Our Honor Defend

The eighth installment of the third edition of this now 19-part series titled Better Know A Buckeye continues chronologically, this time discussing the case of Drew Basil.  Basil is the lonesome kicker of the class and the first true specialist I will have to better know since Ben Buchanan way back in the way back machine in this blog’s annals.  Unlike more interesting stories — notably Terrelle Pryor, Zach Domicone, Kenny Guiton and so on, Basil’s story is mostly uneventful.  Kickers and punters seldom have many recruiting sagas.  Basilcovitchlalinski Jr. is profiled through the remainder of this feature in usual fashion.  I mention strengths and weaknesses after discussing his brief recruitment, before concluding with tidbits of information, the graphic and the board.

Height: 6’2
Weight: 190lbs
40: 4.75
High School: Chillicothe HS; Chillicothe, Ohio

His Recruitment: Kickers and punters are a necessary evil in college football recruiting.   Their relevance to the game is readily apparent, but remember that college football coaches only have 85 scholarships to use and, in principle, can not take in anymore than 25 recruits in a class.  It is not an uncommon strategy for coaches to rely on walk-ons for those spots exclusively.  In this understanding, scholarships are precious commodities to be used on skillplayers alone while walk-ons can fill out the roster.  They are not particularly high demand and you only really need one for each position.  Aspiring punters and kickers know what the norms for this position are as well.  After all, it is a fairly low-cost/high-reward approach.  No scholarship is promised and there is a possibility that this approach can yield a real gem.  Ohio State does some of this too (Ryan Pretorius, Devin Barclay, Aaron Pettrey), but Tressel, through the years, has made it clear that he believes that head coaches that rely on walk-ons exclusively do so at their own peril.  Periodically, Tressel will extend a scholarship to a specialist to make sure that a blue chipper is in the mix at both the punter or kicker spots.

This was the case for the 2010 recruiting class.  Tressel did not have many scholarships to extend, but planned to take some specialists in the class.  Ryan Pretorious graduated after the 2008 season while Aaron Pettrey and Jon Thoma are seniors in 2009.  Devin Barclay, then-backup, will be a senior for the 2010 season.  Essentially, Ben Buchanan would be the depth and competition for both special teams spots if the Buckeyes could not add someone in the 2010 class.  Two offers were extended.  One was to Will Hagerup, a combo punter/kicker that I think the Buckeyes saw more as a punter than kicker.  Hagerup was offered by the Buckeyes on June 29.  Basil, more kicker than punter, was offered concurrently.  Hagerup eventually committed to Michigan after seeing, I’m sure, that he will have plenty of opportunities to hone his craft punting.  Basil, on the other hand, took just a few days to commit to Ohio State.

His Commitment: Basil committed to Ohio State within a week of receiving his scholarship offer.  There are plenty of things to consider regarding his commitment.  First, kickers and punters tend to not acquire impressive offer sheets.  Even the elite ones run into the problem that sometimes the national powers are not in a position of need at those spots.  This gets much more apparent the further one goes down the punter/kicker rankings.  Basil acquired offers from Air Force, Cincinnati, Kentucky and Purdue before getting the Ohio State offer.  It should be pretty obvious what offer would have the most significance to the Ohio kid.

Moreover, kids that end up profiled in these features come to Ohio State because they think it a pretty sweet place to be and think of Tressel and company as coaches for whom they want to play.  Basil made a trip to Columbus shortly after receiving his offer.  He checked out the athletic complexes, the Fisher College of Business and chatted with Jim Tressel for a while before thinking that Columbus was the place he wanted to be.

Basil is the eighth commitment of the 2010 class, following the commitment of tailback Roderick Smith.  Smith committed a day earlier.

Where He Excels: The benefit of Drew Basil’s early enrollment at Ohio State is that we have discovered that he has some leg power and some solid lift.  His 50 yard field goal for the Chillicothe Cavaliers is a school record, accomplished versus Jackson High School in 2008.  Since he enrolled at Ohio State, we have discovered that this power has shown in practices and scrimmages.  He, Devin Barclay and Ben Buchanan have factored into the placekicking situation in 2010.  Barclay is the odds-on favorite to carry the momentum of the Iowa game into the 2010 senior season while Buchanan may be asked to serve as punter.  Barclay has been solid within 40 while Basil (and Buchanan) appears to demonstrate greater reliability from beyond.  Recall that Basil was given the task of attempting a 60 yard prayer before halftime at the spring game (missed short, in the interest of full disclosure) and kicked a 47 yarder early in the 4th quarter to give Gray a 10-7 lead.

Must Work On: Whereas Buchanan was equally likely to be used as punter or kicker, Basil is a better kicker prospect than punter.  His development at this position is important.

I’d like to see more touchbacks from him and, indeed, from anyone handling kickoffs.  He averaged 65 yards a kickoff, which was essentially equal to Buchanan and Barclay’s efforts in the spring game.  He even had one that was fielded at the goal line.  My preference on kickoffs is for every one to be a touchback and I’d love to see more of this going forward.  If touchdowns must be scored against our defense, let them be 80 yard drives rather than 70 yard drives or less.  Consider: the worst kickoff return team in 2009 (Miami of Ohio) averaged 15 yards a kickoff return.  The next worst, Buffalo, averaged just under 18 yards a kickoff return.  The worst Big Ten team, Penn State, averaged 19 yards a return.  The worst BCS team, Georgia Tech, averaged over 21 yards a return.  If our kickers average 65 yards a kickoff, thus putting the point of return at the 5 yard line, the starting point of the ensuing drive is always better for the oncoming offense than if the ball was kicked out of the end zone, ceteris paribus.  This gets more pronounced for the better return units, such as Cincinnati, Texas and Florida last year.  Further, there is always a margin of error (i.e, Darrell Johnson-Koulianos, Iowa 2009), albeit one that exists for both sides (i.e, 2009 Minnesota game).  How often do you see kickoff units fly down the field fast enough to pin the other team behind their own 15?  This is less a comment on Basil than it is an expressed goal on my end that I’d like to see accomplished by our kickers.

Lastly, it is worth reiterating that the width of the uprights narrows at the college level.  Adjusting to this change, as well as proving to be reliable¹ from multiple distances and angles, is important for any kicker wanting to capture the hearts of Buckeye fans as Mike Nugent once did.

Redshirt? I think so.  Barclay is a senior and Buchanan has already used a redshirt.  If everyone remains healthy, I think Basil redshirts in 2010.

Highlights: Junior film is first up.  This is followed by sophomore film, introduced by Drew Basil himself.  The latter video was done in order to send to college football coaches as an introduction.

Miscellany:

• Expect Drew Basil to be picking up some All-Academic Big Ten and NCAA accolades in the future.  He has a 3.9 GPA, 23 ACT, and is in the National Honor Society.
• Drew Basil is the baby of the family and, if I had to guess, this has to be a brother of his.  The link leads to some Drew Basil compilation videos as well as some YouTube videos of the Drew Basil Fan Club.
• Basil is the only early enrollee of this class.
• In his home country, Drew Basilcovitchlalinski Jr. could have been a minor league soccer player.  As it turns out, Basil was a pretty good soccer player for Chillicothe.  He was a midfielder and, apparently, conference player of the year as a senior.
• While he has more invested in being a placekicker in the future than a soccer player, his soccer team had better success.  Chillicothe won their first game of the 2009 season (against Hamilton Township) before dropping the next nine decisions.  Meanwhile, his soccer team won the conference crown in 2009.  Hopefully, the NCAA will amend its draconian celebration rules to allow Basil to lift the hem of his jersey over his face while sliding on his knees, celebrating a successful field goal in the third quarter of a 38-0 demolition of [INSERT MAC SNACK HERE].  Because, seriously, why not?  I’m also hoping Ohio Stadium can better incorporate flags, scarves, singing, flares and all-around mayhem in the stands.
• Additional hobbies include bowling and playing Tiger Woods golf on his Xbox.
• Kicking camp profile (and additional awesome photos): here.
• Kickers tend to not have many pre-compiled stats.  Here they are nonetheless, courtesy of Bucknuts.

* Vital Statistics: Basil earned second-team All-Ohio honors in Division III as a senior. He made 7 of 11 field goals during his senior season with a long of 47 yards. He connected on 13 of 13 extra points. Basil averaged 62.1 yards on his 22 kickoffs and had 15 touchbacks. He also had 56 punts and averaged 38 yards per boot. His long punt was 58 yards and eight of his punts were downed inside the 20-yard line. Basil made 8 of 14 field goals during his junior season with a long of 50 yards. He averaged 40.2 yards per punt. Basil had 23 of his kickoffs result in touchbacks. During his sophomore season Basil was 5 of 5 on field goals with a long of 38 yards. He made 24 of 26 extra points. Basil punted 47 times, averaging 33.6 yards per boot.

* Rankings: He is rated as the No. 60 overall senior prospect in Ohio, according to Ohio High magazine/JJHuddle.com. Also rated as the No. 29 overall prospect in the state, according to The Ohio Football Recruiting News. SuperPrep rates Basil as the 79th-best prospect in the Midwest. ESPN Scouts Inc. ranks Basil as the nation’s No. 16 kicker prospect.

I think the lonesome kicker of this class is now better known.

And seriously, people, no one take his snow shoe. He needs it to kick in the snow.

Class of 2010
Name	Position	Hometown	Better Known?	Name	Position	Hometown	Better Known?
Darryl Baldwin	DE	Solon, OH		James Louis	WR	Delray Beach, FL
Drew Basil	K	Chillicothe, OH	05.17	Scott McVey	LB	Cleveland, OH	05.03
Corey Brown 2010	ATH	Springfield, PA		JT Moore	DE	Youngstown, OH	02.15
Christian Bryant	DB	Cleveland, OH		Andrew Norwell	OL	Cincinnati, OH	03.29
David Durham	LB/DE	Charlotte, NC	04.12	Verlon Reed	ATH	Columbus, OH
Taylor Graham	QB	Wheaton, IL	05.08	Bradley Roby	DB	Suwanee, GA
Adam Griffin	ATH	Columbus, OH		Roderick Smith	RB	Fort Wayne, IN	05.13
Chad Hagan	LB/S	Canonsburg, PA		Jamel Turner	DE	Fork Union, VA	03.08
Johnathon Hankins	DT	Detroit, TSUN		Tyrone Williams	WR	Cleveland, OH
Carlos Hyde	RB	Naples, FL	06.29.09

1. He mostly was on PATs, but I don’t recall him having a lot of FG opportunities in HS.  For example, he was 5/5 for FGs in 2007 and his team struggled to get anything going offensively in the last three seasons. [↩]