Hog Recruiting in Texas and LA Just got a lot tougher

[passinghog]

I like Louisiana talent much better than Texas talent. We need to keep building on our pool of players from Louisiana... I've always felt that players from the deep south were tougher.

[elviscat]

Looking at the top 100 recruits in Texas you can see why we are getting our asses beat. We have one recruit out of 100. Someone one the hill is not getting it done. This why Oklahoma looked so strong last night against Auburn, they had better athletes and most of them came out of Texas. They are in the same predicament that we are in with a state with very few D-1 recruits. This is the reason we are losing. CBB and Staff need to be shown the door and don't let it hit him in his butt on the way out. This terrible!!!!

[Muskliketusk]

Looking at the top 100 recruits in Texas you can see why we are getting our asses beat. We have one recruit out of 100. Someone one the hill is not getting it done. This why Oklahoma looked so strong last night against Auburn, they had better athletes and most of them came out of Texas. They are in the same predicament that we are in with a state with very few D-1 recruits. This is the reason we are losing. CBB and Staff need to be shown the door and don't let it hit him in his butt on the way out. This terrible!!!!

I'd hold them horses on Oklahoma not having in state talent. They got way more than we do. We can barely recruit Tulsa and it pumps out more d1 kids than our hole state does every year. There are at least three ok kids at the Big all America games this year and two is from the Tulsa area and we barely got a sniff from one and not so much as a look from the backer. Sorry but that dog don't hunt.

[HHH]

When I started this post earlier today, some poster stated CBB would make up for the loss of Texas talent by recruiting all those D1 talents in Florida like when we got Alex Collins. With UF, Miami, FSU and the other schools that just got new coaches (Charlie Strong, Lane Kiffin, Butch Davis) the challenge to get those players to leave has just gotten extremely more difficult. 

[Oklahawg]

I grew up in OK following OU football (when there were only 2-3 games on TV each week, and UA's radio signal might not reach my house). You learn a lot about TX HS football that way.

OU was one of the first schools to integrate and they took advantage of the lack of integration by the TX schools. Barry Switzer inherited 20 years of recruiting contacts in TX that were built on less-than-scrupulous methods. He did little to slow that down. Dirty tactics, to say the least, are well-established in TX. When you find the church schools (Baylor, TCU, SMU) stepping up their on-field performance you can bet they have been funneling some cash into the recruiting process, soiling the process for everyone else.

A friend who works with a couple of noteworthy former OU players told me this fall that last year's recruiting cycle was the dirtiest these players were aware of (both players were TX HS players).

One of the Stoops were on the recruiting trail when they arrived at OU, and stopped for a restroom and snack break. I don't know that I heard the name of the town but it was described as a small town of 3-5000, one HS, and lots of 3rd or 4th generation families graduating from the school. Stoops (Mike, I think) was amazed that the geezers drinking coffee could tell him details about OU coaches from the 60s and 70s, and the players they recruited.

Contrast with the SEC era of UA football. Mixed effort in TX prior to Nutt. A push by Nutt into TX, then a retreat and focus on FL. Then a return. Then, Bobby soiled several prominent schools for UA for a long time. Unprofessionalism around school officials does that. If that were an OU coach, they'd be fired and the next guy could easily rebuild the 50+ year relationships. But, when you are UA and you've not committed to those relationships the same way it is harder.

Use Michael Smith as an example: he is recruiting to UA based on relationships he built in HS (on occasion). He knows the territory. He knows the names and places.

I have always interpreted CBB to value the X's and O's work more than recruiting skill, that he'd rather have an ace teacher than an ace recruiter.  That means he is not likely to focus first on hiring a new assistant who can land a big 4-star recruit. Instead, he is going to focus on a candidate who can fix a weakness in the teaching of the coach the candidate is replacing. So, we replaced RB coaches in back-to-back years. One helped us land RW3 and the other helped us land Whaley. But, their primary issue was ball security (and they fixed it - go track the fumble numbers per carry over the CBB era). Consider how much better our RBs block than they did the first two years of the CBB era.

You saw Tom Herman hire a DL coach who could bring a difference maker DT recruit. Is that coach an elite, P5 position coach? Maybe they will be, but I doubt they are now.

As noted, a lot of TX football is smitten with the 7-on-7 summer camps. You don't get a lot of defense focus in that environment. The elite DL we need are found as sophomores getting 2nd team reps on their team. The elite QBs are being watched on 9th grade and JV squads. CBB has had needed turnover to get his staffs right, and you cannot fault assistants who can "step up" by moving on. He is still searching for another elite recruiter (two?) to go with Smith.

I think Enos can recruit QBs. I think Rhoads can recruit DBs. Contrary to popular opinion on MMQB, our coaches work their butts off and CBB is very detail-oriented. He is also very much a CEO, delegating authority and allowing the position coaches to do their job (thus, the headset listening with the reflective stare that bugs so many who don't understand). When you have coaches who have been head coaches they will bring an appreciation for detail, delegation, and will be a nice back-up making sure you've covered all bases. They bring a vision for the program that is beneficial, and healthy.

That can be a weakness - when you need a kneejerk reaction to something you are likely to not get it. You are not going to convince Enos and Rhoads to abandon something mid-stream without a great deal of evidence. Stick with the process and it will work sometimes despite the fact it is not optimized (thus, we manhandle Florida and out-score MS State, but have the Mizzou and Va Tech headscratchers with the same process).

Clearly, UA is not going to embrace dirty recruiting. It may happen (likely is, on a small level) but it is not pursued and encouraged. That means you have to be targeting players less likely to be affected by dirty recruiting. You just cut your talent pool in half, or more. Then, you still have to beat other teams, build better relationships, and provide a better opportunity than the rest.

[Oklahawg]

When I started this post earlier today, some poster stated CBB would make up for the loss of Texas talent by recruiting all those D1 talents in Florida like when we got Alex Collins. With UF, Miami, FSU and the other schools that just got new coaches (Charlie Strong, Lane Kiffin, Butch Davis) the challenge to get those players to leave has just gotten extremely more difficult. 

I hear you. Consider Darius Philon. He was recruit #26 in a 25-man class a few years ago for Bama. But, he developed into an NFL player while others in his class did not. You don't have to beat those schools and coaches for every player, just enough who develop to be successful. It is easy to see Agim's skills in his recruiting highlight videos. It is harder to evaluate a player who isn't done growing, may have a position change in his future, or played low-level competition (or on a weak team). The big dogs don't have to work on the evaluation process nearly as much as CBB does, they just go cherrypick talent.