Ask A Question

Have a question? Send it in! It may be featured on one of our posts.

Click Here to Ask

Latest Forum Posts

tOSU Mens Basketball
by Kasino Royale 2009/12/24 16:10
JT Should stay until he has a losing season
by JTFANGoVols 2009/11/29 16:19
Re:2011 Glenville Prospects
by Duane Long 2009/11/10 21:17
Re:My plan/thoughts for the offense moving forward
by Kasino Royale 2009/10/26 20:06
Re:2011 Glenville Prospects
by Cassidy28 2009/10/26 13:49

Blog Roll

Syndication
Finishing out the class
Written by Duane Long   
Wednesday, 20 January 2010 13:29

MurrDawg on Bucknuts asked me about how I thought the Buckeyes would fill out this class. He has seen it somewhere that we have three scholarships left and there are five players out there that nobody would say not to, Jordan Hicks, Seantrell Henderson, Christian Bryant, Dominique Brown and Matt James. I would add a sixth player. There is news that coach Tressel has had an in-home with 2009 class super OL prospect Morgan Moses who ended up at Fork Union last year.. JT is not going to do an in-home with a player who is not going to qualify.

I think we can forget about James. Despite James saying Ohio State leads, we were his first visit. He will see Notre Dame. That is where it falls apart. He has family connections to Cincinnati. His dad played there. Brian Kelly bought that school national recognition and made it a place where an elite athlete would consider. I assumed that the son of an alum would not be really happy with Kelly. Once he scheduled a visit there, I knew that was not the case. I can't see him anywhere but Notre Dame.

All the news on Hicks and Henderson is trending the Buckeyes way. We are benefiting from instability with other schools. I don't know of anyone who thinks Hicks is going to Florida anymore. A month ago Florida was the team to beat. Charlie Strong left then we had this bizarre situation with Urban Meyer. The word I get is once Strong left Hicks was already on his way to reconsidering. Most thought it was Ohio State and USC for Henderson with USC likely the leader. That has changed with Pete Carrol leaving the program not to mention a guy like Lane Kiffin coming in. I think the smart money is on those two coming this way. Bryant was always coming this way. He is a Glenville kid and there is need for another safety in this class.

Brown is deciding whether he wants to play quarterback or play at Ohio State. The Buckeyes rightly did not even mess around with the quarterback issue. The offer is as a receiver. If he wants to play quarterback he has to go somewhere else. Love the athlete. Not so impressed with the quarterback.

I did not put this post up so much to talk about what remains so much as to look at what this all means. There is an argument that the late offer to Brown and what looks to be an offer to Morgan Moses means the Buckeyes are not so sure about Hicks, Henderson, Bryant and/or James. That is a solid argument, especially since Brown and Moses are possibly going to go until after signing day to make a decision. I think that a better argument is we have more scholarships than we know about. Bryant has always been a heavy Buckeye lean and Brown could decide at any moment to choose the Buckeyes. He really wants Ohio State. He is not denying that. That means the two we have sitting out there that we know about are gone if both commit. We are not going to wait on Henderson and Hicks if we only have one left  to offer after Bryant and Brown? I doubt anyone believes that. Especially when it looks like we lead for both. Why is Jim Tressel taking a late in-home with Moses if he does not have a scholarship for him?

Don't ask me where we are getting them. Maybe we are about to hear that someone is giving up their fifth year. Maybe we are about to hear that someone is taking a medical waiver. I don't know. I do know it looks to me like we have more to offer than we thought we did.


EDIT: Another thought is maybe this could be first come first served but that does not account for the two big prizes left likely holding off until signing day, and the possibility that Browns desire to be a Buckeye outweighs his desire to be a quarterback, or someone gets to him and shows him what kind of money receivers make in the NFL, and the number of option quarterbacks currently drawing a paycheck in the NFL. It could very well be what is going on but I still think that we have more scholarships than we think.


Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites
Digg! Reddit! Facebook! Technorati! StumbleUpon! BallHype: hype it up!
Comments (11)Add Comment
...
written by flbuckeyebob, January 20, 2010
and there is the in home with C Green...
...
written by rwkosu72, January 20, 2010
If Bryant wants to play QB, he isn't going to do that at UNC either. If Brown wants to play QB, Ga. tech has got the offense tailored to him. I would take Morgan or Chaz Green over James anyway, so let him go to ND. Hicks appears to be a great athlete, but is he going to wait to see the fiels here. Texas doesn't have the depth at linebacker OSU has. Henderson is the one MUST HAVE remaining
Man I hope you're right Duane
written by JarheadBuck, January 20, 2010
I sure hope you are right.

Frankly, I'd like to have them, but I'm not really concerned about Bryant or Brown at this point. I expect Bryant to come and Brown would be nice, but he isn't truly a NEED. Miss on either kid and we can cobble together a good backup plan.

Where I'm scared chitless is OL. As Bob pointed out above, you forgot to mention Tress' Chaz Green in-home. I can't shake the feeling that the very, very late love for both Green and Morgan means the staff believes they'll lose both Henderson and James.

I'd love to believe that Tress, Bollman and Peterson have come to their senses on OL recruiting (meaning they decide to take 3-4 in this class). However, I truly don't believe the staff has suddenly woken-up at the end of the '10 class. I think it much more likely they still only want 2 OL...and now thinking they'll lose both Henderson and James they are scrambling. (BTW, if we hear Chris Long's name again in the next week or two, I'd say that is absolute confirmation of my fear.)

A 1 OL class in '10 is catastrophic. A 2 OL class for '10 is only marginally better. A 3 OL class has us treading water. So I hope to hell you're right and we're lookikng to take 3 or even 4 good OL in this class.

Truthfully, a 1-2 OL '10 class won't hurt us bad in the '10 season. It's the '11 season, when we will have lost 6 OL including 2 starters...and that assumes NO early exits after '10. Plus the '11 class is going to be a weak recruiting year for OL. Those 2 facts together could put us in a world of hurt on the OL for years to come.

Since I can't hope for us NOT to win a NC in '10 (just to prevent early exits to NFL), I'm going to just pray you're right and Tress has finally gotten OL recruiting religion.
...
written by fish-61, January 20, 2010
I also saw where the number is three left at the moment. The thing to consider with that number is that also includes Moeller. Who knows if he is ever able to play again.

I know Taurian Washington is still enrolled but maybe he is only going to be here for the spring and leave later. He still has a redshirt so maybe he plays spring ball and then transfers.

If both of these happen then that puts the number at 5.

Brown's offer could be due to the fact that Thomas left and if Washington leaves that could have tipped the scales.
...
written by edbuck51, January 20, 2010
Keep thinking Hyde goes against last year's class. Am I missing something there?

Think you are correct about more spots, and even though they've never done it, it might be a year to oversign one or two if that whole group wants to come this way. Can't believe that between signing day, and the opening of fall camp, one or two spots might not open up for tons of reasons including academics, weed, transfer and injury. I think we all can attach at least two names to any of those categories who could be out come the end of July.
...
written by JarheadBuck, January 20, 2010
"Keep thinking Hyde goes against last year's class. Am I missing something there?"

Forget about which class Hyde counts against. It's not the 25/class that is the issue. It is the 85 overall on schollie that has us pinched.

We've got 18 Seniors-to-be (assuming Gibson gone and Moeller back), 15 juniors-to be (with Flash gone), 33 Soph and Redshirt-Frosh-to-be (which includes Hyde). That means we've got 20 schollies to give for the '10 class max. We've got 16 commitments already for the '10 class.

That leaves 4 available schollies left...BUT remember that Tress has been awarding at least 1 per season to deserving walk-ons. I think that is where the 3 open slots number comes from (4-1=3). Of course, Tress may not award one to a walk-on this year. However, that seems contrary to his personality and plan for giving walk-ons incentive to stick with it and contribute.
That leaves 4 available schollies left...BUT remember that Tress has been awarding at least 1 per season to deserving walk-ons.
written by RobS, January 20, 2010
The key to this one has been though that if the walk on cracks the two deep for the final roster heading into the season. With so many Soph, Jr and Sr back next year and the numbers that we have at most every position it is very likely that one may not receive that schollie this year...unless of course another player transfers or gets booted.

I think since Moses will commit somewhere after LOID Tress has the leverage to say that if we have an open schollie or one randomly opens up due to grades (cough..Duron..cough) that he can promise that spot to Moses. If we do get Moses I think that we can thank Hyde for that one.
...
written by Francis, January 20, 2010
I don't think taking a 3-4 man combination of Henderson/James/Green/Moses would signify Tressel's "getting religion". If you have the spots available and you're stocked at other positions like we are, it's a no-brainer to take all four. Lack of OL recruiting numbers has been our biggest problem as a program under Tress/Bollman but I've never believed the staff is so detached as to think that we only need 2 OLs in this class. I think they've probably always been looking for 3 this year, 4 in the best case scenario, scholarship-wise. I would like to think that those years we only took 1 or 2 guys had a little less to do with the wrong-headed "low numbers" philosophy than we think. Maybe we just couldn't land the players. So I lean toward the more-scholarships-than-we-know-about theory.

Also, the pursuit of Brown might have to do with the uncertainty about James Louis.
...
written by iu fan, January 20, 2010
Regarding Matt James' upcoming visit to ND, I take the opposite view. Have you been to South Bend in January? It's like Akron...but the weather is worse and the people are fatter.
Get past it !
written by pussysoprano, January 21, 2010
OL numbers debate continues every year. ITs not news ..they have different philosophy on the numbers of scholarship OL. It makes sense when they get the right people.

ANyways - I thought Duane promised Buckeye Nation that Boles was retiring this year and if he didn't he would jump in Mirror Lake with a speedo.
Moses News
written by njbuck, January 22, 2010
I was browsing the net and found 11warriors did a Morgan Moses interview posted this morning. Seems like he's definitely interested, just not sure if we're going to have room for this guy. Good to know him and Hyde have hit it off. Here's the link: http://www.elevenwarriors.com/...umbus.html

Write comment

busy
< Prev   Next >
 

DLR Newsletter

Sign up for The Duane Long Report Newsletter and you'll receive an email alert of all our new posts.







Buckeyevision

Buckeyevision will return shortly.

About Bloguin

Bloguin is the revolutionary blog network specifically focused on helping bloggers get the most out of their websites. We're currently working on building a large network of online communities and hope to expand our blogging coverage to include a wide range of topics.

Advertisers

The Bloguin Network allows advertisers to promote their products and services to our ever-growing number of visitors. We offer both site-specific ad placements as well as the ability to run a network-wide campaign. If you're interested in working with Bloguin to meet your advertising needs, please contact us.

Bloggers Wanted

The Bloguin Network is always looking to expand. We're specifically looking for blogs in the sports, entertainment, and video games field, but are open to adding any type of quality site.. If you're a blogger and interested in joining our network, please fill out our application form.

The Bloguin Login

The Bloguin Login gives you full access to everything our network has to offer. Your name and password will work for each and every one of our sites. Signing up is simple, and will allow you to post in all our forums, create member blogs, and access other cool features! What are you waiting for? Create an Account!