn’t even make his Top 7.

Yesterday, 2016 five-star CB Nigel Knott (Madison, MS) committed to Alabama, so we reached out to a couple sources in the Alabama area to see if that would impact whether or not the Tide still had a spot open for Mayden. And according to what we were told, even after Knott’s commitment Mayden is still a definite take for Bama.

It would appear there is a part of Mayden that wants to blaze his own path, but the family pull is undeniably strong and his recent visit to Oklahoma also went well. Again, a tough one to call here but the Sooners do have Mom in their corner, and in a lot of cases that can be enough. – (Super K)

– Chris Daniels: Simply put, barring a fairly significant change in the next 24 hours we don’t see this one happening for Oklahoma.

– Mykel Jones: We are still waiting to hear if Alabama will have a spot for Jones. If they do, we’ve been told that will be the pick. Of course if they do not, then we expect Jones to end up a Sooner.

– PJ Blue: The Louisville commit recently visited Norman and we believe, assuming OU could make the numbers work, he’d still be a take for the Sooners. However we’ll be 100% up front with you on this one in saying we really don’t have much info otherwise.

– Maxs Tupai: We had an updated on Tupai in Monday’s Open Post and there has been no change since then with respect to where we believe things stand.

– UPDATE (11:03 am): 2016 CB Parrish Cobb has decommitted from Oklahoma.

– UPDATE (3:33 pm): Not sure how much, if anything, there is to this, but for the sake of full disclosure.

Edmond Santa Fe's Calvin Bundage has #Sooners back in mix. Arkansas out of picture. Top 6 choices here: #OKPreps https://t.co/3uuo3l0SMU

— Jacob Unruh (@jacobunruh) February 2, 2016

– UPDATE (3:42 pm): Evidently 2016 LB & OU offer, Maxs Tupai, isn’t expected to announce his college decision tomorrow as was previously expected.

– UPDATE (4:16 pm): Just got a little information from the Notre Dame side of this Caleb Kelly recruitment. I was told that last week ND was feeling pretty confident. Was told that they feel much less confident this week. Oklahoma side of things has been pretty quiet. It’s my belief that Kelly really hasn’t let either staff know and may in fact be still deciding himself. But the decline in confidence on the ND side makes me think that the Sooners in-home visit late last week went well. – (Super K)

– UPDATE (6:05 pm): Best of luck to the young man.

Not much to say but…. #GoPokes ???#LongLiveCleato pic.twitter.com/Mes4c5C72t

— Tramonda Moore (@_TMOE55) February 3, 2016

– UPDATE (6:33 pm):

La Vega DB Parrish Cobb has officially committed to the #Baylor Bears. He de-committed from OU this morning. #SicEm pic.twitter.com/bCLzKTxKpO

— Jessica Morrey (@JessicaMorrey) February 3, 2016

– UPDATE (7:00 pm):

Torn between the 2
⭕️U Boomer
???Hookem pic.twitter.com/bPLH8z6lHn

— Chris Daniels 7 (@clicclac97) February 3, 2016