***2015 National Signing Day***

[8timechamps]

The whole Barnett and Wariboko thing is odd, but there is some reasoning behind it.

With Barnett, it was OU backing away. There was a lot of discussion during the season about Barnett being a bit unmotivated. He would take plays off, and I know that's something that has pushed OU away in the past. Then, there was his decision to slow play the entire process. That's his right, and I don't blame him at all, but I believe Bedenbaugh got tired of the waiting game and wanted to move on (and at the point the o-line class was already in really good shape).

With Wariboko, something happened last year (when he decommitted). OU was working from behind after that occurred. It just didn't work out. I believe Wariboko will be the better of the two players over the next four years. It also helped that UCLA had either offered his brother, or had promised to offer. Something OU wouldn't commit to, and I think that was a good move.

This year's UCLA class is very interesting. If I were an 18 year old kid, and I wanted to live in Cali for a few years, and play for a good program, what would it take to put me over the top and commit there? Having Snoop Dogg on campus, at practice and games would probably do it. That's exactly what happened. his kid (a pretty good WR from Bishop Gorman in Vegas) committed to UCLA. A few guys on ESPN were talking about how that probably helped land a couple of guys in this class.

[BoulderSooner79]

With USC cleaning up as usual, but now w/o scholly limits, and UCLA getting stronger - it appears the Pac12 strength is moving to the south. I see Stanford in a slow decline since Harbaugh left and the same may be true for the Ducks post-Kelly. The Ducks have been able to cover this up because Mariotta was so good, but it will be interesting to see how they do with him gone.

[swardboy]

With USC cleaning up as usual, but now w/o scholly limits, and UCLA getting stronger - it appears the Pac12 strength is moving to the south. I see Stanford in a slow decline since Harbaugh left and the same may be true for the Ducks post-Kelly. The Ducks have been able to cover this up because Mariotta was so good, but it will be interesting to see how they do with him gone.

Didn't the Ducks seduce a fourth year senior from somewhere like Eastern Washington?

[EatLeadCommie]

This is about as blah as I have been about a NSD since Stoops arrived. It feels like we didn't have a chance with any top recruits this year and just totally blew any momentum from the Sugar Bowl win last year. I know there will be some studs in this class, but we aren't going to go anywhere pulling in recruiting classes in the 15-20 range.

[RUSH LIMBAUGH is my clone!]

There will always be some kids determined to go out of state and no recruiter can change that. My daughter was that way causing me no end of travel grief. I do question why someone would be determined to leave OK for NE, but that's probably just my world view.

Seems strange, Nebraska, unless she had a boyfriend or someone she wanted to follow. (Further north from OK in the winter doesn't seem very attractive to me) LA or at least a coastal place would be more intriguing.

[Boomer.....]

This is about as blah as I have been about a NSD since Stoops arrived. It feels like we didn't have a chance with any top recruits this year and just totally blew any momentum from the Sugar Bowl win last year. I know there will be some studs in this class, but we aren't going to go anywhere pulling in recruiting classes in the 15-20 range.

We've had as many highly ranked recruits bust as we have low ranked recruits turn into OU greats. Hopefully the coaches are evaluating talent better and finding the right fits for the program. It seems like we addressed all of our needs.

[Salt City Sooner]

There will always be some kids determined to go out of state and no recruiter can change that. My daughter was that way causing me no end of travel grief. I do question why someone would be determined to leave OK for NE, but that's probably just my world view.

W/ Barnett, it was the coach. Riley had been recruiting him heavily while he was still @ Oregon State.

[BoulderSooner79]

Seems strange, Nebraska, unless she had a boyfriend or someone she wanted to follow. (Further north from OK in the winter doesn't seem very attractive to me) LA or at least a coastal place would be more intriguing.

Oops - I switched subject between sentences. I meant the OK football player that signed on with the Huskers who originally had an OU offer. I understood Waraboko going to UCLA. (My daughter insisted on going to Arizona)

[RUSH LIMBAUGH is my clone!]

Oops - I switched subject between sentences. I meant the OK football player that signed on with the Huskers who originally had an OU offer. I understood Wariboko going to UCLA. (My daughter insisted on going to Arizona)

Well, Tucson is certainly nicer in the winter than Lincoln...but, was she a loss to OU sports?

[BoulderSooner79]

Well, Tucson is certainly nicer in the winter than Lincoln...but, was she a loss to OU sports?

No, just a college kid who made up her mind she had to go out of state as a top requirement. She had D2 volleyball offers, but chose not to continue athletics, grrrr. I urged her to stay in state and I could have laid down the law, but that would have resulting in having to find a new wifey.

[RUSH LIMBAUGH is my clone!]

nuf said!

[aurorasooner]

We've had as many highly ranked recruits bust as we have low ranked recruits turn into OU greats. Hopefully the coaches are evaluating talent better and finding the right fits for the program. It seems like we addressed all of our needs.

Not only couldn't our friends and family plan coaching staff evaluate talent in the last 5 years but, imo, they couldn't coach the players up worth a chit, either. Hopefully the new staff hires will "" mesh successfully with the older guys quickly, BG Bob will rededicate himself to fielding a quality,well-coached and disciplined FB team, and he won't get anointed the now-vacant title of Coach-February.

http://www.star-telegram.com/sports/...le8873582.html

But the real issue in determining the success of a recruiting class rests in the development of those players during the five-year window set aside for most college careers.

Texas’ 2010 class, ranked third nationally by Rivals.com on National Signing Day, finished fourth among the six local schools in terms of production points.

Texas A&M landed the most productive class, thanks to the NFL-bound offensive tackle tandem of Luke Joeckel and Jake Matthews. The Aggies’ class, ranked third among South Division teams in 2010, fared better than Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, Texas, Baylor and Texas Tech.

Texas, the school rated with the best class by analysts in four of the five years of the survey, has yet to emerge with the most productive group when players’ performances was re-examined five years later.

On the flip side, Baylor has won or shared the past two Big 12 football titles despite classes pegged as sixth best among the six-team field on signing day in all five seasons. Baylor’s 2009 group, led by quarterback Bryce Petty and offensive guard Cyril Richardson, is the only class to go from worst-to-first over a five-year cycle when signing-day expectations were weighed against careers.

The biggest disappointments? Classes from Texas (2009) and Oklahoma (2008), judged the best of the bunch on signing day by recruiting analysts, were among the worst five years later when measured against peers.

iIt’s pretty clear that down-is-up, more often than not, when making knee-jerk assessments on National Signing Day.

[Jacie]

Rivals ranks Oklahoma as having the 14th best class for 2015, just behind UCLA and ahead of Penn State.

The shakeout, 24 commits, 14 4-stars, 10 3-stars so no sleepers in OUr class, though that is true of all the schools with highly ranked classes.

Sooners finished ahead of one of the teams that played for the National Title, while the other, like OU, did not sign any 5-star recruits.

Oklahoma and sa*et at #12 were the only Big XII schools in the Top 25.

[8timechamps]

W/ Barnett, it was the coach. Riley had been recruiting him heavily while he was still @ Oregon State.

That had a big role in his decision. It didn't help that OU stopped recruiting him.

I'm sure there is a reason why we stopped, but as a fan, it's never easy to see a top in-state kid leave.

[8timechamps]

This is about as blah as I have been about a NSD since Stoops arrived. It feels like we didn't have a chance with any top recruits this year and just totally blew any momentum from the Sugar Bowl win last year. I know there will be some studs in this class, but we aren't going to go anywhere pulling in recruiting classes in the 15-20 range.

This was actually one of the better overall classes we've had in a while. We didn't land that "big name" recruit (like Mixon last year), but we did better overall than we have in recent years.

As for us "not going anywhere pulling in recruiting classes in the 15-20 range", that's just untrue. Look no further than Baylor or TCU's recruiting over the past few years. Then there's the flip side to that, look what Texas has done in the past 4-5 years, compared to how they've preformed. Class rankings aren't the end-all, be-all. They give you an idea about overall classes, but it's really an apples to oranges comparison.

Think of it this way, if team A needed a lot of help along the offensive and defensive lines, and devoted the majority of their efforts to sure those up, while team B needed QBs and skill position players and spent their time on those areas. How can you say team A did better or worse than team B? That's why I think class rankings are 1)subjective and 2) comparing different things.

Nobody can say for sure if this is a great class, or not. However, history tells us that you can win it all with a top 20 ranked class.

[SoonerorLater]

It should be noted that Rivals changed the way they rated the recruiting classes. It's now possible to recruit the exact number of players, have a higher average star rating value and still be ranked lower than another team. For instance this year we have 24 recruits that average 3.58 stars. Notre Dame had an identical 24 recruits with an average star value of 3.54 and was judged to have a better recruiting class. Number 11 to OU number 14.

[RUSH LIMBAUGH is my clone!]

It should be noted that Rivals changed the way they rated the recruiting classes. It's now possible to recruit the exact number of players, have a higher average star rating value and still be ranked lower than another team. For instance this year we have 24 recruits that average 3.58 stars. Notre Dame had an identical 24 recruits with an average star value of 3.54 and was judged to have a better recruiting class. Number 11 to OU number 14.

Yeah, and I am impressed that the average stars rating we have(3.58) is in the top ten, at # 8. It's certainly not a science, the art of rating players, and I think if our evaluations and commitments are as good as rated, we only lack our coaches to perform at a high level, like Bob's boys once did, and like Saban's and Meyer's still do.

[Eielson]

It should be noted that Rivals changed the way they rated the recruiting classes. It's now possible to recruit the exact number of players, have a higher average star rating value and still be ranked lower than another team. For instance this year we have 24 recruits that average 3.58 stars. Notre Dame had an identical 24 recruits with an average star value of 3.54 and was judged to have a better recruiting class. Number 11 to OU number 14.

I noticed that, and found it weird. Even more confusing...they had 13 4 stars and 11 3 stars vs. our 14 4 stars and 10 3 stars. Somehow they finished more than 300 points ahead of us. Our average recruit was less than 100 points, so that's a pretty significant difference. If Rivals rating system made any sense, I think we would have ended up in the top 10 (ahead of ND, A&M, LSU, and one or two others). I feel like there were only about 4-5 teams that truly outrecruited us if Rivals ratings are to be believed.

[BoulderSooner79]

I noticed that, and found it weird. Even more confusing...they had 13 4 stars and 11 3 stars vs. our 14 4 stars and 10 3 stars. Somehow they finished more than 300 points ahead of us. Our average recruit was less than 100 points, so that's a pretty significant difference. If Rivals rating system made any sense, I think we would have ended up in the top 10 (ahead of ND, A&M, LSU, and one or two others). I feel like there were only about 4-5 teams that truly outrecruited us if Rivals ratings are to be believed.

Looks like a mish mash of ratings systems combined with rounding error. The team rating is just the total points of all the players added together. The star system seems much less granular as 2 players with a 4 star rating can have a range of points, so differences get glossed over when assigning stars and then compounded by averaging those stars. So ND's 4 star players may contribute more points than our 4 star players (same with the 3 star). Players on some teams may have stars, but no point ratings, so they contribute zero to the team score. That's probably only true for lower star players and Rivals does say they will eventually assign points for every player. Then there are bonus points given for being the #1 player at a position with diminishing points for #2, #3, etc (don't know how far down they go) and bonus points for being in the Rival top 250. So a 4 star player with bonus points can contribute quite a bit more than another 4 star with no bonus points. That's what really jacks up the 'Bama and USC totals.

Bottom line (to me) is that the team total gives a better indication of how well a school is winning the battle for the very top recruited players, but it is too biased by the size of the class. The average star ratings is good for showing overall quality of the players without a bias from class size, but probably underestimates to the impact of getting or not getting projected star players. But both systems are very speculative and much more interesting class ratings are the ones taken 5 years after NSD with all the data in hand of how these guys actually panned out - it is often vastly different than projections. Ask 8time about the OU '11 class for a negative example or just look at many of the classes coming out of Austin under Brown.

[8timechamps]

Here's a rundown on how OU's class ranked across the board:

247 Sports - This is an offshoot of CBS Sports, and they have really come on in their recruiting information. They are right up there with Rivals and Scout when it comes to evaluation, analysis and coverage. They ranked OU's 2015 class 15th

Yahoo Sports/Rivals.com - Everyone knows about Rivals, and they have recently paired with Yahoo Sports. They ranked OU's 2015 class 14th

Scout, Inc. - Like Rivals, they've been around forever (Scout is my personal favorite, as they seem to do the best job...although, 247 is closing in to the #1 spot in my mind). They ranked OU's 2015 class 14th

ESPN - In my opinion, they are at the bottom of the recruiting world when it comes to the whole package (evaluation, analysis, news, coverage, etc.). They ranked OU's 2015 class 17th

Sports Illustrated - Recently, they've gotten into the act with their recruiting evaluation/coverage. They ranked OU's 2015 class 14th



So, the consensus (average between the five) is that OU had the 15th (14.8) overall class in this cycle, although the ESPN ranking pulls the average down. I think it's closer to the 14th ranked overall class. Like I said earlier, who knows if this class will be good or not, but from what I see, it's one of the better overall classes we've had in a few years.