| 03 March 2011
I think we take three safeties. One of the slots will be reserved for Florida superstar Travis Blanks, a no-brainer wait for him until you are no longer on his list caliber of player. One of the best safety prospects to come out in recent years. There is enough evidence to believe the Buckeyes have a shot for me to keep him on the list. He seemed very excited to hear Stan Drayton was now a Buckeye coach. He had the Buckeyes high on his list before learning that. Deon Bush is another Florida safety and he is almost as good and early reports have him high on the Buckeyes. As good as the Ohio safeties are they are not as good as Blanks and Bush. Other than an offer to Glenvilles Devon Bogard the Buckeyes have not offered an Ohio safety. If I could have any safeties I would take Blanks and Bush. One would be a coup. Both would be one of the all-time great recruiting efforts by Jim Tressel and staff so lets look at the backup plan.
You have to assume the Buckeyes are in good shape with Bogard. I have to believe he is going to be a Star. He is an excellent tackler and a big hitter. His read-react-run is elite caliber but I have not seen a single clip of him in coverage. I think Colerain's Andre Jones is the best all-around safety in the class. He is an impact player at free safety, strong safety or the Star. He would be my pick because of that versatility. I would take Troy's Marcus Foster. I want Bam Bradley but the fear he is going to outgrow safety makes me shy away. We need to get safeties in here. If you want a pure free safety I would look at Buchtel's Jarrod Wilson and Upper Arlington's Frank Epitropoulos, both very hot commodities with Wilson picking up recent offers from Notre Dame, Penn State and Michigan since I broke down the safeties, and Epitropoulos getting Wisconsin and West Virginia.
That takes me to 17. It would be easy to say take the two elite linebackers that the Buckeyes are in good shape with Pennsylvania's Deaysean Rippy and Michigan's James Ross and California gunslinger Shane Dillon. All are players you don't say no to but we don't need linebackers and we don't need a quarterback especially considering the class of 2013 is looking like a quarterback class like this years defensive line class. I think a couple of corners would be a great addition. I see seven corners on the roster with two seniors. Howard made great strides but he is going to be a junior. I see one elite kid in Doran Grant. I recently watched Derjuan Gambrels senior film. I am still not convinced he is a corner. I think he can be a great help at safety and it is not going to hurt to have him prep for a year as a corner.
Detroit Cass Tech corner Terry Richardson reminds me a great deal of Doran Grant. He said he was blown away on his visit to Ohio State but the smart money says he stays home. The perfect compliment to Richardson is Georgia's Geno Smith. Smith is a long-limbed hard hitting bench corner to Richardson's field corner. Both have tremendous ball skills. Smith is thin but has the frame to fill out to 190. Pulling out of state players is much more difficult than fans want to believe it is so this is the ideal scenario. The player to watch in Ohio is Glenville's V'angelo Bentley. He was mostly a running back last year but he has the feet and hips to be a good corner. We will get a better look next season as he will be primarily a corner. He is a strong and sturdily built 5-9 180 with long arms who reads the game very well. As an offensive player he shows the ability to change direction on a dime something that will serve him well as a corner in college and great balance. He never shies away from contact. Any two of these three would fill my corner wish list.
That leaves me with one spot. What I want to do is go back and get another defensive lineman or wait on Dillon, Rippy or Ross but we may have to commit this last scholarship to the kicking game. I think it is too early to give up on Ben Buchanan. He is making a transition. He was a solid high school punter but what made him a Buckeye offer kid was his strong leg as a place kicker. You will notice you never see players who are both kickers and punters. Jim Tressel has been known to say the punt is the most important play in football. It stands to reason he is going to want his best leg to be punting the ball for him. At the end of the year we may be in position to push hard for one of the elite national kids on the Buckeye want list or we might see a punter sending in his LOI on signing day. What Buchanan does this season will tell that tale.
I do not see another back in the class even Rushel Shell, a back many consider the top back in the country. First, there is no real need for a back at Ohio State. The depth chart is young and deep. Warren Ball and Brionte Dunn are players you don't say no to. That is why they have offers. I have seen Shell. He is as good as any back in the country but so are Ball and Dunn. The only back I have seen this year who might be better is Barry Sanders jr. Maybe. Ball and Dunn are great backs.
There is my 20. It is not a definite list but it is awful early in the process to narrow things down to a solid 20. I will give it another go after camp where we could see some players show they belong on this list and others give us a clearly idea as to where they might spend the next four to five years, or where they definitely will not be spending the next four to five years.
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