What looked like a bleek year of recruiting...

[The Consumate Showman]

has turned out to be a not so bad year after all.

Assuming that we get Romine and Scott and probably one more OL, perhaps Alex Williams, and another spot, maybe Creer (?), we will have had a darn good class all in all. We will have filled a lot of needs and fillled them with a nice mix of guys who can play right away, Loadholt/Reed/Nichol, and guys that we can work on to make stars out of, BoBo/Cooke/Box.

Mike Reed proved himself and bumped his rating to 5 star status, Box is a great in-state LB prospect, Loadholt should be able to step in and fill Messner's spot right away, we continue the "newly-new" tradition of Wilson brothers, we get the nations record setting FG kicker, we steal away one of the top QB recruits in the country saving our QB situation (at least we all hope so), we have set ourselves up NICELY for the '08 class early on, and best of all, John Brantley defects and goes to to UF!

Mack must have dropped a load in his pants when John B., Sr. announced that. Well, time for Herr to chime in if we can get him off the UT "melt-down" boards for a second.

:pop:

[starrca23]

You're right Showman, a pretty good class. I like to look at the average stars, not the number ranking on rivals. The number ranking takes into account total number of recruits, while the average star ranking shows the predicted quality of the actual recruits.

[jccouger]

Who is scott?

[soonerdave79]

Who is scott?
http://scout.scout.com/a.z?s=73&p=8&c=1&nid=2382877

[Herr Scholz]

Mack must have dropped a load in his pants when John B., Sr. announced that. Well, time for Herr to chime in if we can get him off the UT "melt-down" boards for a second.

:pop:
LOL. No, I'm not melting down. Losing Brantley hurt and I would've loved to have seen what he could do but we've still got Colt, Sherrod Harris and my personal favorite recruit anyway in John Chiles. We're down from 5 to 3 QBs but that was to be expected. We should just stick to Texas kids anyway. The Perriloux and Brantley situations haven't panned out very well for us.

[The Consumate Showman]

LOL. No, I'm not melting down. Losing Brantley hurt and I would've loved to have seen what he could do but we've still got Colt, Sherrod Harris and my personal favorite recruit anyway in John Chiles. We're down from 5 to 3 QBs but that was to be expected. We should just stick to Texas kids anyway. The Perriloux and Brantley situations haven't panned out very well for us.


Love the avatar Herr.

But,,,what if Colt goes down again?

I know hte same could be said for us, but there seems to be quite a drop off of certainty for UT. OU's prospective "drop off" may be a non issue...we are still waiting to find that out.

And weren't there MANY people who feel that Chiles won't be able to hack it as a D-1 QB and that he would be better suited to be a slot WR/H-back kind of player?

[Herr Scholz]

Love the avatar Herr.
Paying up on a bet I lost with Badger.


But,,,what if Colt goes down again?

I know hte same could be said for us, but there seems to be quite a drop off of certainty for UT. OU's prospective "drop off" may be a non issue...we are still waiting to find that out.

And weren't there MANY people who feel that Chiles won't be able to hack it as a D-1 QB and that he would be better suited to be a slot WR/H-back kind of player?
I think we'll be fine. Harris redshirted this year and apparently has done really well. He'll be a solid backup next year regardless of what Chiles does. Chiles may end up at WR, don't know. He's definitely going to get a shot at QB though (remember he's a 5 star). I think he'll end up there. He's super talented.

Besides, since Greg Davis refuses to get rid of the VY zone read running game whether we have a mobile QB or not, we might as well stick a runner in there. ;)

[trwxxa]

Herr
What are the chances of y'all taking another run at Mallett?

[Herr Scholz]

Herr
What are the chances of y'all taking another run at Mallett?
Between slim and none. I think we'll stick with Chiles and call it a day.

[FourKings]

Besides, since Greg Davis refuses to get rid of the VY zone read running game whether we have a mobile QB or not, we might as well stick a runner in there.
__________________

Ya I couldnt seem to swallow that either, not that it really bothered me of course lol, but it really didnt make much sense......but then again, its GD after all.

[Herr Scholz]

...but then again, its GD after all.
I'll admit, I was cursing his name out loud tonight.

[AzianSooner]

Why are you here 24/7 Herr Scholz? i have a supicious feelin that you are a member of Mack Brown's coaching staff who's responsible to be here and spy on us every move?

Right?

[Herr Scholz]

Why are you here 24/7 Herr Scholz? i have a supicious feelin that you are a member of Mack Brown's coaching staff who's responsible to be here and spy on us every move?

Right?
Am I that obvious? I'm not a very good spy am I.

[TopDawg]

Mad Dog?

[XingTheRubicon]

Mad Dog?

No Mad Dog's "Mr. T starter kit" keeps hitting the keyboard

[The Consumate Showman]

Well, I think after the loss of Romine to the domers and what looks like Creer and Scott's decisions coming to Saxet, our recruiting class is taking a slight turn. I think we have really solidified our LB spots once again, and we did get a couple of nice pick ups on the OL with Hannan and Loadholt, and we got a few good secondary signees too, but we whiffed big time on Romine and from all accounts, Scott may give the okay to Muck when he visits this weekend.

What I don't like about this is that OU was only able to keep 1 of 3 big time recruits in state this year. We are going to have to get better at keeping our own in future years. I mean, especially with Romine...his dad played at OU and his grandpa went to OU and his mom didn't even want him going to ND, and after all of that, we somehow missed out on him. Amazing. Not blaming the coaching staff entirely, but Romine did say that ND had been recruiting him for a while and kind of acted like OU came later.

I think our staff's strategy is obviously changing as we speak with all of the early offer for the 08 class going out now and us picking up a couple of BIG TIME commits already. I hope our staff can stay on par with schools like Saxet and SUC and Florida so that we can be in on these kids by the time they are seniors.

Box is a stud, but I would have liked to see us get Jones and Romine as well.

[OklahomaTuba]

I still cannot believe we couldn't land Romine.

BS better find someone that can recruit this area, like, oh I don't know, Blankenship maybe???

Dudes pretty much begging for a chance to get into college somehow. Might be a good pickup as some sort of assistant.

[fwsooner22]

I still cannot believe we couldn't land Romine.

BS better find someone that can recruit this area, like, oh I don't know, Blankenship maybe???

Dudes pretty much begging for a chance to get into college somehow. Might be a good pickup as some sort of assistant.


Do you think Blankenship could have landed Romine?

[Rock Hard Corn Frog]

We don't have a ton of scholarships to give out in the first place. What? Something like 16-18? I don't think you can be ranked very high in the recruiting rankings unless you sign at least 22-23 players. We return a bunch of talent all over the place. Our biggest needs in recruiting ( well at least our biggest immediate needs for next year) we QB and DE. Stoops and Wilson have commented that we intended to sign several O-linemen.

We got a few O-lineman including a Juco Loadholdt that will push for a starting spot. O-lineman are seldom 4 or 5 star guys so they don't look as good on paper as other positions. I remember the year that OSU signed Matt Holliday who was listed I believe as the #1 QB in the country and they also signed another 5-star QB so their class was ranked. real high but Holliday never played FB and the other QB never saw the field. You can sign the top 4 QB in the country and only one will be on the field. O-lineman on the other hand you can use several We finally have depth on the o-line so I say we did well there.

QB, we got a real good one. Sure the position is unproven going into next year but I don't think this years class would address that unless we had opted to sign a top Juco to start next year. From a recruiting standpoint I think we did OK here as well.

DE, Other than QB where we need the most immediate help. Hopefully Bumpus is good enough to contrubute some right away but this is the spot where we are probably coming up short overall this year. Certainly we aren't going to land an impact DE that looks impressive on paper.

Reed is likely the biggest impact guy and could be a stud right away.

Box, Kirkendoll,Fleming and D Jackson all could develop into stars a few years down the road, jury is still out.

I would guess overall the recruiting class is probably about a B-

As Consumate Showman pointed out, the story is that we are already off to a flying start with the 08 class.

[OklahomaTuba]

Do you think Blankenship could have landed Romine?

Might have helped. Who knows. All I know is we lose a lot when we lose a legacy player like that.

I Just get the feeling, althought I could be wrong, that we get picked apart by other schools in this area more often than not for the big time players.

Maybe BS's relationships in the Tulsa area just aren't that great. Bringing in someone like Blankenship just for the recruiting angle might help that.

Doubt it will happen if it hasn't already. I am surprised Gundy hasn't done that yet though. Maybe Coker will.

[The Consumate Showman]

1.) Hopefully Bumpus is good enough to contrubute some right away but this is the spot where we are probably coming up short overall this year. Certainly we aren't going to land an impact DE that looks impressive on paper.

2.) Reed is likely the biggest impact guy and could be a stud right away.

3.) Box, Kirkendoll,Fleming and D Jackson all could develop into stars a few years down the road, jury is still out.

I would guess overall the recruiting class is probably about a B-

As Consumate Showman pointed out, the story is that we are already off to a flying start with the 08 class.

1.) Bobo is going to need a year at least with Schmitty beore he's ready to be any kind of force on the line. On the other hand, if we can keep RJ in sooner land, we may have that immediate impact player at DE to take over Big John's vacated spot.

2.) Totally agree on Reed. He may wind up being one of the best JUCO players picked up during the Stoops era.

3.) I would look for Kirkendoll to maybe play some this coming year. He is really explosive and basically single-handedly sprung a good Round Rock team past a perrenial power in Lufkin with more than a few D-1 players.

Right now, I give us a B. We could change that to a B+ if we can get the likes of Donald Stephenson, Kevin Bryant, and Frank Alexander.

[KingDavid]

RJ's commitment is like money in the bank . . . that is, if by "bank" we mean a pink piggy bank with cracks everywhere, one that is sitting on your window ledge next to an open window facing a street where felons comprise 60% of the foot-traffic.

That would be my assessment based on his recent comments.

[The Consumate Showman]

RJ's commitment is like money in the bank . . . that is, if by "bank" we mean a pink piggy bank with cracks everywhere, one that is sitting on your window ledge next to an open window facing a street where felons comprise 60% of the foot-traffic.

That would be my assessment based on his recent comments.


ORRRR, it could wind up being that he is going to actually help OU recruit other kids much like Jimmy Clausen did at ND this year.

[KingDavid]

ORRRR, it could wind up being that he is going to actually help OU recruit other kids much like Jimmy Clausen did at ND this year.

wow. crimson colored glasses, there, friend! what the heck? do you have a pair to spare? i actually need one for the RJ deal, and another until AD announces his decision . . . :)

[mikeyp]

ad's a goner dude!!

[The Consumate Showman]

wow. crimson colored glasses, there, friend! what the heck? do you have a pair to spare? i actually need one for the RJ deal, and another until AD announces his decision . . . :)


No. This is not that unusual. A lot of times when a school ges a big pick up, that kid/kids will help recruit other kids to said school. I believe that Tommie did a little bit of that for us. And look for Justin Johnson to do the same for OU as well. I wouldn;t be surprised to see JJ take an official to UT when Saxet has some bigger recruits in and try to lure them away from Muck Turd.

[DrZaius]

I agree that our class is looking pretty good. Our recruiting has been outstanding scout ranking wise. But I always have to go back to the 98,99,00 classes for reference. Not highly ranked but outstanding players. Recruit rankings are not a determining factor when talking about on the field performance.

[The Consumate Showman]

I agree that our class is looking pretty good. Our recruiting has been outstanding scout ranking wise. But I always have to go back to the 98,99,00 classes for reference. Not highly ranked but outstanding players. Recruit rankings are not a determining factor when talking about on the field performance.


The problem here is that OU fans in general were spoiled by our 2000 orange bowl team and the 2003 rose bowl team. Yes, we did not have teh "highly" ranked or recruited players on our team at that time, but it's not going to happen very often that a school will take a bunch of 2-4 star athletes and turn that group into a national title contender. What Stoops has to, and I think he is, learn to do is how do you bring in these high 4 star/5 star athletes and "mold" them into the great players they have been pre-destined to be.

Pete Carroll does this constantly at USC. Tressel and Carr have been successful at it. If Butch Davis had stayed at Miami, we might be talking about Thug U's dominance in college football over the last few years.

The thing is, we OU fans can go around and say "...oh we don't need the 5 star kids to bring NC's to Norman, but truth be told, if I had my choice between Gerald McCoy or Derek Burton, I'll take the former. See what I mean? Not flaming anyone here, but we are going to see what Stoops can do with a group of "not-so-highly-ranked" athletes in '07.

Starting in '08, as long as the recruitng class goes down like I envision it, I will hold Stoops to a MUCH higher expectation standard than I have in the past couple of years. Meaning, after we lost Bomargate and AD's injury bug reared it's ugly head again, I kind of gave Stoops a little leniency. Not after '08. He will have the right kids in place with the experience we need at key skill positions to start realistically contending for a NC every year again; plus, our coordinators should have a good feel for what they want to do game in and game out and have a plan that everyone can follow consistently. IMO, that is how far back Bomar put us.