First are the ground rules. For you new corral members, this is a special feature for subscribers only. The reason why it is posted on the premium board (as opposed to a normal story) is because it is the only way to ensure that the info stays exclusive to Cowboy fans. This will only work if everyone helps make it work.
Furthermore, we're serious about this being a Corral-only piece. Everything that is reported in the Cowboy Roundup must stay in the Cowboy Roundup. That's the way this deal works. Sometimes the info is sensitive enough that it simply doesn't need to be passed on beyond the doors of this thread.
We’ll start off with an email that we received from Tim Stadler, father of Jenks High School junior safety prospect Steven Stadler. Mr. Stadler and his son were among several attendees at the OSU junior day two days ago and here are some excerpts from that letter regarding the experience.
Over the last few years, we've regularly heard from parents that the biggest problem with junior days is that alot of coaching staffs only really address the "big names." The problem with that approach is that the big names in January of one year aren't necessarily the important ones in February of the following year. According to Stadler, that is not an issue for Mike Gundy's staff at OSU...even the new guys.
“We were very impressed with the coaching staff [Saturday]. Every single coach from Coach Young to Coach DeForest to Coach Jones made sure they came up to every recruit and parent and introduced themselves. They made every recruit and parent welcome to be at OSU. Having graduated from there many years ago, it was nice to see the Cowboy Hospitality hadn't changed,” he said.
He then took the time to fill us in on what interaction they and those in attendance did have with the Cowboy Head Coach.
“Coach Gundy made a great presentation telling parents that the coaches visit Rivals every day mainly to keep up on what is going on with recruits. He was very honest in telling the parents that they should attend as many one-day camps as is possible. He said, ‘Your son may not fit into our game plan, but that does not mean that he won't fit well in somewhere else.’” he said.
“The one thing that I took away from Coach Gundy was this,” stressed Mr. Stadler. “We want your son to get his degree. He mentioned that the players that obtain their degrees and do happen to go on to the NFL, the studies have shown that in the end when their NFL career is over, those with degrees come out with much more money to live on the rest of their lives. All the coaches continually spoke about getting your degree. That is exactly what parents want to hear from coaches.” (emphasis added)
At the end, Mr. Stadler included a few of his own comments regarding the tour of the new facilities being developed in the new west endzone.
“Obviously the facilities are second to none. I mean, when the school even has a resting area under the west seats for the horse to eat and drink during the game, you know things are First Class. From there things only got better as we toured the Locker Room, Meeting Rooms, and HUGE work out room,” he stated. (JJ)
********************
Obviously the hot name right now for OSU fans regarding the 2010 class is Sand Springs product Johnny Deaton. It is readily apparent that the signal-caller favors the Cowboys over other interested programs, but we had yet to really get an idea of what it is that makes the Cowboys attractive to him.
For that we talked to the source himself. Yesterday, Deaton filled us in on what all took place during the junior day experience but what we did not include was what makes the school so appealing to him.
“I’d say the chemistry with the players and the coaches and how they all interact,” he said. “They just make you feel like your at home and the facilities are definitely one of the main [things] because they’re insane, like NFL facilities. I don’t know, and it’s close to home so that [may be] a little bit of a factor also.”
Deaton sounded as if he enjoyed himself while he was on campus Saturday and just as an editorial note the kid is a great interview. He’s pretty candid which is a breath of fresh air sometimes in this business as often you hear a lot of coach-speak coming from recruits.
Nevertheless, it is evident that there is some strong mutual interest between Deaton and the Cowboy coaching staff. He has been offered a scholarship and if you’re an OSU fan then I imagine you might hope it is one that he chooses to accept. Chances appear to be pretty decent of that happening in the future but as we’ve all seen over the past few days, things can change in a heart beat in the world of college football recruiting. (RC)
********************
The prospect that might end up being the highest rated prospect in attendance on Saturday whenever the 2010 rankings come out is Tulsa, Oklahoma athlete DeMarco Cobbs. The speedster has already compiled a ridiculous offer list on which lies Oklahoma State.
With that said, the Cowboys seemed to make a favorable impression on the likely 4-star prospect according to his interview but as has been the case before with high-profile local kids, the Cowboys seem to have some ground to make up.
When asked yesterday if he had a list of favorites such as a top five or so, Cobbs denied really having any set list of leaders but did respond to our question in a such a manner that he did list the schools that would be at the top of his list should this hypothetically be his signing day on Wednesday instead of next year.
“Yes sir, well, it’s kind of just a little thing where if it were my senior year and it was something I was messing around with like it was signing day for me then right now it would be Texas, Florida, Alabama, LSU, and Tennessee, and Oklahoma,” he said.
This is not to say that OSU can’t make legit run at Cobbs, they certainly can and have the persistent staff to do so. He is already a nationally recruited prospect which sometimes can make for a difficult start for the in-state schools but should the Cowboys put together an impressive 2009 campaign on the field, then they will be hard to ignore.
In the end, my gut tells me that Texas could be tough to beat and might be the early unstated leader but Cobbs’ recruitment is one that I can see dragging out for a while so stay tuned. (JF)
********************
One name out of the blue to keep an eye on in the next three days - Dallas Hillcrest WR Michael Harrison. (JJ)
********************
I briefly caught up with OSU commitment Jeremy Smith last night during halftime of the Super Bowl. Part of the reason was to get his thoughts on the football game but it was more to see if he had entertained any overtures to check out Auburn with his teammate Tracy Moore seeing as to how the coach that was recruiting him (Curtis Luper) is obviously no longer in Stillwater.
“Oh no, I didn’t,” Smith said of his reception of overtures from Auburn. “I told them I couldn’t do that.”
With that confirmed, we then asked the four-star prospect if he knew anything about the status of Moore’s commitment with OSU.
“Yeah, he’s still committed. I don’t know what Tracy’s doing, I really don’t,” he chuckled. “I tried to talk to him earlier about it and he was confused, I don’t know.”
With Moore’s status evidently up in the air, it seems fair to assume that Smith will certainly put forth his best effort to try and convince his teammate to stay his teammate in college. Either way, Smith’s commitment is strong as he lastly discussed, at least as far as he knows, what the plans are for him and his teammates regarding signing day festivities.
“I think [it’s happening] in front of the school or half the school will be there in the gym or whatever, we’re all just going to be down on the court and everybody will sign and that’s about it,” he said. (RC)
********************
Guthire's Donte Foster has been a massively popular topic over the last week among OSU fans, and a weekend visit to Stillwater just upped the crescendo. What's the scoop?
Foster is a very talented player who stood out for the Bluejays at wide receiver. His ball-skills (ability to find and retrieve the football when it's in the air) are truly elite.
The things working against him? There are a few. First, he maintained for a long time that basketball was his destiny at the next level. Second, while his overall athleticsm is clear on tape, his pure speed is not. Foster did not attend an OSU camp this summer. Lastly, the Cowboys are majorly limited on scholarships heading into signing day. Without players ending their careers early, OSU is out of slots for the 2009 class. On the other hand, two OSU verbal commitments visited elsewhere this weekend. (JJ)
This post was edited on 2/2 9:30 AM by Jay F
Furthermore, we're serious about this being a Corral-only piece. Everything that is reported in the Cowboy Roundup must stay in the Cowboy Roundup. That's the way this deal works. Sometimes the info is sensitive enough that it simply doesn't need to be passed on beyond the doors of this thread.
We’ll start off with an email that we received from Tim Stadler, father of Jenks High School junior safety prospect Steven Stadler. Mr. Stadler and his son were among several attendees at the OSU junior day two days ago and here are some excerpts from that letter regarding the experience.
Over the last few years, we've regularly heard from parents that the biggest problem with junior days is that alot of coaching staffs only really address the "big names." The problem with that approach is that the big names in January of one year aren't necessarily the important ones in February of the following year. According to Stadler, that is not an issue for Mike Gundy's staff at OSU...even the new guys.
“We were very impressed with the coaching staff [Saturday]. Every single coach from Coach Young to Coach DeForest to Coach Jones made sure they came up to every recruit and parent and introduced themselves. They made every recruit and parent welcome to be at OSU. Having graduated from there many years ago, it was nice to see the Cowboy Hospitality hadn't changed,” he said.
He then took the time to fill us in on what interaction they and those in attendance did have with the Cowboy Head Coach.
“Coach Gundy made a great presentation telling parents that the coaches visit Rivals every day mainly to keep up on what is going on with recruits. He was very honest in telling the parents that they should attend as many one-day camps as is possible. He said, ‘Your son may not fit into our game plan, but that does not mean that he won't fit well in somewhere else.’” he said.
“The one thing that I took away from Coach Gundy was this,” stressed Mr. Stadler. “We want your son to get his degree. He mentioned that the players that obtain their degrees and do happen to go on to the NFL, the studies have shown that in the end when their NFL career is over, those with degrees come out with much more money to live on the rest of their lives. All the coaches continually spoke about getting your degree. That is exactly what parents want to hear from coaches.” (emphasis added)
At the end, Mr. Stadler included a few of his own comments regarding the tour of the new facilities being developed in the new west endzone.
“Obviously the facilities are second to none. I mean, when the school even has a resting area under the west seats for the horse to eat and drink during the game, you know things are First Class. From there things only got better as we toured the Locker Room, Meeting Rooms, and HUGE work out room,” he stated. (JJ)
********************
Obviously the hot name right now for OSU fans regarding the 2010 class is Sand Springs product Johnny Deaton. It is readily apparent that the signal-caller favors the Cowboys over other interested programs, but we had yet to really get an idea of what it is that makes the Cowboys attractive to him.
For that we talked to the source himself. Yesterday, Deaton filled us in on what all took place during the junior day experience but what we did not include was what makes the school so appealing to him.
“I’d say the chemistry with the players and the coaches and how they all interact,” he said. “They just make you feel like your at home and the facilities are definitely one of the main [things] because they’re insane, like NFL facilities. I don’t know, and it’s close to home so that [may be] a little bit of a factor also.”
Deaton sounded as if he enjoyed himself while he was on campus Saturday and just as an editorial note the kid is a great interview. He’s pretty candid which is a breath of fresh air sometimes in this business as often you hear a lot of coach-speak coming from recruits.
Nevertheless, it is evident that there is some strong mutual interest between Deaton and the Cowboy coaching staff. He has been offered a scholarship and if you’re an OSU fan then I imagine you might hope it is one that he chooses to accept. Chances appear to be pretty decent of that happening in the future but as we’ve all seen over the past few days, things can change in a heart beat in the world of college football recruiting. (RC)
********************
The prospect that might end up being the highest rated prospect in attendance on Saturday whenever the 2010 rankings come out is Tulsa, Oklahoma athlete DeMarco Cobbs. The speedster has already compiled a ridiculous offer list on which lies Oklahoma State.
With that said, the Cowboys seemed to make a favorable impression on the likely 4-star prospect according to his interview but as has been the case before with high-profile local kids, the Cowboys seem to have some ground to make up.
When asked yesterday if he had a list of favorites such as a top five or so, Cobbs denied really having any set list of leaders but did respond to our question in a such a manner that he did list the schools that would be at the top of his list should this hypothetically be his signing day on Wednesday instead of next year.
“Yes sir, well, it’s kind of just a little thing where if it were my senior year and it was something I was messing around with like it was signing day for me then right now it would be Texas, Florida, Alabama, LSU, and Tennessee, and Oklahoma,” he said.
This is not to say that OSU can’t make legit run at Cobbs, they certainly can and have the persistent staff to do so. He is already a nationally recruited prospect which sometimes can make for a difficult start for the in-state schools but should the Cowboys put together an impressive 2009 campaign on the field, then they will be hard to ignore.
In the end, my gut tells me that Texas could be tough to beat and might be the early unstated leader but Cobbs’ recruitment is one that I can see dragging out for a while so stay tuned. (JF)
********************
One name out of the blue to keep an eye on in the next three days - Dallas Hillcrest WR Michael Harrison. (JJ)
********************
I briefly caught up with OSU commitment Jeremy Smith last night during halftime of the Super Bowl. Part of the reason was to get his thoughts on the football game but it was more to see if he had entertained any overtures to check out Auburn with his teammate Tracy Moore seeing as to how the coach that was recruiting him (Curtis Luper) is obviously no longer in Stillwater.
“Oh no, I didn’t,” Smith said of his reception of overtures from Auburn. “I told them I couldn’t do that.”
With that confirmed, we then asked the four-star prospect if he knew anything about the status of Moore’s commitment with OSU.
“Yeah, he’s still committed. I don’t know what Tracy’s doing, I really don’t,” he chuckled. “I tried to talk to him earlier about it and he was confused, I don’t know.”
With Moore’s status evidently up in the air, it seems fair to assume that Smith will certainly put forth his best effort to try and convince his teammate to stay his teammate in college. Either way, Smith’s commitment is strong as he lastly discussed, at least as far as he knows, what the plans are for him and his teammates regarding signing day festivities.
“I think [it’s happening] in front of the school or half the school will be there in the gym or whatever, we’re all just going to be down on the court and everybody will sign and that’s about it,” he said. (RC)
********************
Guthire's Donte Foster has been a massively popular topic over the last week among OSU fans, and a weekend visit to Stillwater just upped the crescendo. What's the scoop?
Foster is a very talented player who stood out for the Bluejays at wide receiver. His ball-skills (ability to find and retrieve the football when it's in the air) are truly elite.
The things working against him? There are a few. First, he maintained for a long time that basketball was his destiny at the next level. Second, while his overall athleticsm is clear on tape, his pure speed is not. Foster did not attend an OSU camp this summer. Lastly, the Cowboys are majorly limited on scholarships heading into signing day. Without players ending their careers early, OSU is out of slots for the 2009 class. On the other hand, two OSU verbal commitments visited elsewhere this weekend. (JJ)
This post was edited on 2/2 9:30 AM by Jay F
