Our Honor Defend

Kickoff for the 2010 season is coming soon, so I am pulling the blogging version of the all-nighter in order to finish the third edition of this now 19-part series titled Better Know A Buckeye.  All Buckeyes must be better known.

This 16th installment covers Bradley Roby, who came to Ohio State with cornerback in mind.  Roby had an interesting road to Columbus.  A high school teammate and family friend of Cameron Heyward, the Suwanee, Georgia native entertained interest from Ohio State before quickly committing to Vanderbilt to play wide receiver.  Though committed to the Commodores, Roby began to look around.  Ohio State extended an offer at the end of 2009 and Roby committed thereafter.  He is better known in this feature in the usual manner.

Height: 5’11
Weight: 176lbs
40: 4.4
Bench Max: 245lbs
Vertical: 40 inches
GPA: 3.86
High School: Peachtree Ridge High School; Suwanee, Georgia

His Recruitment: Roby started receiving attention from Ohio State in June 2009.  An aforementioned family friend of Cam Heyward, Heyward’s mother had painted Ohio State in such a positive light that he too became interested in Ohio State.  He came to Columbus for camp, leaving Jim Tressel impressed.  Tressel wanted to see him in person before extending an offer, promising to send a scholarship offer shortly.  It did not come and, before the end of July, he was committed to Vanderbilt.  And thus it ends.  Que sera sera.  Ohio State has lost stranger recruiting battles.

Ohio State fans are fortunate that it did not end there.  Roby remained committed to Vanderbilt, but was considering his other options in the months following his verbal commitment.  He visited Auburn in early November, another school that had been after Roby.  Auburn’s coaching staff requited that by making a visit to Roby a month later.  More importantly, Ohio State made their move in the middle of December, finally extending a written scholarship offer.  The offer put Ohio State really high on Roby’s list, making it apparent he was rethinking his commitment to Vanderbilt.  The Buckeyes’ interest came in the wake of Joshua Shaw‘s mid-November commitment to Florida and Lamarcus Joyner‘s early December commitment to Florida State.  Ohio State’s recruiting class had no cornerback commitments at the time.  Meanwhile, Vanderbilt’s recruiting class had three additional wide receivers.  I think Roby preferred to play wide receiver, but was ultimately ambivalent on the position.  He wants to see the field as soon as possible.  Ohio State started looking like the place to do it.  A January 8th visit to Ohio State seemed to do the trick.

His Commitment: Word broke that Roby had changed his commitment from Vanderbilt to Ohio State on January 13th.  Roby’s high school coach confirmed this.  However, Roby himself felt the need to expand on why he made the switch after news of the commitment became public.  He explained that he thought Ohio State is everything he wanted in a college.  He likes Jim Tressel, even going so far to say he’s a funny guy¹.  Further, an uncertain coaching landscape that saw Urban Meyer retire and unretire, Kelly leave Cincinnati midstream to take the job at Notre Dame and Bobby Bowden unceremoniously dumped at Florida State, Roby liked that Jim Tressel wasn’t going anywhere in the foreseeable future.  As such, Bobby Johnson’s inexplicably timed retirement from Vanderbilt a month ago makes the switch to Ohio State fortuitous.

There was more that Roby shared.  As it turns out, Roby had been committed to Ohio State for awhile.  He kept quiet on the matter because he did not want his decision to potentially sway other recruits on the fence about Vanderbilt.  While he made the decision that he ultimately did not want to play for Bobby Johnson and his staff, he still genuinely liked them and did not want to sabotage their recruiting class because of his individual decision.  Bill Kurelic called such a move the first he has witnessed in all his years covering college football recruiting.

Where He Excels: Roby exemplifies how a class light on big names like the 2008 class can still have such intriguing potential.  Roby did not have a particularly strong offer sheet when he switched from Vanderbilt to Ohio State, though offers from places like Auburn, Boston College, WVU and Ole Miss are nothing to sneeze at.  Even more interesting, Georgia and Alabama extended offers shortly after he committed to Ohio State.  Roby appreciated the offers, but was not going to waver from his commitment to the Buckeyes.

Roby is a very good athlete.  Most recruiting evaluations, assuming that wide receiver is what he wanted to be and what he was going to do, grade him as a very good athlete who uses quickness to his advantage.  He is only 5’11-6’0, but he has a basketball player’s wingspan and the corollary vertical to boot.  Good wide receivers make even better defensive backs in my opinion.  Knowing he will make the transition to cornerback, I really like what he can do with that wingspan.  Further, his wide receiver skills make him really good with the ball in the air.  You never know what becomes of recruits that come to the secondary in droves, just to see only two or three of them play any meaningful snaps.  Still, I am curious and I like what I see.

Must Work On: Roby could be either wide receiver or cornerback at this level.  I think he has the higher ceiling at defensive back, but is definitely more polished as a wide receiver at the moment.  Roby played both positions in high school.  Indeed, he was the quintessential ringer of his team.  His coach capitalized on any opportunity to have him on the field making plays.  Regardless, this is where some of the learning curve will set in for Roby.

Redshirt? Roby is fast enough and a good enough athlete that he could contribute to special teams as a freshman if he absolutely wants to play.  Ultimately, I think he redshirts and starts contributing next year.  The Buckeyes already have their fair share of defensive backs who redshirted last year and Christian Bryant is ahead of him right now.  A redshirt will do him well.

Highlights: There are some midseason highlights from his senior season.  These are embedded below.

Miscellany:

• Cameron Heyward’s mother gets a bit of an assist with this.  Again, kids have free will and the school and program can sell themselves, but Charlotte Heyward-Blackwell appears to be responsible for putting in a good word for the Buckeyes to start the process.  She and Roby’s mother are very close friends and Heyward-Blackwell has been effusive in her praise of how the Buckeye program is run.  Further, Roby’s mother joined Heyward-Blackwell in Pasadena to watch the Buckeyes Duck hunt.  She came back impressed with the experience and the fan support for the team.
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution write-up of Roby’s commitment to Ohio State: here.
• The Atlanta Journal-Constitution named Roby as first team all-state at wide receiver.  It disagreed with the AP’s confining him to first team all-state at athlete, saying that his contributions as a wide receiver on a predominantly running team were invaluable.  He had only 29 catches in this rush-heavy offense, but could score touchdowns five different ways and, according to the AJC, was “perhaps the state’s most versatile player”.
• Won the Atlanta Touchdown Club‘s Iron Man Award
• Roby carries a 3.8 GPA and is serious about the off-the-field stuff.  He participated in Ideals Leadership and DECA Club.  I have not heard of the former, but the latter is an organization for people interested in marketing.
• He also played basketball and ran track.
• Vital statistics, courtesy of Bucknuts:

* Vital Statistics: As a senior, Roby recorded 40 tackles and six interceptions including two returned for touchdowns. He also caught 26 passes for 570 yards (21.9 average) and five touchdowns. As a junior in 2008, Roby caught 29 passes for 500 yards and five touchdowns. He projects as a cornerback with the Buckeyes. He comes from the same high school as current Buckeye defensive end Cameron Heyward.

* Rankings: Roby is rated as the nation’s No. 41 athlete prospect by ESPN Scouts Inc. SuperPrep ranks Roby as the 65th-best prospect in Georgia.

Since all Buckeyes must be better known, I’ll consider Roby to be, well, better known.

I should put him on the board accordingly.

Class of 2010
Name	Position	Hometown	Better Known?	Name	Position	Hometown	Better Known?
Darryl Baldwin	DE	Solon, OH	05.25	James Louis	WR	Delray Beach, FL	06.21
Drew Basil	K	Chillicothe, OH	05.17	Scott McVey	LB	Cleveland, OH	05.03
Corey Brown 2010	ATH	Springfield, PA	08.08	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	08.24
Taylor Graham	QB	Wheaton, IL	05.08	Bradley Roby	DB	Suwanee, GA	08.29
Adam Griffin	ATH	Columbus, OH		Roderick Smith	RB	Fort Wayne, IN	05.13
Chad Hagan	LB/S	Canonsburg, PA	07.06	Jamel Turner	DE	Fork Union, VA	03.08
Johnathan Hankins	DT	Detroit, TSUN	08.29	Tyrone Williams	WR	Cleveland, OH	07.09
Carlos Hyde	RB	Naples, FL	06.29.09

1. This underscores sentiment among many players that Jim Tressel is the biggest jokester on the team. [↩]