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 by going back in time as almost anybody that has been an OSU fan for an extended period of time is familiar with former All-American Mickey Tettleton and his contributions as a player to the Cowboy baseball program in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s.
Believe it or not, the former Cowboy’s son Tyler Tettleton is heading into his senior season having quarterbacked the Norman North Timberwolves throughout the healthy segments of his high school career. As one might expect, the younger Tettleton appears to have grown up a fan of his father’s alma mater.
“OSU for sure, my room is still where everything is OSU, my whole room is like OSU,” he said.
As far as his actual recruitment is concerned, Tettleton is starting to receive some genuine interest from several schools including Oklahoma State. I don’t believe that at this point he is at the top of the Cowboys’ list because he will have to prove himself healthy following his ACL injury that forced him to miss his junior year.
With that said, Tettleton feels that he will regain his leg strength and mobility which were two things that made him so dangerous in North’s spread offense and among other things would help him transition well to the Division-I level.
“[I’d say] my mobility and I think just my experience, like I’ve started since I was a freshman so I’ve been used to reading defenses and I think that will help me a lot. I probably need to work on having more pocket presence and then I really need some height, that’s the one thing I need,” he chuckled.
Needless to say Tettleton has an affinity for Oklahoma State and is very interested in the program but as all prospects should do he plans to reciprocate any interest that is shown to him by any school. If OSU chooses to recruit him then good for him but he is an intelligent prospect that will definitely take a look at which school provides the best opportunity for him athletically and academically. (RC)
********************
Some of you may be wondering how many scholarships are likely to go towards the 2009 class. In fact I saw this question asked in the corral after I had written this part up so hopefully it will at least give us a head start.
Simply put, it is not going to be many. If I counted right based on the recently released spring roster OSU will have 83 recruited scholarship players on the squad next season after adding in the 19 new signees and the 8 midterm enrollees. That leaves 2 to carry over to the 2009 class. According to the official roster the recruited scholarship seniors are going to be:
1. T.J. Bell
2. Jeray Chatham
3. Steve Denning
4. Matt Fodge
5. Jacob Lacey
6. Quinton Moore
7. Brandon Pettigrew
8. Ricky Price
9. Tonga Tea
10. David Washington
That is only 10 players that will exhaust their eligibility. Now, there will be several redshirt juniors on the team at that point, some of which may choose to graduate and move on ala Waller, Newton, and Ricks after this past season. Plus as is usually the case there could be transfers or players being removed from the team for various reasons but it looks at this point that the minimum number of scholarships that will be given out is only 12 and thus the coaches will need to be very selective about who they accept commitments from.
As a result, I would not anticipate nearly as many “camp find” commitments this year unless they feel it is a can’t miss prospect but rest assure that if, and that is a big if, any commitments are accepted early on, that the coaches have that prospect high on the priority list because they cannot afford to take very many chances this year. Nevertheless, attrition will likely raise the number of scholarships to the 15-18 range and here is an initial breakdown of how the numbers might play out in the end solely based on a needs basis.
(1) An elite level quarterback
(2-4) Three “Wickline” type o-linemen with two being likely tackle prospects
(5-7) One to two wide outs and possibly one high quality tight end if available
(8-9) For sure one and likely two high quality to elite level running backs
(10-12) Probably up to three defensive linemen with two being defensive tackles
(13-15) Two to three freshman linebackers
(16-17) Likely one to two defensive backs
(18) A punter if OSU can get one on par with Quinn Sharp, who could do the job.
Obviously this is a just preliminary breakdown of what I feel could be the setup for the class but as we all know recruiting is an inexact science and things will most definitely fluctuate over the next year, but that is what makes it fun to follow. (JF)
********************
The second in the group of Norman North prospects that we were able to catch up with this week following junior day was offensive lineman Cody Hughes. This will actually be Hughes first season at North after transferring from Moore High School where last year he had just over 60 pancakes and gave up only zero sacks.
Despite not yet having a scholarship offer, Hughes certainly has gotten noticed early in his recruitment as he was invited to and attended the Army All-American Junior Combine in January at which he felt like he performed well.
“I thought it was pretty good, I liked it, I thought it was a really good combine,” said Hughes. “I liked doing the one-on-one’s and stuff and I just thought it was a really an overall good experience going down there and hanging out for a couple of days and doing all that stuff.”
The 6-foot-5, 300-pounder mentioned that OSU is recruiting him the hardest at this point and that despite moving to Norman he grew up a fan of both Oklahoma State and Texas.
As far as his play on the field, we asked Hughes to comment on what he feels his best attributes are right now as a player that have gotten him noticed early in his recruitment.
“I think my pass blocking footwork is really good, I’ve had comments on that at the combine and the OSU coaches like my footwork and I think I have really good run blocking because I like driving them and pancaking them,” he said.
Is there anything specific he feels he needs to work on heading into his senior year?
“I’d say probably my overall intensity, I need to be more intense, and I think my footwork could get better but you can always improve on everything and then I’d say probably staying on blocks longer,” Hughes added.
Overall I think Hughes will be a solid three-star prospect once the initial rankings come out. I believe he has a lot of potential to turn into a great prospect but until we are able to get some film on him in the database it will be tough to provide much of an evaluation. (RC)
********************
The one prospect that we talked to this week that wasn’t a student at Norman North School was Waco, Texas native Trey Graham. Graham is an intriguing prospect as he is a former wide out that moved down to tight end as he kept growing.
Now up to 6-foot-5 and 220 pounds, Graham has been able to maintain excellent speed and athleticism for a prospect his size and will likely be in the mid-three star range once rankings come out. Thos attributes along with a couple of other things are what Graham feels are the aspects of his game that will get him noticed by D-I recruiters.
“My speed definitely, I also like to think I have good hands because I’ve been playing wide receiver until last year so I’d say that is a strong point. Then I’m not trying to sound to brash or anything but my intelligence level because I’m number 23 in my class so I’m not somebody that is going to go out there and forget stuff and run the wrong routes and really I’ve been building up strength this year so I’m hoping that is going to turn out to be a key point,” detailed Graham.
On the opposite side of that, Graham was also very explicit on what he knows he needs to improve upon throughout the summer and on into his senior year to help himself because the best all around player he can be.
“I’d say just because of my experience I’d have to say my blocking,” he said. “I felt pretty good about it and I kept getting better as the year went on and I just feel like as long as I keep working on that and keep getting that down because I’ve been spread out so I can run routes and I can find space but I’m just looking right now at getting that form down and just trying to get some pancake blocks on some people,” he said.
Something to keep an eye on about Graham is that he did not come off as one that would really like to drag his recruitment out for a long period of time. A testament to this is the fact that if he mentioned that he only sees himself attending some summer camps if he does not a receive an attractive offer before then.
“If I have to, I mean, it would be great to get an offer before then and not have to deal with that but if it comes down to it I’d attend some camps somewhere,” he said.
I think Graham is a name to keep an eye on for OSU fans because Meacham has been by his high school already at some point to talk to his coach and it may have been about Graham as at this point I’m not aware of any other Midway prospects that the Cowboys are heavy on. (JF)
********************
The last of the Norman North trio that we were able to contact this past week was running back prospect Beau Blankenship whose recruitment will likely be an interesting one as there will likely be a lot of OSU fans that wouldn’t mind seeing the 5-foot-8, 207-pounder in orange next season.
The reason I say that is because I don’t get the sense that, at least at this point, he is near the top of the overall list of running back prospects that the Cowboys are looking at as there are a couple of other higher rated backs in the state that certainly have more appealing size.
With that said, Blankenship plays with a great deal of heart of which there is a lot to be said for and ironically enough, and as seems to be the trend so far, none of the Norman boys and especially this one don’t seem too keen on the thought of possibly playing college football in their own hometown.
“OU is not really up there, I don’t like OU that much, I don’t really want to go there,” he said.
Something that I thought was funny was that while Blankenship confirmed everyone at this point is recruiting him to running back, he is aware that the color of his skin might throw some people off.
“Yeah, the white boy,” he chuckled.
While it is clear that Blankenship is aware of the stereotypes of running backs of his size, like the other prospects we asked him to elaborate on what he feels he has in his high school game now that will help him the most once he arrives at the next level of competition.
“I would say that the way I run in high school is already the way I’ll be running in college, like I don’t try to do too much dancing or anything. My coaches taught me to make one cut and get up the field and then once you get to the second level you can start making all the jukes and stuff like that. I feel like in college that is how it’s going to be you’re not going to have enough time to reverse the whole field and do all that stuff. It’s just going to be one cut and get up field and then wait until you get to the second level,” he said.
Is there anything he is working to improve upon before his senior season rolls around?
“Well, I guess I’m working on my hands a lot,” said Blankenship. “We don’t throw to the running back a lot but they told me this year since we’ll be spread out a little more that they’ll want to put me in an empty set so I’m working on my hands since I think I’ll be needing them a lot more for college.”
Ultimately Blankenship reminds me a lot of a quicker version of former LSU Tiger Jacob Hester in terms of being a strong and powerful runner with a low center of gravity that makes him difficult to tackle. Prospects like that often are excellent role players and are a lot of times worth a scholarship.
Blankenship will get his share of offers to play college football and it will interesting to see how his recruitment plays out as far as which offers he does receive and whether OSU is one of them. (RC)
********************
You may not want to hear about it, but De'Anthony Curtis was not a done deal until he actually signed with Arkansas on Wednesday morning. All of the high school running backs Bobby Petrino signed were an issue. Of course, he was telling Curtis they will all play different positions. But, we know that is not what he was telling Staley or Thomas. (JJ)
This post was edited on 2/8 4:23 PM 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 by going back in time as almost anybody that has been an OSU fan for an extended period of time is familiar with former All-American Mickey Tettleton and his contributions as a player to the Cowboy baseball program in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s.
Believe it or not, the former Cowboy’s son Tyler Tettleton is heading into his senior season having quarterbacked the Norman North Timberwolves throughout the healthy segments of his high school career. As one might expect, the younger Tettleton appears to have grown up a fan of his father’s alma mater.
“OSU for sure, my room is still where everything is OSU, my whole room is like OSU,” he said.
As far as his actual recruitment is concerned, Tettleton is starting to receive some genuine interest from several schools including Oklahoma State. I don’t believe that at this point he is at the top of the Cowboys’ list because he will have to prove himself healthy following his ACL injury that forced him to miss his junior year.
With that said, Tettleton feels that he will regain his leg strength and mobility which were two things that made him so dangerous in North’s spread offense and among other things would help him transition well to the Division-I level.
“[I’d say] my mobility and I think just my experience, like I’ve started since I was a freshman so I’ve been used to reading defenses and I think that will help me a lot. I probably need to work on having more pocket presence and then I really need some height, that’s the one thing I need,” he chuckled.
Needless to say Tettleton has an affinity for Oklahoma State and is very interested in the program but as all prospects should do he plans to reciprocate any interest that is shown to him by any school. If OSU chooses to recruit him then good for him but he is an intelligent prospect that will definitely take a look at which school provides the best opportunity for him athletically and academically. (RC)
********************
Some of you may be wondering how many scholarships are likely to go towards the 2009 class. In fact I saw this question asked in the corral after I had written this part up so hopefully it will at least give us a head start.
Simply put, it is not going to be many. If I counted right based on the recently released spring roster OSU will have 83 recruited scholarship players on the squad next season after adding in the 19 new signees and the 8 midterm enrollees. That leaves 2 to carry over to the 2009 class. According to the official roster the recruited scholarship seniors are going to be:
1. T.J. Bell
2. Jeray Chatham
3. Steve Denning
4. Matt Fodge
5. Jacob Lacey
6. Quinton Moore
7. Brandon Pettigrew
8. Ricky Price
9. Tonga Tea
10. David Washington
That is only 10 players that will exhaust their eligibility. Now, there will be several redshirt juniors on the team at that point, some of which may choose to graduate and move on ala Waller, Newton, and Ricks after this past season. Plus as is usually the case there could be transfers or players being removed from the team for various reasons but it looks at this point that the minimum number of scholarships that will be given out is only 12 and thus the coaches will need to be very selective about who they accept commitments from.
As a result, I would not anticipate nearly as many “camp find” commitments this year unless they feel it is a can’t miss prospect but rest assure that if, and that is a big if, any commitments are accepted early on, that the coaches have that prospect high on the priority list because they cannot afford to take very many chances this year. Nevertheless, attrition will likely raise the number of scholarships to the 15-18 range and here is an initial breakdown of how the numbers might play out in the end solely based on a needs basis.
(1) An elite level quarterback
(2-4) Three “Wickline” type o-linemen with two being likely tackle prospects
(5-7) One to two wide outs and possibly one high quality tight end if available
(8-9) For sure one and likely two high quality to elite level running backs
(10-12) Probably up to three defensive linemen with two being defensive tackles
(13-15) Two to three freshman linebackers
(16-17) Likely one to two defensive backs
(18) A punter if OSU can get one on par with Quinn Sharp, who could do the job.
Obviously this is a just preliminary breakdown of what I feel could be the setup for the class but as we all know recruiting is an inexact science and things will most definitely fluctuate over the next year, but that is what makes it fun to follow. (JF)
********************
The second in the group of Norman North prospects that we were able to catch up with this week following junior day was offensive lineman Cody Hughes. This will actually be Hughes first season at North after transferring from Moore High School where last year he had just over 60 pancakes and gave up only zero sacks.
Despite not yet having a scholarship offer, Hughes certainly has gotten noticed early in his recruitment as he was invited to and attended the Army All-American Junior Combine in January at which he felt like he performed well.
“I thought it was pretty good, I liked it, I thought it was a really good combine,” said Hughes. “I liked doing the one-on-one’s and stuff and I just thought it was a really an overall good experience going down there and hanging out for a couple of days and doing all that stuff.”
The 6-foot-5, 300-pounder mentioned that OSU is recruiting him the hardest at this point and that despite moving to Norman he grew up a fan of both Oklahoma State and Texas.
As far as his play on the field, we asked Hughes to comment on what he feels his best attributes are right now as a player that have gotten him noticed early in his recruitment.
“I think my pass blocking footwork is really good, I’ve had comments on that at the combine and the OSU coaches like my footwork and I think I have really good run blocking because I like driving them and pancaking them,” he said.
Is there anything specific he feels he needs to work on heading into his senior year?
“I’d say probably my overall intensity, I need to be more intense, and I think my footwork could get better but you can always improve on everything and then I’d say probably staying on blocks longer,” Hughes added.
Overall I think Hughes will be a solid three-star prospect once the initial rankings come out. I believe he has a lot of potential to turn into a great prospect but until we are able to get some film on him in the database it will be tough to provide much of an evaluation. (RC)
********************
The one prospect that we talked to this week that wasn’t a student at Norman North School was Waco, Texas native Trey Graham. Graham is an intriguing prospect as he is a former wide out that moved down to tight end as he kept growing.
Now up to 6-foot-5 and 220 pounds, Graham has been able to maintain excellent speed and athleticism for a prospect his size and will likely be in the mid-three star range once rankings come out. Thos attributes along with a couple of other things are what Graham feels are the aspects of his game that will get him noticed by D-I recruiters.
“My speed definitely, I also like to think I have good hands because I’ve been playing wide receiver until last year so I’d say that is a strong point. Then I’m not trying to sound to brash or anything but my intelligence level because I’m number 23 in my class so I’m not somebody that is going to go out there and forget stuff and run the wrong routes and really I’ve been building up strength this year so I’m hoping that is going to turn out to be a key point,” detailed Graham.
On the opposite side of that, Graham was also very explicit on what he knows he needs to improve upon throughout the summer and on into his senior year to help himself because the best all around player he can be.
“I’d say just because of my experience I’d have to say my blocking,” he said. “I felt pretty good about it and I kept getting better as the year went on and I just feel like as long as I keep working on that and keep getting that down because I’ve been spread out so I can run routes and I can find space but I’m just looking right now at getting that form down and just trying to get some pancake blocks on some people,” he said.
Something to keep an eye on about Graham is that he did not come off as one that would really like to drag his recruitment out for a long period of time. A testament to this is the fact that if he mentioned that he only sees himself attending some summer camps if he does not a receive an attractive offer before then.
“If I have to, I mean, it would be great to get an offer before then and not have to deal with that but if it comes down to it I’d attend some camps somewhere,” he said.
I think Graham is a name to keep an eye on for OSU fans because Meacham has been by his high school already at some point to talk to his coach and it may have been about Graham as at this point I’m not aware of any other Midway prospects that the Cowboys are heavy on. (JF)
********************
The last of the Norman North trio that we were able to contact this past week was running back prospect Beau Blankenship whose recruitment will likely be an interesting one as there will likely be a lot of OSU fans that wouldn’t mind seeing the 5-foot-8, 207-pounder in orange next season.
The reason I say that is because I don’t get the sense that, at least at this point, he is near the top of the overall list of running back prospects that the Cowboys are looking at as there are a couple of other higher rated backs in the state that certainly have more appealing size.
With that said, Blankenship plays with a great deal of heart of which there is a lot to be said for and ironically enough, and as seems to be the trend so far, none of the Norman boys and especially this one don’t seem too keen on the thought of possibly playing college football in their own hometown.
“OU is not really up there, I don’t like OU that much, I don’t really want to go there,” he said.
Something that I thought was funny was that while Blankenship confirmed everyone at this point is recruiting him to running back, he is aware that the color of his skin might throw some people off.
“Yeah, the white boy,” he chuckled.
While it is clear that Blankenship is aware of the stereotypes of running backs of his size, like the other prospects we asked him to elaborate on what he feels he has in his high school game now that will help him the most once he arrives at the next level of competition.
“I would say that the way I run in high school is already the way I’ll be running in college, like I don’t try to do too much dancing or anything. My coaches taught me to make one cut and get up the field and then once you get to the second level you can start making all the jukes and stuff like that. I feel like in college that is how it’s going to be you’re not going to have enough time to reverse the whole field and do all that stuff. It’s just going to be one cut and get up field and then wait until you get to the second level,” he said.
Is there anything he is working to improve upon before his senior season rolls around?
“Well, I guess I’m working on my hands a lot,” said Blankenship. “We don’t throw to the running back a lot but they told me this year since we’ll be spread out a little more that they’ll want to put me in an empty set so I’m working on my hands since I think I’ll be needing them a lot more for college.”
Ultimately Blankenship reminds me a lot of a quicker version of former LSU Tiger Jacob Hester in terms of being a strong and powerful runner with a low center of gravity that makes him difficult to tackle. Prospects like that often are excellent role players and are a lot of times worth a scholarship.
Blankenship will get his share of offers to play college football and it will interesting to see how his recruitment plays out as far as which offers he does receive and whether OSU is one of them. (RC)
********************
You may not want to hear about it, but De'Anthony Curtis was not a done deal until he actually signed with Arkansas on Wednesday morning. All of the high school running backs Bobby Petrino signed were an issue. Of course, he was telling Curtis they will all play different positions. But, we know that is not what he was telling Staley or Thomas. (JJ)
This post was edited on 2/8 4:23 PM by Jay F
