There’s a complicated story to tell about offensive line recruiting and development at Oklahoma under Lincoln Riley. It’s not a bad story, but it’s not a story in which the offensive line always flourished. It’s a story which will require multiple conversations.
In this post, Oklahoma insider Kegan Reneau explains on The Riley Files the different tension points at work for the Sooners in the latter years of Riley’s tenure.
“They had a weird recruiting strategy. You could say for every position Oklahoma was very big on recruiting the elite players, then basically saying this is your schedule, when you’re gonna be ready to play, this is when we’re gonna play you,” Reneau said. “So they would one year recruit three elite offensive linemen. Sometimes they’d be committed, but then they fell through. When you don’t have Plan B or Plan C and you’re swinging on guys that are more coin flips, things are going in the wrong direction, and you look at the way they just had some misses, right?
“The most talented offensive line group at Oklahoma has signed, I believe, is either the 2017 or 2018 group that had Darrell Simpson in it and Brey Walker in it. Brey Walker was a five star who has not resulted in playing any significant snaps at Oklahoma. Tyrese Robinson, Marquis Hayes, I think were a part of that group. That group just underperformed and was underdeveloped, and there’s really no rhyme or reason for it. That’s part of the uproar Oklahoma fans have had because they blame it on strength and conditioning.”
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