The Football Brainiacs

Last week I put together a recruiting summary for y’all but didn’t have time to finish it so I’ll go ahead and do that now. Here is the first half: https://thefootballbrainiacs.com/?p=1782

We’ve been dropping recruiting information on y’all in various posts so we figured it would make things easier for readers if we periodically did a recruiting summary to bring some of it together in one convenient place. These are some thoughts on Oklahoma’s chances at some of their targets based on the most recent information we’ve acquired from our sources:

Jonathan Thomas – Coach Kish is going to be visiting this incredibly athletic LB this morning (Friday morning). If Thomas can get eligible OU should be able to land him. And it would be a HUGE pick up. Thomas is an incredible athlete who is still very raw but has tremendous upside and can play any of the LB spots.

Coltin Gerhart – This was a new offer that went out this week. Coltin was committed to ASU as a safety but from what we gather Oklahoma has actually offered Coltin as a QB. We’ve got a former college QB that we will have take a look at Coltin’s film. This is an interesting offer because it might be sending the message that Oklahoma wants to continue running their QBs in the future – even if it’s not the foundation of the offense. And after seeing all the injuries at QB this year perhaps OU feels like it can’t hurt to throw their hat in the ring for another.

Steven Parker – I updated this last week but I did talk to a source this week and was told that the general feeling is still that Steven Parker will end up at Oklahoma even if it doesn’t happen immediately. The feeling about 2 weeks ago is that it might happen in December. Talked to the same person a couple days ago and he said he doesn’t know anymore. Not sure what that means but folks still seem to be confident that Parker ends up at OU. And after his showing at the state championship game you can bet the coaches want him bad!

Ainuu Taua – Also updated y’all on Ainuu last week. As we suspected he ended up committing elsewhere this week (UCLA). For more information please check the first half of the recruiting summary above. This was just an impossible situation. To land Ainuu OU would have had to do something they just wouldn’t normally do. But the word we got that if they didn’t get Ainuu Oklahoma was going to wrap up recruiting on the DL. Coach Montgomery is out there making sure they’ve got an early start on the 2015 kids.

Marquise Overton – Speaking of 2015 kids Marquise Overton is someone who everyone is projecting to end up at Oklahoma and for good reason. In fact we’re told the only reason it hasn’t happened is because a particular family member wants him to hold off. In my opinion that is a mistake because Coach Montgomery is not waiting around for anyone. They are out there aggressively recruiting. And I know that Que wanted the OU offer really badly and it was a huge relief to him when he got it. We’ve all been big fans of Que. Here was a write-up JY did about Que just before he was offered by Oklahoma: https://thefootballbrainiacs.com/?p=968

Juwan Dowels – Dowels is the most recent cornerback offer. Oklahoma sent him an offer last week and Coach Bobby Jack visited him earlier this week. Dowels wants to get out Florida so Oklahoma has an opening. And he’s already set up an official visit to Oklahoma for January so things are looking good at the moment.

Miciah Quick – Checked in with my source on Quick and still got the word that Quick is Oklahoma’s to lose. Coach Perry likes Oklahoma and likes his guys ending up at Oklahoma. I was told Oklahoma went out to visit Quick this past week and things we went well so right now Oklahoma is just going to have keep recruiting him and unless something drastic happens it should swing their way.

Cornelius Floyd – All I got on Floyd is that he’s a) smooth and b) Coach Bobby Jack visited him earlier this week. Floyd does have a visit set up for Arkansas so you’ve got to think that Oklahoma will get a visit as well seeing as he doesn’t seem put off by the idea of leaving the Florida area. Getting Dowels and Floyd would just add to an already stacked at athletic DB core.

So looking at how things are shaking out on the recruiting front Oklahoma currently has 17 commits. We’re going to assume they want at least 25. We know they’re holding a spot for Parker and Quick so that would put Oklahoma at 19 commits leaving about 6 more spots. So the latest information we have is:

DL – they’re done for now (0)

LB – heard they want at least one more (1-2)

OL – they want at least 2-3. They want Tretola as an interior lineman. They visited him this past week. And they need at least 1 HS tackle. They visited Frison earlier in the week. Last I heard they felt like they had a fighting chance but it’s obviously going to be tough. We’ve been talking about it and the guy who would be a game changer is Arkansas OT commit, Jovan Pruitt. I haven’t spoken to Jovan’s coach in a while so I need to but Jovan is the kind of kid who could provide depth from this first day he steps on campus. The other Utah OL Oklahoma offered last week was Jackson Barton and I talked to a source that knows him and he said flipping him would be really really difficult. Both Barton’s parents played sports for Utah. The only opening is that Barton’s dad has been big on training his kids from a very young age and wants them to be at the place where they can be most successful in terms of sports development. Either way it seems like a losing battle right now. Denzel Ward is still a possibility but I’ll have to do some checking on that front. I know a lot of people are concerned about depth at OT – and that’s understandable. And part of the fear is that people assume Josiah St. John isn’t very good since he hasn’t played. Ace saw in practice in the fall and he said that Josiah is incredibly athletic for a big man. He said “he was just lost because he was new”. But the kid can play. He came into the program late. Coach Bedenbaugh will get him ready. So at least for next year we should have Josiah backing up at the OT position. And now Farniok is starting to get some reps. So they should have a legitimate 2 deep at OT with Daryl and Tyrus coming back. But obviously they’ve got to get some young guys in here ASAP to start building depth for 2015 and beyond. I talked to a source and he assured me that “they’ll get some guys this year” but who that will be…not sure yet. (2-3)

CB – I’ve heard they want to 2 more but I personally think they’ll be fine with 1 (2)

RB – I have heard different numbers here in terms of how many they want and my guess is that is because they’re probably trying to figure that out. They feel good about Ford but as we’ve mentioned Ross has had some growing up to do and that’s always a concern because you’ve got have depth at the RB position. My guess is they’re going to want to take at 2 hear. If everything checks out with Warren then my guess is he’ll be one of them. Have no clue where things stand with Starks. I know a guy who works in the local media in Colorado and has spoken to Starks and he didn’t even know. All he told me was that Starks has a few school he’s considering – don’t need a “source” to tell you that 🙂 (1-2)

TE – They wanted Ijalana to come in and help right away and that may still happen. He decommitted because of some confusion about a class he needed to take and he wasn’t sure where Oklahoma stood. But Coach Martinez said that OU was adamant they still want him. (1)

So as you can see the numbers are starting to get pretty tight. The class OU has put together is a really good one but there are still some spots they need to fill.