I don’t know the story either, but last year, we didn’t seriously recruit the #2, #3, and #4 recruits in the state (Myles Slusher, Javian Hester, and Sevion Morrison, all 4 stars) because, if I remember correctly, they wanted to be a package deal to OSU but Gundy didn’t like one of their attitudes.
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Which I loathe. I’m never going to be not disappointed by that. You take three top-level players, regardless of ‘attitude’ of one of them.
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Absolutely. Especially because, again, if my memory serves me, all three of them were basically begging for attention from OSU. Maybe they still end up going elsewhere, but to not even try for guys like that is borderline negligent for the program.
No, for once I disagree. These kids didn’t end up going to school together for a reason. You can’t recruit kids making demands off the jump. It just isn’t good practice for so many reasons.
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I agree with you in theory. However, it’s not one big-time kid and two scrubs that made the request. It was three barely-not-elite players that wanted it. We had a huge opportunity. I agree that you can’t meet demands but…you gotta play that game.
I’m sure Gundy would’ve kept them in line.
Well, based on what we know now, I’m sure it’s more like Gundy’s assistants would’ve kept them in line and Gundy himself might not have known their names, but other than, I fully agree.
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I don’t really consider them all wanting to play at the same school a “demand”, necessarily. And to my knowledge, they weren’t really asking for anything beyond that.
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Yep. Mike Boynton went and got two of Cade’s AAU teammates, who are both good players in their own right, but who would also increase our chances of getting Cade. Playing the game in recruiting doesn’t make you weak, it makes you smart and wins games.
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Absolutely. Were Tylan and Tracin Wallace making demands when they wanted to go to school together? Or Blaine and Bryson Green this year? I get it’s different when it’s brothers, but also what about Marcus Smart and Phil Forte? Would OSU have been better if they went elsewhere because we didn’t want guys who made it clear they wanted to play together? Not a chance in hell.
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Even if it was demands…so what? I’ll take two mid-range 3-star talents we may get anyway if they are part of a deal including a high-4-star player. Most coaches would because that’s being smart.
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I totally agree. And in the case of those three guys it’s even worse, because they would’ve been our #1, #2, and #3 recruits in last year’s class according to 247’s ratings, which I know are the gold standard around here, so it was just that we turned away 3 legitimately big time recruits.
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I’d love if we joined the SEC.
Why, so we can become Arkansas in just a few short years?
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I actually don’t buy this take because we are a better program than Arkansas in a vacuum. We have better success against SEC teams than Arkansas does now I believe. However I don’t think we’d be upper half of the conference. It would take quite a while.
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I was probably exaggerating a bit for effect. Yes, we are a better program than Arkansas, but we are not a better program than LSU, Alabama, or Auburn and will never have anywhere near the resources of aTm. And, that’s just the SEC West. Maybe if we got in the SEC East we’d be more like Mizzou, but not much better.
Add in SEC teams (besides just Arky) raiding the state of even more of the limited recruits and still having to share the state with OU and it might not be a pretty picture five years down the road.
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Yup. It wouldn’t be just the ‘join SEC get better players get more wins’ process some folks think.
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Correct. He wants to play WR as well I believe. They already have 3 CB’s, not sure they will take anymore. Think it was first come first serve with Cam Smith, Makale Smith and Bryce Stephens.
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So we took potentially took Maklae Smith over Bryce Stephens… SMH…
Name of the game sometimes. 