Sooners News Daily 10.14.14
Posted on: October 14, 2014
FOOTBALL
Zack Sanchez addressed this (IMO, idiotic) “controversy” from the weekend.
https://twitter.com/ZSanchez15/status/521802548634591232
https://twitter.com/ZSanchez15/status/521802925950005248
The stupidity of this statement is beyond my capabilities to put into words.
Heupel quote tonight might explain some of #Sooners problem: "Part of Trevor being in there is the illusion or threat of quarterback run."
— Guerin Emig (@GuerinEmig) October 14, 2014
Some good news on the injury front, finally.
. @OU_CoachStoops confirms that DE Matt Dimon returned to practice today. #Sooners
— Oklahoma Football (@OU_Football) October 13, 2014
#FreeRyanBroyles (DFP)
You asked for it…
https://vine.co/v/OAjqElh0Me7
Florida State's compliance department is looking into whether Jameis Winston signed more than 340 items for an… http://t.co/aoigWmZaxV
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) October 13, 2014
This is rather impressive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oX2LjcdWkQI#t=10
Roll Tide.
Alabama football player caught with 112 grams of marijuana and $4,600, but not arrested, court records state http://t.co/A5K3s1Tfmj
— Alabama Crimson Tide | AL.com (@aldotcomTide) October 13, 2014
RECRUITING
Consecutive days OU misses out on one of their top 2015 LB targets — Bo Wallace to ND on Sunday & Cassius Peat to UCLA yesterday — but everything is totally fine I keep being told. So there’s that.
OTHER
Axel Alvarez def. Leonardo Toledo of Minn. to claim the 2014 USTA/ITA Central Region Singles title! #USTAITARegionals pic.twitter.com/3HgHeuu18S
— Oklahoma Tennis (@OU_MTennis) October 13, 2014
Wolfpack.
Stefon always kills me.
Dolphin in the boat! I repeat, dolphin in the boat!
Take that, Lion King!
I believe this is one of the last movies Robin Williams made before his passing.
104 Comments
Did you see Emig’s response to that JH quote? “Defenses arent buying the illusion of the run anymore. ..” I mean, if everyone else can see that..
“Kish comes to the plate…already down 0-2 in the count with the first pitch coming…and SWING AND MISS. Kish strikes out again. That makes him 0-17 now. Don’t worry. He’ll connect on one soon enough…..right?”
He gets no credit for Alexander, Evans, Evans, Bolton, Bond?
My thoughts exactly. Evans is doing so well right now (given his lack of experiment) that I’m not sure Franklin gets his starting job back if he returns next season. I would love to see some of these highly touted linebackers come to OU but until OU has a linebacker “problem” I don’t see why the complaining is all about. The Brainiacs have stated that Montegomery has been on point for many of these linebacker recruits.
Kinda hard to give him too much credit for Evans. It took him until November of his senior year to offer. He struck out on about 12 guys he wanted more. It’s the striking out on top line guys and having to go all the way down to your 14th or 15th guy before you get a commit that worries me about Kish. For all the great find that Evans has turned out to be, Kish wouldn’t even have him here if he could get the guys he thought were better.
I am not a Kish hater. I think the job he has done coaching the position has been really good. I worry about his ability to land big time players consistently. Alexander was a good find (not sure if he was Kish’s find or not). We were on him early and offered right away as a LB even though he was playing safety in high school at the time.
Many of us were screaming for Evans to get an offer for months before OU offered him. I had a daughter at Norman North dating a football player. Through her I knew a little about him, personality and character-wise… a solid young man. And on the field, it was obvious that he was a playmaker/ gamechanger. I just wanted us to offer him, get him on campus and see where he could help.
I get that the coaches were deciding where he would fit before offering. But, that being said… you can’t really point to Coach Kish’s 13th offer, who did pan out, as a great recruiting achievement. The kid is an OU legacy living in Norman. Landing him wasn’t going to be hard. And it doesn’t really highlight Kish’s ability to evaluate talent when it took him Evans’ entire senior year to determine if he could play or not.
Well, we don’t know anything about T.Evans & Bolton at this point. Certainly not ready to write them off by any means, but it’s hard to give him too much credit when we don’t even know if they can play.
Still learning about Bond, but things look promising based on a very, very small sample size.
Credit for Alexander & J.Evans, absolutely. But they’re playing a 4 LBs now and there is no one, and I mean no one, behind those two guys. This criticism, at least from my part, isn’t just about the starters. You have to have depth and they just don’t. If that’s not on him (Kish), who should it be on?
Im just saying those are the 5 guys signed since he’s been here.. 3 of those guys are playing & somewhat well.. 2 are true freshman still.. The other LB’s we have switched positions basically.. I think hes coached those guys up as well as expected. It’s just October the 14th & we still have offers to some really good players out there.. I don’t think we should panic..
Fair. Although if Shannon were here I have to believe he’d be playing, so that kind of makes Evans more of a circumstantial example. But I say that believing Evans to be the better player, just trying to think of it from what the coaches w/h done. And as I said before, I think it’s pretty early to throw Bond in there after just one game. But now I’m just playing devil’s advocate.
I’m not panicking. I’m just saying that Kish has 2 1/2 year history of not landing our first choices. Bolton is the only exception. He got help from Shipp on Alexander, and Tay they nearly botched altogether.
He made sure to close the deal on Striker as well.
Not to mention that the linebackers even with injuries were arguably the strongest part of the defense last year, and are strong this year again, even after removal of a top guy. Is he putting an acceptable product on the field? Seems like that ought to be the bottom line.
Exactly right. But I think those on the other side of the fence are pointing to bare cupboards with the coaches who were fired recently. That being so fresh leads pessimists down that road I think
Venables and Martinez landed Striker in June 2011. Kish simply managed to hang onto him for 3 weeks until NSD after Venables left.
sure, and I think Striker was predisposed to OU anyway. But the fact is that when high profile coaches leave a program, their top recruits sometimes follow them, and the first thing Kish did was to make sure that didn’t happen.
Jeremy, in short, no. With exception to Tay, all those guys were late offers or offers that went out after the first several guys were already off the board. Kish RARELY, if ever, lands any of his first offers. The guys we landed are working out for us right now, but Kish should not get much credit whatsoever as a recruiter. I understand “we can’t land them all”, but Kish is not landing any of his early offers.
You’re giving him more credit than most.. A lot of people don’t give him Tay either cuz his dad played hoops for us 20 years ago. Fyi, Bolton nor Bond were late offers either..
I already said Bolton was not a late offer 2 or 3 times in this thread. I had my thoughts above mixed with Evans.
Bond we did not get back in on until September last year, and that was after he did not get into Miami. Kish was gifted Bond due to academics.
Tay’s recruitment they nearly screwed up, and we almost lost him to ASU. We didn’t offer until June or July.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aQz89cpNTI I watched this yesterday and got depressed because the only thing that is keeping Trevor Knight from being successful in the run game is the play calling. Its so obvious they aren’t letting him run a true zone read bc Knight is more than capable when asked to make reads. The problem is, I don’t think he is being asked. Knight is being handcuffed before he even receives a snap.
thanks for posting bill…..and you nailed with this post…
TK looked so confident in that game…running and throwing. You could see it in the Sugar Bowl as well. Not seeing it this year. I agree that he’s being handcuffed. Free TK!!!
Heupel is absolutely clueless, he better leave while his legacy is still intact..a few more awful offensive performances and he may be put in the Blake category
The only illusion is that Heupel is a great OC.
I almost agree with this, but after watching bills post below I agree with him about being handcuffed/protected
Yep. I think they are scared to death that if they turn Knight loose, he is going to miss several games this year, and they know Thomas isn’t ready. I still think if Mayfield had been ruled eligible, Knight would be running more.
To suggest that the OU coaching staff and JH specifically don’t see/know about the things the fans bring up week after week is beyond silly. So if they know what we think we as fans know, and they still do it a certain way, I think it is MUCH more likely that they know something we don’t, as oppose to them just being clueless on how to run an offense. Like you said, it isn’t like we didn’t have good game plans at time last year. But as I also recall, those good game plans did get TK injured too, correct?
you are correct, but restricting him has also made the offense pathetic…so i reckon its the lesser of the 2 evils
I don’t think it has to be that way though. Not running Knight as much as we did against KSU last year, IMO, does not mean we have to see what we saw in the first half of the UT game.
They are going to have to find a better balance. That is for sure.
The problems the offense is having are not because they are not running the zone read. The problems they are having are because they are not executing plays that they are fully capable of. My view is that the offense is not nearly as pathetic as it seems to some, and while the zone read is a great weapon, it is not a magical play that will cure the offense. If they start delivering on the basic “blocking, throwing, and catching” in the way that they can, the offense will be fine. If they don’t, it won’t matter what plays they run.
So protect TK this year and take how many loses from that strategy rather than risk loses from injury. Next year with THREE backups available maybe we run. Of course, next year (besides being “aggie” in style) the O-line will be gone. If ever there was a year to take a shot, it is (was?) this one.
We did not lose the game because Trevor didn’t run the zone read. We lost the game because we didn’t execute basic plays that we were fully capable of executing, on both sides of the ball.
You beat me to it. That loss isn’t on TK’s lack of running.
Yeah, I just read that. Hard to believe that Bob would be so cautious when there’s so much to gain, but it explains a lot..
Jordan, in your opinion how much of the LB recruiting issues are Kish’s fault versus facilities, conference, location of the school etc? If OSU and KSU were getting stud LBs and we werent…then I would be more apt to blame Kish but that just isn’t the case.
My apologies for commenting on something addressed to,Jordan. KSU doesn’t get stud linebackers, they make them.
Then maybe we need to let Kish do the same?
If he can do it, sure. I thought the observations made by K yesterday about Alexander and Evans to be spot on. If Alexander can conger up,the linebacker mentality then he will be lethal. Evans already has it but needs to get more linebacker savvy
Can I get a recent example of their “stud” LBs? I’m not saying you’re wrong, I just can’t recall any off the top of my head.
Arthur Brown was pretty good…
Agreed, but when did he play there?
It’s been a couple of years I think, but Slaughter, while not a “stud”, is decent.
Agreed. I’ve made a certain argument many times in the past, on many different boards, that some positions are really tough for OU to land the true studs (4-5* guys) because there just aren’t many located around here. LB & DT are two of those.
OU normally cleans up when there is an in-state kid at one of those positions that is a true stud. Calmus. Lehman. McCoy. Overton more recently.
Facilities… aren’t an issue. Are there schools out there w/ better? Sure, in some respects. But it’s not like OU is hurting here.
Conference…certainly part of it, but also entirely outside of OU’s control (other than what they do or don’t do on the field of course).
Location…also, IMO, part of it, but it’s not changing so very little to be done here either.
So, yes, there are always going to be a number of factors that play into things, but at the end of the day he (Kish) is the primary person responsible for the position and he is paid quite well to be so. Which means for me the lion’s share of the blame (or whatever word you’d prefer to use) has to fall at his feet.
Jordan, IMO the mind of a 17-18 yoa kid is a strange conflicting place. Anyone who thinks they can predict what drives decisions they make is fooling themselves. To blame the staff is truly just to easy and doesn’t reflect all the factors involved. I’m more concerned with how well those who do decide to come to OU. Recruiting is trully a soft skill with tons of uncontrollable factors. Just saying!
You’re right. Which is why I know so many OU fans who just don’t want anything to do w/ recruiting. And even though I tend to follow it closer than most, I totally understand where they’re coming from. I’ve worked hard not to get too caught up in the decision of a 17 or 18-year old kid if I’m going to follow things. Only way you can do it and stay sane, IMO.
and then there are kids like Jamile Johnson who you just have to laugh each time they commit to a new school.
I would wait until NSD before calling it an “issue”. We are still in on several LB’s. By all accounts we are the clear leaders for Anthony Wheeler and Anthony McKee and are very high on the list for Ricky Deberry and Arthur McGinnis with an outside (and not likely but still to be decided) shot at Malik Jefferson. If Kish lands three of those guys, this class will be nothing short of major success. If he whiffs on all or one, then we have a problem.
I remember watching that UT player smacking his teammate in the face live. Must be a new Charlie Strong tradition to toughen players up.
The reaction of the guy who got smacked was funny.. He gave that dude a look like what was that all about?
I’m just as confused as the guy who got hit? wtf dude do that for? lol
I am pretty sure at this point that Josh Heupel does not understand how illusions and threats work. Maybe we should pool our money together and get him a dictionary or a copy of How to be an Offensive Coordinator for Dummies.
Too bad both Tony Soprano and Vito Corleone are dead. They could have conducted a master class for him.
Its almost too stupid. Like the plan for us is to continuously play dead all year until Baylor comes to town, and then unleash the Knight and hope no one in the mean time notices… Oh, wait. We already lost once
The JH commmet about the Qb run game……….. Wth? Are you kidding me?
A good friend of mine told me this morning that he knows a guy who works on the practice fields during football season and this guy claims the players can’t stand JH because of his standoffish, better than everyone else attitude. But you can’t fire family so gotta live with it I guess.
I am starting to think that hiring former OU players as coaches is a bad idea. Off the top of my head, I can only think of the guys who did a poor job. Shipp did really well for quite a while, but that ended badly too.
And for shipp it really ended because of lack of development. He was still bringing highly rated players to Norman they just weren’t panning out.
I think it was his next to last yr that they brought in zero lbs b/c bstoops told him not to, we were stocked in his opinion……….his last yr, he went all out on manning and lost………in a scramble to find bodies he went after walker, romar and started on russell then was canned…….walker and romar were not highly rated but may be sleepers……I think he also went after huggins that tam let go b/c grades and he didn’t make it in here either……..I think I’m remembering this correctly from when I was on oui and asked several times about it due to being stunned that bstoops told him to not recruit lbs that one yr……hale reported it and confirmed it at least twice………so, at least some of the blame for lack of lbs is directly on bstoops
What is a “Kuzzin”?
People who kiss each other in Kentucky and Arkansas.
Child of the unk and ant.
Lmao !
Heupel isn’t well like because he constantly blows his players up..berates them constantly throwing around f – bombs at them…that used to work but kids are different today.
As spiritual as Knight and a lot of the players are, I can’t see the f-bombs sitting well with them. Not to turn practice into Sunday school, but there are better ways to get your point across. I guess it has been a long time since Josh played, because I remember him being just like Trevor in that he was a good Christian leader of the team.
You’re right. You don’t have to be polite to be professional. Dropping f-bombs around people who clearly aren’t comfortable with it is just asking for animosity. I’m not saying to kiss anyone’s a$$, but be professional at least.
Never heard this before! Hope you know this to be a fact!
Not sure where this comes from….Mike, do you have confirmation on this from someone at practices?
He has always done it, go back and watch the ESPNU All Acess from 2011
I looked for it but couldn’t find it specifically- which of the 5 videos is it?
Its actually on the shortened version “Training Days with the Oklahoma Sooners” Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN-VxSo9zGY and it should be at around minute 15
Yup, he dropped the F bomb three times. Yelled right all of his QBs. Shows that he does use profanity, not sure how it shows he has always done it, or does it constantly. Can’t see how Stoops would let that go on if it was habitual and demeaning to players. Thanks for the video DT.
You are right, can’t really assume that its a constant thing, but atleast we know he does it.
A lot of coaches around the country from HS to college use profanity. Unfortunately there are probably a lot of youth coaches that do as well. Have to assume it isn’t near as prevalent now as it was back in the day, with social media everywhere, but we all know coaches are swearing. Doesn’t make it right, but it does happen. I just don’t think it bothers the players all that much unless it is a direct attack. Our OC at Humboldt State in the mid 80’s was a swearing crazy man and no one ever even batted an eye. And our head coach was a straight laced guy like John Wooden, who never uttered one profanity.
I think it’s worse now! Many of the kids swear constantly themselves, even the girls, like it’s nothing.
At least…….we know.? He his human and gets frustrated…..weird.
Thanks- I know this happens all the time in coaching but am a bit surprised to see that coming from JH; not a fan of it.
Maybe JH needs to spend less time cursing and more time figuring out good plays to call. LOL “It’ a joke”. Need to state that before someone takes it as serious and calls me out for JH bashing.
1. The autographs are over 900 as of late last night, that’s just the ones authenticated by 1store
2. If that JH excerpt drives you nuts, better not read entire article. There’s FAR worse than that in there. I formation? ‘Yeah, we can do that’
I pretty much ignore anything he says. His quotes are even more useless than Bob’s, IMO.
A little down on our Sooners? Lol.
I wouldn’t say that necessarily (though I’m sure you would as you seem to really like to point out when I don’t have something positive to say re: OU), though I’m as frustrated as anyone w/ the way they’ve struggled that last two weeks.
Heupel just very rarely says anything of value, IMO. He’s even better at coach speak and saying a lot of words w/o actually in any way answering the question that was asked than Bob Stoops does.
Is there a link to the article?
Beware…it’s more than painful to read http://m.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/ousportsextra/blog/ou-sports-josh-heupel-provides-answers-to-questions-swirling-about/article_757be5b6-8f86-517c-be64-1273ae77392f.html
I didn’t find it painful at all. Heupel tends to be much less forthcoming with info than Stoops, which, I guess makes sense, but I think he did a pretty accurate job of explaining what’s going on. Everyone is assuming that the ‘illusion or threat of qb run” is referring just to the zone read. It’s not. He has had several designed qb runs, and qb draws that the defense has to respect, and that’s what he’s talking about.
The truth is it isn’t just one thing that’s causing the problems, it’s a lot of little things that need to be corrected.
IMHO, they are treading lightly around the issue of the zone read because Stoops is making what he believes is a difficult and very unpopular decision for what he thinks is best for the team. My read is that he is evaluating as we go, how much risk he wants to absorb.
agreed. i think he did give a little nugget about what we might do tho. i know he was talking about last yr, answering a question about last yr vs k st, but i think they might try to get him on rollouts etc this week. i just have a feeling with him talking about getting him comfortable and starting fast and whatnot, we may see some screens and stuff early to hopefully get him going. just my take on it
WOW, some of my Sooner Brethren are about to make me P U K E !
I believe you guys MUST be wearing orange underwear or you go to bed with your hands duct taped into forming a hookem horns sign. Yeah, right! We gonna use the zone read now that we have nearly lost two games and DID lose one. What kind of friggen sense does that make? Well to steal Macks quote AGAIN, “Let me answer that one for Chris”. IT MAKES NO DANG SENSE. I love OU with all my heart and have since 1958 when I went to my first game. But I know b.s. when I hear it, whether it comes from my favorite coaches, kids, grandkids or even my wife, but at some point even from people you love, or admire or cheer for, at some point you have to say, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. And you sunshine pumpers who post saying that what coaches JH and BS are saying is “logical” or “makes sense” are W R O N G! Put some of my truth serum down that gullet and tell me you REALLY think we’re SAVING a different offense for days ahead. P U K E I say P U K E.
agree to disagree i guess there johnny madden
captfoss captfoss • 2 hours ago
On the 4th video where you note he does it correctly (TCU), again, you see the tackle ignore the end and leave him unblocked.
So, your examples really drive home (for me) that we’re just making our designed hand-offs look like read-option plays, and Knight isn’t pulling them because they’re designed as hand-offs. We’re trying to use the read-option look to keep the middle loose, but it clearly isn’t working.2
Sooner Ray captfoss • 7 minutes ago
What you’ve been saying here goes right along with what Josh has been saying, they are presenting an illusion that Knight could run when they actually are hand offs that have the appearance of ZR plays.
open minds are free. they don’t cost a thing. might want to try it out
I agree. I didn’t have an issue with Josh’s interview. I do think Stoops is going to open it up a little; his remarks yesterday seemed to indicate that.
We can do that? There were so many answers that didn’t add up to me. Most questions really weren’t answered at all, but just the way he seemingly had a hard time thinking of how much ZR is being ran, not sure if we’ve ran I this year, TK missed a couple reads against WVU?? That’s all can come up with?
I’m typically pretty lenient & expect vanilla responses…but he just comes off as uncertain to me. That’s concerning.
I guess I read it differently.
The first couple of questions don’t make any sense unless you assume, as Josh seemed to, that what the reporter means by something “wrong” with the zr is that he hasn’t seen Trevor pull the ball and run. He answers that by saying you haven’t seen it because sometimes other things come off of it, like a bubble, or a hand off. or a defense make it not available, but mostly it’s because we’re not running it as much. He adds that part of that has been protecting Trevor.
The question was whether the I formation was in the playbook. He said “yes.” Said we basically haven’t used it this year.
Has TK missed some zone read where he should have kept? He says “yes” and then, as you would expect, doesn’t feel the need to tear down his player in print by pointing out a bunch of mistakes that he’s made, gives a couple and moves on.
Q: What’s going wrong with the zone read?
Heupel: “We ran it a few times the other day. Once we threw the bubble on it, the other we were handing it off. Some of it’s the way they’ve defended it.”
Q: How have defenses fouled it up?
Heupel: “Some of it is we’ve used it a little less. Earlier in the year with some of the things going on with Cody (Thomas) where he was banged up a little bit, we were selective when and where we were going to run Trevor (Knight). Some of it is you have seen less of it than you did last year.”
Q: You still have the I formation in your playbook?
Heupel: “Yeah. We haven’t been in straight I under center much if any this year. We used it at times a year ago. We can still do that. Part of Trevor being in there is the illusion or threat of quarterback run. That’s why you see us in the Pistol or gun formation.”
Wow, people are so worried about “stars” in recruiting. “Kish isn’t reeling in the big fish, so he sucks” mentality needs to be put to bed. The guys he is bringing in seem to be doing pretty well for OU. Pretty sure these 4 and 5 star LBs aren’t coming to OU because Kish isn’t a good recruiter. The fact that the LB corp is so young might have something to do with it. 4 and 5 star guys don’t want to come in and have to red shirt or sit behind guys for a couple years. As long as the guys that he has recruited are being effective and taking care of business, I’m not going to get on the “Kish sucks in recruiting” bandwagon. Seems like he is coaching ’em up pretty well, and that’s good enough for me.
Umm stars aren’t just there for show, they signify talent. Sure OU has won some gambles on 3* guys but sooner or later it’s just not going to cut it. More importantly, OU wants these guys, but tends to settle for guys that aren’t first or second on their list. So yes, this is a recruiting flaw and Kish should take some responsibility.
I’d have to agree, if a 5 star isn’t going to come in and sit. A 4 star will due to dept or maybe a switch in position/scheme from what they are used to, but a 5 star, no way. We’ve lost several to transfer for sitting but whatever, we do well with what we get. That’s why classes are as big as they are, to make sure you have enough resources to get the best ones on the field.
I hope you’re not referring to my sentiments, Ed, because I could not care less about stars. The coaches offer the guys they know/believe will fit our system or are just outstanding playmakers, and I trust them. My point is, Kish is not landing ANY of his early offers. The kind of guys that have already proven to be worthy of an offer. Guys that have been proving since their sophomore year on varsity or junior year on varsity that they are difference makers (i.e. Malik Jefferson). Kish is not landing those guys. Bolton is his only recent landing of an early offer.
And our “young” LB corp is made up of those guys who were late offers over the past 2 years after not landed the big-time guys from those years. We missed out on big-time LBs when we already had depth issues, so your point is just flat wrong. It might be somewhat applicable now, but Kish has been missing out on guys since we had an “old” LB corp and no depth.
And sure, he’s coached them up okay so far, but think about how much better we might be had we landed the big-time guys. It’s conjecture, but not implausible. Kish is in his 3rd year of not landing the top-flight talent, and that’s unacceptable.
Not at all Jim, just making a blanket statement regarding the fact that Kish has done will coaching the LBs that we have gotten.
Not only do I know about Josh it was public as well, if you recall when ESPN came to film OU a few years ago when it came to Josh every 3rd word was beeped out…
yeah, I remember seeing that film and it was definitely embarrassing
0 for 2 on Linebackers this week. Cassius Peat committed to UCLA yesterday.
I was wondering what TFB thought in general of Coach Kish. Obviously, he is not getting the recruits, but is he a good coach? If he was dismissed who would you recommend as a LB coach replacement? Randy Shannon at Arkansas and Kevin Steele at Alabama come immediately to mind and are LB coaches that are known for their recruiting abilities but also known for good coaches with experience. Thoughts?
My pick would be Shannon, but doubtful that he would come back as a LB coach. DC maybe. Stoops has shown he can do well with unknowns, so I just want someone with the Mont’s energy.
Sooner 4Ever helped hammer the point home on Kish at the very bottom of this thread. I’ll post this separately b/c I’m not sure how many people would see it at the bottom. Kish is not just missing on his first few offers. He’s missed out on LITERALLY dozens of offers over the past 2 years before landing someone (again, Bolton is an exception). Many of these offers we started out in fantastic position for (Cobb, Hampton, Mabin, Allen, Akem, Teuhema, Williams, IMR, etc.), but then it just crumbled.
He’s coaching up the guys we’ve landed, but the potential is there that we could be even better at LB had we landed even a couple of our first choices over the past 2 years.
With all the Kish talk in the comments, I wanted to do some research before I commented. At first glance, I think he’s done a great job coaching the guys we have. I think it was clear last year that Alexander and Evans were ready to play when they were call on. I think Kish did a great job along with the other defensive staff redesigning the defensive scheme. I think our current core of LB’s are very solid and you have to give Kish some credit for that.
Regarding the recruiting while at OU, nothing his first year, we’ll have to wait and see on the guys that came in this year. Sounds like Bond has some great potential. Stoops spoke highly of him this week in his presser. Kish still has a chance to finish strong this season in recruiting. I went back and did some research into his LB recruiting while at Arizona for 7 years. Needless to say Zona isn’t OU but the LB recruits seems to be pretty weak. I didn’t recognize any names, they were all 3 star or less and some years there weren’t any. Maybe that’s a weakness of his. I don’t know.
http://espn.go.com/dallas/nfl/story/_/id/11699736/dallas-cowboys-rb-joseph-randle-arrested-shoplifting
Idiots abound.