I wrote at the end of the Edwards commitment post that Oklahoma was making more of an effort to get into Florida. Oklahoma is making a concerted effort to get boots on the ground in SEC territory in general.
Why: Well you go where the talent is.
What's going on? OU's general recruiting efforts are usually concentrated outside the SEC over Stoops tenure - Yes Oklahoma recruits national and reaches into the SEC territory anyway but OU consistently pulls more talent elsewhere.(obviously Texas and California) . Oklahoma is committed to mining the SEC turf more vigorously now for a few reasons
- Recent SEC HTH Success (Bama,Vols2x,Auburn)
- Facility upgrade leveled the playing field
- SEC Coaching Instability - Outside of Saban,SEC is a hot mess
- HS Connection building/blooming- Expecting more ROI over time
OU hasn't been represented at a satellite camp like the one above outside of the state of Texas
Oklahoma joining up with Memphis and crew for one of these camps in SEC territory is strategic, based on the bullet points above. Memphis has a ton of talent in the 250 mile radius of the city. OU will be able to evaluate talent and if they can get kids to visit, the recruits will find "SEC level" facilities OU lagged behind in.
Will it work: As I said above Oklahoma does reach into SEC territory already, we signed 7 last year from SEC states after all which was somewhat surprising., I expect that number will be less surprising going forward. Oklahoma's has a nice little buzz going on right now, it should only grow over this cycle.
