«
»

The Buckeyes get their tight end in 2009

Posted by Vico in Recruiting | May.27.08

Reid Fragel
Tight end was clearly a need going into the 2009 recruiting campaign. Rory Nicol and Brandon Smith graduate in 2008 and Jake Ballard graduates the year after them. The Buckeyes were looking to take at least one tight end in this class, but probably two. Their one prized target in the class — Reid Fragel of Grosse Pointe, Michigan — committed today, bringing the tally for 2009 to 15. I felt good about our chances, knowing that it would be a showdown between Sparty and the Buckeyes with the Buckeyes probably having the upperhand with all things considered. For Fragel, the difference was, well, everything, as he told Scout1.

“I fell in love with the place”, he explained, “I was blown away by it. It came down to where I would fit in best and where I was comfortable. I fit in better there and will help the team there too as a tight end.”

Reid Fragel, if you haven’t checked out his dossier, is enormous. He basically has the frame of a lineman coming in, measuring at about 6’7-6’8 and a healthy 255lbs. Consequently, a lot of schools were offering him scholarships to become an offensive tackle. Yet, John Peterson — the Buckeyes’ Tight End Coach — assured him he is a tight end all the way. The assurance from Peterson, combined with the aura of Ohio State, put the Buckeyes over Sparty in the contest for Fragel’s services.

The Buckeyes may not be done at the position, as Ra’Shede Hageman from Minnesota also has an offer from the Bucks. In fact, Dion Sims — from Orchard Lake, MI — just recently received an offer. Two tight ends seem to be ideal in 2009, but if Fragel is all we get at the position, then the Bucks have done pretty good for themselves.

:beer:

UPDATE: found some clips of him to enjoy, in the comments section.

  1. in a later quote, he talks about how awesome it is that the Buckeyes play for national championships every year. See, there’s an upside to getting hosed twice in the big game… I guess. Nevertheless, the cats out the bag: play for Jim Tressel; play for championships. [↩]

 

4 Responses to “The Buckeyes get their tight end in 2009”

  1. 1 Gabby Jay May 27th, 2008 at 9:41 pm

    a nice big target for Terrelle Pryor. Me likey.

  2. 2 Vico May 27th, 2008 at 10:10 pm

    I’m hoping he sticks. I’ve been yearning for that gamechanger tight end for awhile now, but that’s only been exacerbated by me watching as many Rickey Dudley games.

  3. 3 Vico May 27th, 2008 at 10:48 pm

    Found some multimedia, enjoy:

    http://recruiting.scout.com/asxplaylist.aspx?s=73&mediaids=533520 — Reid talks about the 7-on-7 camp in Akron, how he took a detour to Ohio State where he fell in love with everything, and a personal history his family has with Jim Tressel.

    http://scout.scout.com/asxplaylist.aspx?s=73&mediaids=493198 — junior year footage of him playing tight end (he also plays defensive end for his HS team). My take: he’s a handful. There’s a clip of him dragging 3 or 4 tacklers for at least 20 yards. Separates easy, gets open just fine, probably could work on technique for blocking (but I love some of his throwdowns). Nice pickup.

    (Note: these are otherwise normally listed in his Scout profile in flash format if you had an insider account, but there’s a hack around by Scout’s own sloppy coding that allows direct access to the raw video file)

  4. 4 poguemahone May 28th, 2008 at 4:21 pm

    I feel dickish saying it, but, “playing for championships” is only gonna hold elite recruits attention for so long. Win one or two and this recruiting thing will REALLY get going. As in, it’s USC, Ohio State, and everyone else “get going”.

Leave a Reply