PFB Roundtable: Recapping the Start of the Early Signing Period, OSU’s 2020 Class

The start of college football’s early signing period was Wednesday morning and once all the ink dried and letters of intent were faxed in, the Pistols Firing staff got together to review the 2020 signings.

Here’s a peek inside our Slack chat.

Kyle Cox: Who is your favorite signee from Wednesday and why?

Marshall Scott: As a former undersized Oklahoma high school football player (with 2 percent of the athletic ability), I’ll go with Bixby product Brennan Presley. At 5-foot-9, 165 pounds he won’t dazzle with the eye test, but he was the best player on every field he was on this past season.

Kyle Porter: Great question. I think the easy answer is Trill, but the one I’m most excited about is Brennan Presley. He has Josh Stewart written all over him, and he’ll be really, really easy to root for. Probably doesn’t have the body to be a superstar, but he’s going to be good for a really long time in Stillwater.

Cox: I’m overly excited about Presley — not Gundy recalling Tyreek Hill memories excited — but excited nonetheless. And I’m ready for the next year’s Trill>Spencer takes in The Chamber the first time Sanders throw a pick. But I’ll go with Cade Bennett. He’s a mauler up front and can bring some much-needed nastiness to the OL.

Scott: Gundy mentioned today how this is three or four years of solid O-line recruiting. It’s not the most exciting position group, but Charlie Dickey’s unit is slowly getting stacked.

Porter: Charlie Dickey’s unit should have been the name of our forum.

Kyle Boone: I have enough knowledge on offensive line scouting to write, like, 18 words, but Cade Bennett might be my favorite addition to this class. He’s the third-highest ranked offensive lineman in OSU’s class, but his tape is filthy and rude and amazing. If he were like an inch taller, I think he’d have been a five-star with 30+ offers. I think he’s got the goods to be a great one.

Scott: As I was typing that I was like, “Oh, no.”

Porter: I can’t stop laughing.

The shed is rumbling.

Boone: Hahahah

Cox: oh man

Boone: I also really like the Rashod Owens addition. I know it doesn’t fire people up when he commits to OSU over UTSA and Army and Fordham, but pop the tape on him and he lights up. I asked him why he played running back instead of WR, where he’s likely to play in college, and the long and short (but less braggy) answer he gave me was that he was the best athlete so they just gave him the ball like every play.

Porter: Sounds like the opposite of my HS career.

Boone: Yeah, that was me, but only if you replace “ball” in this scenario with “water bottles.”

Cox: Okay so the empty RB slot is the orange elephant in the room, especially if Chuba Hubbard punches his Sunday Ticket. With Isaiah Jacobs off to Maryland, how confident are you that OSU can fill that spot for 2020?

Boone: Very very very confident.

They will get someone. I can’t say with certainty who it will be, but OSU won’t go without a RB in this class.

Scott: I‘m confident they’ll fill it, but I’m not confident as to who it’ll be.

Cox: Ok, how confident are you that they’ll get someone who can contribute next year? That might be a better question.

Porter: Who are their other offers right now? La’Damian Webb and Kevontre Bradford?

Scott: And Ngata.

Boone: Not confident, but also don’t think getting an immediate contributor is that important. Deondrick Glass will (hopefully) be prepared to contribute after redshirting this year, and then Dezmon Jackson and LD Brown are all back as well.

Porter: I guess technically the offered Zach Evans lol and Jase McClellan lol. But yeah.

Scott: Yeah, with Chuba being such a big part of this offense there will big questions around whoever takes over (if he leaves).

Porter: Maybe they go portal route.

I think it’s pretty frustrating that they had two backs right in front of them in Jacobs and Morrison, and they got nothing out of it.

Also, Brennan Presley as the 19th-best OK prospect is not gonna age very well.

Cox: I think it’s an issue. Hopefully Glass or Jackson are ready to contribute but it’s not an ideal situation even if they signed an RB this morning.

Scott: Something I thought of today is that there’s a possibility Zach Middleton plays RB. I asked Gundy where he thought he’d go, and Gundy had no clue. Could be RB, WR or safety it sounds like.

Porter: We probably said all of this same stuff going into Justice Hill’s freshman season, too.

Cox: I said worse things.

Boone: I … kinda think OSU will be fine despite Jacobs and Morrison both going elsewhere. I think OSU may have something up its sleeve in the works to settle all this RB panic down.

Cox:

Porter: I’m listening.

Boone: I’m gonna just leave that there for now ….

Also, are we sure Chuba is leaving? Like, positive?

Cox: I will say he’s definitely gone — hoping that my track record on predictions holds up.

Porter: It would just be such a weird decision to come back. I mean, I guess if you felt like you were going to win a Big 12 title (maybe!) but he played in the OU game. He knows.

Cox: Barry didn’t even beat OU

Boone: I think Gundy’s advisory policy is that if you don’t get a first- or second-round grade, coming back is what he recommends. I may be pulling that out of thin air, but pretty sure he’s said that in the past. And if that’s true, I think Chuba’s probably right on the cut line there projection-wise. Not a cut and dry decision!

Cox: I could see maybe how the prospects of he, Tylan and Spencer returning could be at least somewhat enticing. It just doesn’t make a ton of sense to me.

Boone: I’m just stirring it up to hash it out. No #sauces or anything. Just been thinking about that. It seems like a foregone conclusion, but maybe it isn’t.

Cox: Hopefully not…

I didn’t expect him to play in the bowl game, so…

Porter: Yeah, the path is convoluted. But I will weep alligator tears onto my keyboard if what you say comes to fruition. Then I will think about Marshall physically typing out “Charlie Dickey’s unit” and weep some more tears of laughter.

Cox: Okay, last one. OSU’s class is currently ranked No. 39 by 247. If that holds we’re looking at a last five rankings of 39, 38, 34, 38, 45. Are you okay with that? Frustrated, complacent?

Porter: I think I’ve been swayed into the “the overall ranking doesn’t mean as much because everybody from 25-45 (or whatever) is the same” camp. The disappointing part is how few non-skill position 4-star guys they land.

Cox: I will say I’d like it to be closer to 25 but I didn’t have enough confidence in that to really be frustrated about it on the day. 

Scott: I’m almost just over it at this point. It is what it is. It’s kind of OSU’s DNA.

Cox:

Porter: Lawdy Marshall

Here are all their non-skill 4-stars since 2015: Darrion Daniels. /fin.

Cox: gulp

Boone: Depends on a class-by-class basis, because I think a class ranked No. 45 can look a lot different when you have a Tyreek or a Tylan. In this class, I’m fine with it because you’ve got a QB in Illingworth who can make it all look better. Still, you’d like to see more blue-chippers.

Scott: I didn’t mean that in a bad way. I mean, they’re still going to turn this class into a Top 25 team at some point. I don’t know. That’s just how this thing goes.

Porter: It’s true.

Boone: What I find off putting is that this feels like the vibe not just from media members, but from the program, too. They expect a 30-45th ranked class. It’s the same every year. Same graphics. Same URLs. Same bios. Same Twitter teasers. Like, shake it up! You haven’t won a Big 12 title since 2011. Quit doing the same stuff and expecting different results.

Porter: Here we go.

Cox: *fans flame to warm self on a cold NSD

Porter: Lol, I imagine Cox outside of his on an iPad next to a barrel with a fire emanating out of it.

Boone: If your plan to market your football program is to make sure your head coach with a mullet goes viral every two-to-four weeks, then you might not be marketing your football program all that well. Gundy connects with a certain faction of the fan base, but I’m not even sure he’s relatable to recruits. Teenagers probably confuse him for Billy Ray Cyrus.

Porter: End the RT and write the column!

Boone: Soon.

Porter: