The Red/White After Glow
It has nearly been two months since Oklahoma brought the house for official visits on spring game weekend.
There’s still a lot more positive than negative to come from the event, and recent developments once again suggest head coach Lincoln Riley might have had the right mindset toward his approach.
No doubt it was a bit of a downer last week for Riley and OU fans to know that at least the initial two home games for the Sooners will take place at 11 a.m. CST (vs. Florida Atlantic) and noon CST (vs. UCLA). It’s not just tailgating and atmosphere, it’s recruiting, too.
“Some years you’re gonna get a good draw and some years you’re not,” said Riley last week at the Sooner Caravan stop in Tulsa. “Don’t agree with it, but at the same time we’re not the only ones making the call on it. I think when you’ve got the premier team in your league there at least needs to be some equity. You don’t need to have a string of three or four of them, which we’re going to have.
“Listen, whenever they tell us to kick off at 7 a.m. or 7 p.m. we’re going to be there ready to play. But there’s other things like recruiting, being good for your fan base, opposing fan base, the team traveling here…
“You’ve got UCLA traveling here through two time zones to get here early. We’re going to be kicking off at 10 a.m. for their fans. It’s one of our marquee non-conference games. That’s not great for recruiting. You wish things were better, but it doesn’t always go your way. That’s part of it. We’ll be ready to play.”
UCLA is the marquee name for OU’s out of conference slate. In recent years, every other big-time matchup in Norman had been in the evening: 2012 vs. Notre Dame, 2014 vs. Tennessee and 2016 vs. Ohio State.
Early kickoffs make it incredibly more difficult to load up for a big recruiting weekend because of the logistics involved. With recruits usually playing Friday evenings for their high school, it’s an awfully quick turnaround to get them on campus on time and let them enjoy those 48 hours.
OU isn’t the only school to have to deal with this, and OU has been in this position before. Last year, actually. The Sooners had planned to load up for Iowa State weekend. Once the kickoff was announced for 11 a.m., OU scaled down that event.
Would freshman Nik Bonitto have signed with OU had he visited for Iowa State weekend as originally planned instead of banquet weekend in December? Who knows, but it shows how recruiting is all about adjustments and adjustments to those adjustments.
One of those adjustments was Riley opting to have nearly 20 official visitors for the spring game.
“I'm glad we did all those visits since they gave us a bunch of 11 a.m. kickoffs. I'm fine with the rules,” Riley said “They're fine. I think it gives you — there's a little bit more room for strategy and how you do it. There are a few more ways to tailor it to what you need for your program so I do enjoy that part of it and I love the early signing day. I do. I think it was great last year. ... I'm good with where they're at.”
It hasn’t all been sunshine and rainbows, but the rewards to that event continue to trickle in. Four-star defensive end/outside linebacker Joseph Wete, who announced for OU on Saturday, is the latest commitment stemming from that official visit weekend.
There’s always going to be a concern about an early visit making the Sooners out of sight and out of mind, but there’s going to be concerns no matter how you handle a recruitment nowadays.
“You know what, it’s different for every kid. Some kids it’s going to be good to get it done early,” said Riley in April. “There’s going to be some kids that yea, take a visit later on and this one has worn off a little bit. Yea, that’s part of it. You can’t make it perfect. You just have to rely on these kids.
“Right now, if they’re adamant about taking an early visit, we’re going to do everything we can to accommodate to that. Some of these guys are making early decisions. The majority – it’s never gonna be 100 percent – the majority through the last several years, the guys who have made early decisions with us have ended up signing with us.”
Current scorecard? OU has earned nine commitments from recruits who were on campus for the spring game. Two of them have flipped their commitments.
· Richmond (Texas) Travis WR Arjei Henderson
· Allen (Texas) High WR Theo Wease
· Richmond (Texas) Bush S Jamal Morris
· 2020 Deerfield Beach (Fla.) High RB Jaylan Knighton
· Jacksonville (N.C.) Onslow-Southwest DT Derek Green
· Notre Dame grad transfer defensive lineman Jay Hayes (flipped to Georgia)
· Brandon (Miss.) Northwest Rankin S Jarrian Jones (flipped to Mississippi State)
· Allen (Texas) High OG E.J. Ndoma-Ogar
· Washington D.C Gonzaga DE/OLB Joseph Wete
The gut feeling is the Sooners will still receive more good news from spring game visitors during the summer. The decision to do so is going to be analyzed until signing day, but when you see OU getting early kickoff times, the spring game move continues to be one of Riley’s best gambles.