Personally, I wanted Lanning. That defense at Georgia was mean and I liked the idea of Bob Stoops pt. 2 (young DC getting a chance).
Looking at their #45 class and the Halton commit, I was wrong, pretty clear who's capable of providing early stability. The ability to recruit assistants who you've met over the years in elite circles is huge. Bates and Valai are long-term relationships that Lanning hasn't had the time to develop.
What's interesting is that Lincoln ran into the same problems early. Never coached anywhere worth anything before OU. He's built a good staff now on reputation and hype alone but it was pretty clear early he was trying to pull guys from a weak network... nothing outside of TX area, forced to try and steal our whole staff, and even had to come back to Demarco twice because he didn't have options
We got our guy!
Looking at their #45 class and the Halton commit, I was wrong, pretty clear who's capable of providing early stability. The ability to recruit assistants who you've met over the years in elite circles is huge. Bates and Valai are long-term relationships that Lanning hasn't had the time to develop.
What's interesting is that Lincoln ran into the same problems early. Never coached anywhere worth anything before OU. He's built a good staff now on reputation and hype alone but it was pretty clear early he was trying to pull guys from a weak network... nothing outside of TX area, forced to try and steal our whole staff, and even had to come back to Demarco twice because he didn't have options
We got our guy!
