Our Honor Defend

And now, for the second part of our 19 (or 20) part series, we take a look into another one of the already ‘better known’ 2008 Buckeye commits, and a man central to the recruiting endeavors of the Bucks and the “Block O” monicker altogether. In the following sections, we take a look at JB Shugarts recruitment, commitment and other tidbits in a hastily constructed and poorly written fashion.

Height: 6’7
Weight: 300
Forty: 5.1
Bench Press: 340
Squat: 425
Vertical: 27.5 inches
Early Enrollee: Already there.

His Recruitment: JB had an expressed interest in the Buckeyes at the very beginning of his recruitment, and even camped at Ohio State. Perhaps an important reason (if not THE reason) why JB had such an early interest in the Buckeyes is that his Houston-area high school (Klein) is the same high school of another recent Buckeye hero and current NFLer: Ashton Youboty. Youboty’s younger brother and Marshall commit John Youboty is in the same class as JB. Another probable factor in Shugarts’ early knowlege of Ohio State is his parents being Midwestern transplants in Houston. JB’s dad, a football coach himself, was originally from Pennsylvania. His early interest and enormous potential earned JB a written offer on the first possible date (September 1st of the junior year). Other offers came from Texas A&M, Florida, Ole Miss, LSU, Michigan, Nebraska, Va Tech, Miami FL and, no doubt, a host of others. JB was in attendance for the 24-7 hosing of the Longhorns in Austin and was impressed with what he saw. By that time, Shugarts had made it clear OSU would definitely be top 5 for his services. By the turn of 2006 into 2007, the aforementioned 5 basically consisted of Ohio State, LSU, Oklahoma, Michigan and Texas (or Florida or Texas A&M, depending on the day or weather). Michigan became a factor during the recruiting process for three reasons: 1) his father coached at a camp for the Wolvereenies 2) he became friends with Ryan Mallett who was en route to Ann Arbor and 3) he would become good friends with another Houston-area local Sam McGuffie who, given his own Michigan connections, was interested in the Wolverines and ended up signing there. An important factor in drawing him to the Buckeyes during the recruiting process was his friendship with Adams and Brewster and attending the Spring Game. Both Adams and Brewster were locks for the Buckeyes¹, and both were in JB’s ear leading up to the Spring Game and sat with him during the game itself. The Spring Game is important because, to that point, JB had been blown away with every other unofficial visit he had taken (Texas A&M, Oklahoma and LSU), so the Spring Game in Columbus gave the Bucks the advantage of recency in his recruitment.

His Commitment: Soon after the Spring Game, JB held a press conference to announce his commitment to play football at The Ohio State University, becoming the 7th member of the class. Coincidentally, JB’s announcement was the second of the day, following Nathan Williams. Depth chart was a big factor here, for, as most recruitniks will tell you, JB is practically automatically in the RT two-deep already for the 2008 season and could start. His commitment was exceptional considering that Buckeye recruitniks had begun fantasizing about the possibilities of the O-Line in this class, but always figured Shugarts to be the odd man out for reasons of distance and the other schools vying for his commitment. JB’s commitment to Ohio State gave the Bucks 3 of their 5 OL targets with possibilities of snaking Jenkins away from WVU and Long from baseball. The Bucks would miss out on Long and Jenkins, but already had their bookends. Moreover, the “Block O” fantasies of the Buckeye recruitniks were now a reality, and not just wishful thinking about a best case scenario regarding Adams and its out-of-state targets. Corollary to his announcement were further statements about who else he wanted to be a Buckeye, chief among them: Sam McGuffie (who, if memory serves correct, never got an offer from the Bucks anyways) and Terrelle Pryor (jury is still out on that one). His recruitment, though, was not over there as a visit to LSU led to widespread rumourmongering about him decommiting from the Bucks. Indeed, Rivals.com listed JB as a “soft verbal” for a good while, even though JB would clarify on several occasions this was misleading. Taking an official to LSU for the Va Tech game was thought to be Shugarts wavering on his Buckeye commitment when JB stated that it was an excuse to take his mom (a Va Tech alum) to a football game involving her alma mater. Rumours eventually died down by the end of 2007 and, indeed, there was no doubt remaining by January of 2008. Therein, JB was palling around with future Buckeyes and finishing up his classes at Klein. He would say in an interview during the game that his car was parked in Columbus and he was ready for January classes at Ohio State immediately following the game.

Immediate Playing Time: JB made it clear that the opportunities for immediate playing time, among other things, made Ohio State very desirable. As a Right Tackle in HS, he would be arriving on campus right as Kirk Barton vacated that same spot. Plausibly, he could take that spot and noted as such in an in-game interview during the Army All-American game. In my poorly informed vantage point, the competition heading into the preseason centers around 3 candidates: JB, Mike Adams and Bryant Browning. Browning is Barton’s immediate replacement and has an incumbency advantage, but his spot is tenuous though he’s presumably the leader for that spot at this moment. Any battle between JB and Mike Adams for the spot interests me. In my view, Adams is the better lineman, but he’s a Left Tackle. JB is not as polished as Adams is, but has the advantage of playing Right Tackle in HS and will have the extra 3 months of college conditioning to his advantage (Adams is a Spring enrollee). I still think Browning will get the starting job, but I don’t think he’ll be secure in it. Moreover, I think JB will be no. 2 on the two-deep, confining Adams to Boone’s understudy for 2008², and will probably see the field often in the 2008 season.

Must Work On: Pass protection, probably. High school football is run-heavy, and he has that down pat. If my understanding of Klein football is correct, Klein ran a variation of a run-heavy Single Wing that featured JB as lead blocker. Pass protection will be somewhat novel for JB, though I’m sure he’ll be fine. Of course, all O-line commits are basically projects, and Shugarts is definitely a project. So while there’s a lot of things he’s done very well in what highlights I’ve seen, there’s a lot of “rawness” to be observed. Long story short, he’s going to have to work on everything (of course), but pass protection seems to be the concrete avenue for work.

Where He Excels: Footwork! I think Shugarts played HS basketball for a period³, and it probably helped him. 6’7 285-300lb sophomore tackles shouldn’t have that kind of footwork JB had at that age. As mentioned earlier, JB excelled at run blocking, combining agility and a mean streak to ensure he finished his blocks. Key words here are ‘limitless potential’. It was fun to watch him progress in his highlight films. Indeed he got “better” with each year, but he also got more violent. By his senior season, he wasn’t blocking anymore, he was running over people and sitting on them if he felt like it. Most excellent. Again: limitless potential.

Redshirt? Oh God no. Oh. God. no. He could really benefit from one, though, but he’s too valuable for the Buckeyes out of the gates.

You Might Remember Me From Such College Greats As: Not a clue. AtO notes his similarity to Alex Boone and, honestly, I do think that’s appropriate from what I’ve seen of JB and what I remember from Boone at that age.

Miscellany: Almost transferred (with family) to Dublin, Ohio, where he would’ve been enrolled at Dublin Coffman. Yes, that would’ve meant your bookend tackles on that team would’ve been Mike Adams and JB Shugarts, whose very combined use in a high school football game would have violated several key tenets in the Geneva Convention… Father Bret is a former pro football player, having played college ball at Clarion (PA)… Participated in the Army All-American Game, though, curiously enough, played Left Guard. He did pretty good considering the change in position, but was clearly uncomfortable… Grew up a Michigan fan, which makes, as far as I know, two former Michigan fans in the recruiting class (Devier Posey the other)… Took final exams for HS in between Army All-American activities… Also dabbled as a Tight End, and showed some pretty good hands and speed.

The Quotable JB Shugarts fluff piece: There’s a few quotes out there, starting with…

“When I went up there, it was a feeling I couldn’t explain… It felt right in my heart, and I knew I was home. I love it up there.”

I think everyone has seen this one, which Shugarts made upon his commitment:

“I’m very excited and I can’t even put it into words,” he said. “You can tell all the people in Columbus to go ahead and buy their national championship tickets because we’re bringing home a couple of them.”

And, of course, the instant classic that Shugarts made on National LOI Day:

“We have a great class coming in. Not only great players, but these are great people. Just the fact that we already know each other and we’re already coming together as a family, that’s what sets us over the top with all these other schools like USC and Florida, so I think it’s going to be really special, and you can get prepared for a lot of national championships.”

To which Tressel immediately responded “Easy there, JB”.

Highlights: There’s a few out there, though these are the two I recommend. The first one is a sophomore highlight film; the second one is a senior film. Both are very impressive to watch; he really looks like a giant in these.

So, again, absent a real good way to end these: JB Shugarts, consider yourself better known.

1. Adams was the true lock; Brewster was the question mark if only for location, but certainly not for passion for the Buckeyes [↩]
2. Adams will be fine, though. [↩]
3. I’ve not seen this sourced, though [↩]