Berry Tramel agrees with me (albeit with a different team in mind).
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I’ve been saying this ad nauseam. Told the wife before I left for work that Clemson is who OSU should aspire to be.
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All OU had to do was hang on to the best DC in the game instead of hiring his brother and they be like Clemson
/s but with a little bit of truth
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It is the same model. Be located close to talent hotbeds, be located in temperate climate, install Top 5 facilities, hire good coaches.
I haven’t read the article but just based off the title I think the Sooners should be a little embarrassed. Especially when you look at all the similarities between Clemson and their “little brother” but they’re going to try and model themselves off Clemson.
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From the sound of it, y’all have decidedly better conversations than us. 
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Oregon should be our model (and I think has been to an extent). Clemson is not realistic.
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Oh, you should hear our Memphis vs. OSU arguments.
When we started 7-0 and made Ole Miss consider whether to continue the basketball program or not, she was like “Yeah, they’re looking better than Memphis right now”.
Now it’s “OSU’s cooked”. And also “I don’t want to watch the rest of this Memphis game”. 
I volunteer to be OSU’s Phil Knight. Patiently waiting on the 37.6 billion dollar idea.
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I think osu is different because Clemson doesn’t have ou in their state. They have South Carolina. Big difference in their in-state competition.
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I have a question. What are you actually competing for in-state? You could answer hearts, minds and headlines and you’d be correct. But there isn’t enough talent in the state to make a big difference.
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Hearts, minds, and headlines impact overall program perception at the state level which impacts program perception at the national level which impacts monetary resources. I think those are big factors.
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Well…they’re having to recruit against not only South Carolina, but the SEC, in a sense. They’re having to fight off Georgia…SC…maybe even Florida to a degree. And probably even Kentucky to a smaller degree.
They win recruiting now because they’re GOOD.
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The reality is Clemson followed oSu’s path to success. oSu hired Holgy in 2010 and changed offenses. In 2011 Dabo hired Chad Morris and changed offenses. Gundy danced in the locker room after big wins. Dabo danced in the locker after big wins. The major difference between oSu and Clemson has been approach to recruiting.
Clemson hires coaches that can recruit and the head coach is all in on that topic. Clemson was in a serious downturn when they hired Dabo and Clemson fans weren’t happy about his hire either. Saban was at his peak when Dabo started rebuilding Clemson. Now Dabo is on the verge of winning 3 titles in 4 years and all Saban, and the blue blood fans at Bama, can do is watch it go down. It isn’t that Saban isn’t a great coach or that he lacks talent. He just doesn’t have as good a plan as Dabo at this point. Dabo embraced the spread offense, won big games, and used that momentum to get better players. We are now living with peak Dabo and wishing Saban was still the bully on the block.
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This is the best answer. Clemson has something we will never have, and that is proximity to recruits. You need 50% 4 or 5* guys to win a national title. Winning a CCG is different though, but the fact still is that the more 4&5* players you get the higher your ceiling and lower your floor is. Clemson is within a 2-hour drive of Atlanta, 4.6 Million which is more than the entire state of Oklahoma. Our ceiling has been hit with the types of players we get. @kyleporterCBS on his podcast talks about how elite QB play can help teams overcome some of their deficiencies but we’ve seen what that gets us, 10 win seasons. The thing that has hurt Gundy the most in his recruiting is actually TCU joining the BigXII. Our recruiting classes tanked when they joined. Why drive 4 hours to go to school in Oklahoma when you can drive 30 minutes and be at school?
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Players- When I watched the Bedlam game and Big 12 championship there were about half a dozen in-state players playing for them that would make us better (i.e. Creed Humphry, Laron Stokes, and Ronnie Perkins). We recruited them to some degree but they chose UO. Most of the time they get the top players in the state, that would help us.
Better players-> more wins-> more publicity-> bigger fan following-> better players, etc.
All things being equal, I think most kids want to stay close to home. I’m also guessing those SC and the surrounding states have more high quality athletes because of the population density.
I like this post. But I’d say the biggest difference is “success in recruiting” vs. “approach to recruiting”. Of course, I think our approach is related to our success, so maybe we’re saying the same thing.
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Something else to mention is we are typically in the bottom 10 of scholarship offers given out every year. Iowa State for example is typically in the top 10.
OU’s model is better than Clemson’s.