Was getting a little worried about Schwarz, but it came through eventually.

Losing Caleb Muncrief stings alot, offensively speed is what we need more than anything right now.

Sure wish we could have signed a couple surprises, but all in all we recruited where we needed the most (defense) Maybe we can pull in a descent Juco WR down the road.

I can't remember who we red-shirted from last year....any speed there. I like the class this year, a lot of defense and OL, which is a little different than Graham, which was 90% offense. If we get some injured players back, I think we will be alright on offense as long as one QB fills that spot in a decent manner!!

I'd rather comment on my thoughts on recruits here rather than rivals because this is less public a forum right now. Warning : this is a long-winded post !

I really like BB & hope he is our long term answer. I liked Dave Rader as a person, but I believe he just could not recruit well enough to win. I see BB as very similar in background & character to Rader so I may be looking too hard to see Rader weaknesses in Blankenship. It seems most everyone around TU says BB can recruit much better than Rader. This was really BB's first class, so here is my view of it :

Good

1. Schwarz staying with TU over Alabama
2. Darnell Walker..I think is a real sleeper, could be the answer to our kick/punt return problems.
3. Good overall OL recruits with Belcher being the top guy.
4. Decent DE recruits, not spectacular, but decent.
5. Celistan, with his 4.41 speed could have big upside
6. Dane Evans could develop in to a very good QB.

Biggest concerns :

1. Only one WR...4.53 listed speed
2. Only one RB...4.77 listed speed
3. Both TEs with 4.9 listed speed
4. Only 5 of 20 recruits showed BCS offers on Rivals (I use this for comparison only). 2010 class 9 of 25 showed BCS offers. 2009 class - 13 of 26 had BCS offers. (Didn't review 2011 because it was transition class).
5. Total lack of playmakers on offense IMO. Losing Muncrief was a huge blow. I watched all the videos of recruits & only 2 guys really stood out to me, Muncrief & Walker.
6. Some defenders with slower listed times than guys they would replace . (Surprised that BB said we improved our team speed because if you go by listed 40 times, the opposite is true).

Overall, I think we had a very average class, I would rate it a C-. I think we will be bigger & slower in the future if these recruiting trends continue. BB says he turned down more athletic players who he didn't think fit athletically, culturally or character-wise. I think that is an admirable goal, but you have to be careful or you end up with the greatest group of character guys to ever go 1-11.

BB has already talked about how selective he has to be signing jucos. The last guy to talk that way was Rader. Would BB take another Tyrunn Walker or Brennan Marion ?

In 3-4 years we will see if this class is better than I think it is. I hope I'm wrong because I think 2 or 3 more classes like this & we will struggle to have winning records.

Wanted to add a couple points seperately. BB's recruiting is obviously very different than Graham's. In fact it is almost opposite of Graham.

BB size emphasis vs. Graham speed emphasis
BB character/grades vs. Graham's "can I get them eligible" approach
BB quiet "family style" recruiting weekends vs. Graham's flashier approach.
BB heavy in-state recruiting vs. Graham heavier in Texas/Louisiana.
BB lower risk/lower reward vs. Graham higher risk/higher reward.

There are successful programs that follow each approach.

A couple of point/counterpoint results to BB vs. Graham approaches :

Graham lost a lot of guys to academics, BB will not lose near as many.
Graham took a much higher risk/reward approach so he was OK with losing players & trying a new batch the next February. He was closer to an Arkansas type program that seems to sign a boatload of kids each February. That is an easy way to reload, but you have to reload successfully very frequently.

BB will keep more players, but that can be good & bad. How do you turn loose a good student/good attitude/below average player ? The answer is you probably don't. I think we will see more Wojcik type players that we are really glad to see graduate to open up more scholarships.

The upside of BB recruiting is I think we will see more Trey Watts type players that bust their tail & make themselves better players than when they arrive on campus. That may be the best long term hope for TU football under Blankenship.

I always thought Graham recruited to outscore the opponent......BB looks like he believes a little more in the old adage, defense wins championships. I have to admit I like scoring 50+ points or the possibility of scoring on just 2 or 3 plays covering 75 yards. I might go along with scoring 30 points and having a really good defense but that will require some speed even on defense. What I won't go along with is a defense that holds the opponent to 14 points but is lucky to score 14 themselves. Tulsa football is really no different than basketball......we are never going to get the 6'10" superstar, we can get the 6'8" really good player if we recruit right.....the same thing in football, we might not get the 6'3", 210 lb, 4.4 guy.....but we can get the 5'10", 175 lb, 4.4 guy if we recruit right. It's how the players are used in the system as to which turns out the biggest star. DW has tried and tried to run a system to go toe to toe with the big guys and it ain't going to happen because we can't recruit those kind of players. Our system in football has to utilize the talent we can recruit not what some coach wishes he could do.

Good point Fisher. It may be that Graham focused recruiting of offensive skill positions first & BB goes with the O-line & D-line first. That makes Graham's classes look better to me, while it may be more flash than substance. BB's plan may be the better long term plan.

However, take a quick look at some offensive skill players that have led us the past few seasons & who we beat to get them :

GJ Kinne - Highly rated Texas transfer
Demaris Johnson - 5.8 4* recruit - BCS offer
Trey Watts - walk-on
Douglas - 5.7 3* BCS offers
Willie Carter - 5.2 2*, but 2 Big 12 offers
Charles Clay - BCS offers (Arkansas & Miami)
Trae Johnson - only non-BCS offers
AJ Whitmore - BCS (K-state) offer
Roberson - OSU & Stanford offers
Sears - Juco walk-on

While we do get sleepers to come thru, we can't rely on sleepers, particularly at the skill positions. I think we really need to focus this next class on WR & RB. IMO, we need to gather enough commits that if one bails on us late, we will still have a few good ones left.