Is Durron Neal OU Commitment An Omen For What's Ahead?
by Wrangler86 on Jun 8, 2011 5:25 PM CDT
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OU just snagged the commitment of WR Durron Neal, ranked nationally by Rivals at #32. He is also ranked as the #6 WR on Scout and the #4 WR on Rivals.
I'm not freaking out since we beat the Sooners out of the commitments of highly regarded WR Cayleb Jones and Thomas Johnson, so it isn't the head to head match up that is bothering me. We clearly have a great 2012 recruiting class with a dynamic leader in QB Connor Brewer and stud RB Johnathan Gray. We are doing great and will clearly have a top 5 class again this year.
But, here is my concern. Neal is from St. Louis, MO and he just committed to OU. Rumor is that top QB Gunner Kiel was visiting Norman this week too. WR Dorial Green-Beckham ("DGB") is the #1 ranked player in the country and it just so happens this top WR is also from Missouri, and he was just in Norman for a visit last week that apparently went very well.
I hate to say it, but the likelihood of a Sooner trifecta with Kiel, DGB and Neal is looking like a real possibility.
The Sooners have been "all in" on QB Kiel and haven't shown any real interest in a Plan B. Kiel has to know that he is their man, and let's face it, Sam Bradford is pretty good evidence that the Sooners can put a QB in the NFL. The competition for Kiel's services seem to be Notre Dame, Alabama, Mizzou and Michigan. Kiel is from Indiana. Kiel to OU is looking like the logical choice.
We do have a connection to DGB and I would love to see him in burnt orange. But, if not in orange, I sure don't want him in crimson. I have been hoping that Mizzou would land him and Kiel, but that is looking less likely with the #2 player in the show-me-state now picking OU over Mizzou. Some rumors have Pinkel as a candidate for the vacant tOSU HC spot, which certainly can't help their recruiting.
Could it be that Neal committed today because DGB did not commit last week and he likes his chances of getting on the field without the competition of DGB? I'm afraid that is wishful thinking. But, it very well could be a sign that 5 star 2011 WR Trey Metoyer is not going to be appearing in crimson anytime soon. Rumor on Metoyer is that he didn't qualify and isn't likely to qualify, which would explain the opening of another WR spot for the land thieves.
The Aggies also have a heck of a 2012 class put together so far with not one, but two top rated QBs, and star RB Trey Williams. Tech beat us out for super stud OL Michael Starts. I'm already having more fun with the Cornhuskers out of our conference.
I don't know where these recruits/commits will actually sign next year, but I do know that Big XII-II football is going to be some really good stuff in the coming years.
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I don't follow:
“The competition for Kiel’s services seem to be Notre Dame, Alabama, Mizzou and Michigan. Kiel is from Indiana. Kiel to OU is looking like the logical choice.”
I was heading out of the office so just threw some facts out there
I didn’t mean to suggest that OU has a geographic advantage. ND clearly has that advantage. Kiel is from Columbus, IN which is just south of Indianapolis. ND was the early favorite and front runner; however, ND has offers out to four or more other QBs, so they don’t seem confident or like the leader for Kiel. OU has one QB offer out to Kiel. They seem cocky confident on this one.
Also, Neal to OU today is a surprise. Neal is a Catholic School prep kid, so if Kiel was going to ND and not OU I would think Neal would check out ND and wouldn’t have pulled the trigger on OU today.
I’m just speculating and trying to guess what will happen and where DGB and Kiel will end up. Kiel is not nearly as big a deal as DGB. DGB is really the game changer.
Of course, I am assuming that the top QB and top WR would like to play together, but that may not even be high on their list. Likewise, Neal may not have any clue as to where Kiel is going, and we all know that big game Bob would tell Neal anything to get a top kid to commit.
Bama is allegedly the other main challenger for Kiel, but Bama doesn’t throw the ball as much as OU and doesn’t have the reputation of putting QBs into the nfl like OU.
Mizzou is doing nothing to impress now that Neal isn’t even staying in state. Neal was believed/assumed to be a Mizzou guy. So, this is a very interesting turn that he committed to OU so suddenly.
Michigan is the only Big 10 +2 school on his short list, but they have 6 or more offers out to other QBs and his interest in Michigan doesn’t appear to be very strong. Michigan wanted PIke, but Pike committed to Auburn.
We're Texas.
Kids are fickle
im not sure the commit of one kid really changes the way another goes outside of a situation like Cole and Brown.
Ou will no doubt have a top notch recruiting class, but im not worried. We have plently of playmakers ourselves and we should just focus on doing the best with what we have.
DGB of course being an absolute game changer though.
"Slammed that hoe on the counter like I just got 35 on the domino table!!"
Sherrod Harris
So true
I’m sure big game Bob was also telling the kid that the rumors of Pinkel leaving Mizzou for tOSU are true. I can just hear him blabbering about how tOSU really wanted him but he knows he can win NCs at OU, blah, blah blah.
We have Brewer and from what I’ve read he has the “it” factor of a leader/winner. Let’s hope “it” is more than what GG has shown us. Everything I have read makes me pick Brewer over Kiel, so that isn’t an issue. I also take Cayleb Jones and Thomas Johnson over Neal, but DGB would be pick 1.
DGB is a bigger, stronger, better Julio Jones, and I thought that was impossible.
We're Texas.
Living in Springfield by chance?
I live in Springfield and plan on going to see DGB play in person a few times this year. The more the merrier
by Longhorn in MO on Jun 8, 2011 10:17 PM CDT up reply actions
ESPN top 150 is out
http://espn.go.com/college-football/recruiting/top150prospects/_/class/2012
Brewer is their no. 3 QB….and Texas leads recruiting with 9 members. All our commits are 4 star, except J. Gray witht the 5th star. I don’t even know why I’m looking over my shoulder to see what the gooners are doing.
We're Texas.
Good point on worrying about OU
We were never recruiting Neal or Kiel, and I don’t see how getting — or not getting — either one puts the Sooners in any better position for DGB. He’s the top prospect around. He has unique family issues. Hhe can pick where he wants to go, and do it now or on Signing Day morning or even later.
we have a scholarship limit
and can’t take them all. No, i don’t want them going to Norman, but they will go somewhere.
by everything horns on Jun 8, 2011 11:06 PM CDT reply actions
Pretty good write up, Wrangler
As far as a speculative piece goes, this was pretty good. You went through many scenarios, and gave many reasons on said scenarios. Impressive.
New Orleans, here we come.
by KratosWasASooner on Jun 9, 2011 1:48 AM CDT reply actions
Thanks
I noticed a lot of happy Sooners over at C&C.
My gut tells me that Kiel is likely to Norman and DGB is going to be a star wherever he picks. I’m actually glad to see the BigXII-II with so much talent as it bodes well for our conference.
Texas has offered Brooks who is an OU commit. If he were to de-commit and pick us, he would actually be our lowest ranked commit, so we are in good shape. Also, Nelson Agholor from FL is suppose to be one of the best CBs that Akina has ever seen…..and that is saying something. We really want that guy.
We're Texas.
We really want that guy.
Some of us really REALLY want the guy.
"I live in the tower with Coach Brown." -Bevo
by run Bevo run on Jun 9, 2011 10:25 AM CDT up reply actions
DGB and Agholor
That would be a nice double gimme to wrap up this class, especially if we got one more awesome OL.
We're Texas.
Thanks--I appreciate it
I know that I am not a journalist or anything like the awesome folks running this site. They do a tremendous job and we are all spoiled to have such talent giving us daily feeds. I have never been good at writing, but I don’t mind trying to share news. I try to edit my posts, but I don’t have all day to make it perfect either and so sometimes what I type is disjointed or out of context which will just have to suffice. The questions presented are usually pretty valid so sometimes I have explaining to do. I appreciate that others understand—it isn’t like a post is an editorial peice but if it causes confusion it is totally cool to ask what it means like they did at the start of the post. I was winging some thoughts and things.
I’m from IN and I wonder how that is impacting Kiel’s decision. Growing up it was always Notre Dame, tOSU and UM despite IU and Purdue being the local in-state schools. OU was unkown to me, but this was many years ago. Bama was considered the deep south and there was no logical reason to want to go there, but that was before the SEC’s domination also. The country has gotten ‘smaller’ since I was a kid.
I particularly like to spy on OU, so I figured it doesn’t take me too long to post on something that I have already spent hours investigating and others folks may have an interest but not the time to waste.
We're Texas.
good post but we have bigger worries
the sooners are going to get great players. we know that. we are also getting great players. after a 5-7 year i am more concerned with what Mrs. McCoy “volunteered”
on a call-in show than who is in Norman and if our new coaches can coach great
players to another national championship before 2015.
ut1ou2 for texas-ou weekend
Seriously?
That was a big ole nothing burger. She wasn’t even at Texas and she didn’t give anything specific. She also stated that Texas tells the kids to take NOTHING…not even a piece of gum or something like that. There is no need to worry about that.
We should actually be worried about the recruting busts from guys like Bobby Kennedy that picked Timmons over Emory Blake and the whole OL that McWhorter recruited. We made a lot of bad choices in evaluation. Also, some guys just aren’t going to be best suited for the new coaches’ schemes. Not to mention that nobody is a leader at QB. Growing pains for sure to worry about, but Mrs. McCoy’s strange call-in to a radio station is ‘weird’ but not serious.
We're Texas.
I agree that the players are a bigger concern than McCoy's comments
However, I think the concern is what Texas does with the talent it recruits, not the talent itself. I have no doubt that Texas had the talent on the roster last year to compete for a conference title and BCS bowl bid, but the fact is that so many things fell through: player development, playcalling, player leadership, program leadership (Cleve, for example), and on-field concentration (viral dropsies, anyone?). All these stars aligned for Texas to have the worst season in well over a decade. Ugh. While I don’t think the Longhorns had their strongest depth ever at, say, OL, schools like Wisconsin and Iowa have shown that a team can turn a bunch of three-star guys into successful and effective linemen. The Texas program did not.
This is like O. Henry and Alanis Morrisette had a baby, and named it "This Exact Situation."
by burntorangehorn on Jun 10, 2011 9:30 AM CDT up reply actions
I don't see them getting all three.
But probably two. Oklahoma needs a quarterback of the future and I have every reason to believe that when Stoops really goes after a quarterback, he’ll get him. It’s not hard to sell the Oklahoma program to QB recruits. Bob is a very relatable, frank man. Though, that’s not to say Notre Dame, Alabama, and Michigan will be easy to compete with. But having top ranked receivers to throw to is huge so you have to think Neal’s commitment puts them in a better position to get Kiel.
I, personally, prefer that these guys come into Big 12 territory rather than go to another conference, even if that means joining the land thieves. Can you imagine, in a couple years? Brewer vs. Kiel in the Red River Rivalry? To me, they are very similar quarterbacks, with Kiel being a somewhat better runner. That’d make a pretty explosive match-up.
"Hey, don't y'all think that's beautiful right there? That crystal is SO beautiful. And it's coming home to Texas." - Vince Young
Sorry, bro, I hope 0U never signs another top-500 recruit. Let 'em rot! I"m also hoping that ...
… a miracle occurs and Stoops goes to Ohio State ASAP. That would take care of the whole Kiel-DGB-Neal thing.
Stoops to tOSU would make my year/decade
I can’t stand either. Stoops doesn’t want to go to tOSU because at OU he can get any kid qualified, enrolled and eligible. At tOSU he will have to up his level of academics and they won’t be able to turn a blind eye to kids like Jarboe and Chaisson, especially now. Stoops does have lots of experience with car dealershis though.
Somehow Trey Metoyer has broken the mold on anyone can go to OU. I’m not sure how he didn’t qualify. I’m still wondering how they will skirt the rules and get him on campus, but I have no doubt they will pull something out of the hat.
Top talent going to anywhere in the Big XII-II is cool (even to little bro), but to OU it makes me nuts.
We're Texas.
OK- I will take your take on Mrs. McCoy
But it was “serious” enough to make the front page reference on USA Today and the
Dallas Morning News. Negative press is never positive. SO lets get all the recruits we
can and hope ou gets crumbs. If Trey Metoyer plays a down for ou it will be like "
Miracle on the Brazos". :)
Great post and thanks for your great research as always.
ut1ou2 for texas-ou weekend
You do realize
that USA Today is written at a 5th grade reading level, right? If you consider that a legitimate newspaper then you might as well consider Calvin and Hobbes Shakespearean literature.
"I want to be remembered as the guy who gave his all whenever he was on the field."
-Walter Payton
It's the McPaper, but...
…that doesn’t mean its reporters don’t do legitimate reporting. Their approach is to write brief stories that can be read in a minute, rather than ones that require page-jumps. Obviously their details are going to be few, but it makes it possible to get the basics on a story. This also usually means there’s no room to push a political leaning in the stories, I’ve found.
You won’t find me buying a USA Today, but I’d certainly say it’s legitimate. It’s certainly a more legitimate newspaper than a local one that runs fluff stories on dog parades and lemonade stands.
This is like O. Henry and Alanis Morrisette had a baby, and named it "This Exact Situation."
by burntorangehorn on Jun 10, 2011 9:37 AM CDT up reply actions
I suppose you are right with a name like USA Today
It’s certainly a more legitimate newspaper than a local one that runs fluff stories on dog parades and lemonade stands.
I see your point, and I agree they don’t push one way or another politically, however, it is a poor newspaper that is very light on depth, leaving much to the imagination when a story is written. Just my humble opinion, though.
"I want to be remembered as the guy who gave his all whenever he was on the field."
-Walter Payton
Their sports section is very informative & often has interesting articles.
I dont buy it daily but, when I’m on vacation to another state, it’s perfectly fine.
Was that a disparagement of Calvin and Hobbes?
I hope not. What’d the little kid and the lovable tiger ever do to deserve it?
Calvin & Hobbes is cute ... but not funny. It's just not interesting at all.
The Far Side, Mother Goose & Grimm, & Bizarro – now those are funny ’toons.
Obviously, there are many of you.
C&H has been a long-time mainstay in papers. They wouldn’t print it if it didn’t have fans.
I guess I learned my lesson
the funny papers are off the table when it comes to disparaging comparisons
"I want to be remembered as the guy who gave his all whenever he was on the field."
-Walter Payton
The "Funny" papers have 3 types of 'toons ...
Funny, Cute, & Soap Operas (ex: Prince Valiant). I tend to prefer the ones that are actually funny, & even clip ’em out sometimes, but the other two categories have more value when used as a base layer prior to pouring in the kitty litter.
No offense intended to anyone. This has been a topic of conversation w/ my folks & I. I always peruse the comics prior to folding & filling-out the NYT Crossword.
Pencil or ink?
There is not a situation or individual that cannot be improved by the addition of chocolate.
Ink, baby. Go bold or don't go at all.
Sadly, I can’t visit the toilet w/out ‘em anymore. Monday-Thursday NYT are fairly finishable. Friday & Saturday gets tough. USA Today’s are a bit easier, overall. I remember the AAS’s being solid & challenging but the Houston Chronicle’s late-week puzzles are just ridiculously tough.
I really think at this point in time
OU is a better Job than tOSU. Stoops has no reason to consider that Job. tOSU is surely going to suffer ncaa sanctions, Stoops makes a mint @ OU, he has a young family he doesn’t want to move and he’s just built a multi-million dollar home in Norman. As far as Metoyer, my understanding is he is still trying to get the ACT scores up enough to qualify and can continue to do so through the summer, although this would mean he couldn’t get on campus till the fall. Not sure how much he could contribute. The kid clearly has talent so I hope he can make the grades, but if not there is a pretty good pool of talent at WR on campus and MAYBE DGB on the horizon (please make it so).
Hey, us 'Horns can dream, can't we?! Yeah, I doubt he'd leave ..
… but the wild card is: He’s from Ohio! You gotta admit that it might be a draw for him to go home.
Everyone knew Metoyer would fail to qualify
That’s why I never understood the hype about him. Surprised he didnt go to Okie St. They really do get everyone in
by miketag on Jun 10, 2011 5:51 AM CDT via mobile reply actions
How do you not qualify at ou?
Rumor on Metoyer is that he didn’t qualify and isn’t likely to qualify
"Nobody leaves this field until we beat the hell out of them".................... L.J."Louis"Jordan in 1913 before kickoff of the Texas/ou game.
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