Our Honor Defend

Height: 6′6
Weight: 223lbs
Forty: 4.46 sec
Vertical: 32 inches
Shuttle: 4.37 sec
GPA: 3.4
Early Enrollee: March

Jake Stoneburner became the 4th member of the recruiting class on March 26, 2007, when he committed to the Buckeyes. In the first installment of this 19 (or 20) part series leading up to the 2008 season, I look into the recruitment of Jake Stoneburner and take a very uneducated guess at where he fits with the Buckeyes.

His Recruitment: Tim Beckman, the since-departed secondary coach for the Buckeyes turn defensive coordinator for the other OSU in Stillwater, did some initial scouting on Stoneburner (and presumably, the other stars of his Coffman team like Fairchild and Adams) early in Stoneburner’s junior year. An offer from the Buckeyes would come on the Wednesday (Feb 28) after his visit on the weekend of February 24-25. By that time, Maryland, Nebraska, Michigan, Pitt, Penn State, Okie State (the Beckman connection), Notre Dame and Iowa, among others I’m sure, had offered. Notre Dame and Ohio State garnered the most attention from Stoneburner, though I think Ohio State was at or near the top of his interest notwithstanding the late offer. Florida offered on March 5. USC followed with an offer on March 14. The Florida offer immediately put the Gators near the top of his list, though behind the Buckeyes. Stoneburner was always intent on deciding by the spring of his junior year so he could focus more on winning a state title at Coffman, though the Shamrocks would bow out to eventual state champions Saint Xavier in the semis.

His Commitment: Stoneburner pulled the trigger for the Buckeyes on March 26 as the 4th member of the class and the second of his high school to join the Bucks. Notwithstanding having the honor of following Mike Adams — who in his spare time tramples whole villages into a fine powder to mix into the raw eggs he drinks for breakfast — to Ohio State, Stoneburner says Adams’ decision just 16 days earlier to play for the Buckeyes had no impact on his decision:

“Mike and I are pretty good friends, but his decision (made earlier this month) had nothing to do with mine,” Stoneburner said. “I’ve always been a Buckeye.”

Curiously enough, the same Dispatch article also notes Stoneburner would’ve committed much earlier if only Tressel were reachable:

Jake Stoneburner had big news: He was ready to commit to the Ohio State football recruiting class of 2008. But he had to sit on the fact for a week, he said, until OSU coach Jim Tressel returned from a short vacation.

And my mom wants to know where Tressel finds the time to relax and take a breather. Apparently it’s the time when Stoneburner wants to commit.

WR, not TE: For whatever reason, there still appears to be a lot of confusion/debate regarding where Stoneburner projects at the next level. Rivals.com, for example, notes that he is the 3rd best TE prospect, is no. 4 among TEs for hands and athletic skills and is the no. 1 for speed at the position. Also for whatever reason, he lined up at TE in the Army All-American Game though saw no real action¹.

Yet Stoneburner and Darrell Hazel swear that there will be no lining up at tight end in Stoneburner’s future, even though I’m guessing it was bit of a process to get coaches to relent to him being a wideout. Apparently, early into his 2007 recruiting, only Michigan and Cincinnati were telling him they were recruiting him to be wideout. Coaches, though, have told Stoneburner they expect him to be within a certain range in order to keep his position as a wide receiver.

“One of the reasons I chose Ohio State was because they reassured me that as long as I don’t get over 235 or 240 and keep my 40 times where they are, I’ll fit perfectly fine as a receiver,” he said. “To be honest, I view myself as a receiver. Tight end isn’t for me.”

Measurement Problem: I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: College football is rife with the measurement problem, i.e, how can we quantify anything faithfully in this game and do so without error. Only tangentially related to such a measurement problem is some confusion regarding what we think are Stoneburner’s height, weight and just exactly how fast he is. Bucknuts.com reports 6′5, 215 4.53, which I know for a fact comes from the Junior combine in San Antonio. 4.53 is remarkable for that height and weight, but it’s even more remarkable considering he ran that 4.53 outside in San Antonio in adverse conditions (wet, a little windy). At the Pitt combine, he clocked in at an obscene 4.46, which approximates what Rivals.com says he runs (probably what Rivals.com is referring to), and it’s what I use at the beginning of the post. This might also be the basis for listing him at 6′6 and 223lbs, as Rivals also does. Early into his recruiting, he was listed at 6′4 190, which may or may not be sophomore measurements (I don’t know). One truism about Stoneburner over the past few years is that he’s been getting bigger, faster, and stronger, and might top out at 240 for all we know by time he’s a senior.

Yet, whatever the measurement is, one thing is true about Stoneburner: he has WR speed in a TE body, and it’s rare that you can find someone that can carry his frame that fast.

Bubble Screens: A foreword, first. Highlight films are, obviously, prone to a selection bias. Indeed, no such highlight film of Stoneburner would show him wanging would-be catches or fumbling, because, if it did, it would be called a lowlight film for obvious reasons. In my honest opinion, I think the WR highlight packages are most prone to this selection bias since they’re usually centred around home run plays, deep routes, and often times, because the camera focuses on the line/QB, you don’t get to see the route the receiver runs, just him going deep. Ergo, I don’t know how well he runs a route and after a while, I kind of tuned out with all the home run balls he caught (and I’ve seen a few Stoneburner highlight films by now too, including more balanced Dublin Coffman game footage).

Yet, I can’t figure this one out.

Watch any highlight film of Stoneburner and you’ll see one curious play that Dublin Coffman apparently ran ad nauseum against hapless competition: the bubble screen. I really don’t know what to make of it and hope someone out there that follows Dublin Coffman football can key me in. Bubble screens are usually run to your smaller, speedster types, what I’m guessing Trey Fairchild was to that team. Of course, Stoneburner is no smurf. So what I can’t figure out is if A) Coffman ran that play simply as a method of easily getting the ball in the hands of their best ballcarrier for such a utilitarian purpose or B) there is really something about Stoneburner running that play that really works and translates to the next level. Whatever the purpose, the play worked beautifully. Stoneburner has the speed to pull that off and what made it work even better was defenders badly guessing how fast he was, taking poor angles, and trying to tackle some guy could easily truck right past them. I’m guessing Darrell Hazell took notes and we might see that one a lot in the near future.

Must Work On: Wouldn’t know, but that’s because, of course, highlight films are clearly biased. I don’t know how efficient of a route runner he is. For what it’s worth, Scout.com says needs to work on run blocking. Indeed, there is no such highlight I’ve seen of Stoneburner run blocking, and even then, I’m usually staring at Mike Adams on such plays anyways.

Where He Will Excel: With such size and speed, I’d hate it if we don’t establish him in the middle of the field and really stretch a defense out. I can understand not putting him at TE especially when the thought of a 5′10 DB covering him would make the average Buckeye so giddy. Still, I hope to see some post routes in his future. Will be particularly awesome in goal line situations and might very well be the go-to receiver on goal line passes. Of course, I’m no Tressel and company, and I trust they’ll use him in the best way conceivable.

Redshirt?: Lantern says yes (with their obvious football insight..), Kurelic says no. There is something of a logjam at the position, especially with Posey and Thomas coming in, leading The Lantern — football analysts par excellence — to suggest that his lack of special teams prowess means he should redshirt. Kurelic thinks Stoneburner can see the field right away; Stoneburner made immediate playing time an important component of his recruitment and OSU is excellent at finding a rotation for players. Enrolling early is also a pretty good indicator of a kid’s intent to say no to a redshirt.

You Might Remember Me From Such College Greats As: I’ve seen Stoneburner’s name correlated with a wide variety of players. The Dallas Clark/Ben Utecht analogies were the first to come forward when people were thinking Stoneburner would be a TE. As word made way Stoneburner was, in fact, a wideout and always has been, the comparisons usually centred around the following: Travis Beckum (as a split end), Michael Jenkins (of Buckeye fame), Joe Jurevicius (current Brownie, former Nittany Lion), Dwayne Jarrett (of USC fame), and Cornelius Ingram (recent Florida Gator). From everything I’ve watched, the Jurevicius and Jarrett comparisons seem most appropriate to adequately understand how his size and speed will translate, but it’s not the one I keep thinking of when I see Stoneburner’s highlights. Jeff Samardzija, of recent Notre Dame fame, also came to mind since he too was a speedy wideout with great strides, great hands (Hazell loves Stoneburner’s soft hands), difficult to tackle and an instant matchup problem wherever he was on the field. Stoneburner, though, has the added advantage of being bigger and faster coming in than Samardzija.

Miscellany: HS team made it to the semis, before losing to eventual champions St. Xavier… was hosted by Ryan Mallett when he and Adams went on a visit to Michigan²… 1st Team All Ohio WR by both AP and ONN… Army All-American… was recruiting players to Ohio State even before he had a scholarship offer… Very good friends with Michael Brewster and visited him in Florida while still in HS… recently won the James A. Rhodes Ohio High School Player of The Year Award presented by The Touchdown Club (Tony Fisher was the last non-Buckeye to win the award and did so in 1997).

The Quotable Jake Stoneburner Fluff Piece: Sadly, there’s not a lot, because apparently whenever Stoneburner speaks to the media, he has to tell people he’s not going to be a Tight End. The “I’ve always been a Buckeye” quote was mentioned earlier. I’ll keep my eyes and ears out for more.

Highlights: Several. The Dublin Coffman team was a media maven’s dream with 1-A talent aplenty. In the interest of time, watch this video, complete with Van f’n Halen.

A quick YouTubes search will reveal a lot more. There’s also footage of him on Scouting Ohio if you’re interested.

Jake Stoneburner, consider yourself better known… I guess. I really need to think of a better way to end these posts.

1. you might have figured it out, but All-Star games are no games for tight ends [↩]
2. Stoneburner presumably was the one responsible for stopping Adams from crushing Mallett with his bare hands [↩]