By Chadd Cripe
ccripe@idahostatesman.com
© 2013 Idaho Statesman
Boise State football coach Chris Petersen’s recruiting philosophy showed up Wednesday at Arizona — in a big, splashy way.
Petersen and his staff have called their recruits OKGs — “Our Kinda Guy” — since he became the head coach in 2006. The label reflects the program’s philosophy of recruiting players who fit on and off the field, with an emphasis on character, personality and competitiveness.
On Wednesday, Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez talked about his OKG philosophy. In fact, the Wildcats announced their signings on Twitter with the hashtag #AZOKGDAY.
OKGs were the talk of the day in Tucson — here are stories from the Arizona Daily Star and Fox Sports Arizona.
Rodriguez was asked yesterday about how the OKG label became part of his program. Here is what he said:
“I don’t remember. Matt Dudek, who has done a really good job as our on-campus recruiting guy, talked about, ‘How do we describe what we want to do going forward in our recruiting process? What kind of catchphrase can we have?’ I said, there are a lot of people who rank these guys — and they do a really good job for the most part — but some guys who rank them maybe never even saw the kids play. They could be sitting in their pajamas in their basement drooling on themselves, saying, ‘Oh, let’s give this guy five stars’ and never watched film. Even though you look at that and it’s fun to compare, we like to say we’re going to do our own evaluation and get our kinda guy. This class and going forward is going to be Our Kinda Guys.”
That could get awkward when Boise State and Arizona inevitably recruit against each other.
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In today’s paper, I wrote about how defensive backs coach Jimmy Lake approached this recruiting class and ended up with five cornerbacks — read it here. And Brian Murphy wrote about how important this class is to the future of the program — read that one here.
Later today, I’ll post scouting reports on the offensive recruits with quotes from all of the assistant coaches. Tomorrow, I’ll hit the defensive guys. I’ve also got some good stories from the road that the coaches shared.
This is a stupid story… no one gives a crap about this story! Get off your butt Chadd and go dig up a real news story.
Did this line – “They could be sitting in their pajamas in
their basement drooling on themselves” – hit too close to home for you?
No, it is the fact that he is paid to write good quality stories that keep me and other readers wanting to come back for more. Simple minded stories about “catchphrases” are hardly worth the time to write, let alone read. Now, enough with the pajamas in the basement mentality! Unless, you are one of those simple minded individuals who’s brain power can barely calculate such simple stories and you find them rather enjoyable and interesting. Which is it? Let’s motivate the writers to work a little harder for their stories.
Shut up, Meg.
The fact that the UofA is using the term is actually an indication of the philosophical shift at both Arizona universities. For a long time, both schools (and their fans) felt they should be able to land the same recruits USC and UCLA were pursuing. That was an unrealistic expectation, and it led to a lot of frustration when coaches failed to deliver.
I think both ASU and UA are realizing that the Boise State approach makes more sense for them. The five-star high school prospects will go to the California schools, Oregon or national powers in other parts of the country. If you set your sites on those guys, you’re setting yourself up for failure and frustration.
If you recall the not too distant history, many of the schools you cite never had a chance at 5 star players. How do you think Ole Miss scored some in this class? Not ny lowering their standards, that is for sure. Raising the bar for potential does not have to be mutually exclusive with recruiting an ‘OKG’. It comes down to attitude, work ethic, etc.
Personally, I think BSU & UA’s definition of OKG’s are light years apart. I’ll go with Coach Pete on this one…
I agree, that schools like ASU have never really been competitive in recruiting against the powerhouses. Living in the Phoenix area, I also know that many of ASU’s fans did not realize this in the past. The pressure was on the coaches to compete with USC and the other big boys, and when the coaches failed to deliver, they were on the hot seat.
On top of that, the pressure to deliver 5-star recruits caused coaches to neglect the recruits they had a realistic shot at. That’s still a bit of a problem. ASU thought they had a big-name recruit coming in at QB this year, but he bailed at the last minute and signed with Tennessee. If ASU had gone after the Arizona high school QB of the year a lot sooner, they probably could have had him. Instead, he will be at Boise State next year, because the Boise coaches weren’t wasting their time chasing phantoms.
Since nobody has actually trademarked OKG, it’s fair game.