Talking the five additions (Gray, Morris, Congel, Bowens, Lawrence)
Tennessee trio
"Wanya and Keshawn, we had recruited both in their original recruitment. We thought we had a pretty decent chance to land those guys, and I think we were right there pretty close before they ultimately chose to go to Tennessee. I think it was pretty natural for them, that when they made the decision to leave that this was going to be one of the places they considered because we had relationships with those guys. Those guys are just, it's like they took a one-year hiatus, but almost feels like we recruited them, we know them, especially Keshawn. We really got down the road with him. I think, you know, they decided that they needed a change of scenery and they liked what we were doing here. Those things came together pretty quickly.
"Eric was a little bit different. Didn't recruit him as much. Didn't know him as well, but felt like there was an opportunity here and once he got in the portal, we reached out and expressed some interest and evaluated him and we thought he could help our football team. They obviously know each other, they were kind of different classes. I don't know that one caused another to leave. It wasn't really a domino-effect type deal. I think it was three separate situations and they just happened to be from the same university."
Micah Bowens
“We were a fan of Micah coming out. Obviously had watched him at Gorman and what he had done there and were very aware of him. Yeah, just one of those things where we had a couple guys leave the room and when you’re going into it, we weren’t going to take a guy to take a guy, but at the same time, we thought if a viable option came up in the transfer portal at the quarterback position that we were going to take a good look at it because just the room. The room right now, with Spencer and Caleb -- you’ve got right now, two scholarship players. We lost a couple of really good walk-ons out of that room, too. We knew we had to start to rebuild that room back up a little bit, and so we just said, hey, if a guy pops up that piques our interest that we think could come here and be a good player and obviously contribute and compete and come be what we expect out of that position, then we’re going to take a look. Micah went in the transfer portal and we liked what we saw. Had some good conversations with him and his family. And again, the interest was mutual and it moved along pretty quickly.”
Robert Congel
“We were excited about him. Another one that had some mutual interest when he got in the transfer portal. Really liked him on tape. He reminded us of a couple of guys that we’d had before with some of his position flexibility and some of the experience that he had. And obviously, gave us a little bit of depth in there with losing a couple of guys. And a guy that’s played both center and guard that we’re going to work at both. Obviously, we’ll be looking to replace Creed, whether it’s a current center in our program or it’s shifting somebody into center, those are options that will be worked through. But getting a guy like Robert gives us experience and gives us flexibility. He was looking for an opportunity to come to place like Oklahoma and have a chance to compete for championships. And so we had what he was looking for and he had what we were looking for.”
Tennessee trio
"Wanya and Keshawn, we had recruited both in their original recruitment. We thought we had a pretty decent chance to land those guys, and I think we were right there pretty close before they ultimately chose to go to Tennessee. I think it was pretty natural for them, that when they made the decision to leave that this was going to be one of the places they considered because we had relationships with those guys. Those guys are just, it's like they took a one-year hiatus, but almost feels like we recruited them, we know them, especially Keshawn. We really got down the road with him. I think, you know, they decided that they needed a change of scenery and they liked what we were doing here. Those things came together pretty quickly.
"Eric was a little bit different. Didn't recruit him as much. Didn't know him as well, but felt like there was an opportunity here and once he got in the portal, we reached out and expressed some interest and evaluated him and we thought he could help our football team. They obviously know each other, they were kind of different classes. I don't know that one caused another to leave. It wasn't really a domino-effect type deal. I think it was three separate situations and they just happened to be from the same university."
Micah Bowens
“We were a fan of Micah coming out. Obviously had watched him at Gorman and what he had done there and were very aware of him. Yeah, just one of those things where we had a couple guys leave the room and when you’re going into it, we weren’t going to take a guy to take a guy, but at the same time, we thought if a viable option came up in the transfer portal at the quarterback position that we were going to take a good look at it because just the room. The room right now, with Spencer and Caleb -- you’ve got right now, two scholarship players. We lost a couple of really good walk-ons out of that room, too. We knew we had to start to rebuild that room back up a little bit, and so we just said, hey, if a guy pops up that piques our interest that we think could come here and be a good player and obviously contribute and compete and come be what we expect out of that position, then we’re going to take a look. Micah went in the transfer portal and we liked what we saw. Had some good conversations with him and his family. And again, the interest was mutual and it moved along pretty quickly.”
Robert Congel
“We were excited about him. Another one that had some mutual interest when he got in the transfer portal. Really liked him on tape. He reminded us of a couple of guys that we’d had before with some of his position flexibility and some of the experience that he had. And obviously, gave us a little bit of depth in there with losing a couple of guys. And a guy that’s played both center and guard that we’re going to work at both. Obviously, we’ll be looking to replace Creed, whether it’s a current center in our program or it’s shifting somebody into center, those are options that will be worked through. But getting a guy like Robert gives us experience and gives us flexibility. He was looking for an opportunity to come to place like Oklahoma and have a chance to compete for championships. And so we had what he was looking for and he had what we were looking for.”
