Bob Stoops' first OU recruiting class

I hope Shel reads this....great article.

Bob Stoops' first OU recruiting class was better than advertised

Read more from this Tulsa World article at http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsext
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By JOHN E. HOOVER World Sports Writer
Published: 1/27/2012  2:21 AM
Last Modified: 1/27/2012  4:28 AM

IT'S STILL pretty amazing to think how Bob Stoops pulled it off.

When he arrived at Oklahoma in December 1998, the program had zero verbal commitments. Zero official visits scheduled.

And somehow, in two months, Stoops and his skeleton staff assembled a class of 21 misfit, castoff and overlooked football players that became the heart and soul of a national championship team and helped restore a glory that continues today.

"It's amazing how well that group performed," said longtime OU aide Merv Johnson, "and what all they accomplished."

Less than a week away from signing his 14th recruiting class, Stoops must look back at how the recruiting landscape has changed, and how frenzied those first weeks were.

"Getting started late like that today would just about wreck you," Johnson said. "If you're not working a year ahead or more, you're way behind."

When John Blake's tenure ended, Oklahoma was more than behind. The program was in disarray. And with an empty recruiting cupboard, the immediate future looked impossibly bleak.

Blake and his fleeing lieutenants, it seemed, had left computer hard drives erased, recruiting databases devoid of names or numbers or schools, manila folders emptied of their contents.

Stoops called in Johnson (then and now, director of football operations), hired Bobby Jack Wright (a Texas assistant for 12 years who wasn't retained by Mack Brown the year before) and even employed new strength coach Jerry Schmidt (he just joined Stoops from Florida) to help scribble down as many names as they could as quickly as possible.

"We were able to provide some names," Johnson said, "but I'm not sure it was a stellar all-star list."

A typical recruiting class might start with maybe 1,000 names, but Stoops and Wright hit the road in mid-December with about 100. And of those, everyone says, there weren't many legitimate major college prospects.

But there were football players: Brandon Everage. Quentin Griffin. Kory Klein. Torrance Marshall. Matt McCoy. Ramon Richardson. Antwone Savage. Derrick Strait.

And of course, two of the most decorated quarterbacks in OU history, Josh Heupel and Jason White. Between them, a Heisman Trophy, a Heisman runner-up, a Maxwell Award, a Walter Camp Award, a Unitas Award, two O'Brien Awards, two AP Player of the Year Awards, two Sporting News Player of the Year Awards, two Big 12 championships, a national championship and two national runners-up.

Everage became an All-American. Griffin ranks fifth in school history in rushing and owns the single-game record for touchdowns. Straight was a two-time All-American and won the Nagurski and Thorpe awards. Marshall was MVP of the 2000-01 Orange Bowl and contributed the most important play of the 2000 national title run.

"It was a good class," McCoy said. "Top to bottom."

Johnson touched base with all the Oklahoma recruits. Wright tapped into his vast Texas connections. And Stoops even worked on a few guys he knew from three years at Florida. Of the 21 newcomers in '99, 15 came from Oklahoma or Texas. Stoops got Marshall and Savage from the southeast. Three others came from Missouri. And Heupel found his way from South Dakota via junior college in Utah.

Maybe the '99 class arrived with a chip on their shoulder (Stoops' first class was ranked 42nd nationally by Rivals.com). Or maybe they pulled into town knowing it was up to them to turn the program around. Or maybe they just already knew how to win.

"Jason White at Tuttle, Michael Thompson at Bristow, Kory Klein at Union, Josh Tucker at Moore, myself at Jenks," McCoy said, recalling one weekend of official visits in Norman. "I remember we all came from winning, winning programs. We all had a mentality of winning."

Said Johnson, "That class, and some of the walk-ons that joined them that were pretty good (Roger Steffen and Cory Heinecke became starters on the 2000 defense) just had a lot of football character. They meshed well, obviously they were coached well, and they achieved more than they probably should have by most peoples' standards."

In terms of raw talent, the '99 class probably doesn't measure up. Only three players made it to an NFL regular-season game (Marshall played four seasons, Strait three and Griffin two).

Stoops had to wait on the college football bowl season to wrap up before he filled out the rest of his staff. Jackie Shipp was at Alabama, Mike Leach was at Kentucky, Steve Spurrier Jr. was at Florida. And Mike Stoops, Brent Venables and Mark Mangino were all at Kansas State.

The K-State trio may have made the most difference. In addition to Mike Stoops' recruiting ties to Strait, Everage and a few others, they brought Bill Snyder's mentality, Johnson said.

"They're not worried about what you read in the paper or what a scouting service says," Johnson said. "They want to see how a kid looks. ... I think they made some real good decisions about some guys that came in a little under the radar."

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don't know if this will work, probably not, but it shows the 1999 recruiting class and I count at least 10 players who had a hand in the 2000 MNC, plus a couple of walkons who als contributed a lot. John Blake really burned his bridge to OU with his BS after he was let go.

 

 

well, just follow the link for the 1999 recruiting class and see how good that class turned out to be.

Wheat, No doubt Stoops came up with a good recruiting class, however, it was initially not so.  He came through with flying colors, but also some luck was involved.  I don't think Stoops has ever had classes like UT, Bama, LSU, tOSU, etc., seem to get consistently.  I would really like to see him land a bevy of 5 star recruits like Satin and Brown seem to get.  Sure Stoops developes 3 star players, but it would be nice to have 5 stars that do more than develop.  This years class is good, but not great.  I also wish some of the voids and depth were being filled better.  Hopefully, something major will happen by next Tuesday. 
BV was a great recruiter, I hope we have not lost something with him leaving.  Not sure about Kish and Mike in this area.  OU is really in need of some Super Star Position players, something we have not really had lately outside of Broyles.

I think it is a mixed bag.  5 star recruits can be superb athletes but they can also bust. As we have seen in both the football and basketball program (Tiny Gallon anyone?), they can come into a program expecting to be treated like a 5 star athlete.  When that doesn't happen, when they don't blow everyone else off the field, when they are expected to perform...well, sometimes they don't. They develop into the opposite of what you want from your players.  


 I'm not saying build a program on mid-level players but we've seen these 4 and 5 star kids not live up to expectations too many time for me to really care anymore how many stars are attached to a kid's name.  I care more about how they perform on the field and in the locker room.


Plus, as Sam Bradford proved, the number of stars is so subjective that it may not really mean much, anyway.
 

I hope Shel reads this....great article.

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OK Wheat i read that artical and what is it suppose to make me believe, that Stoops won the NC with his recruits WRONG. Their is no Way you or anybody else will convince me that Stoops won that 2000 NC  on his Recruits when that was only his second year their. Those where blakes recruits i don't care what you say, there just wasn't enough time for stoops recruits to get into that 2000 NC game. It just don't add up.

Then, Shel, you are mired in ignorance.  READ the flippin' article.  Quentin Griffin, Torrance Marshall, Josh Heupel and many more were STOOPS RECRUITS.  And they were key pieces of the 2000 NC.  


Get over your Boo Blake man crush.  He was a jack ash.  He and his staff went through and deleted all of the recruiting files before they left.  Stoops had to come in with nothing and build a program.  Blake may have recruited well but he was an idiot coach and a jerk for attempting to screw OU over when he left.  


Holy carp, Shel, you have to grab a clue! 

I knew it wouldn't work, but I had to give it the old college try, LOL!~

Can't blame ya, wheat.  If we give up hope and believe that Shel will always have a man crush on Boo and is hopeless, then we might as well pack it in.  



Keep Hope Alive!!! 

You know i could care less, that has come and gone along time ago. But HOLY CRAP SoonerAum most of the recruits on the 2000 championship team are Blakes it has be said by more then just me. I have heard other coaches say it on ESPN they all give Blake credit for those players. you go ahead and pick out a hand full of players but most of them where BLAKES

Can't blame ya, wheat.  If we give up hope and believe that Shel will always have a man crush on Boo and is hopeless, then we might as well pack it in.

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SoonerAlum whats with this man crush crap are you calling me gay.

Well Sooner Alum As for the empty hard drives hmmm they must have a pretty stupid computer programing class's at OU if they could not go threw those drives and retrieve that info, its done all the time.
Stoops also had some players left over from Blake's team it wasn't as dismal as you make it out, sure stoops had his work cut out but not much more then he would have if just taking ovre the program. again they where mostly BLAKE players

 

I left something out. if stoops did do the recuiting back in on that 2000 team, then why can't he recruit a team like like that again now. that defense back then with rocky calmus was great.

the only credit Boo gets is for recruiting some of those kids. he was a horrible coach and he screwed OU over when he left. 


I've never heard any coach give him credit for the 2000 MNC.  Half the kids who started were Stoops recruits not Boos and a lot of the others, who were Boos recruits, were put in positions where they could contribute, something Boo never could do.


Face it Shel, Boo was the worst HC coach in the long and storied history of OU football and that, my friend, is a fact...... 

Soooo...if half the kids were stoops recruits, then the other half would have to be blake's recruits

I've never heard any coach give him credit for the 2000 MNC.  Half the kids who started were Stoops recruits not Boos and a lot of the others, who were Boos recruits, were put in positions where they could contribute, something Boo never could do.

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wheat listen to ESPN once in awhile and you would  here them say that was blake's team i have heard it a lot you probably have to but won't admit it . So your going to give Stoops credit for recruiting the likes of Rocky calmus and some those great players that made up that 2000 team.

Sorry, Shel, but your credibility on the Boo Blake issue is already pretty low.  For you to claim that ESPN commentators are talking about it...really?  When?  Recently?  Then I'm gonna throw the BS flag.  


Plus, if we could go back, you spent weeks on here claiming that Jason White was a Blake recruit.  Even after we posted interviews with White saying he was headed to Miami until Stoops came in, you refused to admit that JW wasn't Blake's recruit.  


Whew... 

Well Sooner Alum As for the empty hard drives hmmm they must have a pretty stupid computer programing class's at OU if they could not go threw those drives and retrieve that info, its done all the time.

This is really your response to the fact that Blake destroyed all of the recruiting files in order to sabotage the University?  It's OK that he did it because OU should have been able to recover the files?  



WOW!    Man crush.  I'm sticking with my previous statement.

Plus, if we could go back, you spent weeks on here claiming that Jason White was a Blake recruit.  Even after we posted interviews with White saying he was headed to Miami until Stoops came in, you refused to admit that JW wasn't Blake's recruit

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SoonerAlum you are so full of it why would i say white was one of blake's recruits when he never played for Stoops. what are you going to do start make up crap now.

This is really your response to the fact that Blake destroyed all of the recruiting files in order to sabotage the University?  It's OK that he did it because OU should have been able to recover the files?

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SoonerAlum look why i said this is you all seem to think what he did was so damaging to the football program and it really wasn't, if they wanted that info they could get it.  I know what blake did was wrong and he should not have done it for all OU has done for him  but he did not destroy the program as you and others have claimed. they went in to those hard drives and got all the info they needed believe me.

Soooo...if half the kids were stoops recruits, then the other half would have to be blake's recruits

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 wheat how do you know, you don't, if blake had been left alone longer then two year and the players he probably was bring in. now he might have doing something illegal but that wouldn't be the first time now would it.