Oklahoma State Really is Great at Turning 3-Star Players into All-Big 12 Guys

Originally published at: https://pistolsfiringblog.com/oklahoma-state-really-is-great-at-turning-3-star-players-into-all-big12-guys/

The numbers here are pretty astounding.

I would love to get more 4-5*, but we need to stop beating on Gundy. He is one of the better CEOs in the country at getting the right coaches and all of them working together to make OSU better than we’ve ever been.

2 Likes

The question is are we better because we don’t have to play a Nebraska, Colorado Missouri or TexasAM?

@ar1 I would venture to say our program is currently better than all 4 former conference mates that you mentioned. But all 4 are also worse than when they were in the Big12. So there’s that. I’m sick of the mediocrity mindset that comes with highlighting the fact that Gundy turns 3 stars into All-Conference picks. 4-stars and 5-stars turn you into conference and national champions. Alas, with Gundy this will not happen. Which is why I’d rather hear more about basketball recruiting. At least Boynton is targeting the best and closing the deal on some. GIA is getting ready to be really really special this season!

It would be interesting to see a summary of the results that Gundy has had on the 5 star recruits that have come to OSU. Of the few I remember it seems there was always a problem of getting them to stop being so full of themselves and instead buy into the program and help the team.

I would love to see Oklahoma State football getting more 4 and 5 star players. I’ve always wondered how successful Gundy would be against OU and Texas with a more level playing field of talent on the roster. That’s no disrespect to the current players or former players, but when recruiting services say we average around 35th (total guess) in the nation over the past decade and OU and Texas are often times in the top 10 then chances are you’re fighting an uphill battle. I will say this, and this isn’t talked about much, Mike Gundy runs a clean program and he does things the right way. That can’t be said for everyone cough Ole Miss. As an Oklahoma State fan doing things the right way means something to me.

4 Likes

He turns 3 star players into All-Big 12 guys and runs 4 star receivers to the transfer portal.

Thanks for that analysis, @kyleporterCBS. Like you, I would have expected good results, but that was indeed even better than expected.

What has that brought us?

I guess the way I see it is that he’s really good at turning 3 star players into 4 star players but really bad at controlling and getting 4 and five stars to buy into the program. You can’t have it both ways here. To me it comes down to effort with Gundy in both recruiting and patients with kids.

1 Like

Big 12 Championship (and should have been playing for the national championship that year)

Multiple seasons of Big 12 championship coming down to final game

Big time donations

And most important not, the ability to have people like you expect more. Because the items mentioned above weren’t even on our radar before him.

If we were playing them, I think we (including OU, Texas, etc) would look even better. Look at the SEC: most of their conference is made up of Kansas and Iowa State’s (who will have a decent year every now and then).

We were regularly beating them before they left, at least at the same rate we beat those that replaced them so don’t see how that impacts this.

@ar1 True titans of college football that every team should seek to test their mettle against.

We have never beaten those teams at the rate we beat West Virginia.

Towards the end we sure did, though. From 2008-2011 (the year they left) in all combined games against all 4 of those teams we had 1 combined loss (overall record of 9-1). We also had 1 loss in 2007 and another 1 in 2006 (going 1-1 both years). We’ve gone 5-2 against WVU and 4-4 against TCU. So, in reality, what you’re saying is actually the opposite of the truth. By all accounts we would’ve had a better record with the original group staying.