RECRUITING IN TEXASS...and the RRS

[BIG_IKE]

Question to the board:

Do you all feel like we need to revamp our recruiting practices? And how crucial do you all feel the RRS outcome will affect our recruiting chances. I wonder if lesion lip down in Austin hits the bong with new recruits to persuade them..

But seriously...Looking at Rivals Top 100 or so Texas recruits
http://texasprepxtra.rivals.com/viewrank.asp?ra_key=1542

it seems like we don't have our hands on more of these guys as we should. Do you all feel if we win the RRS we can grab some of these 5-star guys or do you think it does not really have an effect??

Discuss. :pop:

[FaninAma]

I honestly think that recruiting is overrated and that the rush to recruit the best athlete sometimes prevents coaches from recruiting the best football player. I also think the national recruiting strategy is a crap shoot. Some of pur best players have been from outside the Ok, Tx area but some of our problems with attrition can be linked to players from other states leaving or not making grades....especially the players from Illinois.

I think Stoops is learning from some of the busts he's had over the past 4 years. The main foundation for OU's recruiting should always be to dominate the state of Oklahoma, come in second to UT in Texas and cherry pick the rest of the country.

Stoops, IMO, has neglected Oklahoma just a bit since 2000. Others would say that the talent wasn't there but players like Wes Welker, Paul Smith and others that OU didn't recruit would indicate differently.

OU will never be able to go toe to toe with the horns in recruiting in the state of Texas. OU has to be smarter and look for players not only with physical skills but an aptitude to play football the way Stoops and his coaching staff demand. And they have to cut down on the attrition, especially with the graduation requirements that are coming down the pike.

[BIG_IKE]

I honestly think that recruiting is overrated and that the rush to recruit the best athlete sometimes prevents coaches from recruiting the best football player.

You hit the nail on the head there

[fadada1]

agreed. landing somebody like AD is, no doubt, huge. we got lucky in that his work ethic is as potent as his athletic ability.

i'd take a fleet of recruits that got the production of the 200 team. guys like calmus, kelly gregg (obviously not on the 200 team), thatcher, savage, etc...

go for the guys that have the ability, but also have the drive to become champions - not the ones who think they're entitled to it because somebody told them so.

[Dizzle Shizzle]

what is the 200 team?

[jkm, the stolen pifwafwi]

I honestly think that recruiting is overrated and that the rush to recruit the best athlete sometimes prevents coaches from recruiting the best football player.

its funny, but the best football player is on our board, its just we have him ranked a little lower than the best athlete. some of our better players during the stoops era have come from the best athlete verbaling elsewhere and us picking up our #3 or #4 guy (guys like Q, clayton and runnells). i mean in the strictest since peterson was a #2 on our board because we already had dj wolfe...

[OUmillenium]

I honestly think that recruiting is overrated and that the rush to recruit the best athlete sometimes prevents coaches from recruiting the best football player. I also think the national recruiting strategy is a crap shoot. Some of pur best players have been from outside the Ok, Tx area but some of our problems with attrition can be linked to players from other states leaving or not making grades....especially the players from Illinois.

I think Stoops is learning from some of the busts he's had over the past 4 years. The main foundation for OU's recruiting should always be to dominate the state of Oklahoma, come in second to UT in Texas and cherry pick the rest of the country.

Stoops, IMO, has neglected Oklahoma severely since 2000. Others would say that the talent wasn't there but players like Wes Welker, Paul Smith and others that OU didn't recruit would indicate differently.

OU will never be able to go toe to toe with the horns in recruiting in the state of Texas. OU has to be smarter and look for players not only with physical skills but an aptitude to play football the way Stoops and his coaching staff demand. And they have to cut down on the attrition, especially with the graduation requirements that are coming down the pike.


We need more OK players who will play their guts out down after down. Way too many national recruits the last few years. Jenks, Union, Ada, Booker T., Edmond Sante Fe, Moore, Weatherford, Clinton, Lawton Ike, etc. should put out a chunk of players yearly. Then evaluate/recruit Texas. Then raid surrounding states for studs who do not want to attend KU/KSU, Ark, etc.

[tummer]

So, you call the state "Texass," then wonder why you can't get more Texans to continue their high school education in Norman?

[caphorns]

So, you call the state "Texass," then wonder why you can't get more Texans to continue their high school education in Norman?

Awesome.

Uh. Recruiting to athletes matters. Ask Baylor.

You guys are sucking wind in the State of Texas this year and will come up with every lame brain excuse in the world to say it's ok. Sounds like some of the hot air that usually blows in from our Southeast.

[sooner518]

Awesome.

Uh. Recruiting to athletes matters. Ask Baylor.

You guys are sucking wind in the State of Texas this year and will come up with every lame brain excuse in the world to say it's ok. Sounds like some of the hot air that usually blows in from our Southeast.

What've you got against the Gulf of Mexico?!?!

[caphorns]

What've you got against the Gulf of Mexico?!?!

Damn geography. I wish I lived on an isthmus then.

[goingoneight]

what is the 200 team?

That was when Coach Jesus won the first Alabama National Championship.

[FaninAma]

Awesome.

Uh. Recruiting to athletes matters. Ask Baylor.

You guys are sucking wind in the State of Texas this year and will come up with every lame brain excuse in the world to say it's ok. Sounds like some of the hot air that usually blows in from our Southeast.

We had very few Texans on the 2000 team. UTerus gets their pick of the Texas players and has 1 title in 36 years. Somehow I think the Sooners will survive if we don't sign a dozen players from the Texas Top 100.

Mack does have a huge advantage in that he can throw out a wide net just in Texas and he's going to come up with some good players.

Stoops and his coachingstaff have to do a little more homework and find the players who fit their system.

[BIG_IKE]

We had very few Texans on the 2000 team. UTerus gets their pick of the Texas players and has 1 title in 36 years. Somehow I think the Sooners will survive if we don't sign a dozen players from the Texas Top 100.

Mack does have a huge advantage in that he can throw out a wide net just in Texas and he's going to come up with some good players.

Stoops and his coachingstaff have to do a little more homework and find the players who fit their system.

Dude...we had 42 Texans on that team. Including Clayton, Ingram, Quentin Griffin and Tommie Harris..

[Luthor]

I honestly think that recruiting is overrated and that the rush to recruit the best athlete sometimes prevents coaches from recruiting the best football player. I also think the national recruiting strategy is a crap shoot. Some of pur best players have been from outside the Ok, Tx area but some of our problems with attrition can be linked to players from other states leaving or not making grades....especially the players from Illinois.

I think Stoops is learning from some of the busts he's had over the past 4 years. The main foundation for OU's recruiting should always be to dominate the state of Oklahoma, come in second to UT in Texas and cherry pick the rest of the country.

Stoops, IMO, has neglected Oklahoma just a bit since 2000. Others would say that the talent wasn't there but players like Wes Welker, Paul Smith and others that OU didn't recruit would indicate differently.

OU will never be able to go toe to toe with the horns in recruiting in the state of Texas. OU has to be smarter and look for players not only with physical skills but an aptitude to play football the way Stoops and his coaching staff demand. And they have to cut down on the attrition, especially with the graduation requirements that are coming down the pike.

You could be right about recruiting being over rated. Barry Switzer doesn't agree with that however. He says it's the key to building and maintaining a championship program.
For certain the HC can't have his hands directly on every button in his program. Some things have to be delegated to assistants. However, I think recruiting is the 1 thing that Mack has chosen to be personally involved with all the time. I think Stoops may have delegated too much of OU's recruiting to Jimmie Jack Biily Bob Wright and it is now costing him. I expect Stoops to fix that but it won't happen tomorrow.

[FaninAma]

Dude...we had 42 Texans on that team. Including Clayton, Ingram, Quentin Griffin and Tommie Harris..

Dude, no we didn't have Tommie Harris, Clayton or Ingram on the 2000 team. Check your facts.

[FaninAma]

You could be right about recruiting being over rated. Barry Switzer doesn't agree with that however. He says it's the key to building and maintaining a championship program.
For certain the HC can't have his hands directly on every button in his program. Some things have to be delegated to assistants. However, I think recruiting is the 1 thing that Mack has chosen to be personally involved with all the time. I think Stoops may have delegated too much of OU's recruiting to Jimmie Jack Biily Bob Wright and it is now costing him. I expect Stoops to fix that but it won't happen tomorrow.

I don't disagree. Perhaps I should have said recruiting rankings are over rated. I think Bob and his staff may have gotten a bit lazy with their recruiting strategy since 2001. What works for Texas doesn't always work for OU.

OU won't ever be able to bring in the number of top Texas players Texas can so they have to be more selective and make sure they don't have the degree af attrition that they've had in the past 2 to 3 years.

They've got to get the kid who is a good football player and willing to buy into the Stoops'/Schmitty system. I don't think a lot of the high school studs who have dozens of scholarship offers are always ready to do that. They need to avoid the kid with a prima-donna attitude who has always been able to shine on the football field because his team always out-athleted the opposition. This is a lot easier to do in highschool than college.

[SoonerNorth]

Dude, no we didn't have Tommie Harris, Clayton or Ingram on the 2000 team. Check your facts.


The thing to remember is, no we didn't have Harris, Clayton or any of those guys on our 2000 team. But it was the success of our 2000 team that allowed us to go into Texas and get the best. That is what winning the RRS, Big XII and the MNC will do. It was our success that allowed us to go accross the nation and attract some of the best talent. But I agree with most everyone, we have to dominate Oklahoma first. We can't let the Losurs or anyone else get a leg up in or own back yard.

[IB4OU]

But it was the success of our 2000 team that allowed us to go into Texas and get the best.

That only confirms that recruiting rankings don't mean much. We were able to win the MNC in 2000 without "the best" and haven't since.

I'd rather have a bunch of guys that have the will and desire to do everything they can to help the TEAM. Sometimes the 5-star recruits are 5-star everywhere except for where it counts the most, the heart and head (qb's).

Not saying we should quit recruiting them all together because occasionally you do get the guys like AD that come along.

[Luthor]

That only confirms that recruiting rankings don't mean much. We were able to win the MNC in 2000 without "the best" and haven't since.

I'd rather have a bunch of guys that have the will and desire to do everything they can to help the TEAM. Sometimes the 5-star recruits are 5-star everywhere except for where it counts the most, the heart and head (qb's).

Not saying we should quit recruiting them all together because occasionally you do get the guys like AD that come along.


Now that I think on it I can see that we could have as easily lost to tOSU, Mizou and aggy last year as won. Even though the latter 2 were not as close as tOSU there were momentum swings that went against us in the 1st half of the Mizou and aggy games that could have resulted in losses had we not got some breaks, made a handful of critical plays at just the right moment and got the momentum back. We have won and lost with superior talent. Maybe there's more freaking luck involved than any of us want to admit.

[Stoop Dawg]

I don't think the RRS matters nearly as much as the national rankings at the end of the year. Kids with dreams of playing in the NFL need to be in the national spotlight - and as much as we like to think of the RRS as something the entire nation watches, it just isn't.

Re: Texas players - I believe that in 2000 OU and Texas had about the same number of Texas recruits. However, OU had far more Oklahoma recruits than Texas. Since the number of Texas recruits was the same, the difference obviously was the Oklahoma recruits! ;)

[jkm, the stolen pifwafwi]

Dude, no we didn't have Tommie Harris, Clayton or Ingram on the 2000 team. Check your facts.

we had clayton, he was redshirting...

[jkm, the stolen pifwafwi]

Awesome.

Uh. Recruiting to athletes matters. Ask Baylor.

You guys are sucking wind in the State of Texas this year and will come up with every lame brain excuse in the world to say it's ok.

according to every expert on the planet, we sucked wind in texas in 2000 as well. seriously, figure out which class was better...

QB - you got chance mock(1), we got hunter wall (6th)

RB - you got sneezy beltran (3), we got jerad estus (UR) and rudy wells(13)

WR - you got the "big 3" WRs - bj johnson (1st), roy williams (2nd) and thomas (3rd) - we ended up with will peoples (4th best WR in texas) and a guy named mark clayton that didn't even make the aggie websider 125. we padded that with the best WR in the state of oklahoma (ataleo ford) and the 4th best receiver in antonio perkins.

TE - you signed brock edwards - us lance donley

OL - you signe no one, we signed a juco and wes sims

DE - you signed #4 kalen thornton, we signed dan cody (2)

DT - you signed from texas #1 sonny davis and #3 marcel moses and from oklahoma #1 (overall) adam doiron, and stevie lee from loiuisana. we signed some okie kids korey klein (UR) and jammal brown (#2 DT)

LB - you landed sendlein(UR), satchell (? pretty highly touted out of colorado), rashad thomas (UR). we got jimmy wilkerson (#7) and teddy lehman (UR)

DB - you got vasher (4), jeffery(5), geiggar(UR) we got darren stephens(3) and brandon shelby(UR)

[tbl]

All I know is we got Travis Wilsons brother and they're saying he could be better than his brother. Stoked!