I am a strong believer in the number of competing offers and this class doesn't have as many as Graham's previous two classes, which were superb. So let's call it the class of sleepers and, certainly, let's not call it the class of road kill as many observers have. Marshall, Memphis, and Rice stepped up their recruiting and with always strong recruiting efforts by UCF, ECU, USM, Houston, and SMU, CUSA has really stepped up its recruiting. And, in a way, this has created the false perception that Tulsa recruiting is way off from previous recent years. It isn't.

Observation 1. Tulsa continues to recruit well primarily because OU and OSU, starting about a half dozen years ago, have gone very deeply into Texas and other states, leaving a lot of quality players available in the state of Oklahoma. OU has 2 Oklahoma kids in their 2011 class and OSU also has only 2 Oklahoma kids.

Observation 2. With OU and OSU heavily recruiting in Texas and other states, it is my observation that the Star Ratings and Rankings for Oklahoma High School players have become more convoluted and all over the board during the season. I speculate that various "recruiting gurus and boards" flip flop all over the place because they cannot feed off of information from OU and OSU. For example, OSU's two Oklahoma high school commits were not included in the pre-season Top 20 in many Oklahoma "recruiting" guru boards.

With the above two thoughts in mind, consider this: Tulsa placed 5 players on the 2010 CUSA Freshman All-Conference team. Those 5 players and their competing offers from BCS and NonBCS colleges are listed below:

OL Stetson Burnett (Army)
WR Thomas Roberson (CSU, Okla St)
LB Shawn Jackson (None)
LB Cody Wilson (Army)
DB Marco Nelson (None)

2010 CUSA All-Freshman Team
http://www.witn.com/cusa/headlines/111463959.html

In addition, Marco Nelson made first team freshmen All-America and Shawn Jackson made second team freshmen All-America.

Roberson, Jackson, Wilson, and Nelson are from Tulsa.

Observation 3. New Coach Bill Blankenship has put a strong stamp on this class, even though he only had a few weeks and only 3 coaches left from the old staff. Blankenship brought in four DL plus a walk-on DE and retained heavily recruited WR Keyarris Garrett and RB Michael Sorrells from former coach Todd Graham, who recruited them hard to change their verbal to Pitt. Including Garrett and Sorrels, Blankenship recruited 10 of the 23 Tulsa commitments. Todd Graham's departure and subsequent recruiting of TU verbals caused the loss of 5 verbals.

Observation 4. Offensively, this class is on par with previous classes. The OL, TE, the four WRs, RBs, and QB rank with previous classes.

Observation 5. On defense, the quality of this class will depend upon the performance of the 6 DL including the walk-on. How the DL perform in the future is the key to rating this class. The one LB recruited by TU is a good one. Two of the 4 CBs were strongly recruited by others. Blankenship brought these 2 CBs in because 2 other highly rated CBs decommitted.

Observation 6. Twelve of the 23 recruits are from Oklahoma, eight are from Texas, 1 from Arkansas, 1 from Kansas, and 1 from Mississippi. Eight of the 12 Oklahoma recruits are from Tulsa county. The 8 Tulsa area recruits comprise 33% of the 23 recruits in the Tulsa U class.

Observation 7. Marshall and Memphis had superb recruiting years--but in their coaches' second year. It is unfair to make any strong judgment regarding the recruiting abilities of Bill Blankenship and his new staff until next recruiting class. But I like the emphasis on DL. The lack of quality DL and depth has plagued TU for the last half dozen years or so. It is a promising start for Blankenship and Tulsa, given Blankenship's short time and Todd Graham's recruiting of TU verbals.

OFFENSE
Bill Blankenship and his new staff's recruits are noted by BB after the recruit's name.

Garrett Glad, OT, 6-4, 280, Sallisaw, OK
Offers: Stanford, Oklahoma, Kansas
Comment: Switched verbal from Stanford when Haubaugh left

Garrett Stafford, OG, 6-6, 289, 5.5, Tulsa Memorial, OK (Already enrolled)
Offers: No competing offers when offered by TU. Subsequently offered by Vanderbilt and Houston
Comment: Very impressive June Tulsa camp and was immediately offered a scholarship. Tulsa Memorial Head Coach Tony Daniels states that "Both Missouri and Kansas told me they would offer him after the first two games but Garrett didn't want to wait and wanted to commit before the season."

James Floyd, OG, 6-3, 277, 5.27, Ft. Worth, TX (Grey Shirt, BB)
Offers: AFA, ULM

Colt Clontz, TE, 6-8, 220, 4.7, El Maton, TX
Offers: Memphis
Comments: Previously, an offer from Memphis wouldn't mean much but both Memphis and Marshall have had truly outstanding recruiting classes in their coaches's second year. So, a nice compliment from Memphis coaching staff regarding Clontz.

Keyarris Garrett, WR, 6-4, 185, 4.58, Daingerfield, TX (BB)
Offers: Purdue, Pitt, Texas Tech, Houston, Memphis, NM, La Tech, ULM, Arkansas State, Central Arkansas

Zach Epps, WR, 6-5, 183, 4.66, Overland Park, KS
Offers: None
Comment: Father played for TU and 2 uncles played for Kansas and Florida State. From Rivals: "High recruiting interest from Kansas State and medium interest from Iowa State, Air Force, and Harvard but no offers."

Gary Owens, WR, 5-9, Mesquite, TX (West Mesquite)
Offers: Iowa, Louisian Tech, Sam Houston State

Conner Floyd, WR, 6-1, 197, 4.5, Austin, Texas (Lake Travis)
Offers: AFA, UNT
Comment: Broke leg in first game of his senior. Previously heavily recruited by BCS schools after outstanding junior year. Followed his former high school coach Chad Morris who became TU's OC.

Joseph Calcagni, QB, 6-2, 190, 4.7, Springdale, AR
Offers: None
Comment: The top performing QB at June Tulsa Camp and was immediately offered a scholarship. The state of Arkansas had 4 QBs in their Top 20 Arkansas H.S. players. Two QBs ranked #1 (5-Star) and #3 (4-Star) in the Arkansas ranking. The top 3 Arkansas high school QBS received many BCS offers. I think Calcagni, also a ranked Top 20 Arkansas player, just got lost in all the numbers. Normally, being Top 20 in the state of Arkansas means 3-Stars.

Zack Langer, RB, 6-0, 190, Jenks, OK
Offers: None
Comment: Injured as sophmore and senior. Exploded with 2,400 rushing yards and 38 touchdowns as a junior.

Michael Sorrells, HB, 6-2, 205, Austin (McCallum), TX (BB)
Offers: Virginia, Utah, Pitt, Colorado State, UTEP, Idaho, NMSU, La Tech

DEFENSE
Bill Blankenship and his new staff's recruits are noted by BB.

Gary Lee, DT, 6-5, 285, Tulsa Victory Christian, OK (BB)
Offers: Wyoming, La Tech, ULM, Arkansas State, Mizzouri State

Nick Hall, DT/DE, 6-4, 265, Broken Arrow, OK (BB)
Offers: AFA, Army, La Tech, Western Kentucky

Derrick Leutjen, DT, 6-4, 280, Hennessey, OK (BB)
Offers: ULM, Army, La Tech, Dartmouth
Comment from GoPokes (Scout): "Oklahoma State has been recruiting Hennessey defensive tackle and offensive line two way player Derrick Luetjen all season. Luetjen did well in camp and has had a very good senior season."

Derrick Alexander, DE/LB, 6-1, 250, Tulsa Booker T. Washington, OK (BB)
Offers: ULM, Eastern Michigan

Brentom Todd, DE, 6-3, 210, Tulsa Union, OK
Offers: None

Josh Cunningham, DE, 6-2, 215, Claremore, OK (Walk-on, Grey Shirt, BB)
Offers: None
Comment: Contacted by Okla, Okla St, Tulsa, Oregon St, and Mizzouri before ACL injury

Trent Martin, ILB, 6-2, 220, 4.7, Jenks, OK
Offers: None. Recruited by BCS schools after Graham left but stayed with Tulsa
Comment: Broken leg in junior year lessened attention from recruiters

Dwight Dobbins, CB, 5-8, 165, 4.56, Midwest City, OK
Offers: Colorado State, UNT

J. D. Ratliff, CB, 5-8, 170, SW Mississippii JUCO (BB, Already Enrolled)
Offers: Marshall, Alabama A&M, Alcorn State, Missouri State, TN-Martin
Comment: JUCO All-American. See also TE Colt Clontz comments.

Michael Mudoh, CB, 5-9, 182, 4.49, Richmond, TX (BB)
Offers: Baylor, CSU, UTEP, Navy, UTSA

Darrell Williams, CB, 5-10, 173, Houston Westfield, TX (BB)
Offers: SE Louisiana

Derek Patterson, ATH, 6-0, 180, Kingfisher, OK (BB)
Offers: None
Comments from Daily Oklahoman: "Patterson, recruited as an athlete, did a little bit of everything for Kingfisher. But a little bit of everything doesn't always get noticed. And despite his production on the field, there were questions about his health."