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Former Oklahoma head football coach Bob Stoops made his weekly radio appearance on The REF (94.7 FM/1400 AM) in Norman on Tuesday with hosts Teddy Lehman and Tyler McComas on their weekday afternoon show “The Rush” from 3-6 p.m.
McComas asked Stoops what he and his staff’s philosophy was in regards to in-state recruiting during his tenure leading Oklahoma.
“Well, the first philosophy was, as much as we could, I do not want to make a mistake and ever pass up a kid from the state of Oklahoma. And if you have any doubt as a position coach, let me watch them,” Stoops explained.
Stoops then used Dan Cody’s recruitment as an example.
“For instance, we didn’t know where Dan Cody would play, so not one position coach wanted to commit to him. They put him in front of me. It didn’t take me five minutes of watching tape. I said, ‘I don’t care what you guys all think. I get nobody knows where you want to put him. He’s going to play here. I’m offering him a scholarship.’ So, our point was, I always emphasized if we’re going to ever make a mistake, make a mistake on a young man from Oklahoma. Give them a chance. If you’re ever in doubt, again, let me watch them. I did not want to miss on an Oklahoma kid, young man. Did not,” Stoops said.
Of course, Cody developed into a star at Oklahoma. The Ada product was a four-year starter for the Sooners at defensive end where he registered 25 career sacks and earned First-Team All-Big 12 status in 2003 and 2004. Cody was drafted in the second round of the 2005 NFL Draft by the Baltimore Ravens.
There’s plenty of other examples of great OU players under Stoops that were in-state kids. Players like Sam Bradford, Ryan Broyles, Rocky Calmus, Gerald McCoy, Teddy Lehman, Curtis Lofton and Sterling Shepard just to name a few.
“I always wanted to give players in this state here the benefit of the doubt, go for them first. And I’ll say this, too. I always told our coaches. You go way back to Jason White, my first recruiting class. I said, ‘We don’t have a big population in the state of Oklahoma, so maybe we’re not going to offer 15 guys, 10 guys from the state, but the guys we do have, they can play anywhere in the country and they can be the best.’ You look at Teddy, Rocky, Sam, Jason, on and on and on,” Stoops said of his in-state recruiting philosophy.
It appears new Oklahoma head football coach Brent Venables is taking a similar approach to recruiting in-state talent.
In recent weeks, Venables and his staff have sent out offers to running back Erik McCarty from McAlester and defensive end Bai Jobe out of Community Christian in Norman. Those two class of 2023 prospects are currently projected to land with OU.
The Sooners appear to have locked up the soon-to-be signing of Booker T. Washington’s Gentry Williams in the 2022 class and they made it a priority to re-offer the top player in the state for the 2024 class in Del City’s David Stone.
McComas feels Stoops’ in-state approach in the past can offer some glimpse into Oklahoma’s future with Venables.
“I think a lot of things about how [Stoops] went about things, we can use as a useful tool to see what the future here is going to look like. I think without a doubt, the way Bob did things, Brent is not entirely going to look like that, but it’s going to look pretty similar. My initial thought is, okay, well, if Bob was willing to give an Oklahoma kid a chance, then I think that Brent is going to be way more willing to do that as well, especially more than what Lincoln and the previous staff did,” McComas said.
McCarty fits the bill for a player that Oklahoma is willing to extend an offer to and take a chance on that maybe it wasn’t willing to under Riley. According to Rivals, the 6-foot-2, 180 pound running back is ranked as a three-star recruit.
“My whole conclusion out of that is, okay, I thought OU was going to be more active in the state with recruiting and obviously they’re going to get four and five-star guys, but I’m kind of thinking that maybe—not like five or six guys a class—but you’re going to see one or two three-star kids from Oklahoma be a part of classes here moving forward and that obviously wasn’t the case here recently,” McComas said.
Oklahoma fans are more than familiar with both the upside and the downside of the NCAA’s transfer portal since Riley ushered off to USC. McComas said that’s less of a worry with in-state talent.
“Some people might call some of these kids risks. I would consider it…it’s a calculated risk. They’re not going to just take a kid to take a kid to say they recruited Oklahoma. They’re going to take him because they like his size, they like his measurables, they like what he’s going to be. I like it because you’re way more apt to keep a kid on the roster I think if he’s from in state. You’re way more apt for that kid to not maybe go into the portal after his sophomore season. Maybe he’s more patient to finding his turn on the roster,” McComas said.
One of the other common thoughts about in-state talent is that their connection to and familiarity with Oklahoma’s program means they may inherently care more about the program.
McComas didn’t completely shoot that down, but pointed out that there’s been prominent examples of players that are synonymous with OU that aren’t from the state of Oklahoma.
“Some of those things are overblown. Baker Mayfield and Brian Bosworth cared more about OU than maybe any other players that existed here and they were both from the state of Texas. So, maybe the whole they care more about OU thing is overblown, but I definitely think that there’s some advantages to guys may be willing to stay around four and five years if they’re from the state as opposed to outside of it,” McComas said.
Successful in-state recruiting was one of the pillars of the Stoops era and early indications are that it appears Venables and his staff are making it one of the foundational pieces of their approach with the Sooners.
In-state talent winding up out of state has been one of the bigger recruiting gripes of the Oklahoma fan base in recent years. If the early approach from Venables’ staff is a sign of things to come, then OU fans may be able to put some of those past frustrations to rest.
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