There is much chatter about an offer to Glenville athlete Andre Sturdivant. I have mixed feelings about an offer to Sturdivant. I see a body that does not fit any of the positions he projects to but the kid makes plays. I have mentioned that I have seen four Glenville games and Aundray Walker has not stood out to me in any of those games. Sturdivant is another matter. He has stood out in every one. He makes plays. Whether the physical limitations will keep him from being the same kind of impact player in college remains to be seen. He is a high school Mike but last official measurement was 249 pounds. One report has him at 260. Either way he is not going to be a college Mike. He will move down to the line in college. Most of the time the progression is linebacker to rush end to strong end to three-technique. I no comments
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?"
no commentsIn a move that surprised many, Florida defensive back Jeremy Cash committed to the Buckeyes.
Back in January there was so much chatter that he was going to commit right after signing day. After a long wait, Cash started to receive some big time offers. Some speculated that the good ship Cash had sailed. Others were adamant that he was going to be a Buckeye. I had no insight on his recruitment but as a player I had no opininion. This video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6-W5zwwjfw was the one I had seen. I have mentioned before that field level video is the worst for trying to make evaluations. On the plus side, his offer list was very impressive. This video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAJuxJVwceA is where you see what the fuss is about. This is an elite safety no comments
Santonio Holmes has his issues. I am disappointed that the team lost a great receiver. I am disappointed that a former Buckeye has conducted himself in a way that has made the team feel like they had to part ways with him. I hope he gets his act together. That situation pales in comparison to what is going on with Ben Roethlisberger. I am having a very hard time with the accusations against him. I know some will argue that he has not been convicted or anything. He has not even been prosecuted for anything. I ask those that would defend no comments
Spring practice has been my focus so it took me longer to get to this than I intended.
Need is where recruiting starts. The staff has done a great job of stocking the depth chart but there are always needs.
It seems every year I start this list talking about offensive line. I think we have already stocked most of the needs by picking up four quality inside linemen already. The one area that has not been addressed yet is left tackle. I don't care if Adams blossoms into an All-American and possible early entry player or not. He is a junior. We get him for two more seasons and that is it. Andy Miller will be a senior. We need to add a left tackle now. I hope no comments
It is becoming clear where the staff has decided it needs to focus its recruiting efforts for the class of 2011.
I am happy to see that the staff has accepted that they have not done a great job bringing in safeties. This year we are borrowing from other positions because we have not done a good job with our safety evaluations. Nate Oliver is a name we never hear anymore. Some argued with me about Damicone. He is reportedly alternatiing between the second and third team. We need to get some safeties in here and the staff is blanketing the country to find the best of the best. W have a nice collection of safeties here in Ohio. We have an offer out to Ron Tanner in state. We have eight offers out to Florida kids, some could be corners but most are safeties. We have fully 15 offers out across the country to defensive backs. I would say at no comments
Poster asks: "Overall impression on the Big commits so far?"
I am at peace with it. Last year we had more tackle bodies. We went after the big fish nationally and came up empty with the exception of Norwell. Now here we are. It is not such a bad situation. We need another left tackle, I would say two, and we need guards. Right tackle is solid with Shugarts and Hall battling for the starting right tackle spot and Norwell coming in. There are no left tackles in Ohio. There are some very nice guards. I am a firm believer in moving down players. I would only recruit tackles and centers. Those that no comments
This was my comment to Mark Porter on January 18th after I saw the full Tommy Brown film. We were discussing the level of competition he has faced:
<<<That is why we can't get too excited but when I see a kid that is that trim at 300 lbs and can run like that, I get a little excited. He is throwing people around. Look at the punch he gets. He has no clue about how to use his lower body. He is a little stiff. I think he is a better DT right now by far. He is raw potential.<<<
I first break down players by position. I had Tommy Brown in my defensive linemen no comments
I am not going to say I saved the best for last but you have to like the look of the defensive backs available in the state this year. The staff seems to be going hard after defensive backs. There are a number of out of state offers, Jeremy Cash from Florida being the one fans are most familiar with, but there are several others. I think the number of offers out there gives us some idea that the staff could come back in on some of the top instate kids.
I have been hinting around that Doran Grant will not be my top defensive back in the state of Ohio. Some of you have guessed who my top defensive back is. The most impressive I have seen is Dayton Dunbar athlete Roger Williamson. He is bigger, 6-1 and about 190, and much no comments
How you rate the class of 2011 linebackers depends on how you see the position. I see the hybrid position, called the Star in the Ohio State scheme, to be an very important position and I see it as a linebacker position. With that in mind I am high on this class. If you see the position as more a safety position then this class is still an underrated one.
Trey DePriest is the clear number one. When you have a coach like Nick Saban coming all this way to over an Ohio linebacker this early, that says it all. What I like most about him is he is getting better all the time. I was not covinced about DePriest early on. I always thought he was nice but I needed to see more. His junior tape gave me just that. It gave me more than more. It gave me all I needed. I can only put a handful of linebackers in my time in the same conversation with DePriest. I would put Jordan Hicks and Andy Katzenmoyer at the t no comments
