Post-Signing Day Roundtable
Zombie Nation took it upon himself to put together a Big Ten Bloggers Roundtable for this week on the topic of the recruiting hauls around the conference. I thought I’d go ahead and take a stab at it, if no one else objects.
1. Were you pleased with this year’s recruiting class? Where did your team excel? Where did they fall short?
I have no real qualms with our recruiting class and Ohio State’s recruing class seems to achieved consensus for best in show among Big Ten teams. The Buckeyes hosted 30 players on official visits, signed 25 and finished with a top 3 overall class in the country (per Rivals.com). Naturally, we can debate the validity of the rankings — can Ohio State be no. 1 in this regard? Is Michigan’s class better? — but these questions miss the point that there’s plenty of reason to be excited about our class of O’Niners.
The 2009 class marks the second consecutive year that Ohio State’s recruiting class has been elite. A compare/contrast of 2008/2009 to 2003-2007 shows a marked difference between the caliber of athletes that Ohio State has brought in recently and the classes before them. Still, for all the three-stars that Ohio State has brought in, several have exceeded expectations beyond anyone’s expectations (see: Laurinaitis, Jenkins, Robiskie among others) and there’s some optimism on my end that the present crop of prep stars may have higher ceilings than their predecessors. Recruiting is the life blood of a top-tier program and it seems like Ohio State has made this a point of emphasis.
Specifically, I’m interested in the linebackers Ohio State has signed in this class. Dorian Bell appears to be the headliner of the crop. He is the Army All-American of the group, does a brilliant job at timing and concealing his blitzes and is the fast, explosive “spread defender” outside linebacker that Ohio State could certainly use these days. Others certainly stand out. Storm Klein, an appropriately named linebacker from Nerk, Ahia, is a jawdropping athlete with size and speed to spare. Sporting News thinks he’s the future Butkus Award winner of any linebacker prospect signed by a Big Ten school this year. Storm’s good friend, Jordan Whiting, of Louisville, KY, was the first commit in the class and is a player that I’m surprised hasn’t gotten more attention. He’s already built like a tank — maintaining speed will be an issue going forward — but is a model citizen off the field and shows ample aggression on the gridiron. Me likey.
The Buckeyes did fall short on a few dimensions, though these points are minor. First, Buckeye fans will probably never hear the end of how “Tressel can’t close”. Pryor notwithstanding, the coaching staff seems to have quiet, almost disappointing, finales. While Michigan makes a late surge, and most everyone in the SEC pulls in last minute surprises, Ohio State’s coaches mind the fax machine, quietly collecting faxed LOIs and probably bemoaning the recent decisions of Tajh Boyd (compensated by the addition of Kenny Guiton) and Marlon Brown. The ice cream still tastes sweet, but there’s nary a sprinkle on top. Elsewhere, I don’t think the Buckeyes did a great job addressing the secondary, at least in terms of quantity. Quality is certainly there, but Ohio State didn’t really compensate for the losses of Bradley McDougald (scholarship pulled, eventually signed with Kansas), Justin Green (last second decommit, signed with Illinois) and Darrell Givens (decommit rather early in the process, signed with Penn State). The Buckeyes lost Donald Washington and Malcolm Jenkins, dismissed Eugene Clifford early in the season, and they will lose Anderson Russell, Kurt Coleman, Andre Amos and Aaron Gant next year. They brought in CJ Barnett, Dominic Clarke and Jamie Wood. Corey Brown will probably be moved to cornerback as well, but that remains to be seen. The Buckeyes probably could’ve used another safety in that class at the least.
2. Name one or two players you want to see get on the field ASAP, and where you think they will fit in.
This is an interesting question for Ohio State because I don’t think there are as many obvious suspects in this class as there were in last year’s class (see: Terrelle Pryor, Michael Brewster, JB Shugarts, Etienne Sabino, Mike Adams, Mike Adams, Terrelle Pryor and Mike Adams). Still, I’ll volunteer two that I’ll guess will play important roles.
Corey Brown is an important case because he’s an either/or (WR/CB) at two important positions where freshmen may feature quite prominently. Brown is an all-around exceptional athlete with great burst. The speed isn’t Percy Harvin, but, as a wide receiver, the quickness demonstrated will create separation should he play wide receiver and the aforementioned quickness, and smothering size, will make him a tough task for opposing wide receivers. Corner seems to be the likely destination and the young man from Monroeville, PA may see some playing time if he can push Andre Amos and Travis Howard (RS frosh) in the summer. The dude did have 3 interceptions in the Hawaii v. Mainland game.
James Jackson is another name I think Buckeye fans should know. Duron Carter gets discussion (deservingly so), but James seems to be an unknown commodity among Buckeye fans lately. James comes to Ohio State by way of Grand Ledge, Michigan and runs a reported 4.31 40. I’ll go ahead and downplay the significance of that measure, but there’s still plenty of reason to want to see James Jackson get on the field. He’s a vertical threat when the last season seemed to have no receiver capable of meeting that need. The speed he has is real and may surprise you if you get caught looking at his short strides. He should compete for playing time in any 4 or 5 wide sets that Ohio State runs in 2009. Further, in one of the coolest things I’ve encountered in the past few years of following Buckeye recruiting, Grand Ledge’s HS coach asked Ohio State’s staff for some plays from the playbook to incorporate into his offense to get young James ready for the next level. To be fair, James isn’t a perfect 5-star product. But, combine the elite acceleration, vertical threat capabilities, the acquired familiarity with Ohio State’s offense and the early enrollment to get a headstart on his career (and, hopefully, working on route-running and body control), and I think we might be on to something here.
3. This one’s purely for the sake of argument. Much has been made about the SEC’s recruiting ‘dominance’ over the BigTen, particularly this year. Either validate that claim, or try to prove it wrong. At least vent a little bit. You know you want to.
I’ll go ahead and relent that the SEC schools, on average, do a better job at pulling in top-class athletes to their respective programs as freely as fans of said schools should admit that the willingness to offer, aggressively recruit and sign almost certain non-qualifiers is a curious decision to say the least. If someone can empirically demonstrate that what I just said is wrong, I’d be more than willing to admit to being wrong. However, a quickie side-by-side comparison of the Big Ten schools vis-a-vis the SEC schools using Rivals.com indices, debatable as they are, seem to support this. Important for Ohio State’s sake — and indeed, anyone else in the Big Ten — is that recruiting, while invariably important, is but half the battle. Getting top flight athletes to come to Ohio State is one thing, but they obviously have to be much better by time they leave. I don’t think Utah had any 5-stars on their roster, and their roster is probably overrun with JUCOs, but their case shows how player development (and good schemes/coaching, of course) are just as important for winning games.
Besides, being a resident of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, I try to advance my days without acknowledging the SEC. Let’s move on to something more cheerful.
4. Going into next year (already), where does your team need to focus its efforts? How about the Big Ten as a whole? What can the conference/your team do better to attract more highly-regarded recruits, or is it even an issue?
The Buckeyes will have to start thinking about finding replacements for some of the Brew Crew members who did not redshirt this season. Specifically, the Buckeyes should look into taking a top-flight QB prospect as they look to life post-Pryor. Nick Montana (yes… the last name does not mislead you), Devin Gardner and Robert Bolden, the latter two from Michigan, will receive attention. Nick Montana already has an offer. God knows it’s too early to tell if only they will receive attention. The Buckeyes will need to take more than a few players to bolster the secondary, especially at safety. Defensive end is another must-get category in 2010. Presently, the Buckeyes already have two commits at that position (JT Moore, Jamel Turner), but may think about taking another one as well.
I can’t speak to issues for other Big Ten teams, but Ohio State seems to be doing something right. It is bringing in top level talent now and it seems to have struck a chord with parents and recruits about a family atmosphere to support and nurture the recruit in question1. I can’t imagine losing big games on national television will help any. Indeed, I’d like to see that problem go away forever. We’re doing fine, though. That’s ultimately all I care about.
One word/number answers
How many freshmen (in your class) redshirt in 2009? I’ll guess 10.
Did you watch live TV coverage on signing day? Does justin.tv count for the Marlon Brown presser? If so, yes.
If not, how many times did you hit ‘refresh’ on your browser on signing day? Too many times to count. I don’t think I got much work done on Signing Day with all the refreshing I was doing of BuckeyePlanet’s forums.
Are you going to the Spring Game?
I can’t afford it, but if someone is willing to subsidize my trip, I’d be more than willing to go.
- Alex Boone… I know… I know… [↩]
With regards to your answer for #3….the SEC schools may pull in more highly rated prospects, but 1) They, as a conference, generally oversign more than the Big Ten, meaning not all those kids are on the team, and 2) These recruiting services are biased towards southern players, because they are in business to make money, and they make more of it in subscriptions, etc. from the South, due to the increased focus on HS and college sports because of the lack of pro teams. It’s similar to the “Tom Lemming-Notre Dame” effect, only not quite as blatant.
Oh, and I forgot- if you look at the “NFL players per conference per team”, there’s an average difference of like .5 players, which helps aid my argument above.
This is true, and Rivals.com’s indices seem to be biased towards quantity moreso than quality. Good point.