We offered TJ Pledger, a big time RB, and Brey Walker, the #3 OT (out of Okla) who committed 2 years ago. Will stoops retirement afffect these guys?
I suspect it will have some affect - less so on kids from OK, little more so for out of state recruits. All depends on how good a salesman Lincoln Riley is... guess we will see.
I guess Riley will probably have more success keeping the offensive guys, since that the boy genius' bailiwick?
Riley seems to be an established guy at OU and widely respected, so I don't expect there to be much falloff with recruits but who knows what triggers kids on a decision like that.
I agree with this. But if any of the recruits had doubt or second guessing themselves for their decision, it would make it easier for them to bail on a new coach or at least give them an excuse.
I think the conventional wisdom is that the QB that changed from us to you in the last few months may have related to how Stoops had slowly detached himself from the recruiting, being less hands on than before and less than guys like Herman.
Tough spot for a coach when he knows he needs to back away from the process but doesn't want to jeopardize the commitment.
Here's the quote: "Then, just a bit before Rising flipped to Texas, I was speaking to his father and a comment he made struck me. He said essentially that Stoops was almost refusing to communicate with Rising, and that Stoops told them he had full confidence in Riley. Rising’s father commented on this, saying that there was a big contrast between OU and Texas, where Tom Herman was the primary recruiter. At the time, it did seem a little strange; Stoops has never been the most hands on recruiter, but the way Rising’s father described it, they felt he was deliberately trying to be hands-off." https://thefootballbrainiacs.com/notes-stoops-retirement These guys have a texas site as well. Good work.
I admit to being a worry wart, ok. But this tells me that once Riley gets his feet on the ground he will go at the kids from okie who were ou commits, and came to Herman due to poor recruiting by Stoops. And when Riley goes hard, at kids who really liked ou to begin with, then I think those kids will take a second look at ou. If they came to us because Stoops was distant, then they will likely take a second look at ou when Riley when puts the big sell on them. We will find out pretty quickly what kind of recruiter Riley is, especially if he gets his in state boys to come back.
There is no doubt that any commits that Riley wants, he will make a run at, with a entirely new scenario and story, including Stoops and Switzer "bumping" with regularity. Would you expect or respect anything less?
I am more concerned with head to head battles with Ohio State. Should be fascinating to watch the apprentice take on his mentor. #WeHaveBetterLockers.
Honestly I was surprised OU gave the job to a kid with so little P5 experience. I know Venebales was fired from there, but he's had strong success under Dabo and would have brought a lot more experience. Or why not get a more proven D1 coach. My guess is Riley will be gone in 4 years and none of this will make a difference. It won't be easy following up Stoops.
Wadster. I shall bet you a #3 at El Patio that the only place Riley "will be gone" to in four years, is to share the platform with Tom Herman at the Bear Bryant Coach of the Year banquet. As for Venables, I have never gotten over his Pelini-esque actions during his early years at OU. OU being good is the best thing we have going for us. Anyone that does anything to tarnish the game I hold so dear, I have ZERO use for. Of course, if you were Donnie Duncan, you would write me a letter telling me that the Texas/Oklahoma game was none of my concern. I still have the letter from that worthless chicken **** son of a *****, who could only get a job by crying on Barry's desk and later on Deloss'. I told Deloss after he gave him the job that he would be an embarrassment to him and the Big XII. Of course, I never counted on the Las Colinas cretin corp being so clueless that it took them sooo long to catch him. (Not that the Big XII caught so much as the bowl audit.)
^^^^THIS. I agree wadster. Curious decision by OU. It would have been very interesting to see a nationwide search and to see the domino effect of hiring a more proven coach. But the timing was not good for that ... all the good coaches are under contract for 2017
Agree with^^^ Which makes me think all the more that a lot of stuff has happened surrounding Stoops' departure that has yet to come out. How in the world could a top coach from another school come in this late, put a staff together, and install his own system with no spring practices, etc.. To change now, it had to be someone on staff that will keep Bob's crew, and essentially use the current systems.
Being naturally suspicious of conspiracies and hidden agendas, I too think the timing was very interesting surrounding Stoops departure. ou handing off the reigns to a rookie head coach and not going after a big-time HC is just a little curious to me. It may trickle out over time that there were things going on behind the scenes in the program or the NCAA announces an investigation of the program. Maybe nothing significant will trickle out but Stoops was just ready to hang it up, watch his sons play football their Sr. year blah, blah... we will see.
Sabre: Not disputing. Just honestly curious. What gives you so much confidence in Riley? I know you have a lot better knowledge and connections than most of us.
Thank you, but that is hardly the case. It is hard not to be successful at OU. As Barry said, he didn't create the monster, he just fed it. Consider the OU coaches since Jim MacKenzie: Barry - a legend Gary Gibbs - great guy, great player, great coach, but he inherited a monster, forced to live in a cage, and was far too principled to recover from the NCAA and the changes demanded in all too few of the OU power bases. Howard Schnellenberger - great coach, not so great human being. If you're gonna show up drunk, don't make it the home of a four generation school family with their names on buildings at your school. If you're going to show your ***, make it at a business in Quapaw or Guymon, not the home of one of the school's politically and financially connected families. John Blake - You could write volumes on the lack of intelligence of John Blake, but suffice it to say he is the only coach dumber than Mike Locksley, and yes, I am old enough to remember Petterson at Rice, but at least his stupidity was hilariously funny. Bob Stoops - no head coaching experience, but worked for a couple of the best in Snyder & Spurrier. Yes the first year was rough, but he had Leach and NO receivers. They were playing third and fourth team RBs at wide receiver. Never saw so many "bricks for hands" on a single team. The afternoon after we beat them, I told some people at The Fair that when he got a couple of receivers, we were in big trouble, as in 63-14 trouble. Stoops loves the school and is smart enough to know the timing of his announcement would leave Riley no choice but to keep his assistants in place to insure continuity, thus enhancing Riley's chance of success. This also will likely be a boost for recruiting. I am told that he works well with Cale (he would be the first). Riley's success depends on the staff changes next year, but I think he has seen from his ten years with Leach and five with McNeill what is required for a coach to cover the "soft spots" in his lack of understanding. I believe his knowledge, energy, and likability makes him a much stronger candidate than Fuente, who was the next logical choice except for the best choice, Larry Fedora. Riley has Barry and Stoops a few blocks away to help. I really think he will be very successful, and a formidable opponent. Hopefully good enough to get us back the 230 kickoff slot, which TEXAS has lost with our unpredictability. It may be years, but the real story will come out about the change, and why certain things were done in certain ways, but I assure you that it had nothing to do with NCAA or wrongdoing by Bob Stoops.
Well, it's affected one commit. Tatum flips to ouSUX. I have no problem with that. He's a local. I still dislike AP and Tommie Harris going north of the Red River. Tom still gets credit for getting this guy to publicly commit to us in the first place.
