| 13 March 2010
2011 Recruiting Update: 3/12
OU Verbals
- Kameel Jackson 6-2, 195, 4.45 WR Arlington,TX
- Kendal Thompson 6-2, 180, 4.6 QB Southmoore, OK
- Chris Barnett 6-6, 240, 46 TE Euless, TX
- Wade Turner 6-4, 290, 5.0 DT Round Rock, TX
- P.L. Lindley 6-3, 210, 4.5 LB Round Rock, TX
- Danzel Williams 5-9, 190, 4. 45 RB/DB Arlington, TX
- Trey Metoyer 6-3, 200, 4.45 WR Whitehouse, TX
It was a good week for the Sooners with two more verbals. One was a surprise, the other one was expected by most folks.
It's an amazing year in Texas for RB., ridiculous might honestly be the proper word. I've mentioned the names previously Malcolm Brown, Aaron Green, Brandon Williams, Herschel Sims, Bradley Marquez, etc. Notice I didn't mention Danzel Williams. Well OU got a verbal from Danzel earlier in the week after offering him at their junior day. Now, I'll admit that I was surprised by the offer to Danzel. OU has limited ships (17 to 19) and I thought that OU would only take one RB. Guess I was wrong. First off give Danzel credit, he really wanted to be a Sooner, and didn't let his OU offer sit there long. So after all the message board angst over what this verbal meant, folks started looking at footage of Williams and his stats from last year. Williams had over 1200 yards rushing, and 8 YPC. That's big time productivity. From his footage, Danzel shows good speed/moves and amazing balance, he's consistently breaking tackles and getting extra yards. In addition, Danzel shows nice skills as a WR out of the backfield and from the slot. In addition, Danzel has nice highlights at DB as well.
Follow this link for some free video highlights of Danzel. Again the number one thing that stands out is his balance, the kid just does not go down from the first hit.
The second verbal is OU's best verbal to date. Trey Metoyer. At this point until certain rankings drop him due to verbaling to OU, Metoyer is the consensus number one WR in Texas, top five player in Texas. Metoyer has already been invited to play in the US Army All American game (Kendal Thompson is already a Under Armour game invitee). Metoyer has had awesome productivity the last two season averaging over 70 receptions for 1100 yards and 14 TDs. His highlight reel shows an amazingly polished WR from both a route standpoint and pass catching technique. On WR screens , he's never going down on the first tackle and consistently makes cuts to increase the yardage gained. There are some concerns about his top end speed, but he certainly looks fast enough. The comparisons to former 1st round draft picks Texas WRs are easy to make. He plays like Crabtree or Bryant. Combined with Kameel Jackson, Metoyer arguably gives OU the best 1-2 WR combo from Texas. (I'm just waiting for Jackson to skyrocket with a great senior year. He's tearing up the combine circuit after his injury last year). Coach Norvell did a great job recruiting Metoyer. The relationship he's built over the last year made a huge difference in OU getting the talented WR. Hopefully, this will end the continual bashing of Norvell's recruiting ability by a portion of Sooner fans. Last two years, he's gotten Justin McCay, Kenny Stills, and now Metoyer and Jackson. In addition, Norvell clearly knew what he was doing offering Jaz Reynolds.
Here's a great highlight reel of Metoyer posted on Youtube
OU's probably finished with their junior days, but will very likely try and get a number of prospects scheduled for visits to Norman during spring practice or for the spring game. UT is up to 18 with the recent verbal of Quandre Diggs (brother of Quentin Jammer), I'd imagine that UT will be at 20 verbals by the end of March.
OU's going to continue to try and recruit nationally, and after spring practice is over look for the Sooner coaches to hit the road and expect a slew of more offers to go out, or for OU to scout in person their chances with a number of high profile national kids. Expect OU to head back to the San Diego area, hit Kansas/Missouri hard again, and I expect OU to put out more offers in Georgia/Florida to utilize new DB Coach Willie Martinez's connections. Expect Norvell to visit Michigan WR DeAnthony Arnett who has expressed a high level of interest in OU, and would be the ideal slot WR finish to OU's WR class. There's always a wildcard or two in national recruiting, and OU's massive presence during the primetime NFL draft in April is not going to hurt the program's status at all. Right now if I had to guess, WR angst is about to replaced by a previous favorite recruiting worry, OL recruiting. UT's has hurt OU to a degree with their OL recruiting (mainly taking Greenlea). OU has a big time target in Arkansas OT Brey Cook, but it's hard to say OU leads. OU hasn't offered Dylan Dismuke (6-6, 285 OL from Duncan, OK) yet, but has offered Garrett Gladd (6-4, 280 OG/OC Sallisaw, OK). New Mexico OT Matt Hegarty has OU on a long list of schools, it's hard to say if OU is even in the top five. Beyond those kids, OU OL offers have been pretty limited. It's a little puzzling since OU is projected to take 4 to 5 OL again. Now initially I had been indicating that UT hurt OU recruiting with the verbal of Desmond Jackson and while Jackson is the top 3 technique DT in Texas, OU has had at least 2 prospects appear at that position. First is Marquis Anderson from Cibolo, TX (San Antonio). Anderson at 6-3, 270, 4.8 is right behind Jackson in terms of DT ranking in Texas. Second is Kris Harley from Indianapolis. Harley is 6-2, 270, 4.8 and in his Rivals highights shows that amazing quick first step upfield that OU requires at the 3 technique position (Harley had over 90 tackles and 19 TFL as a junior).
