Ins and Outs, Ups and Downs for Oklahoma State in Transfer Portal World

Interesting analysis, I guess we shall see next year how it seems to have panned out! I still find it a bit mystifying that Sanders hadn't found or at least announced a destination! There must be more to the story here!

IMO, Bowman is a definite improvement, the downside is that he is not really familiar with our offense, but if the intent is to change our offense, then Sanders probably would have struggled with the new concepts too.

I hate losing all the experience and familiarity with our schemes and routines that left through the Portal, and I don't really see any real improvements.

We needed some help on the OLine, but it is uncertain whether we got any real help.

The LB position could be a wash adding the Tulsa kid.

RB is probably a wash... one in, one out.

one thing is 100% certain, it can't be good for a program to bring in 35 new faces, in addition to the current redshirts that have no experience.

Can't be good.

Also with our trouble landing a guy to take his spot to decline him coming back seems odd. Maybe that shoulder is worse than we know.

Seems to me this portal process was better than a wash. IF we get Mana for the OL, that would surely help the comparison even more. Too bad the 2nd TE had whatever eligibility issues, as that position will be important to new schemes apparently. As usual, OL coming together will determine about 60 to 70% of our success or lack of in '23.

Orangeheart72 said:

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Seems to me this portal process was better than a wash. IF we get Mana for the OL, that would surely help the comparison even more. Too bad the 2nd TE had whatever eligibility issues, as that position will be important to new schemes apparently. As usual, OL coming together will determine about 60 to 70% of our success or lack of in '23.

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come on man... Mana is a 3-star JUCO kid and is the "latest and greatest", we had the same hype the last two classes first with Etienne, then last year with Webber.... neither were of immediate help. We have some good linemen in this class, maybe somebody can help.

I have high hopes for Mana... but frankly, we can't do anything more than just hope. I don't see him beating anybody out that is projected to be in the 2-deep, but I am anxious to see how and if he can work his way in.

I'm really interested in seeing the Stillwater Pioneer kid, if he can play center, then we can move Wilson out to guard. With Springfield at RT (who graded the highest) and Birmingham also playing guard....

Hopefully Spring Ball will shed a lot of light on what we might be able to do. Last Spring so many OLinemen were hurt that we couldn't even have a spring game.

CProc7 said:

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Also with our trouble landing a guy to take his spot to decline him coming back seems odd. Maybe that shoulder is worse than we know.

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Well, we found out the rest of the story via Robert on his show this morning! Has to complete the seven or eight hours to complete his degree and move on to enroll at a new school!!!

CaliforniaCowboy said:

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CProc7 said:

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Also with our trouble landing a guy to take his spot to decline him coming back seems odd. Maybe that shoulder is worse than we know.

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naw..... it's a personal thing with Gundy.... Sanders made all the coaches scramble to find a replacement, and they spent a lot of time and money in doing so, it's not that easy to "forgive" somebody for wasting coaches time and expenses, when the QBs on staff would be adequate with time.

I can understand why a coach would not want to readily take kids back, it wastes their valuable time, and sets a bad precedent for anybody in the future who might be considering the same thing.

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There is more truth in your statements above than you realize Cali!!!

Orangeheart72 said:

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Seems to me this portal process was better than a wash. IF we get Mana for the OL, that would surely help the comparison even more. Too bad the 2nd TE had whatever eligibility issues, as that position will be important to new schemes apparently. As usual, OL coming together will determine about 60 to 70% of our success or lack of in '23.

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Let's put it this way if you brought in three guys from lower level schools who are rated as good NFL prospects by the NFL Scouts you have done quite well actually!!! (Johnson, Kirkland and Cooper).

CaliforniaCowboy said:

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IMO, Bowman is a definite improvement, the downside is that he is not really familiar with our offense, but if the intent is to change our offense, then Sanders probably would have struggled with the new concepts too.

I hate losing all the experience and familiarity with our schemes and routines that left through the Portal, and I don't really see any real improvements.

We needed some help on the OLine, but it is uncertain whether we got any real help.

The LB position could be a wash adding the Tulsa kid.

RB is probably a wash... one in, one out.

one thing is 100% certain, it can't be good for a program to bring in 35 new faces, in addition to the current redshirts that have no experience.

Can't be good.

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I don't remember where I read it Cal, but TCU went through a pretty major personnel swap out last year with the head coaching changes. That seemed to work out. I personally think this was better than a wash. And somewhat impressive as IMO I think Gundy wasn't prepared personally to dive into the portal this deep. Luckily, it appears the new recruiting support staff was fairly on top of it. Gundy was forced to go big especially when the receiver flood hit. I think this portal process properly played by OSU each year will end up better than some folks seem to think.

Orangeheart72 said:

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CaliforniaCowboy said:

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IMO, Bowman is a definite improvement, the downside is that he is not really familiar with our offense, but if the intent is to change our offense, then Sanders probably would have struggled with the new concepts too.

I hate losing all the experience and familiarity with our schemes and routines that left through the Portal, and I don't really see any real improvements.

We needed some help on the OLine, but it is uncertain whether we got any real help.

The LB position could be a wash adding the Tulsa kid.

RB is probably a wash... one in, one out.

one thing is 100% certain, it can't be good for a program to bring in 35 new faces, in addition to the current redshirts that have no experience.

Can't be good.

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I don't remember where I read it Cal, but TCU went through a pretty major personnel swap out last year with the head coaching changes. That seemed to work out. I personally think this was better than a wash. And somewhat impressive as IMO I think Gundy wasn't prepared personally to dive into the portal this deep. Luckily, it appears the new recruiting support staff was fairly on top of it. Gundy was forced to go big especially when the receiver flood hit. I think this portal process properly played by OSU each year will end up better than some folks seem to think.

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I agree. But I'm waiting to see if the dykes thing was a flash in the pan. I think he came in when TCU was going to go on a run regardless of Dykes or Patterson

Duke Silver said:

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I agree. But I'm waiting to see if the dykes thing was a flash in the pan. I think he came in when TCU was going to go on a run regardless of Dykes or Patterson

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it should be fairly obvious that TCU's success this year was totally due to Dykes, he totally changed over SMU before skipping across town.

he coached under Hal Mumme at Kentucky and Mike Leach at TTech where he was made co-offensive coordinator with Dana Holgorsen.. He was OC for Mike Stoops at Arizona.

his first HC job was at La Tech, where in his 2nd season he was Conf Champ and 2011 WAC Coach of the Year. His 3rd season he led them to their best record since 1997.

As HC at Cal it took him 2 years to recover from Tedford's disaster teams, but by 2015 year 3 Dykes had them bowl eligible for the first time since 2011. Dykes was fired by Cal after the 2016 season, however, Dykes' offense still ranked in the top 5 nationally for pass completions per game (31.9) and passing yards per game (358.8). Additionally, Cal finished 2nd in the nation for total plays run per game, averaging 86.3. Dykes and the Golden Bears finished the season with a record of 5-7, which included wins over #11 Texas and #18 Utah

At SMU, Dykes doubled the win output by his 2nd season, The Mustangs' 10-win season was its first since 1984. Prior to the 2021 season, Dykes and his staff brought in the highest-rated SMU recruiting class since 247Sports started recruiting class rankings in 1999.

at TCU - you know the story..... his transfer class last year was top 10... his HS recruiting class this year has 11 4-star players and is ranked #22 and the transfer class #21, which include 5-star OT and 5-start RB transfers from Bama.

not to mention our own JP Richardson.....

it's not to hard to read the writing on the wall.... It would be very hard to repeat last year's feat, but past success at every stop and this fantastic recruiting tells me it was not just a flash in the pan season.

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