Our Honor Defend

With Spring Quarter now underway for students of THE Ohio State University, I turn my attention to recruits who have just started their college careers at Ohio State (Etienne Sabino, Mike Adams, Andrew Sweat and Jake Stoneburner, whose BKAB feature I already did). In the sixth installment of our 20 part series titled Better Know A Buckeye, I take a look at Etienne Sabino, the no. 1 inside linebacker recruit in the country out Miami, Florida, starting with his recruitment, into his commitment as well as miscellaneous things that come to mind. Surely the story of Zach Domicone’s recruitment was sensational, and will rarely be topped, let alone duplicated, but the commitment of Sabino was just as much of an unexpected surprise as any in recent Buckeye recruiting history.

Height: 6’3
Weight: 228lbs
Forty: 4.6
GPA: 3.0
SAT: 1180
Early Enrollee: Just started.

Of course, what follows is ridiculously long — measuring in at 7 pages single-spaced with .70 inch margins. So I’m breaking the post off here. Click the link to continue.

His Recruitment: Etienne Sabino wasted no time bursting out of the recruiting gates following the end of the 2006-07 recruiting campaign. Still a junior at Miami’s Dr. Krop HS, in late March of 07, Etienne received offers from top programs like Florida, Southern California, Tennessee, and Notre Dame¹ … all within hours of one another. Etienne would describe the moment in Dr. Krop’s student newspaper :

“I was in school and I got taken out early because I had to take my mom to the airport and on the way there I was just talking to all these coaches and my mom almost busting out in tears,” Sabino said. “It was shocking, very shocking.”

More offers would follow, including offers from Georgia, Miami, Georgia Tech and Louisville withing just days of the initial flurry. Ohio State would enter the fray with an offer on Monday April 02. Tons more offers would follow, including offers from LSU, Michigan, Wisky, and Alabama. Naturally, the initial prognosis for Sabino — like Keith Wells aforementioned — was not good. Unlike Keith, however, Ohio State was not the only offer North of the Mason-Dixon Line, and indeed Notre Dame was very high on Sabino’s list. This indicated that there may not be an issue in drawing Sabino out of the South, especially when he just moved from New York City to Miami 5 years earlier. But of course, therein lies the issue: Notre Dame was higher on his list than the Buckeyes from the get go (indeed, most Domer recruitniks thought he was a lock), Sabino expressed early admiration for Butch Davis’ staff at UNC, was intrigued by the local Miami offer as well as the other instate offers, and really liked Jon Tenuta’s style at Georgia Tech. This was likely a token offer from the Buckeyes — an exercise in throwing scholarships against a wall and seeing what sticks — but you just don’t not offer a prospect like Etienne Sabino, certainly not with measurables like his height, speed, and SAT score (I’m serious about the last one too).

His initial top 5 — and indeed the 5 other schools that were the biggest players during Sabino’s recruitment — was comprised of Miami, Florida, UNC, Notre Dame and Southern California. Ohio State was just outside of his initial top 5, but so too was another school that occupied his attention throughout his recruitment: Georgia Tech. He would later say in June that it’s too early for a top 5. Etienne would volunteer some information on what made each school stick out, much of it being common sense. Miami was the local school that he followed when he got to Miami, complete with a legacy of sending defensive players into the NFL, and known for an aggressive reputation on the field² as he would express in his own words. Florida was another instate school, though Sabino wouldn’t volunteer much about them other than how Urban Meyer, John Holliday and Charlie Strong were very interested in him (as was everyone). UNC was an early favourite for Butch Davis’ recruiting staff and the promise of UNC turning their program around in the ACC. Notre Dame thought they had a lock on Sabino for Corwin Brown’s efforts in recruiting Sabino, combined with visits from Charlie Weis, and the promise of playing time as Notre Dame transitions to a 3-4 defense. Georgia Tech is in a nice location in Atlanta, with a defensive coordinator whose style is infectious. Southern California garnered Sabino’s attention for the obvious reasons: it’s a city school and Sabino’s a city kid, it’s glitz and glamour, and the fact that it is an NFL factory with a good academic backbone and a coaching staff that likes to take it easy with its players:

“I also like USC a lot,” Sabino said. “Coach Pete Carroll is a class act and it’s just an NFL factory over there. I like that it’s in Los Angeles and it’s somewhere different. I’m not worried about the distance or anything.”

So how does Ohio State enter? Why would they when all things are considered? Columbus is definitely a city, but in terms of city appeal, it can’t compete with Miami, Atlanta (Georgia Tech), or Los Angeles (SC). Sabino knew about the Buckeye tradition of linebackers, and recognized early on that Ohio State knows how to win, but it’s not clear how this set them apart from Miami or Florida or why he would know about Ohio State in the first place. Etienne Sabino would speak of Jim Tressel in glowing terms, buttressed with rave reviews of Buckeye facilities:

“I toured the campus and saw the facilities,” he said. “The new Woody Hayes Facility is very nice. I was very impressed. The facilities are some of the nicest I’ve seen. I met some of the players too. I met Chris Wells and Thaddeus Gibson.”

Sabino of course also met with Jim Tressel on the visit.

“He’s a real good guy,” Sabino said. “He has very strong morals and family values.”

But this is all after the fact (after his visit and initial interest), and understanding why Sabino would be interested in the first place in a place like Ohio State and not other places like Michigan or Alabama would require additional information. Additional information such as this: Chris Spielman’s dad, Sonny, is an assistant football coach at Miami’s Dr. Krop HS, seen pictured at the right with Etienne at US Army All-American festivities. For those unaware, Sonny Spielman is as militant a Buckeye partisan as I am. Indeed, when his son Chris was going through the recruiting process himself in the 1980s and told his dad that he was interested in playing for Bo Schembechler, Sonny Spielman called his son a traitor and nearly disowned him. Now that’s parentin’. With such enthusiasm for the Buckeyes, the plausible suggestion is that Sabino (and teammates) may have an additional awareness of the Buckeyes through their assistant coach. What further role Sonny Spielman plays in helping Krop players be recruited — such as contacts with Ohio State, sending footage to Ohio State of upcoming players like James Green (since transferred to Tallahassee, but formerly of Krop), or whatever else — is inferred, but ultimately not known.

Unlike any other recruit in any other BKAB segment I’ve done to this point, Sabino took unofficials to just about every place where he even had tangential interest. In April, he took a visit to the research triangle in North Carolina (UNC, NC State, Duke), where he reaffirmed his interest in UNC and Butch Davis’ coaching staff and made UNC his de facto early leader. In one weekend in June, he visited Georgia, Georgia Tech, Tennessee and Auburn… how one kid can afford all that and cram that all into one weekend while either finishing up the school year or starting a summer term (as he did, in order to graduate early) is beyond my explanatory power now. Sabino told the AJC about the visits to the Georgia schools:

“It went good,” Sabino said. “I really liked Georgia Tech. I liked Georgia too. I was impressed with the coaches.”

Sabino appears to be sold on the character of Georgia coach Mark Richt.

“He was a good guy,” Sabino said. “He’s a family guy. And he made it clear to me that he’s not going anywhere anytime soon. He wants to stay at Georgia.”

Georgia Tech coach Chan Gailey told Sabino not to expect 90,000 fans to occupy Bobby Dodd Stadium on game days.

“They were actually in camp [on Saturday] when I got a chance to go to [Gailey’s] office,” Sabino said. “He told me if I’m looking for a big college atmosphere, Georgia Tech is not the place for me. He was very honest with me.”

At least Chan Gailey was honest? Nothing like ACC football, is there…

Anywho, a month would pass, with a return visit to UNC. In late July, Sabino finally made the Midwest rounds, taking unofficials to Notre Dame and Ohio State. Naturally, with the inclination of Sabino being either a Domer or going to some other school in the South, not a lot of people were expecting the Ohio State experience to ultimately matter. It did, however. Sabino would return with positive reviews of the Ohio State experience (aforementioned in the quote about Tressel and facilities) and, while not ready to name them (or anyone) a presumptive favourite, the visit definitely piqued his interest in the Buckeyes and would later behoove him to take an official.

Sabino’s recruitment picked up in late August as he started to think about official visits. By time official visits rolled around, one became a necessity: USC. And why not, it’s a trip to Los Angeles. In the same breath, Sabino expressed an interest in following through with his intent to take an official to Ohio State, ultimately showing up for the Michigan State game. Even more promising for the Buckeyes, a major shock in Sabino’s recruitment took place: Notre Dame was no longer in the running. Two schools in particular thought they had Sabino’s commitment on ice, with Notre Dame being one of them. Yet, Notre Dame was one of the first schools he wrote off completely, and he did so just a month after his unofficial visit there. Sabino would say why in early September:

One school that Sabino used to list as a possible visit is Notre Dame. “I just didn’t think it was the place for me,” he said. “I realized that I couldn’t see myself there.”

Around the same time, Sabino took his visit to USC for the season opener against the Idaho Vandals and came back with good reviews about the experience:

“It was really nice,” said Sabino, Scout.com’s No. 5 middle linebacker. “I love the weather and the people were great. Everyone was so nice. Also, the game was great. I loved the Coliseum. I’ve never been to a stadium like that before and it was packed and full of energy and tradition.”

Yet in the same article, Sabino ends up praising Ohio State, looking forward to an official visit tentatively scheduled for the Wisconsin game, ultimately moved up to the Michigan State game:

“I love the tradition at Ohio State and coach Jim Tressel is great,” he said. “He’s very smart and is kind of like a father figure. He really knows his players and is all about talking about life and being a well rounded person.”

Enthusiasm here picks up among Buckeye recruitniks for obvious reasons now. One school thought to ultimately win over Sabino was one of the first schools to be written off completely. Another school ultimately thought to have a lock on Sabino (Miami) had a not-so-subtle logjam at the position, and was more interested in (and ultimately got) Arthur Brown over Sabino. While Miami was still a factor, the odds are increasing for the Buckeyes. The other instate school — Florida — would end up getting an official visit from Sabino soon after on September 15, but Sabino would say he was less than impressed with the visit, giving the Florida official a 6 out of 10 and saying that he barely spoke to Florida’s coaching staff while in Gainesville. Moreover, while UNC is still a factor, notice how in the Gator Country article that Ohio State is the first school out of his mouth. This was no fluke, as he would continue from hereon out in his recruitment to mention the Buckeyes first among his selection of top choices. Moreover, just days after his Florida visit, Sabino was barely mentioning UNC at all. His top schools as of the first week of October included his two official visits (USC, Florida, the former wasn’t an exceptional visit but still enjoyable while the latter wasn’t enjoyable at all), one proposed visit (Ohio State), and four other school that he wasn’t going to see anymore of (Ga Tech, Miami, LSU, UNC). And this was all with less than one month to go in Sabino’s recruitment, as Etienne decided he wanted to end his recruitment by early November. This could actually happen: the token offer from deep down in the South becoming a Buckeye.

Things would get really interesting for the Buckeyes as October 20th rolled around: the date of Etienne’s official visit to Ohio State for the Sparty game. Moreover, he was bringing a friend you may have heard of: Travis Howard, a stellar cornerback recruit in his own right from the same high school who was also taking an official visit on the same date. Travis Howard was also bringing someone important to the recruiting picture: Mom. Though I don’t want to say too much about Travis Howard because he’ll have his own Better Know A Buckeye feature in due time, but it is pertinent: As we know, Travis Howard and his mom were so blown away by everything that they wanted to waste no more time in the recruiting process. After the visit, and after some reaffirmation from Mom, Travis Howard gave Luke Fickell a call about 5 days later to make sure he had an offer and committed as soon as he could. So why would this matter? A few reasons became apparent to me.

First, though there was no absolute guarantee that Travis Howard and Etienne Sabino would be a package deal, there was plenty of good reason to think they could be. They were close friends off the field with only two mutual schools of interest: Georgia Tech and Ohio State, where both had offers and some interest. Travis Howard jumped on the Ohio State offer first, leaving me (admittedly as an unlicensed recruiting non-expert and licensed idiot) to think that with Georgia Tech quickly becoming a longshot for Sabino, the Ramblin’ Wreck had probably just lost out completely on Sabino and Ohio State was in very, very good shape.

Second, with Sabino’s interest basically being between USC and Ohio State, it would seem implausible for me for teammates to go to two different schools from so far out when said schools play each other in marquee matchups for the next two years. Drawing off my experience in Los Angeles and in North Alabama, you could plausibly expect two teammates from Long Beach Polytechnic HS to go to UCLA and USC respectively. You could also imagine two kids from Hoover HS in the Birmingham area going to Auburn and Alabama respectively. However, two teammates from Miami, FL going to Ohio State and USC, who play each other for the next two years, seems like a very unlikely scenario. Not that it is without precedent somewhere, but it just seems unlikely.
Third, even with both things aforementioned having a tenuous at best base for inference, Howard did volunteer this to Bucknuts:

“I wish Etienne well whatever he does,” Howard said. “I don’t know what he is going to do, but I hope he goes to Ohio State. I’ll be talking to him.”

That very same day Howard committed to Ohio State, Sabino laid down the hammer, in the form of dropping all instate schools and leaving his choice formally down to Ohio State and USC. Naturally, this did not go well with Miami’s fanbase, who thought that if surely Notre Dame wasn’t a lock for Sabino, then certainly Miami would be. Again, notice the order by which he talks about his (now two) choices:

“I’ve just always felt good about Ohio State,” Sabino said. “And I had a good trip out to Southern Cal. I have a good feeling about those two schools.”

In early November, Sabino announced his decision would be made November 8th on ESPNU during halftime of the Samford-Tennessee State football game, giving people a reason to watch such a silly football matchup.

Confidence was naturally high. Really high. This one was a lock.

His Commitment: Sure enough, Etienne Sabino donned the Buckeye cap during his announcement, confirming most Buckeye insider expectations. Keith, formerly³ of Buckeye Commentary, was gracious enough to capture the announcement and upload it to the YouTubes.

IMO, Etienne Sabino should’ve threatened that ESPNU guy’s life — the one that brought up the speed thing — though Sabino’s response was nice enough.

Strategically, it’s obvious why Etienne Sabino is a nice pickup for the Buckeyes: he’s the no.1 ILB recruit in the country and gives the Buckeyes an heir apparent to James Laurinaitis. There’s not a lot more that I can add to this that isn’t obvious to everyone. Substantively, though, Etienne Sabino’s commitment to Ohio State was quietly one of the best surprises in the 2008 recruiting campaign, and it can only be truly appreciated with a farsighted vision of his recruitment from beginning to end. Sabino got an offer from Ohio State on his own merits: he’s good enough to get an offer from all the primetime players from across the country. However, there was no way of knowing if this was anything other than a token offer for the no.1 ILB recruit in the country. After all, Notre Dame and Miami thought they had him on ice, UNC thought they could sway him their way in their rebuilding effort, and USC got first dibs on his official visit. However, as time passed, several fortuitous events opened up the door for the littlest horse in the race for Sabino’s commitment, most of them I identified above. First, Notre Dame, the first presumptive lock, was written off immediately. Second, Miami failed to secure him for an official visit (perhaps it wasn’t necessary), and showed more interest in Arthur Brown thinking that Sabino was just a lock to stay local. Third, Florida failed to impress on his official, and probably even forgot to pay attention to him. Fourth, Sonny Spielman, Travis Howard, and of course, Michael Brewster (who I leave out for his own BKAB feature) started swaying him towards the Buckeyes, with Spielman’s militant Buckeye belligerence and Howard’s commitment really turning the tide. Of course, fifth, none of this is possible without Jim Tressel running the kind of family-oriented atmosphere in his program in the first place. Jim Tressel again shows you can win kids over with a positive structured environment.

When all things are considered, I don’t think there’s any way of looking at this as anything other than a major coup for Ohio State. Who said Tressel couldn’t seal the deal with the primetime recruits? From the South? And snatching them away from Urban Meyer, Butch Davis, Bobby Bowden, Miami, Charlie Weis and Pete Carroll?

Where He Excels: Sabino does a LOT of things well. After all, wouldn’t you expect the no. 1 ILB recruit in the country to do a lot of things well? In no particular order of importance, I note the following. First, Sabino pursues exceptionally well, with no discernible problems with lateral movement or footwork. I really think for defensive players, lateral movement is the most important thing to have coming in, since 40 speeds are mostly irrelevant for the line of scrimmage. If it comes down to a 40yd dash for a linebacker, the big play has already been given up. Sabino, however, can get sideline to sideline at a nice clip, and all with keeping his body open to the line of scrimmage. Related to this point, Sabino has pretty good vision and patience, where he doesn’t just jump on a play, rather waiting in proper form for the offense to commit to the play and THEN jumping on it and ripping someone’s head off. Premature reactions/reads lead to the problem of overpursuit. His size and speed is a gift, where he figuratively casts a wide, smothering net over the line of scrimmage. Very loose, too, and loose in a good way, where it doesn’t occur to me when I’m watching that he plays stiff.

Oh, and have you seen him tackle? Egads, he hits with bad, bad intentions.

Must Work On: Nothing major stuck out to me. I think Sabino’s footwork is pretty impressive for a prospect: He thinks he can stand to work on it, as well as improving his 40 time⁴ and leverage. One thing I picked up on — and so too did Scout — is pass coverage. You’ll hear (in the announcement video) ESPNU rave about his pass coverage abilities, but curiously enough, you don’t see any footage of it. This is no accident, and that’s not to say that Sabino is lousy at it, just that HS football is very run heavy. It’ll be naturally something he has to fine tune. Of course, everybody has to get better and better and go through a college conditioning program.

You Might Remember Me From Such College Greats As: When I do this, I mostly think I’m guessing, and look for outside verification to confirm I’m not a total idiot. This one, though, I feel pretty comfortable in saying. When watching Etienne Sabino’s highlight film on Rivals.com, I thought for damn sure I was watching DeMeco Ryans’ highlight film from his days at Lanier HS in Bessemer, AL and with the Crimson Tide. Granted, Ryans and Sabino play different positions (Ryans was an OLB, Sabino will most likely play inside), but they are similar in important aspects: They’re presence on the field was at times daunting and smothering, they seem to play bigger than they are, and both seem like linebackers whose sole modus operandi was to tackle people, repeatedly, and with great violence. For those Buckeyes who haven’t picked up SEC football by osmosis⁵, Ryans was pretty good… in fact, he was REALLY good on a Tide defense that ranked no. 1 in the country in points scored in 2005. By most accounts, though, Sabino is coming in taller and might even top out at 6’4, whereas Ryans is 6’2.

Miscellany: HS team nickname was “the Lightning”, which is the only time I’ve seen that nickname used in HS team sports… If my reading is correct, Sabino has only been living in Miami for the past 5 years, and was a recent transplant from New York City (Manhattan, to be more precise)… His surname is Italian (I like to think of myself as an amateur etymologist), and I suspect a further reading into his family history might yield some pretty interesting stuff, for sheer anecdotal value… Participated in the Army All-American game, though did nothing that stood out. He did miss a tackle on special teams when the ball carrier was Sam McGuffie. Don’t make that a habit, Etienne… Put on the recruiting hat and targeted Brandon Harris, Josh Jenkins, Corey Liuget, and Terrelle Pryor, and struck out on all but one of them. You might have heard which one the Brew Crew ended up getting… Took summer courses to finish up HS by December, all while going on every unofficial visit possible. Combined with a 3.0 GPA and 1180 SAT and Honor Roll honors at Dr. Krop, I think (with some effort on his part, of course), we could be hearing about Academic All-American honours for him down the road. He certainly seems to have the kind of drive for it… Had 131 tackles in his junior season to go with 8 sacks. Was an Honorable Mention all-Dade County that year… Had 146 tackles, seven sacks, five forced fumbles and one interception his senior season. Suffice to say, was first team all-Florida and all-Dade County that year… Mom is Agatha Rijo, a sales associate with the Sorrento townhome community in Miami. I suspect there’s a pretty good biography to be written about Sabino after his career is over, and if he reaches his expected ceiling, but I don’t pretend to be credentialed enough to write it… Lettered in basketball, was a district champion in discus.

Redshirt? Not a chance. Kids who show up early tend to eschew their redshirts, and even though Sabino won’t see immediate playing time in lieu of the Animal, some garbage time snaps will give him better preparation for 2009 than will a redshirt, in my opinion.

The Quotable Etienne Sabino Fluff Piece: Most of the stuff I’ve already mentioned above, but there was this one gem from the Krop HS student newspaper, early on in his recruitment:

“All I knew was that in football you hit,” Sabino said. … “It’s just good to hit people. I love hitting.”

On the field, Etienne… ON the field. It won’t be an issue, of course, but I couldn’t resist taking that out of context.

Etienne also let people know what his priorities were in his recruitment:

“I want to make sure I’m comfortable with my choices and just want a great balance between football, environment and academics. I like talking to the players about their experience because they know best,” he said. “They live it everyday and it gives you some good insight.”

Sounds like a pretty level-headed kid.

Well, since I’ve exhausted all available discussion about him that I can think of, I think that’ll do it. So, again, absent a good way to close these things off: Etienne Sabino, consider yourself Better Known… I think. Oh, and enjoy your first week of school at THE Ohio State University, though I doubt very much you’re reading this junk heap of a blog.

1. top program status debateable for the last two… snap! [↩]
2. and felonious reputation off of it… what, I couldn’t resist… [↩]
3. boooooo… come back Keith. America turns its lonely eyes to you [↩]
4. it’s a 4.6, that’s pretty damn impressive for an incoming recruit [↩]
5. sigh… I hate the South… [↩]