An Interesting Perspective: Gundy Recruits How NFL Scouting Departments Draft

Every year, no matter how good Oklahoma State football is, there are some critics of head coach Mike Gundy’s recruiting tactics and success. The “success” aspect is very opinionated because there are some who talk to players, break down film and truly evaluate talent to form opinions and then there are some who look at stars or rankings and quickly make assumptions on recruits/commits that Mike Gundy and recruiting director Todd Bradford are bringing in. 

I am one who does not look at outside sources other than my eyes to form opinions or thoughts on recruits.

It has been made clear that Mike Gundy is the same way. And from a recent tweet from Daniel Jeremiah, one of the top NFL Draft analysts and former NFL scout, it appears that NFL personnel departments carry the same mentality when looking to draft players. 

Jeremiah says that “NFL Personnel departments don't care about college awards” and that “It doesn't carry any weight”. 

When I read the tweet, the first thing I thought of was Gundy. 

I mean, does a coach who does not care about stars, trophies, offers or accolades sound familiar? He has an office in the West End Zone overlooking Boone Pickens Stadium right now. 

When scouting departments are looking at a player they want to draft, they are never getting on google to look up if a player was first team All-Conference or if he won any awards for his position while in college. The same way works for Gundy and co. when evaluating. If he finds a players’ film he likes, he’s not looking up what offers he holds or what watchlists the kid is on. 

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This is also why Oklahoma State is, quite often, the first offer for kids. The staff is extremlely talented at recognizing and projecting talent, even in players as young as 14 or 15 years old. There are a lot of times that Oklahoma State will be the first or one of the first offers and then that player quickly picks up 15 offers in the next month or two and becomes a national recruit.

There have been instances where I have had conversations with other recruiting reporters of “blue blood” schools who have actually told me that the recruiting staff at their school is waiting for a kid to pick up more offers so its justified that they offer. They don’t want to be the first. But why?

Some schools don’t want to be the first to offer a kid and have that kid end up not being the real deal or flame out during the recruiting process. They are scared of their own evaluations and question if they trust them.

Oklahoma State is nothing like this. They trust their eyes and evaluations with full conviction and believe in everyone on staff.

As far as to why the NFL teams dont care about awards, there is a simple reason: They are not the ones who are voting on it. It is media, other coaches, peers, voting boards, etc. NFL coaches and scouts watch film, put players through testing, and have extensive interviews. After that they will put together a board of how they rank players, which sounds very similiar to a college recruiting staff. With Oklahoma State, if they think that a player is worthy of being above someone else, they will do it. They dont look at stars to see how they should rank them, which some other schools certainly put weight into. 

When you take in the staff’s eye for talent and match it with Rob Glass’s strength and nutrition program, you breed stars.