Our Honor Defend

Keith is the latest in a long line of Wells to continue their football days at The Ohio State University, choosing the Buckeyes over the Volunteers and a sudden fullcourt press from the Fighting Irish, with whom he took his last visit.

The Gainesville, GA defensive end linebacker monster who is projected to play defensive end at the next level made his decision earlier today before the news of the announcement went public. Readers of the always marvelous Buckeye Commentary can see A) why Wells chose Ohio State and B) why we’re going to like him. The video Keith links to shows a softspoken kid who loves his mother, whose favourite class in high school is chemistry and who is earnestly thinking about majoring in engineering¹. Moreover, the video also shows (at the end) possibly why he chose Jim Tressel and the Bucks. Keith seemingly connected so well with Jim Tressel in their head-to-head meetings and over the telephone where, with most coaches who want to talk about only football, Jim Tressel wants to talk about Georgia weather and academics². Again, Jim Tressel shows you can bring in world-class players with a classy approach.

Of course, Max sent me a link that offers even more insight into why he chose the Bucks over the Irish and the Volunteers.

Asked, for example, what stood out about Ohio State, Wells said, “It’s the way it’s an all-around school. Tennessee is primarily a football school and Notre Dame is primarily an academic school. But Ohio State is known for both.

In the immortal words of Michael Kelso: BURN!!

Of course, I don’t know who that’s a bigger burn on, the Irish for being no longer relevant or the SEC for being glorified football schools.

Either way, we’re really happy here to have Keith Wells on board. I’ve been following this kid’s recruiting for the past month and felt really good about our shot. I can’t speak for Notre Dame’s late entry into the Wells’ sweepstakes, but I always thought it came down to Wells’ special bond with Tressel versus Tennessee’s pressing need at defensive end, where Wells could probably play right away. Evidently the former won.

Moreover, as poster OWUBuckeye51 noted at BuckeyePlanet:

If true…this one is for Ben Martin, Fat Phil. Stay the frick outta our state.

Again, STAY. OUT OF OHIO. Stay out Ohio, Lebowski.

We intend to break down the class for their athletic abilities sometime later, in the meantime, enjoy this Keith Wells clip on the YouTubes which clearly shows an explosive rush end with great body control, lateral movement and who is basically a rabid tackling machine.

1. him saying that then and there made us wet our pants [↩]
2. this is not unlike the Nader Abdallah recruiting as well [↩]