With OU's massive problems here last year, I figured that an OL preview needed to be it's own article. OU has lost their two best OL players in Trent Williams and Brian Simmons, but returns a host of players who started or played in several games last year. Since there are not many flex players in the OL, I'm going to focus my preview by position.
OU 2010 Super Early Preview- Offense- Skill Positions
Doing this before signing day is probably asking for trouble, but with Spring dates announced and NFL early entry period over it's time to do a small amount of pre spring 2010 previewing. I realize that signing day is 3 weeks away, but OU has 28 verbals, so other than a JUCO OL or Jackson Jeffcoat things are about done. And based on any late news from signing day, I'll update this preview.
So it looks like Pete Carroll is heading out of town right before the NCAA arrives in town to hit the Men of Troy where it hurts most (remember any football penalty will be amplified due to the Basketball program's indiscretions).
Everyone is wondering the obvious since it's January, what does this mean for recruiting?
Let's review the possible kids for this year that it might impact
Kyle Prater WR 6-5, 210 Illinois. Prater could decide that he no longer wants to be a Trojan. If he opens his recruiting back up, OU could be a possible school of interest, but far more likely is that Brian Kelly at ND will get a very early present. Prater is a mid term so any change will have to be quick. Now, I have been told that the Prater family continues to talk to OU. So things could get interesting, remember OU has one mid term ship left so OU could take Prater while leaving 2 ships still out there.
OU has just received verbals from two Dallas area DTs
Eric Humphrey 6-4, 275, 4.8 Dallas, TX Parish Episcopal
Damon Williams 6-5, 320, 5.1 Irving, TX Nimitz HS
These two huge DTs pickups put OU at 28 verbals (5 midterm- Stills, Jefferson, Irwin Woods, McClain), so just two verbal slots left. Before going into some detail on what the two DTs bring to the Sooner class let's recap OU's current verbals by position
Tress Way was ranked 3rd in the nation in punting (OU’s punt coverage was also excellent 5th nationally in net punting). In fact, Way’s punting pretty much won the OSU game, and saved OU on any number of occasions.
Last year, OU’s kickoff coverage basically cost them the Texas game and was a season long abomination. This year the coverage was vastly improved with only one TD (KState’s Brandon Banks) and was ranked 27th in the nation and massive improvement from their 102nd in the nation ranking in 2008.
While it was best to details the breakdowns at each position on offense (since every position pretty much had issues), on the defensive side of things were a lot more stable.
OU was in the top ten of almost every defensive category including #8 Rushing Defense, #7 Pass Efficiency Defense, #8 Total Defense, and finally #7 Scoring Defense (compared to last year's ranking of 57th), and the all important get the offense off the field 3rd down conversion percentage OU was ranked 8th (compared to 39th last year)
Statistically this was the best Sooner defense since 2001 and tied with the 2000 defense in several areas.
A season that started with such promise ended as quickly with one play in the new JerryWorld Death Star Stadium . Sitting in the stands when Sam got crunched, it was literally watching a nightmare unfold. Now, I've seen Sooner QBs go down in games in my short history being a Sooner fan, I was unfortunately there for Jamelle's knee versus OSU in 1987. I saw Jerome Brown break Troy Aikman's leg in 1985. I even was there when Charles Thompson broke his two legs against NU in 1988 (didn't realize at the time that would be CT's last play as a Sooner). I was even there for Jason White's second knee injury against Bama in 2002. But this injury seemed very different. It was the first game, and you knew that OU's backup was completely green, and OU had a very tough schedule facing them.
I feel like this recruiting update should have an amusing line from Anchorman.
Anyway breaking news from San Diego tonight.
OU got two huge verbals from
Tony Jefferson 6-0, 200, 4.45 Safety
Kenny Stills 6-1, 175, 4.35 WR
Jefferson is ranked is a five star recruit according to ESPN and is ranked as the 10th best player in the nation. He's an elite defender who is doubtless going to draw nothing but comparisons to the gold standard at safety for OU, Roy Williams. OU coaches did a great job staying involved with Jefferson even after he verbaled to UCLA back in August, and getting Jefferson to visit Norman in November. Jefferson de-committed from UCLA and OU was even able to hold off a late charge from USC. Finally Jefferson will enroll early, and be ready to go through spring ball and challenge for a safety spot next to Quinton Carter.
Stills is a five star recruiting according to Scout, 6th ranked WR nationally, and 37th ranked player in the nation. Stills had over 1500 yards receiving as a junior, and had nearly 1000 yards receiving as a senior. The 40 speed is electronically timed at a combine this summer so it's legit, and Still has the track times to back it up. Stills is an elite deep threat but also excels at the slot WR routes. Just like Jefferson, Stills enrolls early, so he will in Norman in spring to provide some much needed competition at WR.
Huge props to OU verbal commitment Brennan Clay whose constant work on both Jefferson and Stills put OU in position to get the official visits needed to lock down both kids. Clay's early verbal to OU (having never been to Norman once), gave OU the needed "in" to start recruiting Stills and Jefferson.
I strongly recommend watching the highlight reels and interviews with Clay, Jefferson, and Stills on the KUSI Prep Pigskin Report website.
Strategically, this is the most California OU verbals under Bob, and probably for OU since the early 80s Switzer days. This increased focus on California is attributed to a more national recruiting strategy by David White (former Gorman coach who is now OU's recruiting coordinator). It's quite possible that these 3 very popular players in region could be the start of an OU Southern Cal/San Diego pipeline.
This is a what have you done for me lately/complete resume poll. Each week I’ll be adjusting positions based on how teams have played, who they have played, and finally how they lost. Last week’s poll won’t have an appreciable impact on this week’s. A team ranked 19th, may stay 19th despite 3 teams losing ahead of them.
As always comments are appreciated and will be integrated into the final ballot
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The Bloguin Network allows advertisers to promote their products and services to our ever-growing number of visitors. We offer both site-specific ad placements as well as the ability to run a network-wide campaign. If you're interested in working with Bloguin to meet your advertising needs, please contact us.
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The Bloguin Login gives you full access to everything our network has to offer. Your name and password will work for each and every one of our sites. Signing up is simple, and will allow you to post in all our forums, create member blogs, and access other cool features! What are you waiting for? Create an Account! 