More on Jeff Capel
Lots of leftovers from today’s story about Jeff Capel. Capel said his most important job is getting his players to believe in him and trust him, but I was struck by just how much that’s the case within his program.
From Willie Warren, on why he came to OU:
“You get a chance to play with a first-round draft pick, which Blake was, and you come to play for, who I think, sometime later on, will be one of the greatest coaches of all-time.”
Call it hyperbole. Call it bias. Whatever. For Capel, when one of the nation’s best players says something that complimentary about him, it gives him leverage for further recruits. That speaks to just how much Capel has accomplished what he wanted to at Oklahoma, i.e., getting players to believe in him.
Just a bit, I’d say.
Warren also said that though he doesn’t suit up against his team as much as he used to, everyone on the squad knows very well what Capel did at Duke, and that he’s still got plenty of game, even at 34.
I alluded to this in the story, but another thing Tiny Gallon mentioned is that when he first met Capel, he had no idea he was a coach, let alone a head coach. It’s not true of all his recruits, but Capel went from a non-factor and a guy Gallon knew nothing about to his college coach in only a few months. Obviously, he’s new. He hasn’t known these players since they were in the 8th grade. Few coaches could pull that off, and I think it’s the biggest reason why Capel is establishing himself as one of, if not already the best, recruiter in the conference.
Lastly, Gallon and Mason-Griffin mentioned this specifically, but one of the big reasons why they came was because Capel told them he knew they would make mistakes as freshmen, but he wanted them to learn from it by playing through those mistakes, rather than being yanked to the bench by the collar and being chained to a film projector until the next game. That doesn’t mean he’ll let mistakes go unnoticed, but his players response to those mistakes circles back around to the relationships he fosters with them.
“You can get on someone when they know you care about them. And you can help impact them when they know you care about them as a person,” Capel said. “If I had known when I was in school that I was going to coach, I would have majored in something different than history. Probably psychology. Actual coaching is only about 10 percent of the job, to be honest. Especially at this level, there’s so much other stuff involved.”
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Comments
Best recruiter in the conference. Hasn’t gotten players as good as those at Texas and Kansas yet. And Blake was coming to OU no matter who was coaching. He fell into that one. I agree he is really good, but don’t dismiss these other two, who have produced for a long time.
Its been twenty years, but I still have all my eligibility, and I am coming back to play for coach Capel.
I will keep saying it as I have been saying it since the day he arrived on campus, that floor the Sooners play on will have his name on it;”Jeff Capel Court”.