Our Honor Defend

Moving forward with the 16th installment of the second edition of this now 25 part series titled Better Know A Buckeye, I consider the case of the lone tight end in this class and the second of two poachings from That State Up North.  Reid Fragel, a native of Grosse Pointe, Michigan, bucked a trend that I think exists in the world of college football recruiting.  Reid purposely eschewed Michigan State — his second option — because Michigan State used their tight ends as an H-back too much for his liking.  Rather than become a finesse player, Reid just wants to put people on the ground.  It doesn’t hurt that most recruits think the world of Jim Tressel either.  In this feature, I recap his recruitment, leading to his May 27th, 2008 commitment.  Afterwards, I review strengths, weakness, miscellaneous things of note that should serve as a warning to anyone thinking it would be wise to mug money from Reid or his father, before ultimately concluding that Reid is better known.  The More You Know graphic will then be displayed, he will be put on the board, and then I’ll probably go do something for a little while.  I may drink some tea, have a granola bar, or just get back to work.  I’m getting off-topic.

Height: 6’8
Weight: 262lbs
40: 4.74 (lowest), 4.8 (more reliable)
High School: Grosse Pointe South HS; Grosse Pointe¹, TSUN.

His Recruitment: After reading through some of the comments in Corey Linsley’s feature last week, it occurred to me that I could be a little more brief in this section.  Fortunately, Reid’s recruitment wasn’t an exceptional case like Terrelle Pryor’s, so I can be parsimonious without compromising the narrative.  Briefly: Ohio State began to express an interest in Reid in late March of his junior year.  By that time, he had been around the Midwest sniffing for offers.  He camped in the summer of 2007 at Notre Dame, Michigan, Purdue and the Nerd Factory and expressed an interest in possibly playing for the Hawkeyes and the Wolverines (among others).  After his junior season, he and his old man hit the road in earnest.  Virginia, Georgia Tech and even USC expressed some interest, though the Trojans’ interest didn’t seem to extend beyond a few mailers.  His first offer came in mid-January, when Miami of Ohio offered.  Cincinnati followed suit not long after.

Enter Ohio State near the end of March.  Though the offer wasn’t immediately forthcoming, the new interest from the Buckeyes was enough for Reid and family to take a detour to Columbus while en route to a 7-on-7 passing camp in Akron.  He was blown away by what he saw there.  He talked extensively with John Peterson and Jim Tressel, took a tour of the WHAC facilities, and was given background information on the university itself.  The thought of being part of one of the largest — sometimes THE largest, depending on the academic year — university population was an exciting prospect for Reid.  It was still a process in its formative stages, but Ohio State was definitely a program of interest for Reid.

The impression made by Ohio State was enough to lure Reid back to Columbus for the Spring Game, coinciding with the period when both Michigan State and Ohio State offered him.  His activities and experiences during the weekend were typical of most recruits who attend Ohio State’s Spring Game — sans for one experience, discussed later — it was no less wonderful for Reid.  77,000+ in a rain-soaked Ohio Stadium for a glorified intersquad scrimmage impressed Reid, as did the stadium itself.  He did not see Ohio Stadium firsthand on his visit 3 weeks earlier, but liked what he saw in the Spring Game.  He ate dinner at the Eddie George grill on High Street, a place that I’ve put on my “to do” checklist if I can ever make it back to Columbus for any reason.  He even saw a bit of the nightlife in Columbus.  It was generally a great experience for Reid.

He expressed earlier that he would like to wrap up his commitment sometime in May, and definitely before his senior season of football.  Entering May, the Buckeyes and the Spartans led, but Reid wasn’t sure he had reached a decision.  It could be the next day, it could be at the end of the month, but Reid wanted to get the process done and wanted to make sure he was 100 percent on his decision.  Reid’s not the de-committing kind.

His Commitment: As it turned out, Reid met that May deadline.  On May 27th, Reid closed his recruitment process by issuing a verbal commitment to play college football at Ohio State over the in-state Spartans.  It was not an easy decision for Reid, since his interest in Michigan State was sincere.  However, two factors privileged the Buckeyes over the Spartans in the Reid Fragel sweepstakes.  First, and most important, Ohio State just felt more comfortable for Reid.

“I fell in love with the place… 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.”

The camaraderie among the future Buckeyes he got to meet in Columbus added to the comfortability factor.  Reid wants a national title and was pleased to meet people recruited by Ohio State that have the same goal in mind.

The other important factor emphasized by Reid was his position.  Reid has a very narrow vision of what he wants to do as a college football player.  First, he was a little uncomfortable with being recruited to play the offensive line.  He wouldn’t say no to the idea, but it was definitely not his first preference.  A school like Michigan, which recruited Reid but never got around to offering, definitely wanted him as a mobile offensive lineman (likely a left tackle).  Even Michigan State wasn’t very clear where they wanted Reid, only letting him know that they thought of him as a tight end a little late into the process.  Ohio State was the only school that let Reid know immediately that they thought of him as the ideal tight end for Tressel’s conventional offense.  Not only did that score big brownie points, but the distinction between how Michigan State and Ohio State use their tight ends came to mind for Reid.  Many upper echelon tight ends selecting a college fancy themselves being the next Dallas Clark or Kellen Winslow and want to be an integral part of the receiving game accordingly.  That’s not Reid; Reid just wants to be put on the line of scrimmage and put defenders into the ground.

Don’t get him wrong; he likes touchdowns.  However, he likes pancakes and touchdowns.  Pancakes seem to come first.  Practically speaking, Reid doesn’t want to be an H-back.  He doesn’t want to line up in the backfield, or flexed out wide of the offensive line.  He doesn’t like finesse; he likes pancakes.  He wants to be on the line, as a traditional tight end, putting people into the ground.  Michigan State’s offensive philosophy was too finesse for Reid’s liking.

Reid likes to block, and chose Ohio State accordingly.  This is good for him, I ‘spose.  Ask, and you shall receive.

Reid’s commitment was the 15th of the 2009 class, following fellow Michigander James Jackson by two weeks.  When was the last time the Buckeyes signed two Michiganders in a recruiting class?

Muggers Beware: While most of Reid’s recruiting story was par for the course, one exceptional story emerged during his visit to the Spring Game.

A would-be mugger saw Reid, his father and whoever else (I don’t know) and thought that they were prime targets to be victims of a petty crime.  Details elude me since I don’t have the gory details that came via (I think) Scout.com’s message boards, but the mugger approached Reid’s dad and made him cough over valuables.  Yes, he approached the man with the 6’8 260lb son in the group and robbed him… initially.  Rather than accept what just happened, Reid chased down the mugger in order to retrieve what was taken from his father.  Better yet, he gave the mugger a thrashing that opened the eyes of the other recruits on the visit.  Since the Spring Game is typically populated with recruits who are either strongly considering Ohio State, or have already committed, the other kids there became enamoured with the prospect of what a 6’8 260lb kid who just gave a criminal a beating of a lifetime could accomplish on the field for the Scarlet and Gray.  That’ll build camaraderie instantly.

I don’t care what measure you use, but going from 0 to stomping a mudhole in a street criminal, whatever length of time it took, is fast.  May every defensive end he encounters on a running play, or linebacker and defensive back that comes to tackle him with the ball in his hands, be the guy that just mugged his father.

If anyone has more details on this incident, feel free to share.

Where He Excels: Reid loves to block.  This is good, because he’ll be doing a lot of it at Ohio State.  Reid’s willingness to finish the block is the biggest advantage that I discerned in watching what I could.  Call it “playing to the whistle”, or whatever, but Reid isn’t satisfied until the person he’s engaged is on the ground.  In pass protection plays, this entails throwing the defensive end to the ground just when the ball is released.  On running plays, this entails driving defensive ends (but usually linebackers) well out of the camera frame even when the block has served its initial purpose.  Sure, he’ll flirt with an unnecessary roughness penalty if a ref wants to split hairs, but it’s not that level of wanton aggression that usually merits those type of calls.  It’s just Reid finishing what he started.  This willingness to finish what he started allows him to seal his man very well, creating running lanes for the ballcarrier.

Blocking will be his primary function at Ohio State, unless Tressel decides to mix things up in the passing game or our offensive line can be coached to such a point where a tight end isn’t needed to prevent the quarterback from being blown up immediately.  Still, there are positives he brings to the receiving game.  He’s obviously not Jake Stoneburner, but he’s learned how to use his body to extend and catch a ball that isn’t thrown between the numbers.  Most big guys are severely underdeveloped in this aspect.  Reid, while obviously not perfect in this regard, is already ahead of the curve (I think).  His speed is deceptive.  He may not be the ideal tight end that can double as a home run threat, but he would be viable in the intermediate passing game… should Tressel ever give him the opportunity.

I think he’s best for seam routes, or go routes, or anything that’ll get him vertical in a hurry.  I’m not sure he has the ideal change of direction speed, or route-running abilities, for out routes.  He’s 6’8, is deceptively fast, is 6’8, can move fairly well in traffic, is 6’8, and has hands that can grab most things that come his way.  He’s also 6’8, and weighs 260lbs.  Sure, he doesn’t have elusiveness, nor does he change direction very well, but he can just truck a defensive back in his way.

After all, that defensive back just mugged his father.

Must Work On: 6’8 is a blessing and a curse.  He’d be a big target for Pryor.  He’d be a wide target to elude for a pass-rusher.  He’s also disadvantaged leverage-wise.  Reid has the problem that most inordinately tall guys have in football: he plays too high.  They won’t get punished for it at the high school level because most high school football players aren’t very good, but they certainly will get punished for it at the collegiate level.  It’s not that Reid starts too high, he just ends too high.  Reid gets a good initial push and makes good initial contact.  But the longer the battle he’s stuck in, the higher he creeps up.  The more this happens, the more likely he gets pushed onto his back.

This leverage problem manifests in another important area.  Most of his strength exerted during a play comes through his upper body because he doesn’t display good enough bend to derive his power through his legs and lower body.  Again, you can get away with that at the high school level; you certainly will not get away with that at the college level.  With most of his power coming through his upper body, his hands up in a very naughty place for blockers: outside the numbers.  In order to exert leverage over his defender, his hands creep to the outside of his target, flirting with the boundary between blocking and holding.

I don’t expect him to become Dallas Clark, so I think the biggest area for improvement is technique.  He needs to play lower and learn to move his hands inside the numbers to make him a truly efficient tight end.

Elsewhere, I couldn’t decide if Reid does a great job disguising his passing route as a blocking assignment, or if he struggles to shed a defensive end and linebacker to get on his route.

Redshirt? I think so.  Jake Ballard’s a senior starter accompanied by two redshirt freshman (Stoneburner, DiLillo), and Ohio State seldom runs two-TE sets.  I expect Fragel will redshirt, barring an unforeseen injury that could thrust him on to the field in 2009.

Highlights: I think this is a representative sample of Reid’s senior season, though he was limited in effectiveness due to a thumb injury.

Miscellany

• Reid’s father — Mark Fragel Sr. — was a former Michigan State Spartan football player.  He transferred to Northern Michigan when the Spartans went on probationary status.
• On that note, Tressel must have done his homework when he invited Reid for his first visit.  Tressel told Reid that he and Reid’s old man actually have a history.  Apparently Mark Fragel Sr.’s last game for the Spartans was in the Rubber Bowl, against an Akron Zips team where Jim Tressel was an important graduate assistant and assistant coach.
• Reid’s aforementioned uncle, Joe Stalma, played football and basketball at Cincinnati.  He was an Ohio State fan even before Reid became a recruiting target for the coaching staff.
• Reid’s older brother — Mark Fragel Jr — was in Miami (OH)’s 2001 recruiting class.  I’m not sure he finished there.  The middle brother, Brett Fragel, played basketball for Monmouth.
• Most of Ohio State’s preliminary mailers to Reid were sent, in principle, to his high school.  However, Ohio State sent their mailers to the wrong high school.  In fact, they sent to Grosse Pointe North HS, which is South’s rival.  Fragel only found out about the mailers long after the staff finally got a hold of him.  As it turned out, one of Reid’s teachers at South is an assistant coach at North and he had to go fetch the mailers because North wasn’t going out of its way to forward them.
• Reid was a little upset about it, because the inability for Ohio State to get a hold of Reid through its normal means meant that the staff had a bunch of question marks listed next to Reid on their recruiting board.
• It may explain why Alabama never pursued him.  Alabama was the only other program that made the same mistake of trying to get a hold of Reid by sending mailers to the wrong school.  Reid didn’t get Alabama’s mailers in time, didn’t respond to them, and I think Alabama interpreted that as a display of disinterest from Reid.  It’s not too far off to suspect that Saban was honestly interested in Reid.  Saban recruits out of the Midwest with some sincerity, recruits Michigan especially, and Reid would be perfect for Saban’s offensive philosophy.
• He also received offers from Purdue and Maryland.
• Reid joined Chris Fields as the two Buckeyes at the 2009 Offense-Defense All-American Bowl.  Chris was on the victorious East squad while Reid was on the losing West squad.  Reid’s performance stuck out.  Allen Trieu, of Scout.com, put Reid Fragel as the second-best player on the West squad overall (in practice and in game) behind Ty Phillips (Missouri signee).  He had this to say about Reid’s experience.

2. Reid Fragel, TE, Grosse Pointe South (Mich.)
At almost 6’8, 260-lbs with very little body fat, Fragel was the talk of practice this week. It wasn’t just for his size though, he pancaked several defensive linemen, including Phillips and was really the only one who could block him in practice. That had folks bringing up offensive tackle again, but Fragel promptly made a few great catches in practice and then had four in the game.

• He broke his thumb during his senior season, ultimately compromising his production for his last go-around for Grosse Pointe South.  He was able to play, but wore a heavy cast on his hand that turned him into a glorified tackle.
• 11W caught up with Reid Fragel, where he disclosed that he’s planning on a business degree at Ohio State.
• The Detroit Free Press’ archiving system sucks.  I hate them for it.  If they could only be cool like the Pittsburgh-area newspapers.  An article written by Krista Jahnke was published shortly after Signing Day detailing his experience.  He did say this regarding Sparty:

Fragel and his father, Mark, traveled to East Lansing on May 27 and listened to Dantonio make his case from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. After the meeting, the Fragels sat in the parking lot. Reid leaned his head against the seatback and told his dad he knew where he wanted to go.

“I said, ‘Really?’ ” Mark Fragel said. “He said, ‘I’m going to Ohio State.’ ”

They hadn’t even left East Lansing. But even surrounded with all things green and white, Fragel knew he was a Buckeye.

“It came down to where I fit in best,” said Fragel, who wants to play tight end but is sometimes pegged as a future offensive tackle. “Position-wise, I fit in at Ohio State better. And their program knows how to win and wants to win just as much as I do. It’s good to be on a team with a bunch of guys who have the same mentality that you do.”

• Detroit News ran an article on Reid Fragel, where he talks about his impressions of Ohio State on Signing Day.  I wish the Detroit area newspapers were as cool as the Pittsburgh area newspapers.
• There’s nascent discussion of him becoming a defensive end at Ohio State, but I don’t see where that’d be a good move.  I don’t think he’s as explosive on the other side of the ball, nor does he demonstrate great awareness as a defensive end.
• He dropped basketball after playing it in his first years in high school.  Rather than hit the court, he opted to use the time to lift and prepare for football.
• Pre-compiled stats, courtesy of Bucknuts:

* Vital statistics: Fragel missed some time as a senior with a broken thumb, but he played much of the year and made a strong impact at tight end and defensive end. Because of the cast, he did not catch many balls (16 catches on the year). But he was a standout on defense with 61 tackles, six for a loss, one interception, four sacks, one forced fumble, one interception and two blocked kicks. He was a Detroit Free Press all-metro team pick. Fragel started at defensive end his sophomore season and tight end and defensive end his junior season. He caught 24 passes for 330 yards and three touchdowns as a junior. Fragel played in the Offense-Defense national all-star game in January.

* Rankings: Fragel was rated as the No. 15 overall prospect in the state of Michigan by the Detroit Free Press. He is rated as the nation’s No. 48 tight end by ESPN.com. SuperPrep considers Fragel as an All-American, ranking him as the 25th-best prospect in the Midwest, the eighth-best prospect in Michigan and the nation’s No. 13 tight end.

Reid Fragel, you’re now better known.

Let’s 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	04.10	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	03.05
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	05.11
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	04.24	Jonathan Newsome	LB/DE	Glenville, OH
Chris Fields	WR	Painesville, OH	04.02	John Simon	DE	Youngstown, OH	03.26
Reid Fragel	TE	Grosse Pointe, TSUN	05.18	Jordan Whiting	LB	Louisville, KY	03.12
Kenny Guiton	QB	Aldine, TX		Jamie Wood	DB	Pickerington, OH	02.26
Jordan Hall	ATH	Jeannette, PA	04.20

1. It’s basically suburban Detroit. [↩]