Do we have any high 4 star or 5 star recruits potentially coming in? I dont know I dont follow recruiting as closely as some of you guys.
Capel had 4 top 4 star/5 star guys. This was an exciting time I remember everyone thinking Capel was the man.
I am by no means a capel fan. And I have stated that he is not a good coach.
But I believe he brought in recruits that made everyone excited. He failed to properly mentor TMG, warren, and gallon and that ultimately was capels failure which lead to our program demolish.
He did a good job landing some big recruits but he massively screwed up with his other scholarships and retaining those big names. The only good team he had was based on role players from the Sampson era (AJ, T. Griffin, and Crocker) an Oklahoma kid (Cade Davis) and two transfers that he managed to keep because the Griffin Brothers were running the team. When Blake was a freshman he had a respectable team and it was even more based on Sampson's role players. They guy could not and did not build a team.
Tell me what these guys have in common: Ahmed Abdul, Nick Thompson, Orlondo Allen, Juan Pattillo, Carl Blair, Calvin Newell, Ray Willis, Tony Neysmith, Chris Early, Bobby Maze, Kyle Cannon and Kyle Hardrick. These are non-elite recruits that did not work out in the Capel era.
Tell me what these guys have in common: Willie Warren, Keith Clark, Tiny Gallon, TMG and TJ Taylor. These are Top 100 recruits that did not work out in the Capel era. (Note I did not count Scottie Reynolds or Damion James)
Tell me what these guys have in common: Chris Walker, Barry Honore, and CJ Washington. These are guys that stayed but probably didn't belong in the Big XII (no offense to any of them, they are all much better athletes than me).
Who are these guys: Cade Davis, Blake Griffin, Omar Leary, Ryan Wright, Cam Clark, Tony Crocker, Romero Osby and Tyler Neal. These are guys that worked out under Capel in that they stayed the appropriate time and made pretty solid contributions to the basketball team.
8 guys in 5 recruiting classes, compared to 20 guys that either didn't work out or probably didn't belong in the Big XII. Now look closer. Crocker was a Sampson recruit that grew up in Lawton before moving to San Antonio for High School (essentially an Oklahoma kid). Davis, Griffin and Neal were Oklahoma kids. Leary, Osby and Wright only had two years and it is almost impossible for guys like Osby and Wright to transfer twice at a D-I level. One four year player that wasn't from Oklahoma in 5 seasons with Capel as the head coach worked out and that is Cam Clark. One Juco transfer worked out. Wtih respect to Cam I believe he is from just south of the border in Sherman, Texas (about as close to an Oklahoma kid as you can get).
I just don't see how you can argue he was a good recruiter. Sure he brought in some big names but they didn't work out.
Someone explain to me what I am missing about this worthless POS coach, Jeffrey Fenton Capel?