Ridiculous levels of Panic on Sooner message boards concerning Sooner recruiting exist right now. There's one poster who is referring to this year as the Red River Recruiting Rape. Jackson Jeffcoat's decision to choose UT is being treated as some kind of massive recruiting Cannae (Hannibal's amazing rout over the Roman Legions) that Bob and Sooners might as well quit playing football or recruiting in Texas at all. Corey Nelson's "verbal" then reversal is also being treated as some kind of sign that OU's recruiting in Texas is coming to some awful end.

Lost in all this ridiculous panic are several facts.

• OU's highest ranked recruits are not all from Texas. OU top ten verbals in my opinion.

1. Blake Bell QB 6-6, 220, 4.6 (Five Star QB by two services)Tony Jefferson DB 6-0, 200. 4.5 (ESPN's #21 player in the nation)
2. Tony Jefferson DB 6-0, 200, 4.5 (#22 player in the nation by ESPN, #62 player by Rivals)
3. Justin McCay WR 6-3, 200, 4.5 (Five Star WR/Ath by Scout, #52 player by Rivals)
4. Austin Haywood TE 6-5, 245, 4.7 (ESPN's #48 player in the nation)
5. Brennan Clay RB 6-0, 190, 4.45 (Five Star RB by Scout, #53 player by Rivals)
6. Kenny Stills WR 6-1, 180, 4.35 (Five Star WR by Scout)
7. Roy Finch RB 5-8, 175, 4.45 (#93 player by Rivals)
8. Tyrus Thompson OT 6-6, 310, 5.1 (#164 player by Rivals)
9. Bronson Irwin OG 6-5, 310, 5.1 (#3 OG by Scout, #195 player by Rivals)
10. Eric Humphrey DT 6-4, 275, 4.7  (#208 player by Rivals, from being unranked)
    

• OU's best players are often from outside of Texas or not the top 10 players ranked from Texas
  • OU's top ten players preseason last year
    • Sam Bradford
    • Jermaine Gresham
    • Gerald McCoy
    • Trent Williams (3 Star, 63rd ranked player in Texas by Rivals)
    • Jeremy Beal (4 star, 26th player in Texas by Rivals)
    • Demarco Murray
    • Ryan Broyles
    • Travis Lewis  (4 star, 37th player in Texas by Rivals)
    • Austin English (3 star, 53rd player in Texas by Rivals)
    • Dominique Franks (even subbing Brian Jackson who outplayed Franks, Jackson 3 Star, 34th player in Texas by Rivals in Texas)
  • So that's 6 players outside of Texas and the 4 Texans are all in the 20 to 60 range. To be honest, looking back at OU's recruiting class, this is the range in Texas where OU usually makes their living.
  • OU's best looking freshman (redshirt or true)
    • Demontre Hurst (33rd ranked player in Texas by Rivals)
    • Tom Wort (14th ranked player in Texas by Rivals)
    • Tyler Evans
    • Demarkus McFarland (7th ranked player in Texas by Rivals)
    • Joseph Ibiloye (13th ranked player in Texas)
    • Ronnell Lewis
    • Jaz Reynolds (Not ranked)
    • Jermie Calhoun  (2nd ranked player in Texas)
  • So, finally we have some top 20 kids in Texas show up. But wait I thought UT was dominating OU in recruiting lately?
• UT's recruiting class is ranked in the top five by just about everyone. So they must be badly outrecruiting OU for all this pained angst over OU message boards? Well where is OU ranked?
  • Rivals Ranking (and I personally Rivals is tremendously undervaluing a number of OU commits): 5th
  • Scout Ranking (who I actually think has done a better job scouting OU's California and Kansas kids): 3rd
  • MaxPreps Ranking: 3rd
  • ESPN Ranking (ESPN's rankings are really inconsistent. They are significantly under ranking OU's OL and DT class): 6th