Bob would have no problems with recruiting in Cali. Probably land a top 5 class annually. He does a damn good job bringing top flight west coast talent to fly over Oklahoma.
I'm not greatly concerned with our recruiting but I'd like to see us pick up a top 5 ranked DT and DE, as well as linebackers. We've had great success landing highly regarded RBs, WRs, QBs and DBs (though our success rate at turning them into all americans has been lacking).
We need a game changing defensive player the likes of Roy Williams/Tommie Harris/Curtis Loftin/Derrick Strait/Rocky Calmus/Gerald McCoy. IMO, that's when things took a down turn. We used to have a handful of those guys every season. Despite the occasional hiccup, we consistently have an explosive offense, but the difference, in my mind, is having a defense that can change the game with big plays and consistent stops. We've got one for sure in Eric Striker and a few other guys have that potential, but we don't attack like we used too. Sitting back waiting to see what the offense comes at you with isn't likely to put our boys in positions to create turnovers or negative plays.
In this day and age of the Big XII, I see no reason not to be aggressive. Teams are going to score on you whether they're beating you with big plays or if you're sitting back and letting them dink and dunk you down the field. I feel like our style of defense is to limit them from potentially lighting up the scoreboard and then hoping we outscore them. We need to be pinning our ears back and going for the kill. If we get beat over the top from time to time, oh well. Better than giving them a free pass into the redzone and then hoping we can limit our chances to a coin flip.
We've had incredible offensive success in the Stoops era, but when we dominated the Big XII it was done with defenses that played pissed off and aggressive from the first snap. That was the Stoops Brothers style, and I think until they quit coaching with the fear that everybody is going to drop 50 on us, we'll continue to see above average success but rarely anything to show for it.
Bob. Mike. Hand the Mary Kay and handbags back the ladies, reach down and grab hold of your gonads and repeat after me, "The Big XII is our conference and we're gonna take it back by force!".
