OSU Football: Cowboys=Tampa Bay Rays?

Oklahoma State football recruiting remains in the crosshairs of critics, a group that includes Cowboys fans and, not that long ago, even OSU athletic director Mike Holder.

They can’t get no satisfaction.

When things go bad, the automatic response is to point to recruiting. Or coaching. Or both. When things go good, the narrative turns to “It’s about time.”

And that’s complete nonsense, especially when you consider all that Mike Gundy (and Les Miles before him) and his staff has done in lifting a program to its greatest height in history.

Sure, there’s always room for more, and a hunger for more. And that’s all good.

But here’s a reality check: when it comes to football, OSU operates under a ceiling. There are levels the program just can’t reach, not with any regularity. That’s tied to recruiting – not poor recruiting, but recruiting limitations due to key factors like proximity and recent status backed by trophies from the big bowls, and the exposure that comes with them.

The Cowboys can attract good players with the promise of playing time and solid success. But they can’t promise blue-blood success with any proof, and that’s a problem.

That puts OSU into a tenuous position that relies on a recruiting plan based more on projecting players that make up the bulk of a class, then developing those players to their maximum potential.

And Gundy’s staff, despite significant turnover throughout the years, has been really good at that.

Using a baseball analogy, OSU is like the Tampa Bay Rays. They do more with less – less resources, less appeal to free agents/top prospects, less of a guarantee for premium success.

They have their moments, with occasional contention. Heck, compared to the rest of the league, they do really well. They use their developmental skills to continually churn strong teams. Sure, they take a step back here and there, but it’s typically temporary.

So recruiting limitations be damned, OSU excels, in an underrated and often underappreciated fashion.

Over at The Athletic (subscription required), Max Olson did a review redo on the 2016 recruiting class, one that originally reflected poorly for the Cowboys. OSU ranked 45th nationally and seventh in the Big 12, ahead of only Iowa State, Kansas and Kansas State.

In Olson’s re-rankings, which awards points for different levels of production by players, the Cowboys proved much better, ranking No. 19 nationally and No. 2 in the Big 12, right behind Oklahoma, which was No. 18 and No. 1, respectively.

From what was OSU’s lowest-rated class of the decade, the Cowboys had a “hit-rate” of 85 percent, with productive players emerging in Justice Hill, A.J. Green, Teven Jenkins, Dillon Stoner, Amen Ogbongbemiga, Rodarius Williams, Cameron Murray, Calvin Bundage, Dylan Galloway and more.

All were consensus three-star prospects.

Better yet, eight players from the class remain, figuring prominently in the growing optimism toward the 2020 season.

So with another recruiting class now complete, barring any late additions, don’t fret over a class that again ranks 45th nationally, fifth in the Big 12.

Cowboys coaches have yet to work their magic. They've done the hard part, evaluating players not only now, but for potential, and for fit. Hold your complaints and check back in a few years, when the class is likely to look much better in hindsight.