OU hosting Samuell Williamson this weekend

[Kewllane]

They've only been good one season. They were 18-14 the season before that and missed out on postseason play altogether.

I only see them as a thorn in our side if they're consistently signing players we want. Making the same top fives that we do doesn't mean much unless they close the deal more often than we do.

They took Khavon Moore in last year's class, and took Kevin McCullar from this year's class. Both were guys OU wanted pretty badly. Both were guys OU felt like they were probably going to get at one time. That's 2 years in a row.

If that's not the beginning of a thorn in your side, then I don't know what is.

 

[Sooner04]

They took Khavon Moore in last year's class, and took Kevin McCullar from this year's class. Both were guys OU wanted pretty badly. Both were guys OU felt like they were probably going to get at one time. That's 2 years in a row.

If that's not the beginning of a thorn in your side, then I don't know what is.

Well stated. Aggravating thing is a program of our caliber should not be duking it out with Texas Tech for players. That should be O-State's problem, not ours.

 

[Boomer!Sooner!]

They took Khavon Moore in last year's class, and took Kevin McCullar from this year's class. Both were guys OU wanted pretty badly. Both were guys OU felt like they were probably going to get at one time. That's 2 years in a row.

If that's not the beginning of a thorn in your side, then I don't know what is.

I am pretty sure OU backed off Khavon Moore. Not so sure it was that Texas Tech "stole" him from us.

 

[CoachTalk]

You think?

It easily is, IMO.

Yeah we agree on that. So poster saying Crutch is the best we can do isnt accurate IMO.

Id even say 15-20 range.

 

[coolm]

Id even say 15-20 range.

certainly. the revenue potential of OU's athletic department makes that a solid point.

 

[Kewllane]

I am pretty sure OU backed off Khavon Moore. Not so sure it was that Texas Tech "stole" him from us.

I don’t believe for a second that OU backed off of him. I don’t care what’s been said. There was zero reason to back off of him, injury or not.

Tech just out recruited us for both of those guys. I’m not saying it’s the end of the world. Just that it’s a clear problem right now.

 

[BCSooners]

I am pretty sure OU backed off Khavon Moore. Not so sure it was that Texas Tech "stole" him from us.

I'm pretty sure OU pursued him very hard til the end and at one point was considered an OU lean.

 

[WichitaSooner]

I don’t believe for a second that OU backed off of him. I don’t care what’s been said. There was zero reason to back off of him, injury or not.

Tech just out recruited us for both of those guys. I’m not saying it’s the end of the world. Just that it’s a clear problem right now.

Just because a kid signs with one school over others doesn't mean the school that got him out recruited everyone else. Kids choose schools for all kinds of reasons. See Peyton Pritchard.

20+ years ago, a kid I went to high school with could have gone anywhere he wanted. KU was number one in the country and Roy Williams wanted him BADLY. He decided to go to WSU because he wanted to try to turn his hometown school around. WSU was awful at the time. Had a crappy coach and lost 20+ games a year. No way WSU out recruited KU or all the other schools. They just had an advantage no one else could match. A coach could stalk a kid 24/7 and it wouldn't guarantee anything.

 

[Kewllane]

Just because a kid signs with one school over others doesn't mean the school that got him out recruited everyone else. Kids choose schools for all kinds of reasons. See Peyton Pritchard.

20+ years ago, a kid I went to high school with could have gone anywhere he wanted. KU was number one in the country and Roy Williams wanted him BADLY. He decided to go to WSU because he wanted to try to turn his hometown school around. WSU was awful at the time. Had a crappy coach and lost 20+ games a year. No way WSU out recruited KU or all the other schools. They just had an advantage no one else could match. A coach could stalk a kid 24/7 and it wouldn't guarantee anything.

Assuming you were from Witchita, it sounds like both of your examples had something to do with location. I know Witchita isn't that far from Lawrence, but if he was from around Witchita, that probably played some factor there. Just like if I could play anywhere, I probably still would have picked OU because I've grown up going to the games and being a fan.

But in this situation, Khavon Moore is from Georgia. Location and other already built feelings towards TT don't seem to have played a role, considering he was going to commit to OU before he got hurt. Then he gets hurt, visits Tech, takes a little more time to decide, then picks Tech. That's losing a recruiting battle.

I get it, everyone on here loves Lon. I love him, too. What he has done here, and still could do, is amazing. I'm not calling for his job, or saying he can't recruit.

All I'm defending is that since Tech has gotten decent, they've taken two players that we wanted badly, and that's a problem OU is going to have to deal with. OU was better off when Tech wasn't good.

Which leads me back to my original statement. Texas Tech has become a thorn in our side on the recruiting trail.

 

[CoachTalk]

Assuming you were from Witchita, it sounds like both of your examples had something to do with location. I know Witchita isn't that far from Lawrence, but if he was from around Witchita, that probably played some factor there. Just like if I could play anywhere, I probably still would have picked OU because I've grown up going to the games and being a fan.

But in this situation, Khavon Moore is from Georgia. Location and other already built feelings towards TT don't seem to have played a role, considering he was going to commit to OU before he got hurt. Then he gets hurt, visits Tech, takes a little more time to decide, then picks Tech. That's losing a recruiting battle.

I get it, everyone on here loves Lon. I love him, too. What he has done here, and still could do, is amazing. I'm not calling for his job, or saying he can't recruit.

All I'm defending is that since Tech has gotten decent, they've taken two players that we wanted badly, and that's a problem OU is going to have to deal with. OU was better off when Tech wasn't good.

Which leads me back to my original statement. Texas Tech has become a thorn in our side on the recruiting trail.

All those things are relatively accurate. But just because we lose 1-2 players and I think we did back off Moore (not sure why) it happens. Of course, it helps when area teams suck, but then the Big 12 would be a laughing stock.

Yes if a kid picks TT over OU, sure we lost a kid to TT and they "won" the battle. But we cant get every kid.

You know if Moore had ties to TT?

He was the highest rated kid theyve sign since 2007! Theyve been good for 1 year. I love Beard as a coach, dude can coach his tail off.

Lets stop acting like they are the new Duke of the South.

 

[Kewllane]

All those things are relatively accurate. But just because we lose 1-2 players and I think we did back off Moore (not sure why) it happens. Of course, it helps when area teams suck, but then the Big 12 would be a laughing stock.

Yes if a kid picks TT over OU, sure we lost a kid to TT and they "won" the battle. But we cant get every kid.

You know if Moore had ties to TT?

He was the highest rated kid theyve sign since 2007! Theyve been good for 1 year. I love Beard as a coach, dude can coach his tail off.

Lets stop acting like they are the new Duke of the South.

I'm not saying they're the Duke of the South. I'm not saying they're going to out recruit Kansas or Texas.

All I'm saying is since they've gotten a coach that knows what he's doing, they've made it that much harder for OU to recruit. It's just one more school that OU could consistently lose recruits to. When they had most of their previous coaches, they were someone you felt OU would win more recruiting battles against than they would lose. Now, it doesn't appear that way.

Just another obstacle that OU has to overcome now.

I think some of you all think I'm putting blame on the coaches or trying to talk up Tech. That's not what I'm doing. I'm just saying another school in this region, especially in our conference, getting a good coach can really hurt OU's recruiting. Much more than the KU's or the Texas' of the world.

It's fine for the usual recruiting schools to do well, but when you throw in a school that competes for basically the same recruits, it makes it that much harder on OU. And that's what Tech does. I'm not saying they're going to be able to compete with Kansas and other perennial powers in the region. I know he's their highest recruit in a long time, but that's a guy OU really wanted, and probably would have gotten if Tech and Beard weren't there. There's no denying that.

All OU can do is keep getting in on these kids early and hope the tide turns.

My original statement was just an observation, not an indictment on the program.