I HAVE ANOTHER PROJECT GOING ON SO THIS IS NOT CURRENT. I WILL UPDATE AS I HAVE TIME AND CERTAINLY AFTER RECRUITING SEASON IS FINISHED.
Tulsa has verballed 9 ranked players including ESPN #6, #14, and #17 Oklahoma H.S. Players, twos ESPN Top 100 Texas H.S. Player, an ESPN Top 150 Texas H.S. Player, an ESPN Top 160 Top 160 Texas H.S. Player, a Kansas #6 H.S. Player, and ESPN #8 Kicker nationwide.
Verbals Darnell Walker was offered by Colorado.
Oklahoma State wanted to offer speed demon RB/Athlete, Caleb Muncrief of Madill Oklahoma, but is limited on scholarships this year.
The state of Oklahoma 2012 is heavy on running backs and short on defensive lineman, the latter a priority need for Tulsa.
As ususal within recent years, OU and OSU have gone very heavy into Texas and nationwide leaving lots of quality Oklahoma H.S. players available. CUSA/West schools and KU, KSU, Iowa State, Missouri, Arkansas, TCU, and Arizona are the main competitors in Oklahoma for Tulsa.
With the shift to the 4-man line on defense, a current lack of DL depth, and the loss of 3 DL to graduation after the 2011 season is completed, I suspect TU will go into the JUCO ranks for DTs and DEs in a big way.
Zach Lathrop, Safety, 6-0, 182, Sugarland, TX (Very late 2011 Walk-On)
Competing Offers: None
Comment from Sugarland News: Played QB because "I was able to remember the plays a lot easier than anyone else. I think I am athletic enough to play other positions." Awarded academic scholarship by TU because of 3.86 grade average and rigorous class schedule of advanced placement courses."
OFFENSIVE PLAYERS
Joshua Atkinson, WR, 6-2, 183, 4.53, Arlington (Oakridge), TX
Competing Offers: Rice
Accolodes: ESPN Texas Top 100, ESPN #7 Texas H.S. WR, ESPN #50 WR Nationwide
Comment:
Blake Belcher, OL, 6-6, 271, Guthrie, OK
Offers: Arizona, Stanford, Oregon State, Iowa State, AFA, NM, Ohio, Utah State
Accolodes: Rivals #6 Oklahoma High School Player
Adam Boyd, Athlete, 6-1, 185, 4.52, McAlester, OK
Competing Offers: None
Accolodes:
Dane Evans, Pro Style QB, 6-2, 185, Sanger, TX
Competing Offers: None
Accolodes: ESPN Texas Top 100, ESPN #7 Texas H.S. QB, ESPN #42 QB Nationwide, ESPN 3-Star
Comment: Jeff Tarply of AggieYell.com states "Evans is another guy you haven't heard a lot of, but I saw him last season and he was the best one I saw. He plays in Class 2A...which means he doesn't get a lot of publicity."
http://tulsa.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1233030
Comment: "We at TexasFootball.com are particularly high on Evans. We chose him to be our 3A Coverboy in the 2011 magazine. And for good reason..."
http://www.texasfootball.com/recruiting-...iew/179192
James Flanders, RB, 5-10, 181, 4.7, Midwest City, OK
Competing Offers: None
Accolodes: ESPN #14 Oklahoma H.S. Player, ESPN #90 RB Nationwide, ESPN 2-Star, Rivals 3-Star
Comment: Recruited by BCS schools as DB. Tulsa promised to keep him at RB.
Dylan Foxworth, OC, 6-2, 265, Claremore, OK
Competing Offers: Wyoming, AFA, ULM
Comment: Recruited by Wyoming as DL.
Claremore Progess Newspaper Article
Cody Green, Dual Threat QB, 6-4, 220, Dayton, TX
Offers: Nebraska, TAMU, Okla St, Stanford, Texas Tech, Houston, Miss State, Boston College, Baylor
Accolodes: Rivals Texas Top 100 H.S. Player, Rivals #6 Dual Threat QB Nationwide, Rivals 4-Star
Comment: Nebraska's change in offense led to Green's transfer to Tulsa
Caleb Muncrief, RB/Athlete, 5-8, 188, 4.38, Madill, OK
Offers: Okla State wanted to offer but is limited on scholarships & 5-Star Barry Sanders Jr. is OSU's prime RB target.
Accolodes: Runner-Up 4A State Meet 100 Meters and 300 Intermediate Hurdles
http://www.ardmoreite.com/features/x5368...-Hurricane
Chris Wallace, OL, 6-4, 310, Sperry, OK
Competing Offes: None
Davis Walton, OT, 6-4, 285, JUCO, NEO
Offers:
Comment: Greyshirt
Tyler Wilson, TE, 6-7, 235, Ponca City, OK
Offers:
Accolodes: ESPN #8 Oklahoma High School Player
Comment: Played QB, WR, and TE at Ponca City.
DEFENSIVE PLAYERS
Jeremy Brady, CB, 5-11, 190, Red Oak, TX
Competing Offers:
Accolode: ESPN Texas Top 160, ESPN #62 CB Nationwide, Class 4A All-State by OldCoach.com as a junior.
Comment: Moved to Little Rock, AK for senior year.
http://arkansasvarsity.rivals.com/conten...ID=1234440
Johnell Celistan, CB, 6-2, 171, 4.41, Boutee, LA
Offers: Minnesota, Vandy, Memphis, UNT, Louisiana
Accolode:
Damian Gibson, DE, 6-2, 220, Tulsa, OK
Competing Offers: Utah State
Accolodes: Scout 3-Star, Rivals 3-Star, Rivals #12 Oklahoma H.S. Player
Cory Rahmings, DE, 6-3, 255, Broken Bow, OK
Offers: Colorado St, AFA, ULM, Ohio
Rob Rieder, OLB/Safety, 6-0, 180, Holton, KS
Competing Offers: None
Accolodes: ESPN #6 Kansas H.S. Player, ESPN #78 Safety Nationwide, ESPN 2-Star, Rivals 3-Star
Conner Sherwood, ILB, 6-2.5, 218, 4.75, Tulsa, OK
Competing Offers: None
Accolodes: ESPN #17 Oklahoma H.S. Player, ESPN #60 ILB Nationwide, Rivals 3-Star
Daniel Schwarz, K, 6-2, 183, Lawton (MacArthur), OK
Competing Offers: None
Accolodes: ESPN #8 Kicker Nationwide, Rivals 2-Star
Craig Suits, OLB/Safety, 6-0, 205, 4.6, Mesquite, TX
Competing Offers: None
Accolodes: ESPN Texas Top 150, ESPN #82 OLB Nationwide, ESPN 3-Star, Rivals 3-Star
Michael Thomas, Safety, 6-1, 195, Lawton (MacArthur), OK
Competing Offers: None
Accolodes: ESPN #6 Oklahoma H.S. Player, ESPN #26 Safety Nationwide, ESPN 3-Star, Rivals 3-Star
Darnell Walker, CB, 5-10, 160, 4.52, Bolivar, MO
Competing Offers: Colorado
Accolodes: First team Missouri All-State as DB; Second team Missouri All-State as punt returner. Class 4A Missouri 800 Meter Champion
Comments: Son of former NFL & Okla U DB, he was outstanding defensive prospect at Tulsa's June 14th camp and immediately offered. Transferred from Muskogee, OK to Bolivar his junior year.
http://www.highschoolsports.net/local/Sp...1010090367
ESPN 2012 Top Oklahoma H.S. Players
http://espn.go.com/college-football/recr...2/state/ok
Scout: Oklahoma High School Prospects
http://hsoklahoma.scout.com/a.z?s=406&p=9&c=4&yr=2012
OKVarsity.com: Oklahoma's Best Young Defenders
http://okvarsity.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1226323
JCFootball.com
http://jcfootball.scout.com/a.z?s=87&p=9...23&yr=2012
Scout: Class of 2011 Look Back
http://tulsa.scout.com/2/1074162.html
Rating Prospects? Stars versus Competing Offers
I have always relied on competing offers over the "star" system because competing offers were listed way, way back when high school recruiting services used newsletters and the internet was yet to be born. In addition, I feel the "star" system is fundamentally flawed, a BCS school verbals a player and the Star goes up one notch (maybe two!) and if TU verbals a player, often times the TU recruit's star rating gets downgraded a star.
However, with increasingly early offers by BCS schools, the old reliable "competing offer" rating is breaking down. It appears BCS schools are pursuing the 5-Star, 4-Star, and the "Premium" 3-Star players with three or more BCS offers before pursuing lesser, but still very good players and, perhaps, just simply very talented players whose only real fault is being less well known....before they come in and make the offer late or later in the recruiting process. I saw this last year and it is a new trend. It wouldn't surprise me to see it happen again and I think this is the trend for the future. I think within the Big-12, schools like Missouri, TT, Okla State, the Kansas schools...are being forced to go after the highly recruited athlete in order to compete with TAMU, Texas, and OU.
Tulsa then steps in and makes an early scholarship offer and, most times, the kid stays loyal to TU. My guess the thinking of the Tulsa recruit goes like this: "If you want me so bad, why didn't you offer me early like TU did?"
The best example of this is Garrett Stafford, OT, in last year's 2011 class. "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." Obviously, both Kansas and Missouri were pursuing more highly rated OTs...and wanted to see what happened with those recruits before placing a scholarship on the table for Stafford. Late in the recruiting season, both Houston and Vanderbilt made offers to Stafford. And Garrett turned down both of them.
The 2009 and 2010 Tulsa recruiting classes under Todd Graham had a lot of bells and whistles in terms of competing BCS and NonBCS IA offers. The many (BCS) offers started to change in 2011; there were not nearly as many BCS offers even though Todd Graham was heavily involved in assembling (and then coming after and costing TU about 5 verbals) the 2011 class. So, for TU fans, don't expect a lot of BCS offers to be listed for 2012 Tulsa recruits as in years past under Todd Graham. So, in following Tulsa recruiting, instead pay attention to the state rankings by the various recruiting services and comments by coaches and recruiting gurus. Above, the comments and observations made by others regarding QB recruit Dane Evans is what TU fans are going to have to follow. Another good source is that the local papers are covering football recruiting and, now and then, the local newspaper articles are quite good.
And, it is interesting to note that Todd Graham's outstanding 2009 and 2010 classes probably could not match the "bells and whistles" of the first Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas H.S. Players recruited by Bill Blankenship as per state rankings and recruiting guru observations and rankings.
It appears that Tulsa has done well in the last past dozen years with recruiting the offensive side of the ball across the board, OL, QB, HB, RB, and WR. The key to watch, if TU is to continue to raise the bar, is the recruiting of DTs and DEs. TCU kept raising the bar in recruiting each year and now their recruiting is right behind Texas and TAMU.
And, as they say, winning football teams are the ultimate judge of the recruiting classes. So, from this standpoint, Tulsa U is doing very fine in recruiting. Five bowls in six years, going 4-1 in the bowls with two bowl victories over a ranked team. It was a delight to watch Tulsa stand up physically to Notre Dame last year. This physicallness was lacking in previous years.
Bells and Whistles Quick Summary:
Page Belcher, OL: Rivals #6 Oklahoma H.S. PLayer
Michael Thomas, S: ESPN #6 Oklahoma H.S. Player
Daniel Schwarz, K: ESPN #8 Kicker Nationwide.
Dane Evans, QB: ESPN Texas Top 100 H.S. Player, ESPN 3-Star
Joshua Atkinson, WR: ESPN Texas Top 100 H.S. Player, ESPN 3-Star
Cody Green, QB: Rivals Texas Top 100 H.S. Player (Transfer from Nebraska)
Tyler Wilson, TE: ESPN #8 Oklahoma H.S. Player
Damian Gibson, DE: Rivals #12 Oklahoma H.S. Player
James Flanders, RB: ESPN #14 Oklahoma H.S. Player
Conner Sherwood, ILB, ESPN #17 Oklahoma H.S. Player
Bob Reider, OLB/S: ESPN #6 Kansas H.S. Player
Craig Suits, OLB/S: ESPN Texas Top 150
Jeremy Brady, CB: ESPN Texas Top 160, ESPN #62 CB Nationwide
Johnell Celistan, CB: Unranked. Offered by Minnesota, Vandy, Memphis, UNT, Louisiana
Darnell Walker, CB: Unranked. Offered by Colorado
Cory Rahmings, DE: Unranked. Offered by Colorado State, AFA, ULM, Ohio
Dylan Foxworth, OC: Unranked. Offered by Wyoming, AFA, ULM
Chris Wallace, OL: Unranked
Davis Walton, OT: Unranked (JUCO)
Caleb Muncrief, RB/Athlete: Unranked
Adam Boyd, Athlete: Unranked