Our Honor Defend

I apologize if posting around here has seemed sporadic and disinterested over the past week, but that’s all a function of a heavy workload.  In short: I’m still learning how to perfectly sandbag the job to allow for private endeavours like this.  My problem: I’m a compulsive workaholic.

Personal life aside, I present here the 7th installment of the 2nd edition of this now 25-part series titled Better Know A Buckeye by continuing with the second of the three spring quarter enrollees this year.  Jamie Wood, a safety product and teammate of previously better known Zach Boren, was one of the early gems of the 2009 class and one of the 5 future Buckeyes participating in the US Army All-American Bowl.  His story is that of all the good Ohio kids: Good Ohio kids aspire to play at Ohio State.  It doesn’t hurt either that our coaching staff is almost universally liked and respected either.  Below, I recap Jamie’s recruitment, leading up to his February 24th commitment.  Afterwards, I discuss Jamie’s strengths and areas for improvement on the gridiron and close with miscellaneous things of note.  I close with that More You Know graphic that you’re probably all tired of seeing and the “board” if you will that Jamie will be “put on” at the conclusion of this feature.

Height: 6’2
Weight: 190lbs
40: 4.48
GPA: 3.4
High School: Pickerington Central HS; Pickerington, Ohio

His Recruitment

Jamie appeared on Ohio State’s radar and the recruiting world in early October 2007.  He received an offer on February 19th, 2008 and he committed 5 days later.  It was, for all intents and purposes, a brief recruitment.  Below, I sift through this brief recruitment and construct the sequence that brought Jamie to his February 24th decision.

It should be no surprise that Jamie’s name began to circulate around the recruiting world in October 2007 since he was one of the stars on a star-laden seventh-ranked (in the state) Pickerington Central team.  The undefeated Tigers boasted a roster that had Zach Boren, previously better known, and Patrick White, the son of former Buckeye Terry White (and current signee with Michigan State¹ ) in the same 2009 class.  Better yet: all three local boys were high on Ohio State.  Boren, White and Wood took the initiative to attend some Ohio State games, starting with the 2007 Ohio State-Nerdwestern beatdown.  Therein, Wood expressed his appreciation of the atmosphere and assistant coaches Luke Fickell and Paul Haynes.  Recruiting was starting to pick up for the junior Wood.  He was receiving mailers from a diverse array of programs, ranging from Louisville to Florida and LSU.  He was even going to take a visit soon to Cincitucky to watch the Bearcats play the Mountaineers.  However, in spite of the interest coming in to Jamie’s mailbox from around the country, there was only one interest for Jamie.

“But Ohio State is No. 1.  I love the Buckeyes.”

Still, interest developed in Jamie through the rest of 2007 and into early 2008, though the junior wasn’t generating much hype through the process to get an extensive body of literature written about him.  Cincinnati, always an early entrant into the Ohio prepster sweepstakes, came through with an offer in early December.  It was Jamie’s first college football scholarship offer, though others eventually followed suit.  By February 18th, 2008, Jamie held offers from Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Miami (OH), Akron, Northwestern and Stanford.  He was also doing some extensive traveling by this time.  He attended Northwestern’s Junior Day and was going to attend Ohio State’s Junior Day as well on February 24th.

In spite of the plans to attend Junior Day at Ohio State, Jamie didn’t think that Ohio State was that interested in him.  He had been a visitor to Ohio State, but did so on the aforementioned Patrick White’s dime.  Jamie thought that he had been relegated to peripheral importance for the coaching staff.  Indeed, Jamie thought that Patrick White was going to be the player from his team to get offered by Ohio State, and not him.  While Ohio State was his dream school and while his interest in Ohio State remained strong, he had resigned himself to be happy with his current set of offers.  If nothing else, Junior Day would be an excuse to watch a Buckeye basketball game.

However, Jim Tressel decided he was going to make it worth Jamie’s time to come to Junior Day.   Tressel called Jamie’s HS coach (Jay Sharrett) instructing him to tell Jamie to call him.  The HS coach wrote down Jim Tressel’s number on a blank sheet of paper, handed it to Jamie after a practice simply saying “call this number”.  Jamie, ever the clever boy, looked at the 614 area code and asked if it was Tressel’s number.  Jamie’s coach laughed, subtly revealing that Jamie sniffed out the number.  When Jamie called on the afternoon of February 19th, Tressel offered him a scholarship.  The offer was understandably an important one for Jamie.  After all, it was the offer he most wanted.  Though Jamie wanted to make an informed decision about where he was going to spend the next several years of his life, it didn’t appear that he left too much doubt that he had gotten the offer he wanted.

His Commitment

On February 24th, Junior Day was held around the nationally televised Ohio State-Wisconsin basketball game.  It was a game that Ohio State lost 58-53, but a game that served as the backdrop for an important day in recruiting.  One reason: Jamie Wood committed to Ohio State.

How the decision was made stands as an antithesis to how the casual college football fan sees the nature of recruiting these days.  With press conferences and nationally televised decisions quickly becoming vogue across the college football landscape, Jamie simply and quietly told Tressel of his decision.  Indeed, after the tour during Junior Day, he even asked if he could speak with Jim Tressel privately to let him know.  There were no pictures taken and no crowd to cheer his choice, just the visibly excited Jim Tressel to get up from behind his desk, hurry over to Jamie and appreciatively shake his hand.

Why Ohio State was his decision shouldn’t require too much guessing.  Jamie was a lifelong Buckeyes fan, and perhaps all it took for Jamie to choose Ohio State was for the coaching staff to not be belligerent jerks.  However, Ohio State’s coaching staff was more than that for Jamie.  They were kind and they were gracious.  They scored immediate brownie points when Tressel told Jamie as he notified him of the scholarship offer that he didn’t want to pressure Jamie or make him feel uncomfortable.  He wanted him to take however much time was necessary in order to make an informed decision.  Junior Day just proved to be the tipping point.  Jamie didn’t plan to commit that day, but couldn’t help himself after seeing the facilities and talking with the coaching staff.  As he told Kurelic, when it comes to “Why Ohio State and why now?”:

“I’ve grown up an Ohio State Buckeye.  The decision to be a Buckeye, why or why not, why would you pass it up.”

Jamie’s February 24th decision made him the 8th verbal commitment in the class.

Where He Excels

Several things stand out regarding Jamie and underscore how he has all the tools to thrive as a safety for Ohio State.  The violence you’ll see in his junior and senior year films is wonderful.  Whether on offense or on defense, Jamie is usually hurting someone.  After a couple of the hits you’ll see below, the victim was slow getting up.  However, playing strong safety requires more than just aggression.  Closing speed, ball skills and fluidity of movement (especially in the hips) come to mind as strengths of Jamie as well.  There’s little wasted movement from Jamie in closing in on a receiver and it allows him to disrupt the pass, usually for an incompletion.  Jamie also demonstrated an ability to jump off the line of scrimmage in punt rushing situations as well.  Most importantly, though, Jamie won’t shy away from the physical part of the game.  Indeed, for a kid who was scared of contact when he first started playing, he relishes it now.

He also avoids the temptation that most elite-level talents have of trying to blow up a player when a well-formed tackle will suffice.  Jamie’s form is great and he wraps up regularly.

Lastly, one of the highest compliments afforded to Jamie came from his head coach at Pickerington who praised him as a player who will always make the play when it’s needed of him.  He was a team leader and played every position on the field except quarterback and offensive/defensive line.  Whether as a tight end, or a linebacker or a tailback (or wherever), Jamie was clutch for his Pickerington Central team and demonstrated the necessary resolve on the sideline as well.

While most of us don’t know what it was like on the sideline with Jamie or his HS team, I think we can all see elements of this when Jamie does some kind of post-TD or post-big play taunt or strut.  You know what? Screw sportsmanship.  I like seeing stuff like that.  I like seeing someone walk around the field like they own the place.

Must Work On

While Jamie demonstrated a bit of a knack in the punt rush and on backside pursuit while on the line of scrimmage, I’ve encountered some musings that perhaps his acceleration isn’t as good as it could be.  This compromises his overall speed and makes cornerback and free safety unlikely for him.  I’m a little ambivalent on how true this is, but I’ll consider it if it means having stuff to put in this section.  I do agree that he’ll end up at strong safety for the Buckeyes, though Lesmerises offers a contrary view.

Also, Jamie will have to put on weight.  This goes without saying.  But then again, so does everyone coming from the high school ranks.

Redshirt?

Early enrollees typically don’t redshirt.  Further, while both safety positions are locked up going into 2009, Jamie seems to be assured a spot in the two-deep if he progresses well in the spring and summer.  In other words, he should be an injury away from starting his freshman year and, at the least, he’ll be on special teams.

Highlights

The first video is from Jamie’s junior year, the latter from his senior year.

Miscellany

• It’s unfortunate that this story wasn’t prodded further by recruiting analysts or anyone else with access to Jamie Wood and a blog/website of some kind.  Still, Jamie’s success on the gridiron and in the world of recruiting was a particular blessing for his father.  His father, Jamie Wood Jr, was once a heavily coveted recruit himself, but had to turn down a shot at college football glory in order to care for his newborn son.  When Jamie started raking in offers, both father and son knew of the significance of the turn of events.  As John Decker stated, it was a dream come true for two.
• On a related note, Jamie only started playing football when he moved in with his father when he was nine years old.  Not a lot has been written about this issue, though there seems to be a heartwarming story to be told here.  That said, I can’t blame the Woods for not wanting to talk about this in depth.  For all intents and purposes, it is a private matter.
• Jamie has admitted to having a little too much free time on his hands since he graduated from high school in December.  He stays up to 4am playing video games and wakes up at 12pm every day.  In doing so, he makes me long for the day when I used to be able do that.  He’ll have to get used to a life where you can’t do that anymore, though.
• Jamie was one of five future Buckeyes in attendance at the US Army All-American Bowl, joining John Simon, Marcus Hall, Dorian Bell, and Corey Brown.  This might be the occasion where Jamie observed John Simon’s keen sense of fashion as previously mentioned in the interview with Alex of 11w.
• As far as I know, Penn State was the only other offer he got after Ohio State’s offer.
• Jamie has his eyes set on jersey no. 2 or no. 3 for Ohio State.
• Nobody made this explicit (as far as I know), but Ohio State appeared to be the only program to offer Jamie explicitly as a safety.  Other programs like Kentucky were going to allow him to compete for wide receiver.
• Jamie’s commitment on Junior Day was probably the least discussed story from that day.  If you remember, a still uncommitted Terrelle Pryor was also on hand that day, along with teammate and future Buckeye Jordan Hall, to watch the game.  For Terrelle, it was a bit of a vacation while he prepared for his state title run in basketball.
• Before, I had to go fish far and wide for these HS statistics.  Fortunately, Bucknuts has made it easier for me.
  • Vital Statistics: As a senior, Wood had two interceptions and 80 tackles and also scored nine touchdowns for Pickerington Central. Wood was a first-team All-Ohio pick in Division I, according to The Associated Press. He was also a first-team pick on the ONN/Ohio High All-Ohio team. He was also a first-team pick on The Columbus Dispatch All-Metro team. Wood played in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl.
  • Rankings: He is rated as the No. 9 overall senior prospect in Ohio, according to Ohio High magazine. Also rated as the No. 3 overall prospect in the state, according to The Ohio Football Recruiting News. Wood was also listed in the Detroit Free Press Best of the Midwest team, ranking at No. 14 in the Midwest. Wood is rated as a national top-150 prospect by ESPN.com. That site ranks him as the nation’s No. 100 prospect overall and also as the nation’s 12th-best safety prospect. SuperPrep considers Wood as an All-American, ranking him as the seventh-best prospect in the Midwest and the nation’s No. 15 defensive back.
• Other measurables: Jamie also possesses a 33 inch vertical jump, can bench 300 and squat 355.  He runs the shuttle in 4.2.

As always, Jamie Wood, consider yourself better known.

Let’s go ahead and put him on the board.

Class of 2009
Name	Position	Hometown	Better Known?	Name	Position	Hometown	Better Known?
CJ Barnett	DB	Clayton, OH	02.20	Marcus Hall	OL	Glenville, OH
Dorian Bell	LB	Monroeville, PA		Adam Homan	FB	Coldwater, OH	01.29
Adam Bellamy	DT	Aurora, OH		Carlos Hyde	RB	Naples, FL
Jaamal Berry	RB	Miami, FL		James Jackson	WR	Grand Ledge, TSUN
Zach Boren	FB	Pickerington, OH	01.22	Storm Klein	LB	Nerk, Ahia	02.02
Corey Brown	WR/DB	Monroeville, PA		Corey Linsley	OL	Youngstown, OH
Duron Carter	WR	Ft. Lauderdale, FL		Sam Longo	OL	Belbrook, OH
Dominic Clarke	DB	Frederick MD	02.11	Jack Mewhort	OL	Toledo, OH	02.05
Melvin Fellows’ Safari Planet	DE	Garfield Heights, OH		Jonathan Newsome	LB/DE	Glenville, OH
Chris Fields	WR	Painesville, OH		John Simon	DE	Youngstown, OH
Reid Fragel	TE	Grosse Pointe, TSUN		Jordan Whiting	LB	Louisville, KY
Kenny Guiton	QB	Aldine, TX		Jamie Wood	DB	Pickerington, OH	02.26
Jordan Hall	ATH	Jeannette, PA

1. I don’t doubt for a second that Patrick White would be a Buckeye if he were offered, but an offer from Ohio State never came.  Michigan State got a good one. [↩]