Pride and promise Time will tell whether the 2008 recruits join the 1999 group as one of the great classes in OU history Time will tell whether 2008 recruits are one of the greats classes in OU history
NORMAN — Bob Stoops hardly wowed the recruiting experts in 1999 when he signed his first class at Oklahoma.
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Turns out, that group wasn't half bad.
The 1999ers posted a 55-11 record over five years to go along with two Big 12 titles, a national championship and a dominating 4-1 record over Texas.
But more than that, the 1999 class — combined with the classes of 1998 and 2000 — restored prestige and pride to a beleaguered Sooner program that hadn't seen a winning season in six years.
Time will tell if this promising 2008 group — headlined by the top three players in Texas — will join 1999 as the one of the great classes in Sooner history.
But if the 1999 class proved anything, it's presumptuous to judge a recruiting class before it steps on the field.
"I remember coming in, there wasn't much being said about us,” said former quarterback Jason White, the gem of the 1999 class who went on to win the Heisman Trophy and lead the Sooners into two national championship games. "When I look back at our class, we had a great work ethic, we were hard-nosed, and even though we all weren't 5-star athletes, we weren't real scared to work hard.”
Little-known players such as junior-college quarterback Josh Heupel and diminutive running back Quentin Griffin led the Sooners out of nowhere to their seventh national championship.
"People buy into recruiting rankings way too much,” White said. "All that matters is what you do when you get there.”
Perhaps no class did more during its time at OU than the 1946 class, which helped put Sooner football on the national map.
The 1946 Sooners jump-started two of the greatest winning streaks in college football history when OU won 31 and 47 straight games during the 1950s.
Led by Darrell Royal, the 1946 class helped bring home the school's first national championship in 1950 to go along with five Big Eight titles.
Only the recruiting classes from 1949, 1972 and 1975 won conference titles in all five years as well.
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Well JEFF...probably less than your group of losers...whoever that is, since you're lowlife enough not to identify your team. Have some class and take your garbage to some other blog. Obviously your group of rapists, thieves, potheads and violent alcoholics still can't measure up to the Sooners.
I agree with all of you. This paper consistently throws the old karmic jinx on the Sooners. Every year, when we are dominant, they run some ridiculous story about how this team is "unstoppable", has "no weaknesses", is "perhaps the greatest of all time." Wow. When will these tools learn? Isn't a steady stream of jinx since 2001 a small clue? Lazy story on this edition as well. Very disappointed.
John, that's lazy journalism! Digging for news and checking out a story takes effort. Yet easy to find an archived subject and/or quote someone. A trait we see throughout the Daily Nothing. I am just as guilty in disgracing the profession by mentioning the word journalism on the space of tabloid entertainment.
Why is the Daily Disappointment always talking about "the greatest this, the greatest that, the greatest in history..." The day of this years BCS bowl there was an article printed about being ranked #1 next year and winning it all, kinda ironic this article would be printed the day we get blown out in the bowl.
So after a loss to West Virginia, Boise State and Five Big XII Trophys since 1999 lets look forward to a 2008 BIG XII Championship and a B.O.W.L. WIN in 2009.
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