Oklahoma Sooners

#BlueChipBattles : RecruitingNation summoned its writers from around the country to outline the recruiting battles for the ESPN 150's top 10 prospects.

Plus, rank the battles in SportsNation.

#TopFBMixtapes: Athlete mixtapes are all the rage in this highlight-crazed era of sports. We reached out to our Twitter followers to find out which 2014 football stars had the best highlight reels on YouTube, then had our staff rank and comment on the top submissions.

Tom Luginbill writes : After talking to many coaches across the country and hearing their frustrations, here are their five biggest complaints about homemade highlight videos.

Oklahoma got its man with the hiring of former Michigan assistant coach Jerry Montgomery to replace defensive tackles coach Jackie Shipp. Montgomery is known as a young coach with lots of energy and the ability to recruit.

WolverineNation recruiting writer Tom VanHaaren took some time to answer some questions about Montgomery for SoonerNation.

SN: What is Montgomery's reputation as a recruiter among the recruits you talk with?

VanHaaren: He's a younger guy, so he related really well with recruits. He provided a little bit of energy for Michigan with his youth and that was something that resonated with the recruits. He's very personable and got along very well with moms and dads, too, which is important. He has good connections and the new relationships he built, he built them quickly. A lot of people found it easy to trust him.

SN: Who's the best player he landed during his time?

VanHaaren: He had a hand in landing running back Derrick Green, who was the No. 5-ranked running back in 2013. He has also had a big part in recruiting 2014 defensive end Da'Shawn Hand from Virginia. Hand was ESPN's junior of the year and is going to be one of the top prospects in this class.

SN: What's one example of Montgomery's recruiting ability, i.e. when he landed someone or turned someone unexpected?

VanHaaren: Probably landing Derrick Green. There were a few aspects of Green's recruitment that helped Michigan, but early on it looked like Michigan had no chance.

SN: In what regions of the country does he excel?

VanHaaren: He mainly covered the south for Michigan, but had a hand in a lot of different areas. He landed a really big defensive tackle out of Utah for 2014, Bryan Mone. He mainly recruited Virginia, Georgia, Florida, the Carolinas.

SN: If you had to use three words to describe his recruiting style, which three would you choose?

VanHaaren: Tenacious, enthusiastic, genuine.

NORMAN, Okla. -- Well before an official announcement welcoming him to the Sooners’ coaching staff, Jerry Montgomery was stumping on the recruiting trail, pitching Oklahoma to some of the top defensive line prospects in the Class of 2014.

With his latest hire, which the school finally announced Tuesday, head coach Bob Stoops showed again he’s hoping to bring better players up front to Norman. And he’s hoping that Montgomery -- and new offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh -- will be the ones who can close the deal on blue-chip line prospects the Sooners have come up short on in recent years.

Montgomery knows how to make a good first impression.

Not long after he accepted Stoops’ offer, Montgomery was on the phone with ESPN Watch List defensive ends Da'Shawn Hand (Woodbridge, Va./Woodbridge) and Andrew Williams (McDonough, Ga./Eagles Landing Christian Academy) and talking to them about Oklahoma.

Landing players the caliber of Hand and Williams won’t come easy. They have impressive offer sheets, both holding offers from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Ohio State and USC. Yet to become nationally relevant past October once again, signing such line blue-chippers is almost a requirement.

The Sooners got by last year up front as they shared a Big 12 title. But against the likes of Notre Dame and Texas A&M, the Sooners were exposed for what they have been: a finesse team ill-equipped of playing dominant, championship-caliber football in the trenches.

That trend was going the wrong way, too, as OU whiffed on almost all of its top offensive and defensive tackle targets in the 2013 recruiting class.

Stoops is banking that Montgomery will help reverse the trend. At Michigan, he quickly gained a reputation as one of the Wolverines’ most prolific recruiters. Montgomery had a hand in Michigan landing all three of its 2014 commitments, and he had already developed relationships with some of the nation’s top rising high school seniors such as Hand and Williams.

Montgomery arrives in Norman not a day too soon, either. Over the weekend, OU already lost out on two of its top defensive tackle targets for 2014 as Zaycoven Henderson (Longview, Texas/Longview) committed to TCU while Tashon Smallwood (Fresno, Calif./Central) chose USC.

Sooners fans are clamoring for those days to be at an end. And that with Montgomery on board, the school of Lee Roy Selmon and Tony Casillas and Gerald McCoy will become a bastion of championship line play again.