Jim Nagy reveals Oklahoma grading scale for player evaluation, how stars impact decisions

Oklahoma made the splash hire of the offseason, snagging Jim Nagy away from the Senior Bowl to be the program’s general manager. Nagy brings a ton of experience to the role, due to both his time in Mobile and past stops in NFL scouting departments. It’s a move Oklahoma hopes helps navigate them through the modern college football recruiting world.

Nagy appeared on the Triple Option podcast, giving everyone a peek behind the curtain of his process. He began with how Oklahoma will evaluate players moving forward while grading them against their peers. Then, those internal rankings are how the Sooners will ultimately decide how money is spent on players within the revenue-sharing salary cap model.

“We’ve got a grading scale we’re going to stick to,” Nagy said. “In the NFL, there’s a numbers-based grading scale, a color-based grading scale. I think the color-based is a little easier for everyone to get on the same page on so that’s what we’re going with here. And that’s also going to dictate how we spend on players as well. If you don’t have a structure in place, you’re going to be all over the place with paying players. And the next thing you know, you’re going to be over the cap… We’re going to evaluate just like we would in the National Football League.”

“Value” is a term Nagy uses when describing what Oklahoma is looking for. Historically, the Sooners are out there competing with top programs for the biggest-name recruits. The likes of Bob Stoops, Lincoln Riley, and even going back to Barry Switzer brought some of the best high school talent to Norman.

But in a world where budgeting matters, Nagy can look at other players Oklahoma has similarly graded and at a much lower cost. Outside evaluations are not going to affect their process, to say the least. Nagy is going to make sure Oklahoma sticks to its process throughout each individual recruiting cycle. He even pinned exactly when they might know it’s time to move on from certain guys for monetary reasons.

“We’re not going to pay any attention to that,” Nagy said of star ratings. “I think what we saw this spring, which I think was a really good way to do it, was we graded the players on our scale. And then, when you get to OV (official visit) season is where you can get value. Because what I think is going to set the market for a lot of these players, in terms of what they’re being paid and what agents expect to be paid, is the star system. I think five stars want to get paid like five stars.

“So, when we get into the OV season, we may have the same grade on a five-star and a three-star. When you’re looking at where they’re taking their OVs to, if they’re going to Ohio State and Oregon and Texas and Texas A&M, that’s going to be a certain market. But if the same graded player is getting offers from Group of Five schools, we know what direction we’re probably going to go because we’re looking for that value.”

Entering the Fourth of July holiday, Oklahoma has the No. 21 recruiting class in the country, per the On3 Industry Team Rankings, and 10th when just looking at the SEC. Of the 14 commitments, half of them are considered blue-chip prospects. Quarterback Bowe Bentley is the only player who ranks inside the top 100, being a massive win for the Sooners over LSU.

There is still plenty of time until National Signing Day but for now, maybe not the most eye-popping numbers. Nagy is going to trust his evaluations though, hoping to find guys who are one day success stories of making it into the NFL.

“When you look at National Football League rosters and look back into their high school backgrounds, that league is littered with two and three-star players,” Nagy said. “So, they’re out there. Again, we need to identify those guys and trust our evaluations.”