Our Honor Defend

In the 20th and final¹ installment of this 20 part series titled Better Know A Buckeye, I finally take a look at Michael Brewster.  Notwithstanding the litany of interest in Terrelle Pryor, I treat Brewster as the capstone of the 2008 class and, accordingly, of these features.  Brewster’s story actually begins several years earlier, though it lacks the twist and turns and intrigue that Pryor’s similarly long story had.  After discussing his recruitment and commitment, I move into a discussion of what most people have pegged Brewster for: recruiting other players to join him at Ohio State.  I discuss some of the stories, and even myths, at that point.  I close with miscellaneous errata involving Michael Brewster that defies quantification.  Afterwards, I quietly pat myself on the back for actually completing this series, perhaps even treating myself to a PBR.

His Recruitment: The courtship of Michael Brewster and Ohio State actually started rather early… as in his eighth grade year². A family friend (an Ohio State graduate and friend of Brewster’s aunt) had told the young Brewster about Ohio State, though Brewster himself had no idea about the Buckeye program.  What Brewster did not know at the time, however, was that the same family friend called Ohio State’s football program to tell them about him.  Normally it would seem obsessive to the level of basketball recruiting for recruiting to begin in eighth grade, but the case of Brewster is sui generis.  At the time, he was arguably something of a phenom, already playing varsity football at Lake Highland Prep High School in Orlando.  Further, he and his family were already sending out footage themselves.  Ohio State not only received the film of a precocious Michael Brewster playing varsity football at the tender age of 14, but reviewed it as well.  Further, they followed up on it.  Darrell Hazell — recruiter par excellence for the Buckeyes — started sending letters to Brewster, the first real exposure of Michael Brewster to any college football program.  Later, Hazell flew down to Florida to visit Brewster and made an impression.  Afterwards, he was given Jim Bollman’s phone number and began chatting with him.  The contact between Bollman and Brewster was at first a couple times a month.  As the two began to connect well and hit it off, the contact between the two increased to a rate of at least once a week.  They continued talking weekly for the next 5 years before Brewster signed with Ohio State.

It wasn’t until after Brewster’s sophomore year in high school that he started to think about where he wanted to go to college, and if it would indeed be Ohio State that he would attend.  By this time, two significant events of note had transpired.  First, Brewster had transferred from Lake Highland Prep High School to Edgewater High School.  I’m not an expert in Orlando-area prep school football, but apparently the level of competition at Lake Highland Prep was not the caliber he would be facing at Edgewater.  Michael Brewster said as much, arguing that it was a move he needed to make in order to get to the next level.  Edgewater has sent some of its alumni to BCS conferences to play college football, including Quentin Brown (NC State) and Greg Mathews (Michigan)… names that I could easily conjure.  Jim Bollman also chipped in with some words of advice for the transfer.

However, the transition to Edgewater was not before Brewster suffered a knee injury during the spring of his sophomore year.  To make matters worse, the injury occurred the same day when Brewster received a call that Tressel was coming to visit his high school.  Brewster was understandably upset, since it meant possibly meeting Jim Tressel while in a precarious state (using crutches, hours away from surgery, not exactly looking in tip-top shape).  However, at this meeting, Tressel assured Brewster that these kind of things happen in HS football all the time and that it wasn’t a big deal.  Tressel told Brewster that it didn’t change what he and the staff thought of Brewster’s highlight film and potential (positive all-around, that is), and that it wasn’t going to stop the staff from recruiting him.  Tressel’s assurance served as a source of inspiration for Brewster as he prepped for rehab.  He used the meeting as motivation for his painful rehabilitation for the months after the surgery, telling Bill Greene that it behooved him to ride his stationary bike for an hour every day during his rehab.  Sometimes he rode the bike for two hours a day, and sometimes he rode it as early as 3 in the morning, but he never skipped a beat.  When Brewster broke the bike due to excessive use, his family got a new one to compensate.  Combine the efforts on the bike with the trainer he was seeing during this time, Brewster was done rehabbing by May.  In Brewster’s view, he felt better than he was before the injury.

The timing was fortuitous for Brewster as it afforded him just enough time to check out a few camps across the country during the summer of 2006.  He first tested out his new bionic knee at the University of Florida doing drills at full contact, which went well.  Afterwards, he jetted off to a Nike Combine at Oregon, a reward from his father for working so hard during rehabilitation.  There, he made the Nike junior All-American Team.  After the Oregon visit, he got to visit Ohio State, perhaps as a means of repaying the favor for the effort they had invested in him for the years earlier.  He followed it up with a one-day visit for a one-day camp to Michigan, thinking of time constraints.  Brewster told Bill Greene it was a decision that changed his life.  For Buckeye fans, it was the genesis of the friendships that eventually snowballed into the “Brew Crew”.

“I was in the line for offensive linemen when I saw a kid who was just huge,” Brewster explained with a laugh. “He was a freaking monster. It was Mike Adams [ ed note -- Damn right it was. ]. Coach Bollman introduced us and we just hit it off right off the bat. I met Mike on the first day of camp and we hung out the rest of the time. We started talking on MySpace after camp ended, and kept in contact throughout the summer before my junior year. The next week after the Ohio State camp I went to a Michigan camp for one day. I ran into J.B. Shugarts, who I knew from talking on the internet. I told him that he really needed to check out Ohio State. At the time he was really into Michigan a lot. He was tight with Ryan Mallett. We exchanged numbers and we stayed in contact after that. He visited Ohio State after leaving camp and he saw what I was telling him about the coaching staff and the facilities. At that point Ohio State told Big Mike, Shugarts, Kyle Long³ and me that they were counting on us being Buckeyes. I was getting ready for my junior year at Edgewater and started thinking seriously about all of us being together and winning rings at the next level. I never really thought it would happen, but I was going to try to make it work out because I was so tight with those guys.”

While the interview in question here took place well after Brewster had verbaled to Ohio State, Brewster was giving off lots of vibes that he was very serious about Ohio State.  In late August 2006, after recapping his summer visits, Brewster noted that he was already talking weekly with Mike Adams, who was an obvious OSU lean by this time.  On September 1, the first day that written offers can go out to junior prospects, Brewster already had his offer from Ohio State in the mail, to go with other Sept 1 offers from Tennessee and Florida⁴.  Further, he was already set to visit Ohio State on an unofficial visit for the Penn State game.  Brewster knew he wanted to make a decision by spring of his junior year.  With approximately less than 7 months left to go, Brewster already had a visit set ⁵.

As things panned out, that wasn’t the only visit Brewster would take regarding Ohio State football⁶.  The visit to Columbus for the Penn State game proved to be a family affair.  Brewster’s family joined Adams’ and Long’s families in Columbus for the game, allowing not only the kids themselves to hit it off, but for their respective parents to connect as well.  He also got an informal invite to the Michigan game, featuring the then no. 1 and no. 2 teams in the country squaring off for an outright Big Ten title, to which he accepted.  He again met with Mike Adams, also in attendance for the game, and again had rave reviews for the atmosphere.  The Michigan weekend also marks the introduction of Michael Brewster to Jake Stoneburner, with Mike Adams being their obvious mutual connection.  Stoneburner, himself an obvious OSU lean (no offer, though), soon became part of the fold.  Brewster’s excitement to see a national championship come to Columbus also led him to take a trip, along with Kyle Long, to Arizona for the national title game.  Naturally, it’s something that I don’t feel like discussing.  However, while Brewster did squeeze in visits to Florida for their games against Southern Miss and South Carolina (he was basically on the road just about every weekend), it was becoming clear that Ohio State was sticking out.

In early 2007, another chain of events unfolded that further drew Michael Brewster invariably closer to the Ohio State program.  First, Brewster attended the US Army National Combine (pictured) where he was again reunited with Mike Adams, Jake Stoneburner and JB Shugarts⁷.  Further, all four had something of a coming-out party.  Mike Adams may have been one of the best prospects at camp and started earning recognition as possibly the best lineman to come out of Ohio in a while.  Shugarts was pegged by a Longhorns insider (back when the Longhorns were still in it for him) as possibly the best offensive player at camp.  It was also Brewster’s first chance to watch Stoneburner play.  Brewster was skeptical of Stoneburner’s abilities at first, but certainly left the combine impressed by the inability of anyone to hang with Stoneburner.  As for Brewster? By this point, he was getting mention as probably the best center prospect in the country.  However, the bigger story for Brewster was the familial experience at camp.  During the festivities, Stoneburner’s and Brewster’s families connected very well, becoming pretty close.  Further, Brewster, Shugarts and Stoneburner had even more time and opportunity to bond with one another, establishing relationships that, for Brewster, matched the bond he had already developed with Mike Adams.  It was at this point that they started pondering the question: did they all want to expand on these relationships and go to college together?  At least in the interim, they had decided on one thing: they would all attend the Ohio State spring game together.

The week before the Ohio State spring game was the Florida spring game, which Brewster decided to attend.  Florida was probably the only other real contender to Ohio State by this point, notwithstanding overtures from USC, LSU, Michigan and Alabama.  He had taken more than a couple visits to Florida and presumably would’ve camped there in the summer of 2006 if not for his rehabilitation.  By this point, Brewster was at a crossroads of his college choice.  He knew he was going to graduate early and enroll in January somewhere, but he was going back and forth over when he wanted to announce.  Accordingly, he knew by now that he should have a clearer picture of where he wanted to go, and was mostly going back and forth between Florida and Ohio State.  The visit to Florida for their spring game and the followup visit to Ohio State the next week should be where Brewster decides to either go with one, or, if unimpressed, drop both and look around.  Around this time, Brewster had finally set up his official visits to Ohio State, Florida, Alabama, LSU and USC, noting explicitly that he favored the Gators and Buckeyes over everyone else by this time.

The visit to Gainesville for Florida’s Orange and Blue Game on the weekend of April 14-15⁸ certainly helped provide a clearer picture of where he wanted to go.  However, it provided a clearer picture through contrast.  Brewster gave some nice words to the Gators’ Scout affiliate about the visit, remarking how it was nice to be able to spend time with his family and how the atmosphere was nice.  But masked in these words were critical observations about the coaching staff at Florida.  He told the Gators’ affiliate that he didn’t get to spend much time with the coaching staff, though did exchange a few words with the major players on the staff (Meyer, Strong, and Adazzio).  However, he later told Bill Greene that the perceived slight was cause for on-the-spot comparison for him and a new friend he had made on the visit, Andrew Sweat.  Brewster and Sweat knew each other online, but met for the first time in Gainesville and hit it off.  Both had mutual interest in Florida and in Ohio State, and the perceived slight led both Sweat and Brewster to compare the coaching staff at Ohio State and Florida.  Both came to the mutual conclusion that the Buckeyes’ staff was much more impressive with how they approached recruiting and how they talked to their recruits.  With the visit to Ohio State coming up the week after, it appeared that at least one of his top two had been nixed.

If the Buckeyes ever win a national championship⁹ with this class, the 2007 Spring Game may go down in Ohio State football history as one of the most important events in the history of the program.  While people are sure to forget the content of the game itself, the real story behind the Spring Game was the atmosphere.  Approximately 75,000 people were on hand to watch the scrimmage, a pretty good feat in and of itself considering how deflating the end of the 2006 season was.  The game featured a veritable who’s-who of recruits, including the pact of future Buckeyes making good on their vow to meet again in Columbus (Adams, Stoneburner, Shugarts, Brewster¹⁰).  What impressed Brewster so much was the perfect blend of dedication, knowledge and fandom the fans on hand — typically the students and your average Joe and Jane Buckeye fan getting priced out of season tickets — displayed.  While everyone on hand knew who James Laurinaitis and Beanie were, Brewster was particularly impressed that the fans know who he was.  Further, they were asking him for autographs, which Brewster thought was remarkable considering he hadn’t done anything for Ohio State’s program or lore by that point.  At no other place did the local fans know who he was, let alone ask him for autographs.  Brewster was more than blown away with the game, but it was the dinner that he, friends and staff members had after the game that made it the Saturday that changed his life.

His Commitment: After the game, the families of a couple of the Buckeye verbals to that point attended a dinner with members of the coaching staff.  The Adams family and Stoneburner family were there.  I think Shugarts was at the dinner as well, though I’ve not seen this made explicit.  Brewster, his mom Kathy and his older brother Billy were in attendance as well.  Papa Brewster did not make the trip to Columbus, thinking that nothing major would come out of it and that he could save some money.  Michael Brewster himself expressed this, saying that he had no plans to verbal on his trip.  After all, he had his official visits set up and more or less had a timetable for a decision in the fall.

However, Brewster had an epiphany during this dinner.

“We all went to dinner that Saturday night,” Brewster explained. “All the Ohio State coaches were there. All our families were there. Everything was just so perfect that day. The campus was so beautiful and I couldn’t stop thinking about being a Buckeye. I love this staff and I realized it that night. I was with people who were more than friends. Shugarts, Adams and Jake are my brothers and we’re going to all be together for the next few years. It all just hit me at once. That evening I told J.B. that I was going to do it. I told him I expected him to follow me into the Buckeye family and we laughed. I told my parents before we went out to dinner and they were thrilled to death. My mom really wanted me to come to Ohio State. I wanted my family to be happy with my choice too.’ “We were all sitting around a big table and everyone was there. I just stood up and watched everyone looking up at me. I just told everybody that “everything was great today and I know I want to be a Buckeye and right now I’m committing to Ohio State University.”

The reaction from the table was apparent pandemonium.

Coach Tressel ran over to me and gave me a big bear hug. Everyone was going nuts. I looked over and saw Jim Bollman crying and right then I knew I made the right choice. Coach Bollman and I have such a great relationship. I can’t tell you how close we are. I knew how important landing a bunch of linemen was to this program. It just meant so much to the staff. Seeing him getting all choked up and teary-eyed meant a lot to me.

And just like that, Brewster’s recruitment was over.

Brewster elaborated later that the decision was one that just seemed right.  He felt at home on every unofficial visit he went on to Ohio State, including the camp, the unofficial visits for games during the 2006 season, Pro Day and the Spring Game.  Over the years, he had forged close relationships with Jim Bollman and Jim Tressel so strong that recent interest from Urban Meyer and the Gators’ staff couldn’t match it.  Most importantly (I think), Brewster treated Ohio State as the focal point for comparison on every other unofficial visit he went on.  Wherever he went, he compared his visit to how much he enjoyed Ohio State.  He compared the people he met to the people he knew at Ohio State.  He admitted he struggled to push aside the warm feelings he had for Ohio State on any other visit.  As Brewster told Bucknuts after his verbal.

“But I always came back to the thought that I belonged there (Ohio State).”

What It Means: As we know, the story does not end there with just a simple verbal.  In the realm of Ohio State recruiting, a bomb had basically gone off the weekend of the Spring Game.  For those unaware, the 2007 recruiting campaign ended in something of a fiasco.  Ben Martin, the state’s no. 1 player, went to Tennessee for the prospect of immediate playing time.  Joseph Barksdale of Cass Tech, a high priority target, signed with LSU.  Anthony Davis opted to stay home and play for Rutgers while Pennsylvania tight end Rob Gronkowski went to Arizona.  Naturally, the culprit was thought to be the Glendale disaster.  Accordingly, the war cry was that the Buckeyes can’t consistently recruit the top flight prospects in the country.  As for Tressel and staff? They were probably feeling it, and I can only imagine the nature of the offensive line play in Arizona put more than a bind on Jim Bollman (ergo, the tears of happiness to some degree).  Getting Mike Adams was a huge land, but it would’ve been more of a disaster to lose him than it was to gain him (in recruiting logic, since Adams was the local boy who idolized the Buckeyes).  Getting Brewster, though, was huge.  He was Florida’s best offensive player, the most verstaile lineman prospect in the country and listed as either the best center prospect or the best offensive tackle prospect by some recruiting services.  For people that obsess about Buckeye recruiting, he was the first real steal of the class; that is, the first verbal whereby Buckeye fans were asking themselves “did we really just get him?”.  Other top flight national prospects followed Brewster — such as, but not limited to, Etienne Sabino, Lamaar Thomas and Terrelle Pryor — but Brewster was the first.  If that was the extent of Brewster’s verbal, then it would have been an enormous boost to the football program.

But again, it does not end there.  Michael Brewster had formed a close relationship with fellow offensive lineman JB Shugarts, a tackle with absolutely enormous potential and arguably Texas’ best lineman, and told JB that he was committing to Ohio State.  He expected JB to follow him.  Sure enough, the very next morning (Sunday), JB talked it over with his family, delayed his flight back to Texas, and committed to Ohio State.  Word of the verbal was carefully concealed until it went public on JB’s own terms.  Brewster and Shugarts, along with good friends Mike Adams and Jake Stoneburner, were wanting to make good on what they had only previously talked about: winning championships together at the next level.  Adams and Stoneburner had already committed, but Brewster and Shugarts had taken the first step towards that goal: committing to Ohio State.  In terms of getting Shugarts to verbal when he did, Brewster’s Saturday night announcement appears to be exogenous to it.  Combine the post Spring Game commitment of Nathan Williams in an unrelated story, and the Buckeyes secured Florida’s best offensive player and, nationally, the most versatile lineman in the country, arguably Texas’ best lineman, and a top 5 overall weakside defensive end prospect in a span of hours.  Such a haul is unprecedented even for most top programs.  It was unfathomable for Ohio State recruiting.  If we treat Brewster’s verbal as an exogenous factor (plausible, but naturally debatable), his commitment is responsible for the arrival of what I think is becoming the golden age of Ohio State recruiting.

The Brew Crew: But once more, it does not end there.  One of the reasons Brewster eschewed his new fall timetable for a decision and committed to Ohio State when he did was to help Ohio State build a stellar recruiting class.  When he returned to Florida, Brewster went on a recruiting spree in order to build a strong enough class capable of winning national championships.  As we know, it became the stuff of legend.  Andrew Sweat was the first major coup for the “Brew Crew”, admitting that not only did he hear often from every then-current member of the class (sans Buchanan and Williams), but he also heard from Brewster’s mom often too.  Garrett Goebel cited the relationship he had with Michael Brewster as a reason why he felt more comfortable at Ohio State.  Lamaar Thomas more than loved the family atmosphere of the recruits and their respective families while on his official, with Michael Brewster there to help.  Orhian Johnson admitted that he was more than impressed with the text messages he got from people like Michael Brewster.  In a story so cool it’s second only to the story of Brewster’s mom texting Andrew Sweat, Brewster, his older brother Billy, and JB Shugarts took a January trip to Jeannette, joining Andrew Sweat, to watch Pryor play hoops and eat pizza with him afterwards.  However, it’s important to clarify the nature of what’s going on.

First, the innuendo from fans of other programs was that Tressel and staff were giving Brewster the number of these recruits in order for Brewster to do their bidding is absolutely false.  I can’t speak to how much Tressel liked what Brewster was doing (because I just don’t know), but Tressel absolutely can not give out contact information for recruits to other recruits.  Tressel couldn’t orchestrate what Brewster was doing even if it was something he approved.  The story behind how Brewster was able to get a hold of so many Buckeye targets is much more innocuous.  Recruits are no dopes, and often times, they subscribe to recruiting services like Rivals or Scout in what I think this is the football recruiting version of Googling your own name.  Naturally, they can find out very quickly who is targeting who.  Further, combine the use of MySpace and how expansive camps and combines can be, and these recruits all tend to know each other to some capacity.  Throw in the resources and connections of the other class members like Mike Adams and DeVier Posey and you can get a clearer picture of how people got on “Brewster’s big board”.  Brewster, Adams, Stoneburner and Shugarts were all at the U.S. Army National Combine with a lot of the Glenville kids, which explains how Cordale Scott was a “target”.  DeVier Posey (and I think Andrew Sweat as well) knew Terrelle Pryor through AAU, which, combined with Posey tracking him down on MySpace, can account for how Brewster got into contact with him.  If what I understand is correct, where there was an anomaly (such as a Nic DiLillo), Brewster would cajole contact information from a recruiting service beat writer in what was implicit quid pro quo for wasting his time with said beat writer.  I think this is how Brewster got a hold of Nic DiLillo to welcome him to the family in spite of his twisted journey to Columbus.  Whatever the case, while it’s safe to say the coaching staff benefited enormously from these relationships, they could not — and did not — orchestrate it.

Second, the nature of Brewster’s “recruiting” was most certainly not “Hey (insert recruit’s name here), come to Ohio State. Let’s win rings/championships and et cetera and et cetera”.  That would’ve backfired very quickly.  One can only imagine how that would’ve played with Terrelle Pryor because, well… that’s precisely what happened.  A Michigan State verbal by the name of Tyler Hoover tried that very same line on Terrelle Pryor and, suffice to say, it didn’t work.  Remember: Michael Brewster is not Tim Brewster; he does not have motivational Tourette’s.  What was actually going on was much simpler.  Brewster used a much lighter touch than what I think was reported, working mostly on building bonds with Buckeye targets (most of whom he probably already knew, like an Andrew Sweat).  Since Buckeye targets are a rather scarce bunch, given how meticulous the coaching staff is with their recruits, such an approach would’ve been inappropriate.  Text messages weren’t simple Tim Brewster-esque proclamations of “FIGHT WIN RINGS CHAMPIONSHIPS”, but more attempts to build friendships with people he probably already met/knew and may probably join him at Ohio State.  This is why, when Brewster, his brother, JB Shugarts and Andrew Sweat visited Terrelle Pryor, they never once talked college selection and didn’t even wear any Ohio State gear.  Brewster would’ve scared more people off than he would’ve enticed to join.  See: Tyler Hoover.

Third, Michael Brewster was far from the quality sine qua non for why most recruits chose Ohio State.  In fact, they chose Ohio State for the same reason he did: the family atmosphere and the coaching staff.  Brewster helped establish a family atmosphere around the 2008 class (see above argument) that was appealling to people like Lamaar Thomas and Orhian Johnson.  However, the case of Travis Howard shows why there’s a good chance a good number of these recruits would have come to Ohio State even if he wasn’t texting them.  Simply put: people like Jim Tressel.  Families like him and most recruits do whether or not they choose to attend Ohio State.  This is no offense to Michael Brewster, but it takes a special kid to see what’s going on at Ohio State, both the university and the football program, and fall in love with it it.  The 2008 class is full of 20 special kids who saw just that.  I think Brewster helped in an important way by taking the sense of family to another level, as in the case of Orhian Johnson and Lamaar Thomas.  However, at the end of the day, if we treat this as statistics, the variable encapsulating how likeable Jim Tressel is I think explains more of the variation in the dependent variable (reasons for committing) than Brewster’s efforts can.  Again, no slight of Michael Brewster, but I think he might tell you the same if you asked him.

Fourth, this really was a team effort.  The core of the Brew Crew — Mike Adams, Jake Stoneburner, DeVier Posey, Michael Brewster, and JB Shugarts — worked much more in unison than Brewster did by his lonesome.  The core of this group consists of very sociable, outgoing charsimatic personalities — social lubricants, if you will — that have no problem turning a stranger into a friend.  Of course, some people played bigger parts than others in the 2008 class, but if it was needed, everybody chipped in.  Ben Buchanan, a likeable kid but a little more reserved, more than played his part in making Lamaar Thomas feel at home in Columbus.  Nic DiLillo went from anxious about how he would be received to actively lecturing Lamaar Thomas on what it means to be a Buckeye.  Zach Domicone, who was nowhere on the Buckeyes’ radar until he committed in a matter of 5.5 hours, was sending text messages to Orhian Johnson days later.  This class is special because it’s become a fraternity, and everyone down from the more assertive personalities of Brewster and Adams to the much more reserved Nathan Williams, played a role.  This class is special not just because of Brewster.  It’s special because of everyone in it.  Again: this is no disrespect to Michael Brewster because I’m guessing he might tell you the same if you asked him.

But with all these qualifications, why is it called the Brew Crew?  I have speculation, but ultimately no real answers.  From what I’ve gathered, Michael Brewster is a natural leader, a ringleader for the group, and the most likely candidate for captain of the class.  I think the term “Brew Crew” was mostly bestowed by beat writers for the recruiting services and message board patrons regarding the nature of Michael Brewster’s commitment.  We take it for granted now, but it was an absolutely stunning commitment when it happened.  Further, not only did Brewster commit to Ohio State, but he instantly started recruiting for them as well.  Combine those elements and it’s why Brewster thinks the term went from “Block-O” to “Brew Crew”.  Brewster is quick to deflect attention from himself in favor of some of his friends, such as Jake Stoneburner who he calls “a genuine friend”, Andrew Sweat who he calls “the best guy in the world” and Mike Adams who he calls “the glue that holds us all together”.  He’s not the only the natural leader in the class, but he’s as well respected by his peers as anyone.  If the label “Brew Crew” was imposed by writers and fans, nobody in the 20 member class was going to object to Michael Brewster being synonymous with the class.

Where He Excels: Michael Brewster was so highly rated for a reason: he’s really, really good.  He pulls exceptionally well and punishes people on his blocks.  Brewster doesn’t care who you are: run-stuffing lineman, linebacker or defensive back… he’s going to run you over.  I think a lot of this stems from the fact that Michael Brewster refuses to lose.  Indeed, I’m not sure he gave up a sack in his senior year, or even in his junior year.  He demands a lot from himself, and it shows in the trenches.  Also helping Brewster is his versatility.  He has a great combination of height, bulk and footwork that would allow him to play any position at the next level.  As it is, it looks like he’ll settle in the interior, and specifically at center.  Scout compared him to Bruce Mathews, former NFL great, for this very reason.  It’s safe to say that Buckeye fans are going to like Michael Brewster, probably a lot more than they already do.

Another thing I think Buckeye fans are going to really like is the fascination Brewster has with the program.  Apparently, Brewster has been doing his homework on Ohio State lore, specifically interested in the great Ohio State lineman of the past.  He knows about LaCharles Bentley and he’s a fan of Nick Mangold.  He looks to both as exemplars of great Ohio State centers.  He knows the words to the alma mater, and the fight song.  He idolizes Woody Hayes. Indeed, combine this with some of the other things mentioned earlier, and I think what makes Brewster so great is that there’s no extra motivation he needs to perform well in the scarlet and gray.  We recruited a versatile 5-star lineman; we gained a fan with a nationalist zeal for all things scarlet and gray.  Hearing stuff about how much he’s been reading up on the program should be enough to make anyone who follows the program smile.

Must Work On: It’s cliche to say that he should work on his pass blocking more, mostly because high school football is so run heavy that it’s something everyone needs to work on coming out of high school.  In Brewster’s case, because he’s so aggressive with a pass rusher, he has a small inclination to get off-balance just to make contact.

The other thing I’ve noticed about Brewster is that he’s violent… very much so… perhaps more violent than I am, though I lack the safe haven of the gridiron for catharsis.  In fact, his violence is what makes me like him so much.  However, he has a small tendency to grab and throw to satisfy his unquenchable bloodlust.  This might draw the scrutiny of officials if they want to make an issue out of it.  All in all, I think this is a wonderful problem to have.  As it is, I think Michael Brewster, perhaps even more so than Mike Adams, might be the most likely candidate to score a fatality in the 2008 class.  If he’s reading this, please make the first fatality either a Michigander or an SEC player… pretty please.

Redshirt? Doubt it.  Eleven Warriors has drawn attention to some intelligence they received on Brewster that said he’s struggling a bit and might look at a redshirt.  I really doubt this ever comes to fruition.  Michael seems like the kind of kid that can get better more by doing than by watching.  If he’s struggling now, I think the best course of action might be to get some 3rd quarter snaps and some extended drive time with some of the veterans.  Brewster just seems like the kind of guy that likes the trial by fire.

Highlights: Scouting Ohio FINALLY uploaded to YouTube.

Miscellany:

• One of the major hang ups Brewster had initially about Ohio State was that he’d be so far removed from family that he might get homesick.  When Michael knew he wanted to attend Ohio State, his older brother Billy transferred from Florida State to Ohio State early to welcome him there in January 2008.  Billy Brewster currently works for the athletic department as a student intern.
• Maxwell Award winner for offensive lineman, joining Terrelle Pryor (QB), Ben Buchanan (P) and DeVier Posey (WR) as current Buckeyes to be named 2008 Maxwell Award winners.
• Justified the move to Ohio State as a return to his roots.  Michael Brewster was born in Kansas City, but moved to Florida at the age of 4.
• Also played hoops for his Edgewater team.  He averaged about 10pts and 10rebs and admitted that he absorbed more than his fair share of charging fouls… ‘atta boy.
• Parade and EA Sports All-America … USA Today all-USA … Orlando Sentinel Top 5 … Tampa Tribune “Best of the South” … Atlanta Journal-Constitution “Super Southern 100″.
• The Legend of Michael Brewster exists… if you’re interested.  My personal favorite is the one on E. Gordon Gee.
• Attended the US Army All-American Bowl in spite of the fact he was nursing a shoulder injury that put him on the physically unable to perform list.
• Naturally, Michael Brewster’s early verbal to Ohio State went over with Urban Meyer and Nick Saban just about well as a pregnant nun.  Both expressed that they thought nothing of his verbal to Ohio State.  Both continued after him and both, from what I’ve gathered, tried to remind him of Glendale.  In fact, Brewster tried to cut out them both altogether by just getting a new cellphone number… which lead to this interesting showdown with Urban Meyer.

“After I committed to Ohio State I had my cell phone number changed to end the recruiting calls,” Brewster explained. “It worked great for a while too. One day I showed up for school and Urban Meyer was standing in the front office. There was no way around him and he cornered me and asked me for my cell phone number.

So how did this situation resolve itself? You guessed it…

Oh wait… that’s not how it ended?

Of course, I gave it to him because it was so uncomfortable. I was sweating bullets. He’s called me four times in the past two weeks (around the end of September), but I don’t answer. That’s the end of that.

Dammit…. dammit dammit dammit. Opportunity lost. Oh well, I like my story better.  I’m sure Brewster will get him next time around.

However, with really nothing else further to add, I close this 20th and final installment the way I usually do, because I lack any other good way to do it.  Michael Brewster, and indeed the entire 2008 class of recruits, consider yourself better known, I guess.  Godspeed for the next four of five years.

1. hoo-ray! [↩]
2. A lot of the Brewster story can be read in this Scout.com article. [↩]
3. on Kyle Long, from what I’ve gathered, if Kyle Long decided to play college football at the next level as a focus sport, he undoubtably would have done so at Ohio State.  He opted instead for college baseball and signed with Florida State. [↩]
4. By the end of September, he had offers from Ohio State, Florida, Florida State, Miami, Tennessee, Ole Miss, Virginia and South Carolina. [↩]
5. He also expressed that he wanted to see Florida, as the designated “in-state school” to give a look.  I didn’t read much from this. [↩]
6. He watched Ohio State play Texas, but I’ve seen this vaguely worded.  He either attended the 2005 game in Columbus or, more likely, attended the 2006 game in Austin.  Anyone with any info is free to correct me here. [↩]
7. Lamaar Thomas and Shawntell Rowell were there as well. [↩]
8. An earlier visit came in early March 2007. I choose to focus on the Spring Game visit. [↩]
9. …or four, please… [↩]
10. Brewster attended Pro Day in Columbus as well, but I choose to skip this earlier visit and focus only on the Spring Game. [↩]