More on Jeff Capel

From Willie Warren, on why he came to OU:

“You get a chance to play with a first-round draft pick, which Blake was, and you come to play for, who I think, sometime later on, will be one of the greatest coaches of all-time.”

Call it hyperbole. Call it bias. Whatever. For Capel, when one of the nation’s best players says something that complimentary about him, it gives him leverage for further recruits. That speaks to just how much Capel has accomplished what he wanted to at Oklahoma, i.e., getting players to believe in him.

Just a bit, I’d say.

Warren also said that though he doesn’t suit up against his team as much as he used to, everyone on the squad knows very well what Capel did at Duke, and that he’s still got plenty of game, even at 34.

I alluded to this in the story, but another thing Tiny Gallon mentioned is that when he first met Capel, he had no idea he was a coach, let alone a head coach. It’s not true of all his recruits, but Capel went from a non-factor and a guy Gallon knew nothing about to his college coach in only a few months. Obviously, he’s new. He hasn’t known these players since they were in the 8th grade. Few coaches could pull that off, and I think it’s the biggest reason why Capel is establishing himself as one of, if not already the best, recruiter in the conference.

Lastly, Gallon and Mason-Griffin mentioned this specifically, but one of the big reasons why they came was because Capel told them he knew they would make mistakes as freshmen, but he wanted them to learn from it by playing through those mistakes, rather than being yanked to the bench by the collar and being chained to a film projector until the next game. That doesn’t mean he’ll let mistakes go unnoticed, but his players response to those mistakes circles back around to the relationships he fosters with them.