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Chris Petersen Answers The Tuff Questions
DoogCourics
Member Posts: 5,739
From Caple's conversation with him at Media Day.
Some really good fucking questions in this article and some insightful answers by Pete. He clarifies a lot of misunderstandings that have been going on the last few years by national media, as well as UW fans who think they have a fucking clue what an "OKG" is.
You want to know it all, stop being a cheap fuck and donate to the site you spend 82% of your battery life on. Here are some scraps for you pours:
Do you remember when you started using “OKG”?
I know it was when I first took over (at Boise State). I know exactly what it came from. It came from OG — the ‘(original) gangsters.’ It was just like, it fit. We wanted it to be something kind of cool, that kids would think, “Oh, I’m a …”, not an OG, but an OKG (Our Kinda Guy). And then, like I said, I almost kind of got away from it because the fans and people just didn’t know what it was. It just took on this connotation, just like these almost goody two-shoes kids that came from a certain area, and it wasn’t that at all.
We came over here and it was like, “You can’t recruit OKGs; that’s not going to work here.” And I was like, “What are you talking about? Do you even know what an OKG is? You don’t.”
First of all, we have a checklist we’re checking for, and I’ll never say what that is. Because we’re looking for something specific. A couple of them are tangible, a few are intangible, and we’re trying to get to the bottom of what does this thing look like? But generally speaking, it’s a big-time player. If not, it’s over. You’re not an OKG. And then the dude is a great teammate and an awesome person. It fits that. It’s that vibe. That’s generally what an OKG is.
Do you think you’re still fighting that perception problem, that it’s just Boy Scouts?
I think some people try to use it negatively. There are some places that do. When the kids and parents come and see what this whole — and I’ve probably said it more here today, in the last day or so, than I’ve said it in a long time. I don’t want to get into these cute recruiting things, like we call them this or that. It’s just really some language that we use within ourselves, so it just kind of comes out. Really, it comes down to are they the fit that we’re looking for, holistically? And I don’t care where they come from.
There have been some rumors that it gets labeled as elitist. What’s your take on that?
Right. Look at the kids we’ve recruited. Look at who the OKGs are. Look where they’ve come from. What are you talking about? So it’s just negative. Look at the kids! That’s elitist? It makes no sense. So it’s just negative. That’s what I’m saying.
When a recruit is committed to another school, to what degree are you comfortable recruiting him? What contact needs to take place for you to continue talking to him?
For us, when a kid commits to us, we’re telling him, “Now you’re done with this process. You need to let everybody know. Your coach needs to help you, and your parents need to help you because (other schools) are probably going to still be banging on (you). And you need to be firm in this.” So when a kid is firm like that, and if he’s firm long enough, they’re going to back off. He needs help, though. He’s a 17-year-old kid.
So when a kid’s firm (to another school), that’s when we back off. For the most part, if we’re recruiting a kid who commits to wherever, hey, good luck to him, all that kind of stuff. And then we get word, hey, he’s thinking about — he’s not so sure about this anymore. OK, is everybody knowing this, (that) he’s going to go take some trips? It’s going to get out. It’s going to get out if one of our guys takes a trip. Well, you’re not committed to us anymore. I’d say the same thing in reverse.
Like, we’re not going to be calling, “Hey, you need to …” But if a kid is committed somewhere else, then we get word, “Hey, he’s re-thinking this thing.” And then the same thing with us. I would just want the kid to tell us. And I’d also want him to slow down on the front end, which they usually do. That’s why we don’t have a ton of the flip-flopping.
I told you guys this last year after signing day, that I kind of went on this “vulture” thing and all this, and everybody thought it was about one school. I was not talking about them. Everybody thought I was talking about Notre Dame (and four-star recruit Asa Turner, who eventually signed with UW). I was not talking about Notre Dame.
You can see why we would have thought that.
I know that. I know that. But it wasn’t. It was the same couple crews that we deal with all the time. I couldn’t comment on a guy that was not committed, so I couldn’t say. But that wasn’t — that was on him. He was the one who opened that door up. So that’s why I wasn’t talking about that. The other kids were, like, firm, and the other guys were just banging on them still.
Some really good fucking questions in this article and some insightful answers by Pete. He clarifies a lot of misunderstandings that have been going on the last few years by national media, as well as UW fans who think they have a fucking clue what an "OKG" is.
You want to know it all, stop being a cheap fuck and donate to the site you spend 82% of your battery life on. Here are some scraps for you pours:
Do you remember when you started using “OKG”?
I know it was when I first took over (at Boise State). I know exactly what it came from. It came from OG — the ‘(original) gangsters.’ It was just like, it fit. We wanted it to be something kind of cool, that kids would think, “Oh, I’m a …”, not an OG, but an OKG (Our Kinda Guy). And then, like I said, I almost kind of got away from it because the fans and people just didn’t know what it was. It just took on this connotation, just like these almost goody two-shoes kids that came from a certain area, and it wasn’t that at all.
We came over here and it was like, “You can’t recruit OKGs; that’s not going to work here.” And I was like, “What are you talking about? Do you even know what an OKG is? You don’t.”
First of all, we have a checklist we’re checking for, and I’ll never say what that is. Because we’re looking for something specific. A couple of them are tangible, a few are intangible, and we’re trying to get to the bottom of what does this thing look like? But generally speaking, it’s a big-time player. If not, it’s over. You’re not an OKG. And then the dude is a great teammate and an awesome person. It fits that. It’s that vibe. That’s generally what an OKG is.
Do you think you’re still fighting that perception problem, that it’s just Boy Scouts?
I think some people try to use it negatively. There are some places that do. When the kids and parents come and see what this whole — and I’ve probably said it more here today, in the last day or so, than I’ve said it in a long time. I don’t want to get into these cute recruiting things, like we call them this or that. It’s just really some language that we use within ourselves, so it just kind of comes out. Really, it comes down to are they the fit that we’re looking for, holistically? And I don’t care where they come from.
There have been some rumors that it gets labeled as elitist. What’s your take on that?
Right. Look at the kids we’ve recruited. Look at who the OKGs are. Look where they’ve come from. What are you talking about? So it’s just negative. Look at the kids! That’s elitist? It makes no sense. So it’s just negative. That’s what I’m saying.
When a recruit is committed to another school, to what degree are you comfortable recruiting him? What contact needs to take place for you to continue talking to him?
For us, when a kid commits to us, we’re telling him, “Now you’re done with this process. You need to let everybody know. Your coach needs to help you, and your parents need to help you because (other schools) are probably going to still be banging on (you). And you need to be firm in this.” So when a kid is firm like that, and if he’s firm long enough, they’re going to back off. He needs help, though. He’s a 17-year-old kid.
So when a kid’s firm (to another school), that’s when we back off. For the most part, if we’re recruiting a kid who commits to wherever, hey, good luck to him, all that kind of stuff. And then we get word, hey, he’s thinking about — he’s not so sure about this anymore. OK, is everybody knowing this, (that) he’s going to go take some trips? It’s going to get out. It’s going to get out if one of our guys takes a trip. Well, you’re not committed to us anymore. I’d say the same thing in reverse.
Like, we’re not going to be calling, “Hey, you need to …” But if a kid is committed somewhere else, then we get word, “Hey, he’s re-thinking this thing.” And then the same thing with us. I would just want the kid to tell us. And I’d also want him to slow down on the front end, which they usually do. That’s why we don’t have a ton of the flip-flopping.
I told you guys this last year after signing day, that I kind of went on this “vulture” thing and all this, and everybody thought it was about one school. I was not talking about them. Everybody thought I was talking about Notre Dame (and four-star recruit Asa Turner, who eventually signed with UW). I was not talking about Notre Dame.
You can see why we would have thought that.
I know that. I know that. But it wasn’t. It was the same couple crews that we deal with all the time. I couldn’t comment on a guy that was not committed, so I couldn’t say. But that wasn’t — that was on him. He was the one who opened that door up. So that’s why I wasn’t talking about that. The other kids were, like, firm, and the other guys were just banging on them still.
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