Height: 6′2
Weight: 220lbs
40: 4.55
High School: Fork Union Military Academy; Fork Union, Virginia

His Recruitment: The earliest a college football prospect can receive a written scholarship offer is on September 1st of the prospect’s junior year. Therefore, having a breakout sophomore season is the perfect way to establish a groundswell of interest from fans and college coaches alike.  Jamel Turner accomplished exactly this after his sophomore season in 2007 that saw him tally an outstanding 23 sacks.  Far be it from me to attribute causality to any one person, place or thing, but I really think the corollary video from Scouting Ohio — the “23 sacks video” — played a large role in this groundswell of interest, at least at the level of the fans.

This sack tally and the manner by which he could attack downhill generated a lot of curiosity about Turner.  This was only his sophomore year, but it was also his first full year of of high school football (he was injured midway through his freshman year).  Moreover, Jamel demonstrated incredible prowess in track and field.  In only his first go-around with hurdles, Jamel picked up a silver medal in the state meet with a time of 14.95 in the 110 hurdles… while running at 6′2 and 215lbs.  As such, Jamel Turner was a topic for Buckeye fans interested in college football recruiting as it appeared that, with such amazing athleticism and still two years left of HS football, Jamel Turner may develop into the best in the state of Ohio.  Interest in him began to accumulate from college football programs as well.  Aside from the obvious MAC-school interest, programs like Notre Dame, Illinois, Michigan State and Wisconsin were interested and extended verbal offers through the summer and early fall.  The Buckeyes, who long knew about Jamel, extended a verbal scholarship offer in July 2008.  As such, Jamel Turner was the first scholarship offer extended by the coaching staff for the class of 2010, preceding JT Moore who was the first commitment of the class.

The offer was one that Jamel Turner always wanted.  While most recruits play a poker face, are courteous, and say they are “wide open” to people who ask them about nascent preferences, Jamel had made other pronouncements during 2008 that indicated Ohio State was his first preference.  However, with a busy schedule in the fall of 2008, Jamel decided to not put too much emphasis on recruiting.  That said, he did manage to sneak a visit to the 2008 Penn State game¹.  The Buckeyes lost that game, the first home loss to Penn State since the Nitts joined the Big Ten, but the visit strengthened the interest in the Buckeyes.  Jamel managed to see some other places throughout 2008, including Illinois, Penn State, Notre Dame and Wisconsin, but the atmosphere at that game made a strong impression.  Things remained relatively quiet as Jamel’s Ursuline Fighting Irish focused on their undefeated 2008 season, which culminated in a Division V state championship over Findlay Liberty-Benton.  In the aftermath of that game, Jamel gave the following interview that should have left little doubt about where Jamel wanted to play college football.

His Commitment: Jamel’s school announced there would be a press conference on December 16, 2008.  Therein, Jamel would announce his college choice.  It was not surprising that the selection made was Ohio State.  In fact, Jamel had made the decision weeks earlier but remained mum on the topic.

“I decided a few weeks back and I told my football coach and he said he would call the meeting and we would do it today… I had my mind made up before. I just wasn’t telling anybody,” he said. “I wanted to wait for the right time, and I felt that right time was now.”

The reasoning behind the decision is largely standard fare for Ohio kids who commit so early into the process.

“It’s just that I’ve been to a number of places in the past season and through the summer and Ohio State was just the best feel for me,” he said. “That’s pretty much why I chose them. I have a good relationship with the coaches, and then the fact that this is my home school and I feel more at home at the campus than any of the other ones I went to.”

With his future destination set, Jamel now had ample time to play basketball and run hurdles for his high school.   The second commitment of the 2010 class, Jamel Turner’s decision had Buckeye fans thinking they had likely the state’s top prospect in his class all locked up.

A Detour to Fork Union: Jamel’s story does not end there, however.  Message board chatter in the spring of 2009 intimated that Jamel Turner was in serious jeopardy of having his scholarship pulled at Ohio State.  Duane Long thought Jamel would never suit up in scarlet and gray because of it.  Details were hard to come by (and still are), but gradually we learned that Jamel’s troubles were multifaceted.  In the academic realm, he was not showing up for classes and not completing assignments.  In the other (but related) behavioral realm, he had developed a serious attitude problem that made him insufferable to the high school basketball coach.  All told, the consequences were staggering: he was kicked off the basketball team by his head coach and lost all eligibility to play sports in the state of Ohio.  A silver medalist in hurdles, he was not allowed to compete in track and field as a junior.

Ken Gordon’s article on the matter, just linked, mentions some of the details at this crucial juncture.

“Sometimes in life, you have obstacles,” Turner said. “We all make bad decisions and make mistakes, but it’s what you do after that.”

Neither Turner nor those around him will discuss his family situation in any detail, but it is clear that he never had a strong father figure, and there were other negative influences, as well.

Instability at home manifested itself in immaturity and fits of temper, even as he led Ursuline to the 2008 Division V state championship, following up his 23-sack season in 2007 with another 18 sacks.

In December 2008, he became the first player to commit to Ohio State’s 2010 class. But a month later, Ursuline basketball coach Keith Gunther had had enough of Turner’s attitude.

“There were a couple incidents — nothing criminal, but when things didn’t go his way, he would react very emotionally and just go off,” Gunther said. “At the time, Jamel was living with me, he was basically like a son to me [emphasis mine]. And I told him, ‘I’m going to treat you as if you were my own son,’ and I kicked him off the team.

“The biggest reason I did it was Jamel was a big-time football player who probably thought he was bigger than life. I wanted to wake him up.”

Said Turner: “That hurt a lot, but he did what he had to do.”

By spring, Turner’s grades had declined to the point where he could not play sports in Ohio the next fall.

Importantly, Ohio State had not yanked their scholarship offer to him.  However, a scholarship offer from Ohio State would serve little purpose if Jamel did not make some serious adjustments to the present situation.  The obvious solution appeared to be one of the military prep schools.  All hope was not lost, but Jamel was clearly behind the 8-ball.  Attending a school like Valley Forge or Fork Union would serve wonders should Jamel capitalize on the opportunity that such a rigid structure and emphasis on focus, discipline can afford.  Initial speculation had him enrolling at Valley Forge, but the decision was eventually made for Fork Union.

It appears that the decision was the right one for everyone involved.  Enrolling in a military academy out of state allowed Jamel to continue playing football while instilling in him a strict regimen in order to make sure his priorities were in order at all times.  Jamel explains:

“Fork Union definitely helped me out as far as grades-wise and school and they also helped me out in putting me in an environment to where I can focus in on the things I have to do in the real world… Fork Union brought a lot of the real world characteristics into my life because next year I’ll have to be doing a lot studying and getting used to a whole new life on campus that I’ve never experienced before. Fork Union is just a small preview of that… We get up at 6 every morning and on the weekends we get up at 7. You start early and you don’t go to sleep till 10.”

It appears that Jamel is on his way to actualizing his goal of being a Buckeye, which is in large part possible because of the work that Jamel and his support system of coaches (at Ursuline and Fork Union) have put into him as well as the coaching staff’s continued blessings.  While I believe, or at least have reason to believe, the Ohio State coaching staff indicated that there was much work to be done by Jamel, they never once unconditionally withdrew their offer.  As such, Jamel remained committed to Ohio State as they remained committed to him.  Other suitors entered the fray very late in the game, hoping that Jamel may have wavered on Ohio State.  This was not the case.

“(Coach Jim) Tressel is a good man, and he stands by his word.  So I’m going to stand by my word, and we’re going to get it done.”

Jamel eventually made good on his December 2008 verbal commitment by signing his letter of intent last month.  Presently, it seems all is set for Jamel to enroll at Ohio State.

Where He Excels: Jamel was being discussed as one of the state of Ohio’s elite talents in the 2010 class before being detoured to Fork Union.  Rivals.com lists him as the 11th best talent in the state of Virginia (where Fork Union is) for the 2010 class, which falls short of expectations that developed around him after his sophomore season.  Still a 4-star, I wonder if the relatively meager hype around him nowadays belies just how much he is capable of accomplishing at Ohio State.  For example, Rivals.com bumped Jamel Turner from his spot in their top 30 nationally and did so explicitly because of his off-the-field problems.  In fact, they appeared to remove him their top 250 outright.  In some sense this appears reasonable.  Jamel’s predicament that emerged in May 2009 does not facilitate entry into summer football camps and advanced camps, which is where a college football hopeful can receive some quality instruction, generate more intrigue and better his lot when it’s time to sign a letter of intent.

Jamel may be a 5-star in athletic prowess alone.  “Freak” is probably a cliché in discussing high school football stars with great athletic abilities, but it seems appropriate for Jamel.  After all, he was a runner-up in state meets in hurdles, after never having attempted hurdles, while measuring 6′2 and over 200lbs.  Further, the 4.55 40 time listed by Bucknuts does not appear to be a misprint.  The sophomore season highlight clip highlights what’s possible for the young man who played most every position conceivable for him at Ursuline and Fork Union.  At Ursuline, he was a defensive end, tight end and wide receiver.  At Fork Union, he was a linebacker and safety.  In all occasions, on defense, he demonstrated a great acceleration.  As soon as the ball is snapped, he is flying to the quarterback.  Further, he demonstrates a very good lateral agility and ability to make his second move before the offensive lineman in question has made his first.  A great closing speed allows Jamel to move in for the kill, underscoring how he can tally over 40 sacks in two years at Ursuline even when teams would double or triple team Jamel (especially in his junior year).

All considered, I really think Jamel would thrive more as a jack linebacker in a 3-4 system.  Knowing that Ohio State only runs a wrinkle of that, it seems apparent to me that Jamel is more the LEO-type defensive end (Thaddeus Gibson’s position) than JT Moore.

Must Work On: There is not a lot I can contribute here since, as far as I know, there is no film available of Jamel Turner playing football at Fork Union and I do not know the caliber of competition for Fork Union.  Most everything I’ve read about Jamel says he’s a combination of coachable and raw, even offering seemingly contradictory statements about him on that topic.  Since Jamel lost time to injury as a freshman, lost valuable camp time in the summer of 2009 (I think), and spent much of his one year at Fork Union playing more than 10 yards from the line of scrimmage, there will probably be a learning curve playing for Jim Heacock at Ohio State.

Redshirt? Jamel says that he is not approaching his freshman year like it is a redshirt year.  He hopes to earn the immediate playing time that every incoming college football player desires.  However, considering the depth chart on the defensive line and Jamel’s backstory, I think a redshirt could do a lot of good for him.

Highlights: As far as I know, nothing is available from his senior season at Fork Union.  The sophomore clip was made available above and the following is a junior year video from when he was still at Ursuline.

Miscellany:

• Missing Jamel Turner may have been a big blow for the Ursuline Fighting Irish, but they did repeat as state champions in 2009.
• I have not seen a box score of the 2008 state championship game aganist Findlay Liberty-Benton, but I believe the quarterback that Jamel was terrorizing was Aaron Craft.  Craft, a standout football player for that Liberty-Benton team, may be a name more familiar with those who follow Ohio State shooty hoops.  He is part of the Super Six recruiting class for Thad Matta, forgoing his senior year of football at Liberty-Benton to focus on basketball.  This article seems to coincide with my hunch.
• I am feeling a little lazy and do not want to look through the past recruiting classes to confirm this, but I think he is the last recruit from Ursuline since… wait for it… Louis Irizarry.  Jamel did have a teammate named Nico Irizarry.
• Technically, Jamel is not a “recruit from Ursuline” since he finished at Fork Union, but I couldn’t resist.
• Jamel prefers the number 11 in part because of his twin brother, Jamal.  Believing that both are number in the world, together, the juxtaposition of those “number ones” results in the number 11.  That said, it is not a big issue for Jamel and Jamel wore #9 for Fork Union.
• It may be fair to wonder if Jamel will slip back into bad habits outside the military academy setting.  Fork Union’s coach believes otherwise:

“He has not had a (behavior) demerit since he has been here. He is now a cadet non-commissioned officer in our corps. He has been a leader off the field. He’s doing the tough things really well right now.

“The kid is really smart. When you’re in a situation where somebody is maybe not telling you to go to school or do your work and you’re 16 or 17 years old, that can be a bad situation for you. We want to get him out of school, get him his diploma, get him eligible and get him to Ohio State. I think he will do fine there.”

• Jamel resumed running hurdles at Fork Union.  Therein, he ran a 7.83 in the 55 hurdles in the league championships.  According to his high school football coach, who doubles as Fork Union’s athletic director, Jamel clocked the ninth-fastest time in the 55 hurdles in the entire country.  I’m not sure if that time is it, but still.  Yowza.
• Jamel remarked how surreal it was to be in a place so remote that the football field is adjacent to a grazing pasture for cows.  Amidst the change in scenery, Jamel developed a curious habit that I am absolutely thrilled to read.

“I keep my face in a book. For some reason I’ve developed a lust for reading. I love to read. I’ll read anything. I love to read, that’s probably the biggest attribute I gained down here.”

• Pre-compiled stats, courtesy of Bucknuts.

As a senior, he helped Fork Union post a 7-4 record as he played at linebacker, defensive end and safety. He had 66 tackles with two sacks and two interceptions in earning all-state honors. In two previous years at Ursuline, he notched 40-plus sacks, including 23 as a sophomore. As a junior, he helped lead Ursuline to a 15-0 record and the Division V state title. He had 7-1/2 tackles and 1-1/2 sacks in the title game. He projects as a defensive end or outside linebacker at OSU. He also placed second at the state track meet in the hurdles as a sophomore.

I think Jamel Turner is now better known.

The More You Know

I think it would be appropriate to put him on the board.

1. He also visited Notre Dame when they hosted Michigan in September 2008.

Height: 6′3
Weight: 230lbs
40: 4.9
Academics: 2.8 GPA, 20 ACT
High School: Boardman HS; Youngstown, Ohio

His Recruitment: Ohio State interest in JT Moore coincides with their interest in adding Corey Linsley to their 2009 recruiting class.  Both attended the same high school.  Linsley committed at the end of April 2008, but it seems that, in the process of recruiting Linsley, the Buckeyes’ staff noticed he had a pretty good teammate in the next recruiting class.  JT made previous visits to Ohio State at the end of 2007 and for the 2008 Spring Game.  The recruiting process had not entirely started for JT, but he already had a preference.  While admitting he had not given other schools a thorough look, he was mainly interested in Ohio State.  He has family in Columbus and grew up a lifelong Buckeye fan.  If the Buckeyes wanted him in their class, all they would need to do was extend a scholarship offer.

That happened in early September 2008.  Mind you: the earliest you can send a scholarship offer to a prospective athlete for football is September 1st of the prospect’s junior year.  JT’s scholarship offer arrived at his home on September 5th, 2008, evoking a great sense of excitement in the Moore household.  JT always wanted to make a quick decision so he can proceed with other things of interest to him².  Further, with family in Columbus, previous discussions of playing in the same college with teammate Corey Linsley, and his sister being recruited by Jim Foster to play shooty ladyhoops at Ohio State, that moment set in where everyone involved asked themselves if this is it and if this is exactly what they wanted.  For the meantime, JT said he would talk with his family about it, but it seemed that his recruitment was not going to carry through his junior season of football.

His Commitment: His recruitment ended six days later with his decision on September 11th, 2008. The 2009 recruiting class was not full before JT Moore was first to commit to Ohio State for the 2010 recruiting class.  Not a lot was written about JT’s recruitment or his commitment.  It was a rather academic decision.  He always wanted to be a Buckeye, did not want a protracted recruitment, got an early offer and made the logical next step from there.  Moore expressed in his own words how he felt.

“I just spoke to coach Tressel a little bit ago. He was happy to hear that I was committing and said he’s getting ready for the (USC) game.”

“I just like the people at Ohio State.  I like the people, and the coaches are great. I like how everything is there. I always wanted to be a Buckeye. Everything is great there.”

The Buckeyes, on their end, got their first commitment and one of a few that addressed the need at defensive end in 2010.

Where He Excels: I was not overly enthused about JT Moore when he committed, beyond the fun nature of his recruitment. Of course, by committing early into his junior year, my only exposure to JT was his sophomore film. He has become much better since.

For a defensive end prospect, I thought JT was a little slow out the gates. Of course, almost all sophomores are slow and a bit awkward in their foot movements as they continue to mature in the game of football and grow into their bodies.  In the two years since committing to Ohio State, he’s become much quicker off the snap and has been able to make plays for Boardman out of the 6-technique.  I think the biggest area of improvement has been the use of his hands.  He has a long way to go here but he’s become much better at shedding blocks. Combine the improved get-off with the ability to shed blocks rapidly and it becomes clear to me the Buckeyes get a good pick-up regardless of the “stars” he has.  The coaching staff indicates they think Moore can play Gibson/William’s position and occasionally drop into coverage at that LEO spot.  I wonder if he will stay there.  I always thought of Moore as a defensive end in the mold of Lawrence Wilson while kids like Newsome and Durham would compete at LEO.  Nevertheless, if Bollman is going to say publicly that’s where they think he fits, then I will follow suit.

The other intriguing element to JT is his frame.  He’s a very thick 6′3, 230lb and will no doubt add weight in a college football lifting program.  Remember, JT is a standout basketball player as well.  There are benefits to playing the shooty hoops, such as improving your footwork, but one of the drawbacks to spending time on the hardwood is that prospective football players with JT’s frame have to make a steeper adjustment.  After football was over, JT had to work to lose weight to become more mobile on the court.  As the football season approached while he still had basketball commitments, he had to find a good balance and found himself exhausted more.  However, there is more upside to a kid who can now dedicate himself exclusively to football.  I think JT fills out nicely here and it should help him as he factors into the defensive line rotation at Ohio State.

Must Work On: What follows should not be read too critically.  Briefly put, the sooner JT can internalize that the low man wins in college football, the better.  I think this happens for a lot of high school football players who can rely on brute strength to impose their will at the high school level.  In JT’s case, he has the ability to almost stand up  after the ball is snapped.  Thus, while he has made great strides with the use of his hands and the ability to shed blocks and his get-off speed, he can sometimes still be held in check after he’s engaged by an offensive lineman.  He has a great motor and will effort his way out of blocks, but the damage will already have been done at the college level.  This happens because he can lose leverage by playing tall.  I expect this will get ironed out.

Redshirt? Redshirting defensive linemen seems to be the inclination for Jim Heacock.  That’s not to say it’s universal, just that it seems to be a preference.  As such, with a still deep defensive line in 2010 and Keith Wells, Adam Bellamy and Melvin Fellows’ Safari Planet coming off redshirts, my best guess is that JT Moore redshirts in 2010.

Highlights: Yup, ScoutingOhio has got ‘em.

Miscellany:

• It appears that JT goes by, well, JT.  For reference, JT stands for James Tyrone.
• He was a teammate of Corey Linsley, but you already knew that.
• His sister is Darryce Moore.  They are separated by nine and a half months (JT is the oldest), but they are in the same 2010 class.  She’ll be playing for Jim Foster next year, joining her brother as a scholarship athlete.  You can watch her talk about shooty hoops here.  JT mentioned his sister playing an interesting role in his brief recruitment.

“My sister (Darryce Moore) told me that (Jim) Tressel, when they went down there to states (girls basketball – winter ‘08), that he wanted her to go there so I would come there. So I had a general thought about it but I wasn’t sure if they were going to offer me or anything.”

• JT Moore is one of several future Buckeyes playing in the Ohio North-South game.  This game will be played on the eve of Ohio State’s Spring Game and at Ohio Stadium.  He will be playing with Darryl Baldwin, Christian Bryant and Tyrone Williams.  Verlon Reed will be the lone future Buckeye playing for the South.
• He will also play in the Big 33 game, a move made possible by the Ohio North-South game being moved to a different time.  He will join join the same cast from the North-South Game (Baldwin, Bryant, Reed and Williams) in taking on what usually amounts to a grab bag of middle-to-good talent from Pennsylvania.
• JT plays the shooty hoops and is still finishing his senior season for the Boardman Spartans team.  He averages about 10ppg and 12rpg.  You can follow his exploits here.
• JT did not camp between in the summer between his sophomore and junior year because of his AAU commitments.  He did attend the Advanced Camp at Ohio State³, which ran concurrent with a shooty hoops camp for his sister Darryce.  JT was named one of the top performers at the camp.  His prize: a copy of Jim Tressel’s book.  Now I think that’s funny.
• Nevertheless, the fact that JT had a hectic schedule in between basketball and football and missed camp prior to his junior year should qualify any preliminary objections about JT based on stars.  Recruits get extra exposure the more camps they attend on top of the tools gained from the instruction.  As such, there’s probably untapped potential in JT and it should show as he dedicates himself more and more to football.
• Fluff: here. Working out (at Scout.com combine): here.
• JT in his own words, below.

• Pre-compiled stats, courtesy of Bucknuts:

* Vital Statistics: Moore tallied 110 tackles, including nine tackles and 16 tackles-for-loss as a senior. He earned first-team All-Ohio honors in Division I. As a junior in 2008, Moore had 79 tackles, eight for loss and five sacks. He started all 12 games as a sophomore in 2007, helping his team finish with an 8-4 record.He has been selected for the Ohio All-Star Classic April 23 at Ohio Stadium as well as for the Big 33 Football Classic June 19 in Hershey, Pa. He projects as a Leo defensive end with the Buckeyes.

* Rankings: He is rated as the No. 21 overall senior prospect in Ohio, according to Ohio High magazine/JJHuddle.com. Also rated as the No. 13 overall prospect in the state, according to The Ohio Football Recruiting News. SuperPrep ranks him as the 39th-best prospect in the Midwest. ESPN Scouts Inc. has Moore rated as the nation’s No. 56 defensive end prospect.

With all that said, I think JT is now better known, or something.

The More You Know

So, I guess we can put him on the board.

1. I’m aware of the other questions marks around this class, but I do not anticipate this class expanding.
2. ”It’s amazing and unbelievable … it was a great experience.”
3. He also attended a Scout.com combine in Pittsburgh before his senior year.

Height: 6′3
Weight: 190lbs
40: 4.6
High School: Eisenhower SHS; Aldine, TX

His Commitment: On January 30th, 2009, the name “Kenny Guiton” curiously appeared in some Buckeye blogs and Ohio State recruiting websites.  Within a minute or so of his name appearing, there was confirmation that he was going to sign with Ohio State on National Letter of Intent Day.  Well how about that.  As far as Buckeye fans knew, that was it for his recruitment.  His commitment was his recruitment.

Ohio State was hellbent on signing a quarterback in the 2009 recruiting class since, with the defections of Rob Schoenhoft and Antonio Henton after Terrelle Pryor signed with Ohio State, they were going to have only one scholarship-caliber QB backing up Terrelle Pryor (Joe Bauserman).  However, they were turned down by US Army All-American Bowl MVP Tajh Boyd, who committed to Clemson on January 16th.  To make matters worse, they were rejected by Austin Boucher and Chris Coyer in succession.  These two opted to stick with their respective MAC commitments with Miami of Ohio and Temple (respectively).  The last one, I thought, was particularly embarrassing since I struggle to think of reasons why Temple should be A) playing football at the 1A level and B) playing football altogether.  If a kid would rather venture to Philadelphia to toil in the ultimate college football obscurity than come to Columbus, you’d have to wonder that this just wasn’t the year for a QB.  I kind of expected the coaching staff to admit defeat, let a walk-on QB run the third team, and pray for the best in 2009.

The coaching staff, on the other hand, wasn’t going to take no for answer.  Ohio State recruiting coordinator John Peterson came across his name as a quarterback still left on the board, flew down to Texas to talk with his head coach and bring back copies of his transcripts and game film.  Guiton was not on campus when Peterson came down, at least not initially.  A friend of his called him, saying that a coach from Ohio State was looking for him.  Since Kenny did not have a high-profile recruitment, he naturally thought that his friend was trying to yank his chain and hung up on him.  When Kenny’s dad called him, saying that a coach from Ohio State was looking for him, he dropped everything he was doing and high-tailed it to his coach’s office to meet with Peterson.  Peterson said he’d be in touch.  Later that night, Guiton was notified he had a scholarship offer.  He knew Ohio State was where he wanted be and said he’d commit.

Ohio State finally had their quarterback in the 2009 class.

His Recruitment: I think we have to work backwards with Guiton.  After all, if he’s good enough to be offered a scholarship by Ohio State, then why was his next best offer from Wyoming?  How could the 3-year starter quarterback of a very good program in the Houston area, whose wide receivers are en route to Oklahoma (Jaz Reynolds), Texas (Greg Timmons) and LSU (Craig Loston, as the nation’s #1 safety) in the same class, be considering possibly signing with Praire View A&M?  Hell, someone of importance must be getting those wide receivers the ball.

Well, it wasn’t always the fact that Guiton was thought to be an iffy D-1A prospect.  At least, that’s not what this trusted expert on BuckeyePlanet said.

This kid has great foot speed and a big-time arm. At the beginning of the recruiting year all of the major Big 12 schools were all over him and their fan bases expected him to be a major target. He was invited to all of the junior days and shown the “love”.

After sizing him up in comparison to some of the other QB’s many schools went for the more physically gifted guys instead. Guiton actually looks like a regular 17 year old high school kid, and these coaches are always enamored with the big framed guys for whatever reason.

…

This left Guiton basically out in the cold with the schools that he was interested in early on and his talent level does not honestly translate to a school like Houston (Sorry coach Sumlin).

So while he may not pass the “eyeball test” that a lot of folks like to use to evlaute and judge talent, he does pass the football test and ultimately that is what he will be judged for at OSU.

Sure enough, if you look through the Scout.com updates on Guiton early into 2008, you’ll see updates that suggest he would be all over the Big 12 recruiting map.  Several Big 12 schools, including Oklahoma, were sending him signals of interest in mid-February.  Kansas stepped forward with an offer, his very first.  A week later, Houston offered.  Kansas looked to be an early favorite.  Iowa State, Rice and Northwestern all eventually offered him.  Missouri, Purdue and Kentucky were thought to be on the verge of offering.  Rather than rush to a decision, Guiton opted to take a relaxed approach to recruiting.  From here, I’m not sure what better characterizes what happened during the summer and fall.  When Guiton said he would consider his college choices “all in due time”, he also mentioned that he surprisingly has not heard from any of those schools in a couple weeks.  Meanwhile, the schools recruiting him early eventually found quarterbacks more to their liking.  Eventually, all those scholarship offers that Guiton had were no longer valid.

“He went to Kansas in the summer and they offered him,” Evans said. “He had offers from Iowa State, Rice, Houston and Purdue. He decided to wait, and when he did those offers weren’t there anymore.

It’s the kinda ugly business side of college football recruiting, but it left Guiton in a bit of a bind. Instead of choosing among the likes of Kansas, Rice and the Nerds, he was having to choose between Wyoming and Prairie View A&M.  The weekend that he eventually visted Ohio State was supposed to be the weekend he visited Wyoming.  He had already made an official visit to Prairie View A&M.  Fortunately, John Peterson came into the picture and the Buckeyes offered him later that night.  As Kenny said, it was kind of easy to choose between visiting Wyoming or taking the official to Ohio State.  He knew as soon as he got the offer that he wanted to go to Ohio State.  He committed on the spot in Columbus.

Where He Excels: Everything I’ve read about Guiton treats him as your standard dual-threat QB from the high school level, with strengths and weaknesses cut from the same cloth as others before him.

At 6′3, he’s definitely a long strider and can cover some serious ground pretty quickly.  Originally listed as having a 40 speed around 4.9, he more accurately runs about a 4.6.  “Speed” just isn’t the straight line.  Rather, he demonstrates an overall mobility in the pocket (and patience) and on the go.  Already in camp, he’s demonstrated a very good comprehension of how the option works.

I’m curious about what Pryor said about him during fall camp.  Specifically, Pryor thinks Guiton is ahead of where he was as an incoming freshman in terms of the passing game.  That’s not saying much, because Pryor has also admitted that he needed a lot of work as a passer coming in, and still does.  Still, it does corroborate what I’ve read about Guiton elsewhere, that he’s not just another running back at the quarterback position.

Guiton, during National LOI Day

Must Work On: Again, this is all standard fare for a dual-threat QB.  Guiton has good arm strength, but it’s not elite arm strength.  More than a few of his passes during fall camp practice have been characterized as wobblers.  He needs to demonstrate what his footwork and progressions will look like under center.  He’s already taking too many long strides on a 5-step drop.  The last time Guiton did that was as a sophomore in high school, when he was QBing a triple-option offense under center.  He’s already been described as having trouble making the right reads in practice and, as recently as Saturday, likely took a step back in his development with a rough outing.  Unlike some other dual-threat QBs, Guiton actually has a fairly quick release.  The problem? It’s inconsistent and looks awkward.  It’s a lot to ask for a high school quarterback to come in and look like a finished product, so these early struggles were expected.

I think the only thing that I’ve read about Kenny that’s rather new for the evaluation of your typical dual-threat QB is his frame.  Kenny’s a very lean kid and will certainly want to add as much good weight as he can.

Though this probably isn’t the appropriate section for saying this, it’ll be interesting to see what becomes of Guiton’s career at Ohio State.  Quarterbacks have strange odysseys from beginning to end.  Not all of them are happy.  In fact, it seems very few of them are.  Quarterbacks don’t get to be used in a rotation like wide receivers, tailbacks, indeed, just about every other position on the field.  If you’re not starting, you’re basically not playing.  Optimistic fans are already likening this signing of a “throwaway” QB to the serendipitous career of Troy Smith.  However, Troy Smith’s ascent to greatness at Ohio State pushed a very highly-ranked Justin Zwick to the footnotes of the program’s history.  Terrelle Pryor, as much as we’re enjoying him, was an implict factor leading to the transfers of Rob Schoenhoft and Antonio Henton.  Fans were excited about the prospects of both Schoenhoft and Henton when they committed.  If you want, I can also remind you of Austin Moherman.  So what does this have to do with Kenny? Well, Pryor is only a sophomore.  Another quarterback is coming in the 2010 class and will bring several superlatives with him to Columbus.  In 2011, the Buckeyes will likely (hopefully) secure Braxton Miller, who will have been a 4-year starter at Wayne HS.  So then, how do we predict Guiton’s career at Ohio State? I guess we shall see.

Redshirt? Pray that Kenny Guiton redshirts.  If he doesn’t, it means something bad happened to Terrelle Pryor.

Highlights: This is the best I can do.  This is from Tressel’s signing day press conference.  Guiton is on deck after Reid Fragel Rock.

Miscellany:

• Guiton was a three sport athlete at Eisenhower.  He ran hurdles and was also the point guard for the basketball team.
• When Kenny was still uncommitted in late January, he had a few people convinced that he’d be an absolute steal in anyone’s class.
• He’s wearing #13 at Ohio State.  Yep, that #13.
• Kenny is an uncle to two kids by way of his older sister approximately 10 years his senior.
• Guiton had a disappointing senior season.  As a junior, he had 2,592 yards through the air, another 329 yards on the ground and 29 total touchdowns.  He was the offensive MVP of the district.  As a senior, he had 1846 yards passing, 140 yards rushing and 21 total TDs to 7 interceptions.
• His senior season ended with an unfortunate 62-21 loss to Cinco Ranch in a second round playoff game.
• He was an honor roll student at Eisenhower and graduate with a 3.3 GPA.
• When he committed, people called him “Kenny Guiton”.  Now, people usually refer to his first name as “Ken”.  Unless I get yelled at by a player’s parent again on the issue, I think I want to keep calling him Kenny.  If he’s ever sacked during a game, it’ll at least allow me to make light of the situation by saying “Oh my God, they killed Kenny”.  Those bastards.

Well, I think that’s all I have.  I think Kenny Guiton is now better known.

The More You Know

And, one last time, the board.

Hall, an offensive lineman from the fabled Tarblooder program, followed the usual Tarblooder process, something that teammate Jonathan Newsome did not do.  Considered to be a Buckeye lean throughout his recruitment, Hall opted to wait it out until the very end.  As National Letter of Intent Day (NLOID) loomed, Hall’s preferred schools fluctuated considerably.  In this feature, I mostly fast forward to the wild conclusion to Hall’s story.  I then review strengths and weaknesses in usual fashion, ultimately mentioning some miscellaneous things about Hall before I conclude that he is better known.  He is then put on the board accordingly.

Height: 6′6
Weight: 300
40: 5.1
High School: Glenville HS; Cleveland, Ohio

His Recruitment: As is the case with most Tarblooders, Marcus Hall’s recruitment went until the very end.  His February 2nd commitment is the last in the class.  It seems that this is something Ted Ginn Sr. counsels in his players, to make sure they see everything they need to see, get the maximum exposure they can before making what he hopes is a more thorough evaluation of options.  This, logically, results in a better reasoned decision, and one that Ginn (I think) hopes does not interfere with a student’s school and HS football obligations.  Unlike teammate Jonathan Newsome, Hall was no deviation from the norm.  Further, unlike Newsome and his other teammates, Hall was offered a scholarship by just about everyone in the country outside of USC.  He was even receiving interest as a freshman, and started putting together his offer sheet early into his junior year.  Rather than follow the twists and turns of the ensuing two years, it’d be easier to discuss who was in the running.

Illinois seemed to be an early compettitor for his services.  The Illini had just come off a successful 2007 season, complete with yanking Cordale Scott away from the Buckeyes’ grasp.  For those unaware, Cordale Scott is a 2008 graduate of Glenville HS and was the first Tarblooder to eschew a scholarship offer from Ohio State in the Tressel era.  Further, the Illini also had a verbal commitment from Melvin Fellows’ Safari Planet at the time; Hall and Fellows have been close friends for awhile.  Minus some early unofficial visits to Champaign as part of the Ginn bus tour, no substantive interest in the Illini materialized during Hall’s 2008 season nor the few months after it.  If pressed to identify why, it seems that Hall had seen everything he needed to see as part of the Ginn bus tour and didn’t feel returning for an official visit would ultimately accomplish anything.  He actually had an official set up for early January, but canceled it (in lieu of Michigan, if my memory does not deceive me).  That, and I don’t think Melvin Fellows’ Safari Planet’s decommitment from Illinois in the Spring, and losing their offensive coordinator and offensive line coach, helped the Illini any.

Tennessee became a factor late into the game.  Initially, Tennessee was just an offer to frame on a wall.  When teammate Mike Edwards committed to the Volunteers in late January, Kiffin and staff thought it saw an opportunity to swoop in and get one of the nation’s best linemen prospects as well.  Tennessee appeared on Hall’s radar not long after Kiffin was introduced as Tennessee’s new coach, but it was Edwards who seemed to be the impetus behind Hall considering Tennessee.  After all, Hall actually canceled his official visit to Tennessee after coming back from Miami.  After making the visit to Tennessee, Hall came back with positive reviews.  But, it was Edwards who inadvertently seemed to give away that Hall wasn’t really considering Tennessee.  Consider his first statement on the possibility of Hall becoming a Volunteer:

“I’m going to try to get him to be a Volunteer,” Edwards said.

Many believe Ohio State to be the team to beat for Hall’s services. Edwards doesn’t see it that way.

“A lot of people think that but I think Marcus is going to shock a lot of people,” Edwards said.

Contrast that with:

Edwards, who said he won’t try to push Hall to UT, would still love to have Hall join him in Knoxville.

“Marcus heading to Tennessee would be so much of a plus,” Edwards said. “I’m not going to talk about that because that’d be a dream come true for me and my boy to come down there.”

Optimism was tempered in Knoxville.

Michigan threw the most interesting wrinkle into Hall’s recruiting process.  Not only do Tarblooders (with Ohio State offers) almost always end up at Ohio State, they rarely seem to consider attending Michigan.  Hall, though, actually seriously considered it.  Michigan was the recipient of one of his 5 official visits and he caught the attention of Michigan fans (and terrified Ohio State fans) when he came back with very positive reviews about the visit.  He cited being hosted by former Columbus DeSales product Patrick Omameh and talked about the opportunity for early playing time at Michigan.  Getting early playing time is something Hall mentioned in almost of all of his recruiting updates.  However, it didn’t take long for Hall to squash the prospects of playing for Michigan.  All it took was some time to reflect on what he saw.

But now with the benefit of having had some time to reflect upon his trip and weigh the schools he is considering, that no longer is the case.

“It was right after I got off the plane and I’m still fresh off the official visit stuff and the high they put you on while you’re there,” he told BuckeyeSports.com. “Once you sit down and weigh things, it’s a lot clearer. I’m still looking at Michigan but most likely I won’t be there.”

As it turned out, Miami emerged to be the serious competitor to Ohio State for Hall’s services.  Hall cited several things about Tha U that he found appealing.  He again echoed his desire for early playing time, something he said he found when looking over Miami’s depth chart.  He also liked that Miami’s new offensive coordinator, Mark Whipple, had just jumped ship from the NFL to take over playcalling duties for the Hurricanes.  It doesn’t hurt that he also used the opportunity to take a stroll on the beach in Miami.  This is something you can do in his hometown in Cleveland in late January — and it’s something that I can say I’ve actually done and loved¹ — but I think most people find walking on Miami’s beaches to be more inviting that time of year.  When his visit wrapped up, he proclaimed Miami his leader (per the Rivals article).

Cordale Scott set an unfortunate precedent (if you worry about it too much) for the Glenville-Ohio State pipeline.  He was the first to tell Jim Tressel no and, if you looked at Hall’s comments at face value, Hall seemed like he buck precedent as well.  Was it conceivable that, for the second straight year, Ted Ginn Sr’s best player would say no to Ohio State? There was some cliffjumping on the issue, but it didn’t seem likely Hall was going to end up anywhere in Columbus.  Yes, he was reported as having said Miami is his leader after his Miami visit.  However, he was reported as having said something like that after every visit.  He “loved” his official visit to Michigan.  Miami was in his top two after his visit to Coral Gables.  Tennessee was in his top two after his official visit to Knoxville.  The progression? Something akin to: Ohio State and Illinois initially, then Ohio State and Michigan, then Ohio State and Miami and then Ohio State and Tennessee.  The one constant: Ohio State.  Whatever the case, Marcus said he would host an in-house visit from Jim Tressel and Randy Shannon before quietly making his decision and then going public with it.

This was likely going to end in usual Tarblooder fashion.

His Commitment: On the morning of February 2nd, there were some early rumblings on Scout’s board from a reliable Glenville insider that Marcus made his decision in favor of the Buckeyes.  By time the presser came around, it was official.  Marcus Hall committed to Ohio State.

“It’s been a long recruiting process … I enjoyed it. I want to thank all the schools that recruited me. I have decided to go to Ohio State. I really like Ohio State a lot. I’m looking forward to helping coach (Jim) Tressel not just win a Big Ten title, but also win a national championship.”

He said repeatedly the he wants to play as early as possible, wherever it was that he ended up.  Since he happened to be in attendance for that woeful Penn State game, he saw plenty of opportunities to do so at Ohio State.  Well, he’s right.  The offensive line has 3 likely starters (Cordle, Brewster, Boren) for two set spots (Brewster at center, Boren at LG).  Hall, a tackle or a guard at the college level, has plenty of opportunity to make his move.

Further, it’s not all a utility-maximizing choice for Marcus Hall.  He genuinely admires Jim Tressel.

Marcus Hall’s February 2nd commitment was the last in the 2009 class.  Marlon Brown made a signing day decision to go to Georgia and Tajh Boyd opted for Clemson late in the game.  He joins teammate Jonathan Newsome as combo deals in the 2009 recruiting class, joining Zach Boren-Jamie Wood and Dorian Bell-Corey Brown.

Where He Excels: Marcus Hall is enormous.  He was enormous when he was receiving attention as a freshman and is still enormous now.  At 6′6, 300lbs as a true freshman, he’s certainly an imposing tackle prototype.  He may slide over to guard, but I won’t pretend to know who of the two right tackle prospects we’ve brought in the past two years (Hall and Shugarts) makes the switch to the interior.  One of them will.

He has great bulk for an offensive lineman, with plenty “to work with” in both his upper body and lower body.  But it’s not all just size for Hall.  He’s more nimble than you would expect for a guy that big, and fires off the line with a very good first step.  As such, he should thrive in goal line situations, as well as down-blocking and he should be serviceable in double teams.

As you can imagine, he’s definitely more of a road-grader at the moment, but that does mean you should expect him to help create running lanes for the Buckeyes.

Must Work On: Marcus has the dilemma that I think most high school offensive lineman have.  It’s just too easy for them, so they develop bad habits.  Hall’s problem is that he plays too high.  You can afford to do that when the power you can exert with a “punch” from your upper body is greater than the power a defensive lineman can muster with his whole body.  He won’t have that luxury at the college level.  Therefore, Hall is going to need to demonstrate greater flexibility and show that he can be a natural knee-bender for the Buckeyes.  Otherwise, the more technical defensive lineman will blow past him regardless of Hall’s natural height and weight advantages.

You can only imagine what this would mean for Hall trying to pass-protect on the perimeter.  In pass-protection settings, playing too high basically makes you a turnstile for the pass rusher.  I think Buckeye fans know all too well what that’s like.

Redshirt? The Buckeyes signed 4 offensive lineman in the 2009 class and I think I’ve guessed elsewhere that two of them will redshirt.  I expect Hall and Mewhort will play.  Mewhort has the advantage of winter conditioning and spring drills whereas Hall has the advantage of being further along than Longo and Linsley.

Further, if what I’ve been told is correct, then it seems that Hall has already started his ascent on the depth chart.  I don’t know where he presently is, but I’ve been told (and have read) that Hall is making good on his desire to earn early playing time.

Highlights: Scouting Ohio… is there anything it can’t do?

Miscellany:

• He had to cancel an unofficial visit to Ohio State early into his recruitment because of a church commitment.
• Like Jonathan Newsome, he took part in the Elite Training Camp in May 2008 in Cleveland Browns Stadium.  There, he worked on a lot of drills with then-Buckeye verbal Jack Mewhort.  They became pretty good friends there, with Mewhort even trying to grease the wheels a little bit on getting Hall to Columbus.
• I can copy-paste this from Newsome’s BKAB feature because I can.  I wrote this and Newsome and Hall were in the same class: His senior season ended on a weird note, dropping an 8-7 decision to St. Ignatius.  Before you go thinking that it was just a two touchdown game total, Ignatius actually had a 5-0 lead at halftime.  Coincidentally, Glenville beat Ignatius in the first game of the season, but the Wildcats had the last laugh in round 2 of the state playoffs.  It was Glenville’s only loss of the season.
• Early into his recruitment, it seemed like he was begging for an offer from USC.  He routinely listed the Trojans as one of his top schools, but they never offered him.  If they did? Well, I wonder if his recruitment would’ve gotten a lot more interesting.
• On his official visit, a few Buckeyes also in attendance playfully told him to stop messing around and commit already.
• Marcus was a Parade All-American and the only Ohio prepster on the list.
• He represented well in the US Army All-American Bowl, along with fellow Buckeyes Corey Brown, Dorian Bell, John Simon, and Jamie Wood.  A few analysts on hand thought he was one of the most imposing offensive linemen there, and that’s with Morgan Moses and Eric Shrive being on the same East squad.
• His Scouting Ohio profile has links to his commitment presser.  You can also watch his NLOID footage here.
• Pre-compiled stats, courtesy of Bucknuts:

* Vital Statistics: Hall was considered one of the top offensive line prospects in the country. He was a three-year starter at Glenville. As a senior, he helped the Tarblooders post a 12-1 record. He earned first-team All-Ohio honors in Division I from The Associated Press. He was also a first-team pick on the ONN/Ohio High All-Ohio team. He was also a second-team selection on the USA Today All-USA team. He played in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl in January. He and fellow OSU signee Jonathan Newsome will give Glenville seven players on the 2009 OSU roster. Since 2002, OSU has now signed 15 Glenville players (see below).

* Rankings: He is rated as the No. 3 overall senior prospect in Ohio, according to Ohio High magazine. Also rated as the No. 2 overall prospect in the state, according to The Ohio Football Recruiting News. Hall is rated as the nation’s 13th-best offensive tackle by ESPN.com. SuperPrep considers Adams as an All-American, ranking him as the ninth-best prospect in the Midwest and the nation’s No. 18 offensive lineman. Hall was also listed in the Detroit Free Press Best of the Midwest team, ranking at No. 16 in the Midwest.

With that said, I think Marcus Hall is now better known.

The More You Know

I think it’s time to put him on the board.

Yikes, one more left.

1. Edgewater FTW

Height: 5′11
Weight: 195lbs
40: 4.31
High School: Miami Palmetto SHS; Miami, FL

His Recruitment: Ohio State enters the picture around early March.  By that time, Florida, Florida State, Ole Miss and LSU had offered.  It’s not all of the local heavyweights, but it’s clearly enough to suggest a few things.  First, all else equal, we could predict that Jaamal Berry’s chance of coming to Ohio State was really low.  Southern kids that get offers from the who’s who of southeastern schools tend to stay in the southeast.  Generally, a guy like Michael Brewster is the exception and not the rule.  Second, and more importantly, it suggested Jaamal Berry was big time.  The offers from those schools coincide with the tail-end of a wave of post signing day scholarship offers, which typically go out to the promising stars of next year’s recruiting class.  Jaamal Berry’s prowess had not eluded the SEC schools and Florida State, which perhaps would be a deterrent to Ohio State.  But, should the Buckeyes be able to get Jaamal’s attention, they would have one hell of a player to add to their roster.

Ohio State started contact with Jaamal in early March, as previously mentioned.  By the end of the month, they had convinced him to visit Ohio State for the Spring Game.  Paul Haynes was the one that contacted him, telling him that they loved his film and thought he fit into their running back plans for 2009.  Berry was interested for a variety of reasons.  He’s aware that there’s talk among the Florida kids about Ohio State, and a lot of it is positive.  Ohio State has a presence in the state in general, allowing prepsters in general to know about the tradition of the Buckeyes, the facilities and the local fanfare around the program.  He also talked with Etienne Sabino, another Miami kid, about what he liked about Ohio State.  It was all enough to convince Jaamal Berry and his folks to pay their own way to Columbus to see things for themselves.  To sweeten the deal, Ohio State finally extended a scholarship offer on April 11th.  Jim Tressel told him he was looking forward to meeting him and Berry was looking forward to seeing what things were like at Ohio State.

Judging from Jaamal’s reaction to the Spring Game visit, it was well worth the Skybus Airlines bankruptcy chaos he endured in even getting to Columbus.  He was impressed with just how much more important football is in Columbus than he would have expected.  Fans showed up in droves in spite of the pouring rain.  He was also impressed with the facilities and what he noted was Ohio State’s emphasis on keeping players on track to graduate.  While kids going through the recruiting process are no dopes, and know their audience quite well, there was plenty of reason to believe Jaamal was serious when he said Ohio State would be in his top two (as he said in Bucknuts).  The surest way to tell how genuinely interested a recruit is to see if he’s saying the same things to a neutral, or even rival, beat reporter.  Sure enough, he echoed his feelings towards Ohio State to NoleDigest (Florida State’s Scout.com affiliate) and Palmetto Sports (covers Clemson and the “Cocks”¹).

“It was amazing, I loved it up there.” … After Saturday, Berry has a feel for a favorite. “Ohio State was like a big thing for me,” he said. “They are up at the top.”

It seems Ohio State would be in it to the end for his services.

When Jaamal Berry said Ohio State would be in his top two, it took a little guessing to discover who the other school of choice was: Florida.  It was really the only other school he had seen by mid May.  He also liked how honest and blunt the coaching staff is, though I think James Louis would disagree.  While those were the top two, Jaamal had taken only a handful of visits and wanted to see more schools, including Auburn and Ole Miss.

By summer, though, it seemed like it became a one-horse race for Berry, with Ohio State running away with it.  He again gave glowing remarks about Ohio State to a non-Buckeye affiliate, telling Ole Miss Spirit (Ole Miss’ Scout.com affiliate) that there was nothing even the slightest big wrong with his visit and that he talks to the coaching staff often.  Craig Haubert, at ESPN.com, thought Berry would eventually be Columbus-bound.  The Miami Herald said he was a strong lean in favor of Ohio State.  Gator Country reported that one school stood out… and it was Ohio State.  Even more good news was coming on the way, as Jaamal planned to take a visit for early August to Ohio State to see things one more time.  He planned a visit to Columbus again, but told Florida that he would not attend Friday Night Lights.  As it panned out, Berry could not make that trip to Columbus in early August, citing the cost of the trip.  This is understandable, since this coincides with those huge spikes in oil prices that you may remember.  Fortunately for Buckeye fans, Jaamal Berry was spotted on campus for the Youngstown State game, a game that was not his official visit to Columbus.  Could good news be on the way? After all, he was already “90 percent sold” on Ohio State.

His Commitment: Paying his own way to Ohio State for the first game of the season against a Division Formerly Known As 1-AA opponent was probably a real indication that Jaamal was wanting to commit.  It was.  While Buckeye fans were fretting the injury status of Beanie from that game, they could momentarily celebrate Jaamal Berry’s weekend verbal commitment to Ohio State.

Simply put, Jaamal was so blown away from his Spring Game visit that he soon felt that Ohio State is where he wanted to be.  Scheduling an unofficial visit for the Youngstown State game was something done to get his mom to see what he saw months earlier, since Berry’s mother did not make the trip to Columbus for the Spring Game.  While there, the Berrys discussed academics with the staff and found enough to their liking for Jaamal to issue a commitment.  Mom was always in mind during this process, and the visit and commitment happened to coincide with Mom’s birthday.  Since Mom liked what she saw, and he already liked what he saw, he committed as a bit of a birthday gift to his mom: selecting where he would attend college.

Where He Excels: Jaamal Berry is an exciting back for a variety of reasons.  It’s no hyperbole to say he’s arguably the best in the country.  There’s a lot that you’ll see that you’ll like.

I’m really impressed how Jaamal can change direction and not lose top speed.  He has elite-level acceleration through the hole and from the snap.  He has an uncanny ability to appear as if he’s moving 3 directions (forward, left, right) simultaneously, resulting in swings and misses from defenders and more than a few broken ankles.  Get a lead blocker in front of him downfield and he’ll have 20 yards.  Get two lead blockers in front of him and he’ll have a touchdown.  Another Buckeye had those abilities: Archie Griffin.  Whether or not Jaamal develops into that caliber of back is up to him and other circumstances beyond his control (offensive line, naturally), but the tools are there.  He really is the best home run threat of any tailback in the 2009 class.

I think Buckeye fans are a little weary about Jaamal, thinking about the last highly-touted Florida running back we had.  I certainly appreciate Mo Wells sticking with Ohio State even as other backs surpassed him on the depth chart (it says a lot about Mo Wells), but I don’t think comparing Mo Wells to Jaamal Berry is fair to Berry.  Jaamal demonstrates more patience and vision at the line of scrimmage than Mo Wells did as a Buckeye (I really can’t speak to Mo Wells’ days at Sandalwood).  Further, I think Berry is the more powerful runner.  While a little on the small side coming in, he has the mass and bulk in his hips and lower body to give him a great leg drive through the point of attack.  Berry should get over 200lbs as an upperclassmen; Mo Wells never did.  I think Steve Slaton is a more appropriate comparison (which, of course, is dependent on Jaamal to make good on).  Remember Antonio Pittman?  Berry has a similar build, weight and height coming from high school as Pittman did.  Berry carries the more absurd 40 time, though.

Jaamal Berry can get the drama popping for your opposing defenses in here.

It’s fortuitous this BKAB feature is coming during fall camp, since now Tressel is able to speak about some of his own observations of how Jaamal Berry has lived up to his billing.

“Ooh man, he looks quick to me just the few times I saw him out here (Tuesday),” Tressel said. “And that’s what the kids were telling me from the summer. They said, ‘Hey wait until you see No. 4; he’s got some burst.’ But we all know the key to being a running back is how tough are you and can you do it (consistently) and can you pass pro and can you take those whacks that you take? So, based on shorts, I’d give him a ‘thumbs up’ that’s for sure.”

So far, so good.

Must Work On: A few things come to mind here.  First, the offense Jaamal played under at Miami Palmetto made him so much more lethal by strategic use of zone read option plays and misdirection to get opposing defenses spread out, guessing only to ultimately be blindsided by Jaamal Berry.  With Terrelle Pryor on the roster, Jaamal should be perfect for the Buckeye Pistol package (what happened to that?) and 3-4 WR sets out of the gun.  However, the I-formation was, is, and always will be, an important staple of the Buckeye offense.  So, how powerful and how tough will Jaamal Berry be in goal-line situations and 3rd and short situations with a simple dive play?  How will he adjust to having a fullback lead-blocking for him?  I think this is something Tressel hinted at in the quote above.

Second, Jaamal Berry needs to pick up the ankles through the line of scrimmage.  This one immediately jumped out to me in his film.  I still think Berry-Mo Wells comparisons are premature, but not picking up the feet at the line will lead him to be ankle-tackled often.  I feel Doc Tressel can correct this.

Highlights: Remember kids, I am not responsible for the choice of music.

There’s also a clip floating out there (somewhere) of him chasing down a defender after a turnover, where the defender had no one ahead of him and 15 yards between he and Berry and Berry was still able to run him down short of the end zone.  We can question the veracity of the 4.31 40 time, but the dude’s fast… even if his 40 time is probably more around the low-to-mid 4.4s.

Miscellany:

• Jaamal’s recruitment story didn’t necessarily end with his late August commitment to the Buckeyes.  Florida and Ole Miss didn’t take “no” for an answer.  Fans were worried he may jump ship when, in the same articles where he announced his commitment to Ohio State, he also pledged to honor his official visits to LSU and Ole Miss.  Florida, an early leader for Berry, was thought to be back in the running for his services, resulting in fears that he was going to attend the Florida-Miami game in Gainesville.  To the delight of Buckeye fans, he did not.
• Ole Miss seems to have been the one mentioned the most as a potential usurper.  Billy Tucker, citing… whoever, said that Berry is more sold on Ole Miss than people think, since he would be “the MAN” in Oxford.  Having been to Oxford, this is equivalent of being the MAN of a wilted tomato patch, but ooooookay.  As far as I know, nothing came of these planned visits (to Ole Miss and LSU).  If he honored them, he treated them as basically courtesy visits.  Jaamal eventually signed with Ohio State, as he said he’d do, and hence: this feature.
• It’s fair for fans to worry a little bit about Jaamal’s transition to the added workload that goes in to being a college football player.  After all, Jaamal had legit qualification concerns and did not start off taking high school seriously.  You can read about some of it here.  The fact that he put in the extra effort to erase all qualification concerns should assure Buckeye fans that he’ll be up to the task, but…
• …he also had that weed thing.  You may remember that.  Jaamal has since said that he’s not here to make any problems, that he’s learned from his mistakes and that it won’t happen again.  I believe him.  I believed him then too.  It’s still legit to want the staff to make sure that Jaamal is on top of things professionally.
• Before committing to Ohio State, Jaamal was repeatedly discussed as the best tailback in the state.  Then he committed to Ohio State, and then that honor went to Trent Richardson, who signed with the Crimson Tide.  I swear this dumb town is conspiring against me.
• Jaamal was an Under-Armour All-American, joining Jack Mewhort, CJ Barnett, Duron Carter and Melvin Fellows’ Safari Planet.
• A wrist injury and an ankle injury compromised a bit of his senior season.  He only played in 5 games because of it.  In fairness to Trent Richardson and the mouthbreathing charlatans down here, I guess it’s fair to push Berry down on the rankings because of it.  It’s all good.
• Jaamal Berry was a big Miami Hurricane fan growing up, and was surprised at what he perceived to be a slight that the ‘Canes did not offer him.
• WVU and Michigan were also thought to be in the running for him, though nothing really materialized out of these preliminary flirtations.
• He took a visit to Jamaica in the summer before coming back and trying to set up a second trip to Columbus.  I’m not sure if he has family members there, but the nature of what little I’ve read about the trip suggests that he does.
• He got rave reviews from an anonymous local football coach who posted at BuckeyePlanet.
• He went to the same HS as Kimbo Slice.  Remember him?
• Pre-compiled stats, courtesy of Bucknuts:

* Vital Statistics: Berry battled through an injury-plagued senior year with wrist and ankle problems. He only played in five of Palmetto’s 12 games. He had over 600 yards with four touchdowns. He played in the Under Armour All-American Game in January. As a sophomore in 2006, Berry carried for 522 yards and scored five touchdowns. As a junior, he tallied 1,033 yards and had 14 touchdowns in 10 games.

* Rankings: Berry is rated as the nation’s No. 3 running back prospect by ESPN.com. He is also a member of the ESPN 150, ranking as the nation’s No. 22 overall prospect. SuperPrep ranked Berry as the No. 25 prospect overall in Florida and as an All-American as the nation’s 26th-best running back prospect.

I think Jaamal Berry is now better known.

The More You Know

And, of course, “the board”:

1. …and sucks at it.  It’s in the running for my least favorite news service that covers recruiting.

Height: 6′6
Weight: 280lbs
40: 4.89
High School: Belbrook HS; Belbrook, Ohio

His Recruitment: Sam Longo isn’t that different from a typical football-playing kid from Ohio: he aspired to play at Ohio State.  For Sam, however, that desire took an added significance.  His father is Gene Longo, a former outside linebacker for the Buckeyes from 1981-1984 who resumed his playing career at Ohio State as a walk-on after a one year stint at Miami of Ohio.  Longo was trying to get noticed, and had even been to some camps at Ohio State.  By this time, no offer was coming.  Even then, no offer was coming in from anyone, though he was getting interest from places like Iowa, Rutgers, Indiana and others.

Longo’s recruitment begins in earnest around the end of February.  Miami (OH) and Bowling Green offered.  Two months later, he had accrued offers from the likes of Cincinnati, NC State, Central Michigan, Purdue, Louisville, Stanford and a couple others.  In order to get his name out there, Longo embarked on something of an exhaustive tour of college campuses.  The more he put himself out there, the better the odds he could put together an impressive offer sheet and provide himself options for a comprehensive choice.  In the process, he visited numerous campuses, including USC, UCLA, Stanford, Purdue, Nerdwestern, Iowa and Nebraska.  It ended with places like Penn State, NC State, Maryland, Virginia, Wake Forest and WVU.  Nebraska stands out, since it was arguably his most prestigious offer outside of Ohio State.  The qualifier “arguably” holds here because Florida State’s offer excited him.  The offer from Nebraska constitutes another instance of Nebraska coach — and former Ohio State player — Bo Pelini recruiting his home state hard.  On his end, Longo was impressed with what he saw in Lincoln.  Both father and son were impressed with Nebraska’s claim of having more academic All-Americans than anyone else in college football.

Afterward the Nebraska visit, Longo finally made his way to Ohio State for camp.  Camping at Ohio State was a necessity if Longo was going to get an offer from Ohio State.  Bollman had told him that they liked what they saw on tape, but they wanted to see what he could do under the direct supervision of the staff.  His nationwide tour seemed to indicate he was no longer interested in doing that, but father and son made the decision that camping somewhere was necessary and decided to do so at Ohio State.  He impressed at that camp, but was told by the coaching staff that they would reassess their recruiting priorities after the Senior Advanced Camp to be held a few days later.  Meanwhile, Sam continued on his “Longo Tour” with Penn State.  At this time, Sam was intent on making a college selection and he began to evaluate his options.  He wasn’t sure if Ohio State was going to offer, but was going to proceed with his decision-making process nonetheless.

It was some surprise, then, that news broke on July 3rd that Ohio State had finally extended a scholarship offer to Sam.  The timing of the story is curious, since he actually received his offer shortly after the Senior Advanced Camp.  However, Longo and his father were “on tour” and did not receive word of the offer until later.  There are more curiosities for me regarding the offer.  At the time, I thought it meant that Chris Watt let the Buckeyes know, however subtly, that he was not coming to Columbus.  This turned out to be the case on July 13th, to the surprise of very few.  At the time, Chris Watt was apparently still in the picture.  With offers still out to Marcus Hall and Chris Watt, Longo a likely “yes” and with verbals from Corey Linsley and Jack Mewhort already, the Buckeyes were willing to take 5 lineman in the class.  That seems like a lot, but the Buckeyes wanted four in 2008 but were rebuffed by Josh Jenkins at the last minute.

If anything, Sam Longo took Vlad Emilien’s scholarship.  Emilien was originally a Buckeye lean (eventually signed with the Wolvereenies), but seemed to find himself on the outside looking in after Corey Brown’s commitment.  By that time, the Buckeyes had commitments from six defensive backs¹ and still had Eugene Clifford.  That changed when Clifford was finally released from his scholarship, owing to complications associated with not being able to put away the weed.  When Watt eventually verbaled to Notre Dame, Emilien was back in the picture… briefly.

Getting back on track from this non sequitir about this really interesting period in the formation of the 2009 recruiting class for Ohio State, Sam Longo was about as much of a lock as you can get without actually having to go to Home Depot and buying one for yourself.

His Commitment: Four days after word of his offer went public, Longo committed to Ohio State.  The commitment on July 7th capped off an unlikely journey to Ohio State, that saw him enter camp the year earlier at 230lbs and saw him almost unable to schedule in the visit to Ohio State’s camp.  To be clear, Sam was a bubble recruit.  Without performing well at camp, it doesn’t seem plausible that he’d be offered².

After receiving the offer from Ohio State, Longo described it as “a dream come true.” He might have committed to that dream sooner, but his dad asked him to make sure he was making a logical decision; not an emotional one.

With his two final schools being Penn State and Ohio State, Longo said, “There were a lot of thoughts going through my head. It was a rough nine days. I had to do a lot of thinking; sitting down and thinking, ‘what’s best for me?’ I realized that I didn’t want to miss out on Ohio State and I didn’t want to wait around anymore.”

Of course, Longo added the sentimental, or “emotional”, reasons as well.

“I committed to Ohio State,” Longo said moments ago. “I did it for all the right reasons. The people at Ohio State are great. They treat you great. It’s always been my dream to play for Ohio State.”

The July 7th commitment was the 22nd of the 2009 class.  He would later be joined by Marcus Hall, giving the Buckeyes four offensive linemen in the 2009 class.

Where He Excels: Sam intrigues me.  I see things I like, things I don’t like and things that fascinate me.  However, I don’t know what Jim Bollman has in mind for him.  He was a tackle (sometimes left, sometimes right) in high school, but is mentioned as a guard candidate for Ohio State as well.  Bollman even mentioned center as a possibility, though the idea of Mewhort being a tackle and Longo being a center will invariably have me question where Bollman’s head is at.  However, his mobility and footwork has me wondering why Rodriguez didn’t go after him harder.³

Longo’s speed is real, and it’s great that a guy can carry around a 280lb frame and run a sub 5 40.  I believe that speed is unmatched of any of the offensive linemen signed by Ohio State in the past two classes (including Brewster and Adams).  You see the real “speed” at the second level, where Longo is often escorting his blocking assignment into the second level, third level, and eventually into the stands (if you’ll permit me to use some hyperbole here).  He has the balance necessarily to operate on the balls of his feet, shows great leg drive and it made him a terror at Bellbrook.

He makes good first contact as well, especially on his reach block.  Given his speed, and his ability to make good first contact, I think the reach block has to be his “best block”, if you will.  Sam gets outside his man, quickly, and will spin him around, right round… like a record, baby, right round round round.  His drive block looks just as impressive, but I think I’m more intrigued by his reach block.  Naturally, the speed makes him a viable option for pulling and trapping and effective on double teams.

I think I’m most interested in his frame.  Sam attended a camp at Ohio State entering his junior year where he was written off after showing up weighing 230lbs.  He’s now around 280lbs, but you wouldn’t know it from looking at him.  The weight is there; it’s just hidden very well and there seems to be little fat on him to account for it.  It leads me to wonder just how much weight he can put on and still maintain his speed and that frame.

I think my favorite adjective I use for offensive line prospects is “ill-tempered”.  You’ll see from his highlights what I mean, and why it’s appropriate for Sam.

Must Work On: I immediately noticed that Sam’s hand placement isn’t very consistent.  Hands are supposed to be inside the numbers.  Sam’s hands end up in a very naughty place: outside the numbers.  That’s typically a flag for holding.  I’ve been told that Sam usually has his hands in the right place, but I didn’t see it often in what I watched of him.  It seems that Sam’s hands end up in said naughty place when Sam is going in for the kill (recall the aforementioned “ill-tempered” characterization) and throws his man to the ground.  It may be catharsis on the field (and really fun to watch), but planting a guy on the turf isn’t worth it if a holding penalty comes in tow.

Sam’s reach block is probably his strong suit, but I see he could use a little more discipline in his upper body when he does it.  He’s so quick to try to spin his man around that it leads me to wonder what’ll happen at the next level when the talent is far better than what he saw in high school.  An experienced, crafty defensive lineman can slip under the block and blow up the play.

Sam also makes solid first contact on a play but, more often than not, his upper body will automatically creep up.  Unlike some other linemen I’ve seen, it doesn’t gradually creep up the longer the play goes, but the immediate pop gets him more upright than I’d like.  I’d like to see him work on that since it’d allow him to deliver better trap blocks at Ohio State.

Redshirt? If I had to guess: yes.  I can’t tell anymore with the offensive linemen, and I’d like scholarship players to be on the two-deep over walk-ons just as a general principle.  However, I think Mewhort and Hall end up seeing the field their freshmen year.  Mewhort has the advantage of spring ball and Hall is also as highly-touted as Mewhort.  Longo (and Linsley too) will have to have great summers to change that.

Highlights: Courtesy of Scouting Ohio.

Miscellany:

• This appears to be his father, Lieutentant Colonel Gene Longo.
• Sam Longo was one of seven Buckeyes to play for the Ohio side in their victorious effort in the Big 33 game.  He was joined by Jonathan Newsome, Corey Linsley, Chris Fields, Melvin Fellows’ Safari Planet, Adam Bellamy and Marcus Hall.
• You can watch him be interviewed about it here.
• Sam Longo started that game at left tackle, with Marcus Hall starting at right tackle.  According to John Porentas, Longo looked better than his counterpart and future teammate.  In particular, Porentas was really impressed with Longo in pass protection.
• He has a younger brother, Matthew, who has already come up in recruiting discussions for the 2011 class.
• Totaled 73 knockdowns, 31 tackles, 12 TFL, 3 sacks and 2 blocked kicks in six games as a senior
• He missed some of his senior season with a stress facture in his left foot.
• Bellbrook is the same HS as current Buckeye linebacker Austin Spitler.
• He competed in states in shot put and discus.  He even lost the discus crown to Corey Linsley, his future roommate at Ohio State.  However, he did place 4th in shot put.
• Pre-compiled stats, courtesy of Bucknuts:

* Vital Statistics: Longo saw some varsity playing time as a freshman. He was a starter at either guard or tackle since his sophomore year. He most likely projects as a guard at the college level. Longo was a second-team pick on the ONN/Ohio High All-Ohio team, although he dealt with a stress fracture in his foot as a senior and was limited to six games. He did not allow a sack in the games he played. He is set to play for the Ohio squad in the Big 33 Football Classic in June. He comes from the same high school as current OSU linebacker Austin Spitler.

* Rankings: He is rated as the No. 16 overall senior prospect in Ohio, according to Ohio High magazine. Also rated as the No. 11 overall prospect in the state, according to The Ohio Football Recruiting News. Longo is ranked as the No. 35 prospect in the Midwest by SuperPrep. He is rated as the nation’s 27th-best offensive guard prospect by ESPN.com.

I think Sam Longo is now better known.

The More You Know

And now, let’s put him on the board.

1. Justin Green and Brad McDougald eventually went elsewhere.
2. John Martinez probably would’ve been offered instead.
3. Here is where I’m supposed to make the joke that he’s not 5′8 and 160lbs and, therefore, not an ideal Michigan man for Rodriguez.

Height: 6′3
Weight: 240lbs
40: 4.65
High School: Glenville HS; Cleveland, Ohio

His Recruitment: The story of a lot of recruits that end up at upper echelon programs — at least in the Midwest — usually starts quietly.  They start by acquiring MAC offers or interest from a service academy before they finally get a breakthrough offer from a BCS conference program.  Other programs, and even bigger programs, eventually follow suit, leaving said hypothetical recruit with a litany of options for his choosing.

This wasn’t Jonathan Newsome.  His story starts at the end of January 2008 when the Buckeyes and the Illini sent out offers simultaneously.  With it, Newsome’s first two offers were from the year’s national championship game participant¹ and the Big Ten’s Rose Bowl participant.  That’s not bad at all.  Ron Zook’s reasons for offering are straight-forward: the cat is out of the bag on the Glenville program.  Previously that little secret that the Buckeyes knew about, Zook was the first one to pry a Tarblooder away from Jim Tressel that Tressel had offered (Cordale Scott).  He was trying to do it again.  Oddly enough, in spite of the little stream now forking out of the Glenville-Ohio State pipeline, connecting to Champaign, Illinois never seemed to be a real option for Jonathan.  While he discussed visiting Illinois early, they were never really given lip service as his second preference.  Get this: Indiana was.  Michigan State, if anyone, was his third preference if he had to itemize it as such.  All the schools that eventually offered him lagged behind one school on his chart: Ohio State.

Jonathan’s recruitment was relatively consistent on that regard as Ohio State was always his top preference.  Like all good Ohio kids, he admitted that “it’s every kid’s dream in Ohio to get an offer from Ohio State”.  The fascination with Ohio State was reaffirmed after he visited two weeks later.  He cited the tradition and the facilities, as just about every recruit does.  However, he admitted something that’s relatively unique among recruiting stories I read: Mom was really impressed.  Mom and parents in general are an important part of the recruiting process, but I’ve seldom read recruits openly mention it as a part of their own observations about visits.  However, that wasn’t all he admitted.  When discussing his plans to visit Columbus for their Spring Game, Jonathan admitted that Mom preferred Ohio State and keeping Mom happy on this regard was really important to him.  It wasn’t some primordial native attachment to the Great(est) State of Ohio that put the Buckeyes on top of Mom’s list; it was actually the coaching staff mentioning how much they’ll stay on top of their football players to assist them in eventually graduating from The Ohio State University.  The Spring Game visit even had him thinking of committing, but Jonathan suppressed that impulse.  While the Buckeyes were invariably his first choice — and inevitable destination if his words and recent history were any indication, Jonathan held to the line that so many Tarblooders before him have.  He wanted to see other places, take official visits before making a late decision.

His Commitment: However, somewhere along the path, his timetable changed.  His preference didn’t: he always wanted to be at Ohio State and they were always his leader.  Still, I think he realized that the space available in the Buckeyes’ 2009 class by June was rapidly shrinking.  At his position(s) alone, the Buckeyes already had Whiting, Klein and Bell at linebacker and had Melvin Fellows’ Safari Planet at defensive end.  By late June, the Buckeyes had secured a flurry of commitments from Duron Carter, Carlos Hyde, Justin Green (eventually switched to Illinois), Corey Brown, and Brad McDougald (eventually switched to Kansas).  That was 22 commitments by June alone.  It seems implausible that Jim Tressel would withdraw a scholarship from Newsome for space constraints.  He’d just as soon find space for him in order to stay in the good graces of Ted Ginn Sr.  But if Jim Tressel wouldn’t do it, Jonathan Newsome was probably feeling it.

By late June, Jonathan decided to talk it over with Mom.  Mom advised him that if he was 100 percent certain that he wanted to be a Buckeye, there’d be nothing tangibly gained from dragging his feet any longer.  Realizing that being a Buckeye was what he always wanted, Jonathan called Ted Ginn Sr and informed him that he was going to commit.  Afterwards, he called Jim Tressel and gave him a verbal commitment.

With that verbal commitment on June 24th of last year, Jonathan Newsome accomplished more than just securing his spot in a recruiting class and deciding where he wanted to go to college.  These are important things to be sure.  For fans like us, Newsome was the first of the class to secure the pipeline connecting Glenville and Ohio State.  The Tarblooder program has given us luminaries like Troy Smith, Donte Whitner, Ted Ginn Jr and present-day faces of the programs like Jermale Hines.  A Tarblooder has also been in every recruiting class since (at least) 2002².  Still, the connection has been tried in recent years.  2007 had one Tarblooder, the aforementioned Jermale Hines.  2008 had two, but it was not without some effort.  Where Tarblooders typically receive early offers from the Buckeyes and wait until late in the recruiting campaign to committ toe the Buckeyes, it was actually late offers to Shawntell Rowell and Jermil Martin that eventually secured the pipeline.  Jermil Martin was a good pickup (and I knew it when it happened), but Shawntell Rowell has yet to suit up and likely never will.  Further, 2008 was also the year that Cordale Scott — the top Glenville target for the Buckeyes — became the one that got away.  2009 was precarious as well.  There weren’t that many Tarblooders to be had.  Hall was always an option to go somewhere else and Mike Edwards (Tennessee commitment) was never on the Buckeyes radar (for a variety of reasons).  With that in mind, Newsome’s relatively early commitment was one to celebrate.  He was also eventually joined by his teammate Marcus Hall, in typical late-in-the-game Tarblooder fashion.

The college level will not be as easy as tackling an old man, but we hope it will be for Newsome.

Must Work On: Keeping with the theme that Jonathan is a little raw at the moment, I see that he sometimes takes poor angles when lining up for a tackle.  He even overpursues.  At the snap of the ball, Jonathan does an adequate job shooting out of this stance to initiate the contact.  It’s one of his superlatives.  However, he’s not very consistent off the snap.  When he stutters out of the gates, he loses momentum and is easier pushed out of plays.  This is certainly pronounced in the pass rush.  Jonathan will also need to develop some kind of pass rushing moves since he appears to be largely an effort guy at the moment.  In doing so, Jonathan finds himself with a blocker squarely in front of him.  He will need to more reliably play half a man, or otherwise the task may be impossible for him at the collegiate level.  Still, I like the effort, I love the pursuit, and I think he has a good fluidity and frame to him that can allow him to be in the LEO picture down the road for the Buckeyes.

Redshirt? I think so.  Nathan Williams did not redshirt last year and made an immediate impact.  The same goes for Cam Heyward.  Keith Wells did not either, but perhaps should’ve.  Still, it seems like just about everyone that comes to Ohio State as a defensive line recruit ends up redshirting, though the finding is much more consistent for defensive tackle prospects.  With a glut of defensive linemen in 2009, I’m expecting Newsome sits out 2009 to be a scout-teamer and a spectator on Saturdays.

Highlights: Courtesy of Scouting Ohio, via the YouTubes.  His junior year highlights are first up.  Below this: his senior year.

Miscellany:

• Jonathan Newsome was one of the many Buckeyes playing in this year’s Big 33 game, joining teammate Marcus Hall, Adam Bellamy, Sam Longo, Melvin Fellows’ Safari Planet and Corey Linsley.
• Bucknuts noted that he was impressing during the practices before the Big 33 game.
• The Plain Dealer even interviewed him after the Big 33 game.
• He took part in an Elite Training Camp held in May 2008 at Cleveland Browns Stadium.  He was arguably the top defender there.
• If you don’t know who Josh Winslow is, then you’re not grateful (as you should be) for the photos he uploads of Ohio State football.  He was in attendance and was responsible for the two photos I’ve included in this feature.  You can see more here.
• His senior season ended on a weird note, dropping an 8-7 decision to St. Ignatius.  Before you go thinking that it was just a two touchdown game total, Ignatius actually had a 5-0 lead at halftime.  Coincidentally, Glenville beat Ignatius in the first game of the season, but the Wildcats had the last laugh in round 2 of the state playoffs.  It was Glenville’s only loss of the season.
• He eventually tallied an offer sheet that included the likes of Michigan State, NC State, Vanderbilt (his “first SEC offer”), and Purdue.
• He took his official visit late in December, with Bucknuts providing the details.

Newsome headed down to Ohio State on Saturday morning with his mother and sister.

“The coaches were with them,” Newsome said. “The players showed (the recruits) around. We all went to the Mongolian Barbeque on Saturday for dinner. Then we went back to the Blackwell Hotel. After that we went back out again. There were about 20 of us. I’d say that was the thing I liked best, going out with all the other (recruits) and our hosts.”

• You can watch Jonathan Newsome and teammate Marcus Hall on Signing Day.
• Pre-compiled stats, courtesy of Bucknuts.

* Vital Statistics: Newsome split time between outside linebacker and defensive end as a senior. He also played center, guard and tight end on offense. As a senior, Newsome tallied 17 sacks, five fumbles caused, three fumble recoveries, one interception and three blocked punts, one of which he returned for a touchdown. He helped lead Glenville to a 12-1 record and is a classmate of fellow OSU signee Marcus Hall. He earned Division I All-Northeast Lakes first-team honors and special mention All-Ohio kudos from The Associated Press. Newsome is set to play for the Ohio squad in the Big 33 Football Classic in June.

* Rankings: He is rated as the No. 5 overall senior prospect in Ohio, according to Ohio High magazine. Also rated as the No. 10 overall prospect in the state, according to The Ohio Football Recruiting News. Newsome is rated as the nation’s No. 70 defensive end prospect by ESPN.com. SuperPrep rates Newsome as the 38th-best prospect in the Midwest.

All things considered, I think Jonathan is better known, or something.

The More You Know

And now, let’s put him on the board.

1. sigh…
2. I admit, I know nothing of the 2001 recruiting class and Rivals.com doesn’t have that in their database.

Height: 6′2
Weight: 185lbs
40: 4.58
High School: Gateway SHS; Monroeville, PA

His Recruitment: Corey comes from a powerhouse Gateway Gators program in Monroeville, Pennsylvania that annually matriculates its star players to top college football programs around the Midwest.  With a stellar sophomore season and the credentials of high school team and coach, Corey was getting serious interest as early as the summer of his sophomore year.  He had verbal offers from the likes of Boston College, Pitt, Rutgers, Kentucky, WVU and apparently Penn State by mid August of 2007.  By the end of the month, Ohio State and Michigan were interested.  Ohio State’s interest came after the junior Corey Brown (and teammate Dorian Bell) impressed at the 7-7 camp at Ohio State.  When all was said and done, Corey had offers from the likes of Oklahoma, UNC, Notre Dame and Tennessee as well.

As I mentioned in Dorian’s feature, the turn of the calendar from 2007 into 2008 saw Corey Brown and Dorian Bell increasingly mentioned as a combo deal.  They were both good friends, but so much of their junior season of football (and, thus, the last 4 months or so of 2007) saw them pursued and discussed somewhat separately.  This changed in early 2008.  Don Callahan covered Dorian and Corey’s visit to UNC, one of many schools to offer both Gateway stars.  Therein, Callahan revealed that Dorian and Corey would no longer take separate visits for the duration of their recruitment¹ and would likely select the same college.  As the months progressed, Dorian began to make it known that he was going to accept Ohio State’s offer by the end of April.  Ohio State, in spite of being listed as a verbal offer at the end of August 2007, was the one school high on Corey’s list to have not extended an official offer.  Even with a wealth of options, Corey seemed willing to wait and made his recruitment contingent on what Ohio State would do.  When Dorian Bell finally announced his decision, a visibly excited Corey was waiving an Ohio State flag in the background at the presser.  Dorian, the good friend he is, was doing his part.  He used what capital he had as one of the Buckeyes’ top 2009 targets to sway Ohio State into formally offering his confidante.

I had a long conversation with Dorian Bell late last night and will have a premium article posted shortly. At the end of our conversation Bell said to me, “Can I make a request?” I said sure. Bell then said, “Please get (Ohio State) to offer Corey (Brown).” Corey Brown is of course one of Bell’s teammates. Bell said where Brown goes would not be a factor in his decision, but it would be nice if they ended up at the same school.

It may have been Dorian’s plea.  It may have been Corey’s enthusiasm at his friend’s commitment presser.  It may have been Darrell Givens’ switcharoo to Penn State.  It may have just been, well, about damn time.  Whatever the case, Gateway coach Terry Smith broke the news to Dotting the I that Corey finally got his official offer on May 12, 2008.  It was the offer for which he had been waiting.  On that day, Luke Fickell dropped by Gateway SHS to tell Corey that an offer would finally be forthcoming.  Corey called Tressel so that he could hear it from the horse’s mouth.  It was a relief for Corey.

Brown has long been very interested in Ohio State so the offer from the Buckeyes was a big one.

“I was very excited,” Brown said when asked about his conversation with Tressel. “I felt real good. I told coach Tressel I was excited and I wanted to get out there again soon. I’ll probably get out there in the next couple weeks.”

While necessarily maintaining a poker face about evaluating his options and not letting Dorian’s decision sway him, most people could predict how this would end.  Dorian even started to nag Corey about when he was going to make it official.  On June 20, Dorian made his way to Ohio State for the Senior Advanced Camp (when and where Duron Carter also committed).  Two days later, he announced he was going to make a decision within the week.

His Commitment: It doesn’t seem Corey was able to contain his excitement.  While announcing his decision would go public within the week, he ended up committing the next day.  While trying to maintain some kind of secrecy around his preferences (by discussing Michigan and WVU after getting his Ohio State offer), there was no surprise for those walking in to Corey’s presser and seeing Corey Brown wearing a scarlet sweatervest, Ohio State ballcap, and flanked by family and friends wearing Ohio State gear.  He, like Terrelle Pryor and Lamaar Thomas, was going to commit to The University of Ohio State.

The brief video of the press conference, as well as the words provided to Bucknuts, underscore how academic this decision was.  Corey Brown was long fascinated with Ohio State, even when big time offers were pouring in and Ohio State was withholding their trump card on the issue.  He was fascinated with what he saw on his unofficial visits to Columbus and really connected with the coaches during that time.  Like his friend Dorian, it was impossible to say no to Ohio State.

Corey’s commitment to Ohio State fills a void left by Givens’ sudden about-face in favor of the Nittany Lions.  Told repeatedly that the coaching staff has defensive back in mind for him to fill that void, Corey’s decision to join his friend and teammate at Ohio State again gives the Buckeyes (arguably) the best combo deal in the country like they had last year with the tandems of Stoneburner-Adams and Howard-Sabino.

The aforementioned TD grab by Corey Brown at the Army All-American Bowl

As a wide receiver, Corey resembles more of your possession receiver-types.  He has a nice frame for a receiver, at a lean 6′2 and 185lbs.  Every receiver has to do something to be able to create separation.  In Corey’s case, he demonstrates an ability to create that separation early into the route, as opposed to your fly route options (like Ted Ginn Jr) that create separation with a “second gear”.  He has a solid burst from the snap, and those first few seconds are the most important for receivers.  For a high schooler, his routes are rather polished and he already does a better job at identifying coverages than most people coming in to college football.  His hands likely have magnets in them that suck in most passes.  This compliments inherent awareness rather well.

As a defensive back, Corey resembles more of your tall, smothering jammer-types.  His long arms are disruption devices that can jolt receivers in bump and run settings.  He’s fast enough for corner and may even get a look at free safety depending on how things shake out.  While dogged for his speed as a receiver, he demonstrates the ability to turn his hips and ride wide receivers as if he were attached to their belt loop.  His receiver instincts and sure hands make the threat of disaster on an errant or ill-advised pass even more credible.  His closing speed is more than adequate when playing a safety position.  The promise of him evolving into a ballhawking nightmare is very real.

Whatever the position, Corey is praised by his coach and teammates as being very level headed during the course of a game.   A competitor to be sure, Corey isn’t quite the howler that Dorian Bell is.  Not effusive in self-congratulation or prone to fits at low points in a game², Corey looks to be coachable, hard-working and mature whatever the position.

Must Work On: Stop me if you heard this before, Buckeye fans, but Corey Brown lacks speed at the receiver position.  Surely he’s not alone for college receivers who rely on crisp routes and on-field awareness to create separation, but there’s real questions about Corey’s speed controlling for that expectation about his style of play.  The anxiety is that Corey Brown, the receiver, would rarely be any help on downfield heaves and would provide little in the yards-after-catch department.

As a possible corner prospect, it’s not clear that Corey will immediately grasp the nuances of Ohio State’s soft zone mentality when bump and run seemed to be all of what he did as a cornerback for the Gateway Gators.  This is a minor point.  Defensive back was also a relatively new thing for Corey; he started playing it when there was a need at the position for his team.  Consequently, I see a few things that need to be ironed out.  I’d like to see him get a little lower when preparing to make a tackle in run support.  He also seems to get a little too touchy, for lack of better term, in coverage and seems to lose track of when he needs to disengage.  Pass interference penalties may come up.

If Forced to Choose: It seems Corey has his heart set out on wide receiver.  Admitting that he’ll play anywhere if it means actually playing in a game, wide receiver is still his first preference.  However, the Buckeyes have a glut at wideout at the moment and it’s not clear that Corey provides an upgrade over any of their other options at the moment.  The secondary, on the other hand, is very much wide open.  The Buckeyes lose two starting corners and will soon lose Coleman and Russell to graduation at safety.  This year alone, freshman — redshirt or true — will invariably factor into the two-deep precisely because there’s that much openness at those positions.  Unlike his potential contributions to the wide receiver corp, I see Corey as bringing a unique wrinkle to the secondary with his fluidity and natural ball skills.  With two-way players increasingly rare, and seldom effective on both sides of the ball³, I’m expecting Corey Brown to start at defensive back and remain a defensive back during his Buckeye career.

Of course, something could change this summer that brings Corey Brown into the receiver corp.  I’m fine with whatever works; and by “works”, I mean whatever brings pain and humiliation to our enemies.

Miscellany:

• Corey and his teammate Dorian Bell played in the Hawaii-Mainland exhibition game in December.  The Mainland team, for whom Corey played, dominated Hawaii and Corey played lead aggressor in the win.  He picked off 3 Hawaii passes.
• If 3 interceptions in that game aren’t enough to underscore how much of a natural he is in the secondary, he did win MVP at the State College Nike combine as a defensive back.
• I think Corey Brown was the only player in the class who was not adversely affected — rankings-wise — by committing to Ohio State.  He was bumped from 4 stars to 5 stars by Rivals.com after a dominating performance at the Hawaii-Mainland game and the US Army All-American Bowl.
• Corey’s Gateway Gators played future teammate John Simon’s Cardinal Mooney Cardinals in their junior seasons (2007).  Mooney won 27-6; it was Gateway’s only loss that year before losing deep in the playoffs to Central Catholic in the AAAA finale.
• His senior season ended on a bit of a sour note.  #3 nationally ranked Gateway had steamrolled all foes before being stunned by Bethel Park in the AAAA Championship game, again.
• Rich Rodriguez tried to work some snake oil on Corey Brown.  3 months after his commitment, Michigan was still calling, trying to get Corey Brown to take a visit to a home game.  Corey refused to oblige.
• I heart the Pitt Post-Gazette since they’re the best resource conceivable for people like me who will occasionally have to do write-ups on one of the area’s prep stars.  In their Fabulous 22 feature, they interviewed Corey Brown (along with Dorian Bell and Jordan Hall).  Therein, Corey admitted that his favorite food is grilled cheese and tomato soup and that he regularly uses his Wii Fit.
• Pre-compiled stats, courtesy of Bucknuts:

* Vital statistics: Brown is a talented two-way prospect who projects as a defensive back for the Buckeyes. As a senior, Brown was picked to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Fabulous 22 all-metro team. He caught 42 passes for 708 yards and had a school-record 15 touchdown passes. Gateway ended up 12-1 after a loss to Bethel Park in the WPIAL Class AAAA championship game. He starred in a pair of national all-star games. He had three interceptions in the Hawaii-Mainland game in December and caught a touchdown pass in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl in January. As a junior, Brown had 23 receptions and three touchdowns on offense and recorded 40 tackles and four interceptions on defense.

* Rankings: Rated as the nation’s No. 17 athlete prospect nationally by ESPN.com. SuperPrep considers Brown as an All-American, ranking him the fifth-best prospect in Pennsylvania and the nation’s No. 18 defensive back.

In my humble opinion, Corey Brown is now better known.

The More You Know

Cue the board:

1. If I recall correctly, they seldom did anyways.
2. I’m not saying Dorian Bell is either.
3. Think of 2002 Chris Gamble and others, but you’d be thinking of exceptions and not the rule.

Height: 6′1
Weight: 225lbs
40: 4.5
High School: Naples HS; Naples, Florida

His Recruitment: Ohio State was one of the first programs to figure out that there’s something to this Carlos Hyde.  Florida State was his first offer, but the Buckeyes followed suit at the end of February.  Other offers eventually came from the likes of Clemson, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Louisville, USF, Pitt, NC State, Miami and our dearest friends in Gainesville.  However, the Ohio State offer almost immediately vaulted the Buckeyes into the lead.  After all, it was his dream offer.  Knowledge of his back story is helpful in understanding why.  Though residing in Naples, Florida, Carlos is originally from Cincinnati.  He grew up a devoted Buckeye fan and remained one even in Florida.  Further, his parents and most of his extended family remained in Cincinnati while he was in Florida.  Carlos was sent to Naples by his parents in order to live with his grandmother and uncle.  Though I don’t know what part of Cincinnati Carlos is originally from, there was fear in his parents that Carlos could get caught with some bad elements if he did not get a change of scenery.  His parents recognized he had a talent for football and wanted him to cultivate it in a distraction-free environment with grandma.  It doesn’t hurt that he was developing his game in the football-rich Sunshine State either.

Most important in his brief recruitment phase was the long interest Carlos had in Ohio State.  Even as other offers came in, there was little variation in the words Carlos offered about Ohio State.  They were a regular in his top 3, which also usually included Florida State for the most part.  As his recruitment progressed, his parents kept reminding him how nice Ohio State was and how he would have a support network available for him while he was in Columbus.  It’s not just his parents that wanted him to return to Ohio.  Carlos expressed that he just wasn’t feeling the southeastern heat.  He missed that he could get all four seasons in Ohio, but suffers through the year-long heat and humidity on Florida’s Gulf Coast.

With so much interest in Ohio State, the only thing holding Carlos back from a commitment was his inability to see Ohio State for himself.   It was his dream school, but he recognized it wasn’t wise to buy site unseen.  Fortunately, he planned a visit back to Ohio to see his parents at the end of June.  At that time, he and his family would make the trip up to Columbus to take in what they could.  If all went well on that visit, Carlos said he’d commit while there.

His Commitment: It took a few days before Carlos eventually visited Ohio State.  Since he was spending the whole week in Ohio with his family, there was no rush.  After finally making the trek to Columbus, Carlos saw first hand what several other recruits who have signed with Ohio State have noted before him.  He remarked about the family atmosphere of the program, how the players and coaches interact and how the coaches vow that they take care of their players.  Having seen everything he felt he needed to see, Carlos said he’d likely commit the next day after talking it over with his parents.  It became official on June 22nd.

Carlos’ commitment was the 19th of the class and came on the same day that Justin Green committed to the Buckeyes.  Green eventually opted to play for Illinois.

Where He Excels: Carlos Hyde is a nimble-footed powerback in the mold of PJ Hill of Wisconsin fame, and I know I’ve said that before elsewhere.  Comparisons to Beanie are premature since Beanie had the breakaway speed that Carlos simply does not have.  So while the top-end speed is missing, Carlos makes up for it with an obviously punishing frame.  The mass itself makes him a hard fellow to tackle, but the manner by which it’s concentrated in the lower half of his body makes this task especially difficult.  He shows great leg drive getting through the line of the scrimmage and does a good job at running low.  Ankle-tackles and arm-tackles (at the second level) won’t be an issue for Carlos.  However, tackling Carlos will be an issue for opposing defenders; he knows how to absorb contact and will be hard to wrap-up when he’s moving on a straight line.

The nimble-footedness is most important here.  He shows deceptive fluidity for a guy his size.  When moving north-south, Carlos can make that subtle move to get a defender out of position and then punish said defender with a stiffarm.  He shows good shiftiness at the line of scrimmage and it should allow him to develop quite nicely as a “thunder” to someone else’s “lightning” down the road.

Must Work On: Deceptive change of direction abilities at the line and strength to spare are the obvious positives for Carlos, but a few things come to mind.  First, Carlos can bounce a play to the outside fairly well and has the vision to recognize when he needs to do it, but it’s at this point where he’s most vulnerable to be tackled.  He doesn’t turn a corner as well, so pitch or sweeps will likely do little good at the next level.  This is odd, since a lot of the running plays for his Naples Golden Eagles had him running wide.  The lateral quickness is there; the second gear necessary to cut back in and up isn’t quite there.  Second, I read that Carlos is capable of being used in the passing game, but I’ve yet to see demonstrated how exactly he’d help coming out of the backfield.  The highest praise I’ve read of his abilities here describe his hands as “adequate”, though he has 10 receptions for 164 yards and 3 TDs to his credit as a senior.  It appears that a lot of his catches came in the flats.  I’ve also not seen what he could do in pass protection, and it’s something he will definitely need to do if he’s going to be a featured back at Ohio State.  Carlos swears his HS coach has made him work on it, but that it’s something that needs improvement nevertheless.

I mention that Carlos is shifty and nimble-footed for a guy his size, but every now and then, he’ll find himself dancing around hoping for something to open up when it’d be in his best interest to slam forward.  This is most pronounced when he’s moving east-west.  Plays designed to get Carlos wide, behind pulling linemen and fullback, featured prominently in what I’ve seen of Naples’ offense, but Carlos will be doing more straight-ahead running at Ohio State… and he should do it well.

Highlights: Carlos is #34 in the clips below.  There’s only one play here where catches a ball out of the backfield and basically trucks a few people in the process.  He trucks a few people in these clips.

Miscellany:

• Carlos’ Naples Golden Eagles¹ play Immokalee yearly.  Immokalee is where Brian Rolle went to school.
• He played a leading role in an unrelenting 91-0 beatdown of Estero.  In that game, Carlos only had to rush 4 times for 80 yards, but had probably the best catch of his HS career: a 55yd touchdown grab.  The wide margin in favor of Naples attracted some national media attention.
• Carlos’ junior year team went undefeated, winning the 3A state title in the process.  The average margin of victory for Naples was rather lopsided.
• In that year, Naples beat Glades Central in the playoffs.  Glades Central is where Santonio Holmes went to school.
• He averaged 126.9 yards per game and 10.51 yards per carry as a senior.  He had 3 games in 2008 where he tallied over 200 yards.  Full stats are available.
• Nickname is apparently “C LOS”.
• I guess it goes without saying that Carlos is a Bengals fan.  I can’t say I approve of that, but I’ll look beyond it because some things are more important.
• 11w caught up with Carlos Hyde.  He admitted that he needs to hit the weight room because he spent the spring playing basketball for his HS team.  His team finished 10-16.  Carlos averaged 5ppg and 4.3rpg in his senior season.
• Teammate is Nick Alajajian, a Florida commit and Army All-American offensive lineman in the same 2009 class.
• Naples News had footage of signing day at the HS.  Carlos comes in at about the 1:40 mark.
• Carlos spent his first year of high school at Princeton HS in the Cincinnati area.  Princeton is where quasi-celebrity-person Carmen Electra attended high school.
• Lantern article: here.
• Carlos was named the area’s offensive player of the year in 2008 and won the Daily News Broxson Award as well.
• Pre-compiled stats, courtesy of Bucknuts:

* Vital Statistics: As a senior, Hyde rushed for 1,656 yards and 16 touchdowns. He was first-team all-state and also won the Naples Daily News Broxson Award as the area player of the year. He is considered as either a tailback or fullback prospect. As a junior, Hyde rushed for 943 yards and 13 touchdowns as a junior.

* Rankings: He is rated as the No. 61 overall prospect in Florida by SuperPrep. ESPN.com ranks Hyde as the nation’s 31st-best running back prospect.

I think I’ll consider Carlos Hyde better known, I guess.  It’s always good to have people playing at Ohio State who aspire to do so.

The More You Know

And, of course, the board:

1. I’m not sure where exactly you see golden eagles in the wild.  I think you see them on sweatshirts, though.

Height: 6′3
Weight: 190lbs
40: 4.5
High School: St. Thomas Aquinas HS; Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

His Recruitment: Duron was initially wanting for interest early into his recruitment.  After all, he is Cris Carter’s son — a pedigree that’s sure to get attention from college football recruiters.  More importantly, he was part of the 2007 state champion St. Thomas Aquinas Raiders football program.  However, there was no flurry of interest in Carter.  One possible reason is the nature of the team for whom he plays.  Aquinas is a rush-heavy team, as most high school teams are.  Duron was usually consigned to the role of blocker.  While he relished the role he played for his team, it did ultimately leave him with a limited highlight reel for consideration.  He only had 22 catches for 361 yards and 8 TDs in 2007.  Hey, maybe all Duron Carter does is catch touchdown passes like his old man.

While his recruiting story started rather quietly, it picked up some steam in early Spring 2008.  A variety of offers started to come in for Duron.  South Florida was one of his first offers.  Auburn followed soon afterwards.  Wisconsin even extended an offer, giving Duron the rare opportunity to play college football with his uncle.  While those offers were considered by Duron, none of them were a big factor.  His recruitment is largely reducible to a two-horse race between LSU and Ohio State, both of whom just met in a game New Orleans that I don’t feel needs further description.

LSU won that game, as we grudgingly remember, and it looked like they were in the early lead for Duron Carter as well.  Where Ohio State poached the son of an LSU legend in the 2005 class, LSU was the early favorite to return the favor to Ohio State.  Duron was impressed with the national championship Louisiana State had just won, citing that only one team can make that recruiting pitch each year.  It just happened to be LSU in that particular recruiting class.  When pressed to name the schools of interest, Duron mentioned the Tigers and the Buckeyes.  While those two coming up should not be surprising, Duron saying LSU had “a slight lead” in the same breath on April 11, 2008, may have been cause for concern for those of us who like Buckeye legacies.

LSU had the early lead between the two, but it never made any further inroads with Duron after that interview linked above.  Ohio State, on the other hand, moved to the forefront.  Duron attended Ohio State’s Spring Game and came back with pleasant reviews.  Not ready to name a favorite, and still with very few offers, he nonetheless spoke positively of the experience and being able to talk to Terrelle Pryor, Etienne Sabino, DeVier Posey and others.  He remarked how Ohio State’s coaching staff treats everyone like family.  As the months progressed, all news seemed to focus on Ohio State as the school to beat.  He made plans to come up to Columbus with his family for the Senior Elite Camp on June 20.  A few weeks earlier, a BuckeyePlanet poster claimed to have met Duron’s grandma and came back with some good news.

Met Duron’s grandma yesterday (Cris’ mom) and she said that Duron is 100% Buckeye and will be committing before the season starts. She was extremely kind and when I asked her if he was sure he wanted to come all the way up to Ohio, she responded by saying that he will NOT be attending any other university than tOSU. A very cool person overall, she definitely looks like Cris.

Did this portend some good news on the horizon for Duron’s late June return to Columbus?

His Commitment: It did.  On June 20th, Duron felt he had seen enough of what everyone could offer him and opted to become the newest Buckeye legacy.  In giving his commitment to Ohio State, he felt he was committing to “the best school in the country”.

I committed to Ohio State and it feels good to know I’ll be attending the best school in the country,” Duron Carter said. “I committed to Jim Tressel during a break at one the sessions. He was pretty happy and he said he thinks I can accomplish big things at Ohio State. My dad was really happy and he was pretty emotional. I’m happy to know I have my college locked in and now I can concentrate on winning a state title in high school.

As Duron indicated, it’s debatable for whom Duron’s commitment was a bigger deal.  Duron found himself a place to spend the next 4 or 5 years, growing as a person.  For Papa Carter, the commitment may have resonated a little stronger.

“This is a great moment for me and I’m kind of speechless right now,” Cris Carter said. “They’re on a break right now and I’m off by myself taking it all in. (Ohio State wide receivers) Coach Hazell has been coaching him all day. This is kind of surreal. This morning I went for a walk and thought to myself that I can’t believe how great this is. I feel like I died and went to heaven because I get to go through the Buckeye experience twice.”

Awesome.

Duron’s June 20th decision qualifies him as the 18th verbal commitment in the class.  He was the first of the two Florida kids in the class to choose Ohio State (Jaamal Berry being the other).  He was also the first of two Buckeye legacies in the 2009 class.  Sam Longo’s old man is Gene Longo, a Bruce-era alum.

Where He Excels: Duron might be a chip off the ol’ block.  Much of the superlatives given to Duron stem from what made his old man so great in the NFL.  It doesn’t hurt that Duron probably had better instruction than 99% of high school football players.

His hands are enormous and will consume any ball in sight.  His hands are as soft as his old man’s.  He also displays similar awareness on his routes.  Unlike a Ted Ginn Jr type of receiver, Duron will not use speed to create separation.  He will use smooth, crisp movements to create the needed cushion between he and the defender.  Aside from knowing not to round off routes, he’s already picked up a few tricks.  For example, he breaks towards the ball on an out route at such an angle that allows the quarterback to make an easier throw and makes it more difficult for the defensive back to jump the route for an interception.  He also displays a keen awareness on the jump ball, another attribute his old man showed in the pros and for Ohio State under Earle Bruce.  The ability to catch the ball away from the body should make him a reliable target for Terrelle Pryor.

Of course, what would any receiver be for Ohio State that was skittish at blocking.  Fortunately, blocking is something Duron did a lot of for St. Thomas Aquinas.  Moreover, it’s something he enjoyed.  The enthusiasm for downfield blocking is definitely there and I’m optimistic that his bloodlust will increase when he’s a Buckeye.  I’m hoping he becomes the kind of psychopath that Hines Ward is for the Steelers.

Must Work On: Duron has a great burst out of the gates and knows, like his father, that those first few seconds are key in creating separation.  However, he doesn’t have that ideal top-end speed to become a home run threat.  He’s a good target on vertical routes, but the jets simply aren’t there.  Further, I’m not sure there’s anything that can be done about it.  This will simply mean he’s not going to be a Ted Ginn Jr type of receiver, but that’s not why he’s here.

In terms of obvious limitations, that’s about it.  Duron’s a very smart receiver and has to already know the little tricks and tools that most people would need years to figure out for themselves.

Redshirt? On matters like this, Tressel usually gives the players the choice.  There will be a logjam at the position, but Duron and his fellow classmates will actually be part of that logjam, rather than sitting below or behind it.  I think it’s inconceivable that Duron Carter redshirts in 2009 since early playing time was something he mentioned frequently during his recruitment.

Highlights:

Next up, Duron Carter in his own words.

Miscellany

• Duron went from winning a state title in 2007 to being awarded a national championship in 2008.  His team has won 24 straight games.
• St. Thomas Aquinas is the same HS as former Buckeye Nate Salley and the HS of current target Lamarcus Joyner.  Both Duron and Joyner were at Ohio State for the 2009 Spring Game.
• His HS team played in the Kirk Herbstreit Challenge.  They beat Elder 35-24 in Paul Brown Stadium on national TV.  It was also Duron Carter’s most productive game of the season.  He had 4 catches for 123 yards and a touchdown.
• Duron flirted with the idea of playing for Michigan.  He even admitted that Michigan was a favorite program to watch in his youth.  This is awful, but apparently reducible to A) being a fan of Braylon Edwards and B) Cris Carter not forcing anything on his son.
• He didn’t even entertain the thought of playing for Ohio State until Ohio State offered him.  This is all in spite of his father being an Ohio State legend.

“I never actually thought about going to Ohio State before they offered,” Carter said. “I took a visit up there and I felt like that was the right place for me and what I wanted to do with my career.”

• I wonder if there’s a back-story here that hasn’t been said yet.  Cris Carter didn’t leave Ohio State on the best of terms, and that may mean that it was never brought up around his house.  Yet, when Duron was on the recruiting trail, his dad would’ve liked for him to consider Ohio State, but was not going to force anything on him.  Did Cris Carter ultimately live in isolation from the college football program for that long? I’m thinking aloud here, because I find it interesting that Duron could grow up with no interest in Ohio State, and yet have a dad who wanted him to consider it and got so emotional when Duron made his decision.
• At the 2008 Spring Game, Terrelle told Duron that his father’s no. 2 is waiting for him should he choose to come to Ohio State and want that number.  Duron, however, is deferring to the elder Pryor.

“I probably won’t wear No. 2,” Carter said. “Terrelle made a name for himself wearing No. 2 and I have no problem with him wearing it. He was there first and he deserved it. He’s a great player and he has seniority over me and any other incoming freshman. I’ll take heed of that.”

• Instead, Duron is going to try to acquire jersey #4.  He cites the fact that it just looks appropriate on wide receivers.
• He plans to enroll in the College of Business.
• Lantern profile: here.
• Duron Carter played in the Under-Armour All-American Game, joining Melvin Fellows’ Safari Planet, Jack Mewhort, CJ Barnett and Jaamal Berry.
• Pre-compiled stats, courtesy of Bucknuts:

* Vital Statistics: Carter had 39 catches for over 700 yards and scored 14 touchdowns as St. Thomas Aquinas posted a 15-0 record and won the Class 5A state championship for the second consecutive year. Following his senior year, Carter played in the Under Armour All-American Game (two catches for 43 yards). As a junior, Carter caught 22 passes for 361 yards (16.4 average) and eight touchdowns. He is the son of former OSU All-American and all-time great NFL wide receiver Cris Carter.

* Rankings: Carter is rated as the nation’s No. 18 wide receiver prospect by ESPN.com. He is also a member of the ESPN 150, ranking as the nation’s No. 131 overall prospect. SuperPrep ranked Carter as the No. 16 prospect overall in Florida and as an All-American as the nation’s 19th-best wide receiver prospect.

All things considered, I think Duron is better known.  I hope his career is such that we refer to Cris Carter as Duron’s dad, rather than haunt Duron with being Cris Carter’s son.  Think of my wish here how most Buckeye fans think of Ron Springs as Shawn’s father because Shawn Springs’ career was such that people readily forgot he was the offspring of Woody’s last tailback.

The More You Know

And, the board: