| 20 April 2010
Safety recruiting has left me scratching my head over the years with this staff. Other than the offensive line, it has been the position where the most glaring misses have occurred. If not for some corners moving over to safety, Donte Whitner and Kurt Coleman were recruited to play corner here, and I will throw Eugene Clifford in here as well since he was recruited to play corner, we have not seen great safety play and it goes back to decisions made in recruiting. Before we get into a discussion about the safety position here, eliminate the players who came here to play a different position, players identified by the staff as corners, who ended up playing safety. Now add in the ones benched. What other position has seen as many players sat down for lack of performance than at safety? In the last couple of years we have seen Nick Patterson, Jamario O'Neal and last year with Anderson Russell, get benched. Ohio State players do not get benched. Someone better comes along. That is the nature of great programs that get great players. It is not an impressive list of prospects we have recruited at safety over the years, and it has shown on the field.
That is all just background. I want to talk about now. The last two years have seen a great change in philosophy. We are seeing the staff go after the best in the country. Look at last year with Josh Shaw and LaMarcus Joyner. The Buckeyes don't go into California much but went after Shaw hard. We even took a shot at a player that was throwing up red flags in Latwan Anderson. This year we are seeing another effort to land the difference makers and the results are a commitment from a really great prospect in Jeremy Cash and we have a Spring game visit with sure top 100 player Wayne Lyons from legendary Ft. Lauderdale Dilliard who has the most impressive offer list you will ever see, and leaps out of his film at you. We have a new offer to a safety from Pennsylvania named Dondi Kirby. I have not seen film but he has impressive measurables and comes from Monroeville Gateway, a school the Buckeyes have recruited well recently. Another offer that is out that keeps getting overlooked is Mike Caputo from Pennsylvania. He is a fine player but plays the same position as Cash so we have not heard as much from him and likely now we won't with the commitment of Cash. That does not include the three Florida State verbals and the two Alabama verbals that the Buckeyes had offers out to.
This is the kind of aggressiveness that will change the position at Ohio State. No more looking at the offer list at safety and saying, "who?"
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