OU & OSU recruiting: It’s a small world after all
OU signed 28 football players Wednesday; 29 if you count Kenny Stills of California, who already is enrolled and is awaiting NCAA clearinghouse approval for a scholarship. OSU signed 27 players.
That’s 56 ballplayers. Six are from Oklahoma. That’s six combined, four for the Sooners, two for the Cowboys. OU signed Owasso defensive back Aaron Colvin, Southmoore tight end Austin Haywood, Southmoore DB Julian Wilson and Mustang offensive lineman Bronson Irwin. OSU signed Sand Springs quarterback Johnny Deaton and Tahlequah Sequoyah defensive tackle Christian Littlehead.
This wasn’t an indication that the Sooners and Cowboys are souring on in-state football. This was an indication that what goes around comes around. The Sooners and Cowboys have been crossing state boundaries for decades, enticing players to cross the Red River (and other geographic landmarks) for college.
OSU, for instance, lost as many in-state commitments Wednesday (two; Tulsa Washington defensive tackle Calvin Barnett and Tulsa Union flanker Thomas Roberson) as it signed. “I’d like to sign a number of Oklahoma players,” coach Mike Gundy said. “It’s based on availability and our needs. And secondly, it’s based on the ones that come to us. There’s a number of players we went after.”
Still, it’s sort of odd that OSU signed more players from Greater San Antonio (three) than from the state of Oklahoma.
The Sooners, too, went after some in-state players that went elsewhere. Tulsa East Central’s DeMarco Cobbs (Texas) and Carl Albert’s Tre’ Porter (Texas Tech) among them.
Bob Stoops said that while “proximity always matters,” he said geography might be less important than ever, because of television and easy air travel. “If someone can’t get to a game, you can always … watch it. But it still matters.”
The Sooners signed players from both California and Florida, but the most interesting geographical trend was this. OU signed three players from Kansas: flanker Justin McCay from Shawnee Mission, defensive lineman Geneo Grissom from Hutchinson and quarterback Blake Bell from Wichita.
The Sooners occasionally have landed quality Kansas players over the years (Brody Eldridge). But three in the same year when OU signed just four Oklahomans? That’s an interesting twist. “We love those three guys,” Stoops said. “Really talented, physical guys.”
Gundy said the Cowboys always prefer Oklahoma kids. “We double-check those guys,” Gundy said. “It just makes sense. We got after a bunch more than (two).” Gundy said OSU still stayed “pretty regional. We’re not moving out as much. We feel very good about the football in the state of Oklahoma and Texas. We recruited a little bit of Kansas, a little bit of Arkansas.”
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
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Comments
What OU has been doing for a number of years and OSU is now doing is “slow playing” the Oklahoma kids hoping that they can find someone from out-of-state who is better. The Oklahoma kids are keenly aware of what is going on. Gundy says they went after Oklahoma kids. I wonder if they gave those kids written offers. Perhaps they “recruited” but did not “offer” those kids thinking they can come late and get the Oklahoma kids like they almost did with the Roberson kid from Tulsa Union.
I wouild bet that Oklahoma has a greater number of players signing with D-1 schools now than at any time in the past.
If Oklahoma players are so good why do majority of players on OU & OSU rosters come from the State of Texas.
Answer:Better players and coaching,bigger state.
OU has historically done very well in Texas. Lots of kids
come north of the river. But numbers have to be taken rel-
ative to the populations of the 2 states: Oklahoma approx-
imately 3.6 million and Texas approaching 30 million. There
are more people both in Houston proper and Dallas-Ft. Worth
than there are in the whole state of Oklahoma. That doesn’t
completely explain the numbers on the OU roster, but it goes
a long way in doing so. Proximity is the 2nd factor: there are maybe 4 great areas of high school football in the U.S.: western Pennsylvania/Ohio, Southern California, South Florida, and Texas. OU is just fortunate to be located next door to the best of the bunch.
Maybe it also has to do with overall talent in the state this year. What is the comparison of number of D1 signees from Oklahoma this year with the number of D1 signees in years past?