Badet Wowed by Oklahoma

Kentucky wide receiver graduate transfer Jeff Badet took an official visit Oklahoma last weekend and prior to his visit, like many before him, he had an idea of what he might see upon his arrival. According to the 6-foot pass-catcher Norman, and Oklahoma City, were not what he expected to see during his trip.

"(The visit) went really well. It went really, really well," Badet said. "Really as far as the town, for some reason I was expecting a small little country town. So that aspect of the visit was what really wowed me. The city was really nice, I got a chance to drive to Oklahoma City and see how really nice it was. That was one part of the visit I really liked and could possibly see myself living there."

Another aspect that Badet came in with some pre-conceived ideas about was his chance to be around the players. He had mentioned spending time with Baker Mayfield and the receiving corps but it was a pair of defenders who made the biggest impression on him during his time on campus.

"Baker wasn’t there, he had to handle some business in Tulsa. I really was around, my first day was Steven Parker and outside linebacker, they call him Obo (Okoronkwo), No. 31. I got a chance to be around Marquise Brown, the slot receiver, I was around another receiver on Saturday, Jeff Mead," Badet recalled.

"My first night when I was with Steven Parker and Obo, those guys were real down to Earth, they kept it real with me.

"Obo is a guy that, he kept it real with me from the jump, he said when the coaches told him about me he sat down and watched my highlight tape to possibly see if I can be the guy to come in and make plays. That was something he kept telling me, he was like ‘man we need you here, I sat down and watched your highlight tape and you can come and do the things that Dede did for us’.

"I like the culture of those guys, they are hungry, they want to win a championship every year and they feel like they can do it again this year. They were saying you can help us and be here and help us keep winning."

It seems that Oklahoma's pedigree was something that caught his eye throughout his trip. And the reality of the differences between Kentucky's rebuilding during Badet's time on campus and that of a team expected to compete for a national title in 2017 was something he couldn't help but notice.

"It’s a program that is really established, over the 18 years that Bob Stoops has been there, he has had that tradition of winning. I’m used to building a program, Oklahoma is a program that has already been through that phase – that would really help if a guy was to make a decision. It shows you everything they have done through the past years," he said.

And though Badet had a chance to spend some time with Stoops it was the time spent around a good portion of Oklahoma's offensive staff that seemed to be the most meaningful aspect of his trip.

"Saturday morning I was in the film room with coach (Lincoln) Riley, coach (Cale) Gundy, and coach (Dennis) Simmons. I want to say we watched over, literally, 100 clips of football. It was clips where you have Baker Mayfield in the pocket and you have scrambling drills and you have the routes that Sterling (Shepard) and (Dede) Westbrook ran. That’s pretty much the relationship I got with those guys," he explained.

"I know coach Gundy is the guy that is recruiting me the hardest, that’s the guy that I talk to pretty much every day.

"After that I went with coach Simmons and sat down in his office and we had our own little thing. I was curious the type of drills he has his receivers doing. I want to make my decision on a place more on how I can develop as a receiver. I ask these coaches how do they make their players better, what type of drills you put them through?

"And then, of course, I had my own time with coach Stoops and had a good time and talked with him for a while. Those are the relationships I’m coming across. They want a guy who can come in and be a team-first guy. Their pitch was really the school that gives me the most exposure because of Oklahoma football."

Badet, who says he still plans to take his two-day official visits to Troy on March 23, Virginia Tech on April 7, and Oregon on April 23, isn't in any rush to make his decision. And that includes when he arrives on campus shortly after his May 5 graduation from Kentucky. Badet, who put up 31-receptions for 670-yards and four touchdowns, says he'll decide shortly after his trip to Eugene.

"I’ll have to graduate, next day take my stuff back home and I’ll leave the majority of my stuff at home and then bring what I need wherever I’m going to go," Badet explained.

But after that he's very clear how he feels about coaches making any promises about his arrival on the college campus of his choice.

"I told (the Oklahoma coaches) I don’t want anything given to me. I understand (coaches) telling me this and that, but it’s part of me coming in and working hard and that’s another way of earning guys’ trust on the team. Also, not just a guy who already comes in and has a spot but a guy who works hard and will earn it," he said. "The coaches were really just telling you everything you need to believe, that was something that hurt me coming out of high school. I just took it all in and then really is trying to hear what everybody else is trying to sell me.

"I really tell the schools showing me this and that, I just want to sit down in the meeting room and I’m not a big guy about showing me this and that because really I’m going to be there for six months. Just show me things in the meeting room and have facts behind them of things you want to do."

"(Oklahoma is) just telling me I could come in and play some outside and inside and show them that they are the player they think I am. They are a big believer in giving their best player the ball, if I can come in and show that I can play inside and outside."

For all of the searching that Badet is doing, and already has done, he has a chance to join one Stoops to another. After spending four years under Mark Stoops at Kentucky he spent time this weekend around two of his older brothers, Bob and Mike Stoops and left with a comical connection between the three brothers.

"I think it’s funny how all the Stoops brothers, all of them the way their lips move is all the same. It was just funny, the first Stoops I saw was Mike he came and talked to me and I just looked at him and I was like ‘man this is crazy, the way their lips move’. Then Bob came in and I was like ‘oh my god'," he laughed.

"They really all do sound alike.

"(But) you can pretty much tell that Bob is the older brother, the way he carries himself, just that he is more established but you can just tell that they are all brothers."

Regardless of where he plays though Badet knows that he'll have to be, at least, a 'part-time' student, but he plans to take the 'student' aspect of 'student-athlete' as lightly as possible.

"To be considered a student you have to be enrolled in six hours. With all the schools I’ve been to I’ve talked to their academic people because I’m going to start on my Masters while I’m there," he said before clarifying that program.

"To be honest, whatever the easiest program. I’m a guy that is, I’m really, really done with school. I’ve been in school so long I just want to play football."