Oklahoma State University Athletics
Oklahoma State Football Signee Press Conference Quotes
April 07, 2003 | Cowboy Football
"We have 29 guys with scholarships coming in. I think you have the list. We're waiting on one other prospect who we should have already signed, but I can't talk about him until his coach faxes in the papers.
"As we look at it as a staff, I think this is a class that we wanted to recruit in terms of speed. We have a lot of speed in this class with Tatum Bell and Chris Wright and Brandon Williams. We felt like we met our needs in the offensive line area, and we were able to get a couple of linebackers to replace some of the kids that we're losing. Overall, I'm really pleased about this class that's coming to Oklahoma State, the Class of 2000."
On the highlights in the class "All of them are highlights, but there are some guys that you've probably written about. When you look at the running backs, Tatum Bell and D.D. Cox, and the kind of years that they've had, Tatum Bell is one of the top backs in Texas and D.D. Cox is one of the top backs coming out of Boulder, Colorado. Clint Gillispie. Ahmad Denson. You can go through the list of guys that we think are going to be special players in this class. Chay Nease. Chris Akins. Ben Buie. These are guys that we are very pleased are coming to Oklahoma State."
On Tatum Bell and D.D. Cox "Tatum had an interesting recruiting tour here because he came here during the summer time when we weren't around. I like to say that he's the President's (Dr. James Halligan) recruit because the President did a good job in the summertime when he came on campus. He stuck with us. He is a kid who probably could have gone any place, and guys knocked at his door Ñ the Texas A&Ms, the Oklahomas, the Nebraskas. He felt good about this campus and the program. The same thing with D.D. Cox who committed to us. He's right out the University of Colorado's back door, and they wanted him. It just goes back to our association. I thought that (Coach) Art Walker did a good job associating with him and his family. It's very fortunate. He's got relatives here in Oklahoma. He's a guy that we feel really good about."
On President Halligan's involvement in recruiting Tatum Bell "Tatum Bell and his family came unannounced to this campus earlier in the summertime because they were touring every campus. Our President (Dr. James Halligan) does a good job of making himself available if he's in town. We put a quick tour together. Our staff did a good job because all the coaches were out except for Coach (Rob) Ryan, and he talked with him. One of the visits was to the President's office, and the impression that they got of Oklahoma State was really based on what Dr. Halligan said and how friendly he was and what we stood for. When he came back for his official visit, they talked to the President again. He played a major part in the process."
On the running style of Tatum Bell and D.D. Cox "Bell is a guy that has a lot of speed. In high school, he was faster than (Texas Tech's) Byron Hanspard. He was slowed up a little bit by a hamstring, but he's got legitimate track speed. Anyone you talk to in the Dallas area will say that Tatum Bell is the fastest kid. His style is more of a guy that has strong legs and is going to hit a crease and bust it. He doesn't dance. Cox has got a little bit of speed. He's bigger than Tatum Bell. I don't know if he's as fast as Tatum, but he's got 4.4 or 4.5 speed, and he's a power kind of runner."
On whether the running backs will start early on "We'll see. I think we're going to have to put some weight on Tatum. You can sacrifice weight sometimes for speed. But you're talking about (Jamaal) Fobbs and Reggie White coming back, and behind those two you have (Richard) Schwarz and maybe one of those freshmen. Tim Burroughs can also play a role. We still have some depth in that backfield."
On Andre McGill "People don't realize that he was recruited by Syracuse, Iowa State, and he was on Ohio State's list early. We watched him on film and he's an athletic quarterback. He's a guy that's very, very mobile. He threw for a lot of yards. He came up here on probably his second-to-last visit. Syracuse had opted to take another option quarterback out of junior college. That put us in pretty good position. When he went up to Iowa State it was cold, and it happened to be warm when he came down here. Right now, he will be the fourth quarterback on this football team."
On tight ends being guys you can't pass up "I don't think you can because if they're not tight ends and they're 6-5 and 255 pounds, they can always be tackles. Adam Davis was a guy that came in here as a tight end and basically ended up growing out of his position. When you talk about the guys on this list, Derrius Whitehead is very similar to probably Marcellus (Rivers). We saw him this summer in camp and liked his hands. He's very smooth. Kyle Williams is a combination of both. He's at about 255 right now. If he stays within that range and he's a good athlete, we'll keep him at tight end. But we smiled and told him that if he gets up around 275, he may move inside a little bit farther. Mark (Milosevich) is a guy that could play either one. We think that he's going to be a tight end, but we hope that he doesn't grow out of the position."
On what position Richard Moton and Chay Nease will play "We really liked Chay Nease. He played everything out in that area in Thomas (Okla.). They won championships. We saw him make plays on defense and on offense, not only as a quarterback but also as a wideout. We'll find out later on. We'll probably let him play his preference. He could be a good wide receiver or he could be a good defensive back. Richard Moton is much the same. We watched him throughout the season and we like his size. He's about 6-4 or 6-4 and a half. What we like about him is not only that he's a good athlete, he's a track guy. He runs the quarter-mile in the state track meet. We think that we've got two pretty good guys whose positions we haven't determined right now. We'll see how this thing plays out. When they come to camp, we'll play them on both sides of the ball and make a decision then."
On whether the junior college transfers will fit in immediately "Lawson (Giddings) has a chance. He will be here probably in May and go through our summer orientation as far as learning our system. He's a guy that we recruited out of high school, and he's a prolific player. We hope that he can make an impact when he gets on campus."
On Ron Able "He's here. Ron Able's here. (Michael) Cooper's here. (Jed) Newkirk's here. They're going through our off-season program. It's an advantage for them because now they can go through spring ball and have an opportunity to really learn the system. We expect all of those guys to be somewhat of a factor in terms of helping us in the fall."
On Derek LaFargue being a deep snap specialist "He is, but we're hoping that we don't have to use him as a deep snap specialist. He's got good size. We really need to let him grow and mature and if we can do that, we won't use him. I'm not saying that that's going to happen, because there's some other guys on the team that we think we can snap. As you know, snapper is a key position. There are a couple of guys that we've been grooming for that spot (replacing Tom Benson), and we're hoping that we don't have to go to a freshman to do that."
On missing out on top guys in the state "It depends on how you determine who the top guys are. We determine the top guys in the recruiting process. Obviously, the media has a whole different way of rating. What we try to do is look at film, and the guys that we have on this list from the state are the ones that we determined are top guys Ñ Chris Akin, Ben Buie, and the other guys that we recruited in the state. We like them. Obviously, there are other guys that we have tried to recruit that have gone other places, but I've always taken the position that you can't worry about the ones that you didn't get, you have to concentrate on the ones that we have. We're very pleased with the players that we have."
On the defensive backs "We think Michael Cooper, who is on our campus already, is going to help us because of his quickness and speed. We think he's an aggressive guy. When you look at Chris Wright and Brandon Williams, Brandon Williams has been clocked in high school at a 10.3. Now, that's a freshman coming in, you have to understand that. Chris Wright will probably be more of a wide receiver than a defensive back. Chris Wright runs national track meets all through the year. As a matter of fact, he may come to camp late because he'll be running in a national track meet. You really want to count on the guys that you already have on campus and bring the new guys along, and that's what we hope to do."
On only signing three linebackers "We probably wanted one more, but (Reggie) Promise is a combination. We have him listed as a running back, but he was a linebacker in high school. As a matter of fact, people recruited him as a linebacker. That gives us some flexibility. Johnny Bizzell is a guy that's listed as a running back, but he's a guy that wants to play defense. They're not listed as linebackers, but there's a combination. Fath' Carter is listed as a linebacker, but really Promise or Bizzell could be linebackers if we wanted them to be."
On the class overall "I really think that the one thing that we have in this class that we haven't had in others is the track speed. We have legitimate speed from true track guys. Tatum Bell is a true track guy. Chris Wright is a true track guy and football players. So is Brandon Williams. Cashan Clark is another guy that runs track in the state of Texas. I'm trying to remember the last time that we recruited guys that were supposed to have that kind of speed. We'll find out when they get here. That's the one thing that stands out in my mind is that we've got a lot of speed guys."
