2010 tOSU Recruiting Discussion

[Joe6809]

If Barclay gets a scholarship, how does that work? What kind of eligibility would he have? With Drew Basil coming in, how much separation would there be between the two in class?

 

[BuckeyeGuy513]

Still thrilled about having Corey Brown a Percy Harvin type guy, a 6'7" WR who run's a 4.5! Still a good day just not a grand slam.

 

[NFBuck]

Lot's of wonderful strawmen being built. Kudos.

Todays "Haul" has no impact on 2010.

2012 is where the pipeline needed to be filled.

Young OL's, which by default we will have in '12, are problematic.

Nobody has broached the other aspects is impacts.

*Lack of comp. on the OL (called the Steve Rehring codicle).
*Less physical practices, impacting the O and the D.

The 2012 spring practice should be a big 7 on 7 tourney.

Take it back to scout Wembley. Seriously, there is a type of person that should not follow recruiting, and folks, this is the model.

If you're so upset about missing out on some teenage kids, I have a couple suggestions...

- Play with your kids
- Call your dad
- Take your dog for a walk
- Eat a bunch of tasty chicken wings
- Play some xbox or PS3
- chew some gum
- scour eBay for some vintage baseball cards (I'm waiting out a bid on a sweet Sandy Koufax as I type)
- Watch a funny movie

Seriously folks, stop focusing on who isn't coming and take a look at who is. Also, remember that Rich Rodriguez is still coaching tsun. That's reason for celebration each and every day.

 

[Cincinnatibuck]

I don't get the 2012 is going to be bad that people are talking about. How is 2012 depth chart different from the 2009 depth chart? We'll have 1 senior, 3 redshirt juniors, and a junior as our top 5 linemen. If we miss on linemen this upcoming season is when you should worry about 2012. We already have offers out to 3 OL for 2011 and have been in contact with one other (3 of the 4 in the state of Ohio).

 

[strohs]

I don't get the 2012 is going to be bad that people are talking about. How is 2012 depth chart different from the 2009 depth chart? We'll have 1 senior, 3 redshirt juniors, and a junior as our top 5 linemen. If we miss on linemen this upcoming season is when you should worry about 2012. We already have offers out to 3 OL for 2011 and have been in contact with one other (3 of the 4 in the state of Ohio).

2009's depth chart definitely wasnt pretty at times this season.
I really dont know jack, but i would like to see 3-4 OL every year, as i truly believe the game is won and lost in the trenches...

 

[NFBuck]

I don't get the 2012 is going to be bad that people are talking about. How is 2012 depth chart different from the 2009 depth chart? We'll have 1 senior, 3 redshirt juniors, and a junior as our top 5 linemen. If we miss on linemen this upcoming season is when you should worry about 2012. We already have offers out to 3 OL for 2011 and have been in contact with one other (3 of the 4 in the state of Ohio).

cdiddy needs something to fret over. It's his M.O. on scout and he's dragging it over here now.

 

[BuckeyeGuy513]

The only concern I would have is Norwell is coming off a broken leg. He should be able to go this year though.

 

[stkoran]

To all those who are dismayed that OSU got only any one late recruiting "win" this year, you must not have been paying much attention to tOSU recruiting over the past 5 years. High profile recruits who decide to sign late in the process (after January 15 for my purposes) rarely, if ever, sign with Ohio State. Every year people get all worked up on signing day and every year people become despondent, lament that the future of the program is on shaky ground, admonish JT and his staff to get after it harder, and of course - "why can't Tressel close?"

The answer is that Jim Tressel is a closer. As in, when he closes on a kid, they sign sooner rather than later. Outside of the well known "Glenville way," JT recruits don't do the whole silent commitment thing. Rather, they are excited about attending Ohio State and playing for Jim Tressel, they make their commitment known when they are ready, and then they fax in their LOI on signing day. When a national recruit has all the big players after them and they announce they will sign on signing day, if that recruit isn't from within a few hours of Columbus and a heavy Buckeye lean, don't put much faith in JT landing that recruit.

Let's look at the Buckeye's success with recruits who sign late (after Jan. 15) in the process since 2004 (last year with data on Rivals):

2010:
Christian Bryant - As mentioned above, the Glenville studs typically wait for program, rather than personality, reasons.

2009:
Marcus Hall - Glenville (see Christian Bryant)
Kenny Guiton - Very late offer, didn't visit until 1/30, tOSU was by far his best offer

2008:
Terrelle Pryor - Close to Columbus, Heavy tOSU lean (at least I always felt he was)
Ohrian Johnson - Ohio State was by far his best offer
Keith Wells - Keith decommitted from FSU late due to concerns that Bowden might get fired

2007:
Cameron Heyward - Despite seeming like a total JT recruit, Cam didn't fit the mold of someone tOSU would get late, in that he was making a late commitment, wasn't from close to Columbus, had offers from everyone, and no special circumstances were in play (i.e. late decommit due to coaching uncertainty, late offer, tOSU clearly the best offer)
Jermale Hines - Glenville (See: Hall, Bryant)

2006:
Larry Grant - JUCO who didn't visit until late January
Ray Small - Glenville (See: Hines, Hall, Bryant)
Thaddeus Gibson - Close to Columbus, tOSU lean, though maybe not a heavy lean (IIR Michigan always seemed to be in the mix)

2005:
Lawrence Wilson - Late decommit from Notre Dame after Ty Willingham got fired
Donald Washington - Late offer, committed within days of visiting
Brian Robiskie - Late offer, committed within days of visiting

2004:
Devon Lyons
Curtis Terry
Dennis Kennedy
Nader Abdallah
Albert Dukes
Kyle Mitchum

The 04 group certainly bucks the trend. I believe Conley was still in charge of recruiting at this point, which may explain some of the difference. Also, if you look at this group, well, we really didn't gain to much from these late "wins." Nader had a nice senior season and Terry played some and that's all.

Basic story - tOSU has won without getting late recruits, it will continue to win without getting late recruits, and while Jim Tressel is our coach don't expect to get to many stud recruits who decide late.

 

[twoodbuck97]

Just came on and haven't read any post. Assuming everybody is scared about OL recruiting. I can't believe the way the coaches recruit OL. They take more LB's some years than they do OL. This is why you always get a level of inconsistency with these guys. If a 4 or 5 star player doesn't pan out who can come in a take his spot? I expect to see a JUCO player or two at the position in the next two to three years.

 

[BuckeyeJon2006]

The only concern I would have is Norwell is coming off a broken leg. He should be able to go this year though.

He should be fine, he suffered his injury pretty early in his senior season. I don't know that he'll crack the two deep even at full health though unless he's going to play guard. We're pretty deep at tackle next year.

LT: Adams and Miller
RT: Shugarts and Hall

 

[Joe6809]

Still thrilled about having Corey Brown a Percy Harvin type guy, a 6'7" WR who run's a 4.5! Still a good day just not a grand slam.

6'7"? I know sites are known to exaggerate the measurables from time to time, but whatever site you got that info from is pushing it a bit! I think you're combining Tyrone Williams with Corey here. Tyrone is listed as 6'5, Corey at 5'11. You're right though, Corey can definitely take on a Bush/Harvin type role with us. A cat quick guy who can catch down field or out of the back field. Between the three wr's we brought in, we have to look pretty appealing to our QB targets next year. *hint* Braxton *hint*

 

[BuckeyeGuy513]

6'7"? I know sites are known to exaggerate the measurables from time to time, but whatever site you got that info from is pushing it a bit! I think you're combining Tyrone Williams with Corey here. Tyrone is listed as 6'5, Corey at 5'11. You're right though, Corey can definitely take on a Bush/Harvin type role with us. A cat quick guy who can catch down field or out of the back field. Between the three wr's we brought in, we have to look pretty appealing to our QB targets next year. *hint* Braxton *hint*

I don't know how tall Tyrone is. But I have seen it published up to 6'7" Regardless... 6'5" and up and you run a 4.5 and can catch.. welcome aboard!

 

[RB07OSU]

Man, do I love Coach Tressel. Nobody I'd rather have coaching the Buckeyes. He has a great staff, too. Fine people, every one.

With that said, this recruiting season has been a huge disappointment. Not because of the recruits who are coming to Columbus, as I think they're all fine young men whom I am eager to see suit up in scarlet and gray. But the performance of our staff at securing commitments from highly recruited student-athletes ("blue chippers") was not good this year. Not blaming anyone; many things come into play when athletes commit. But the staff should be giving themselves a hard look and identifying what they need to do differently next year to avoid a repeat.

Great post. To build off what your saying, I do think the staff deserves some blame. I know we had some bad luck and it wasn't your average year, but there are a couple factors that come to mind as to why they should have pulled out at least a couple victories: The upheaval of the college coaching world, recent success and stability of our program. The following list indicates players we had legitimate chances at, but didn't end up with:
1. Lamarcus Joyner: Finished 2nd to FSU after coaching change. Were the leader early on.
2. Seantrel Henderson: Finished 2nd to USC after coaching change and serious possibility of recruiting sanctions. Were the leader a few times throughout the process and lost at the last moment.
3. Sharriff Floyd: Finished to 2nd to Florida after Meyer announcing he was leaving and then changed mind. Floyd switches last minute to Florida.
4. Matt James: Finished 2nd to Notre Dame after coaching switch. Familiarity with Kelly helped ND but OSU was in the lead until last minute.
5. Josh Shaw: Finished 2nd or 3rd to Florida after leading for quite some time. Started the avalanche of bad luck.
6. Jordan Hicks: Finished 2nd to Texas. Many say we had a shot, I say it was Texas since September. Either way, it's a 2nd place finish.
7. Morgan Moses: Were the obvious leader late in the game but wanted to see where the test scores were at...with missing everyone, why not take a shot? Another 2nd place finish.
8. Dominique Brown: Looked to be the odds on favorite. Why not give him a shot at QB first? Likely finished 2nd to Louisville.
9. Andrew Hendrix: We had a legit shot but it was an instate loss I would have preferred not to happen.
10. Alex Welch: Finished 2nd to ND, debatable what kind of shot we had.
11. William Gholston: Stated OSU was his leader very early on but never saw an offer until it was too late.
12. Tai-ler Jones: Visited early and we were firmly in the mix, but lost to Stanford.
13. Garrison Smith: Grew up an OSU fan and OSU had a legit shot. Never came to be.
14. C.J. Fiedorowicz: Listed OSU as a leader later on in his recruitment, but it appeared he was worried about getting passes thrown his way and picked Iowa.
15. Will Hagercup: Likely a 2nd place finish to Michigan. Definetly could have used his big leg at punter here.
16. Spencer Ware: Rumored to have strong interest in OSU, yet headed south. We were fighting an uphill battle but we had a shot.
17. Nick Montana: OSU was in great shape early on, lost out.
18. Laken Tomlinson: Rumored to be in strong position, lost to the football powerhouse Duke.

-Others offered but never had a chance: Jeff Luc, Brandon Linder, Arie Koujando, Terrence Mitchell, Nickell Robey, Chaz Green, Christian Green, Tony Grimes, Jarred Haggins, Matt Elam, Kenny Shaw, Braylon Heard, Keon Payne, Cullen Christian, Storm Johnson, Brent Benedict, James Hurst, Kharri Fort, Zach Zwinak, Dontae Williams, Kacy Rodgers, Marvin Robinson, Jim Poggi, Jaylen Watkins, Gideon Ajabe, Luke Muncie, and Ricardo Miller.

The number of guys we pursued and missed on is really staggering this year. I mentioned early on in this thread that hopefully the strategy of waiting on the high profile guys works...it didn't and as I also mentioned, we found out too late for an exit strategy. These "diamond in the rough 3 stars" that we "trust the staff" on were already committed elsewhere. The only guys that fit that bill that we had left were Reed and Brown...missing Brown didn't help. What really stands out to me is that we finished runner up so many times, yet most of the time it was too a school with a great deal of uncertainty. It just seems the staff should have been able to capitalize off that, even without negatively recruiting. Just emphasize the areas the other schools are struggling with. Confining the negative aspects of this class to this paragraph, the likelihood of attrition is also concerning to me. Numerous players in this class had off the field and grade issues...you hope they have overcome them and clear admissions, but reoccurence (ala Small) is much higher. So not only did we miss so many guys, it is possible we will see an already fairly small shrink later on. Finally, the number of OL is concerning down the road, especially if we have juniors leave next year. The real concern is finding a talented LT. We've already discussed that. I also would have liked to see another DT, but there seems to be talent out there in '11, so we could just get 3 then.

With all things considered, I do like quite a few players in this class. McVey will be a star for us on defense and if Turner keeps his head on straight, he is a 5 star prospect. The WR class is phenomenal with Brown, Louis and Williams. Norwell, in my books, is the best OL country aside from Henderson. Hopefully he comes back the same from his injury. Roderick Smith can be a star at RB, here's to hoping the grades are all set. Bryant can be a lock down DB. Hankins, if he watches his weight and grades, could be a disruptive force here. If Anderson comes here, we'll have a fantastic safety.

All in all, this was a disappointing class. Not being cynical, just my honest opinion and if we are all honest, I think we would feel the same (i.e. look back to your projections for this class and see if it's anywhere close to what happened). Not for the most of the players we got, but the numerous players we missed. I keep seeing "Well you win some, you lose some." We lost some early and then lost some more....which did we win? The only real battles won were C. Brown and Hankins. The rest were decided before the offer or didn't have other high profile offers to choose from. In fact, we even lost to schools such as Duke and Louisville, with no previous ties, which seems unprecedented. We have to be able to "win some and lose some" with guys like Henderson, Floyd and Shaw when we are in good shape. We didn't do that this year and being that we are freaking THE Ohio State University, you gotta expect top 15 recruiting classes bare minimum. With all the misses, I could about gurantee the staff isn't pleased overall with this class. Not to say it's a bad class, it's just that we could have done so much better. After Shaw and Joyner, I started sensing the way we were going to finish, but didn't want to look like a cliff jumper. With the cycle coming to it's completion, I feel it is finally justified to make the call.

 

[Hodgepodge]

It's definitely frustrating to see the January/February trend continue, but I'm not interested in the past (even if the past is but a few hours ago). In my life, I like fixing problems rather than dwelling on them. Of course, I can't "fix" anything at Ohio State, but that doesn't stop me from pondering where improvements might be possible. My question is: what can Tressel and his coaches learn from all this that can be applied towards the furure? And if there is something to be learned, what could actually be put into place given the personalities of those involved?

I'm not trying to say the sky is falling or that anything is broken, as obviously the two prior classes were excellent, and the 2011 and 2012 Ohio classes look to be better than average (presumably resulting in great OSU recruiting classes), but no one on Earth is perfect at what we do, and there is always something to be learned to enable us to do better next time.

Not saying that any of the following are huge issues or insignificant factors (or that I agree with any of them per se) , but these are some areas that I wonder whether there could be any roomfor improvement:

--Official visits during the season. I've been following recruiting for over 20 years now, and regardless of whether it was Cooper or Tressel in charge, I can't remember a big recruiting weekend like this past year vs. USC resulting in many commitments. I understand why in-season visits need to happen occasionally (i.e., a kid plans of committing during the season), but it's hard to keep momentum with kids when they plan on taking other visits later and decide months in the future. I'm not singling out the group that attended the USC game on official visits, because I know there are extenuating circumstances, but in general, I've not seen these weekends work well at OSU. Would it work better to try and get more kids in on visits in December? Yeah, the weather is lousy, but might it yield better results?

--The Texas approach. Texas, obviously gets most of its commitments well before the season starts (expect ten or so commitments for Texas within the next month). As such, they can cherry-pick top recruits the rest of the year, focus on juniors the rest of the year, and not have to deal much with kids who decide late in the season. Would Tressel be well served to adopt this approach given the troubles getting many of those kids who decide late? I understand that Texas and OSU are different inasmuch as the number of top recruits in each state is different, but I suppose it could work at OSU to one degree or another.

--Targeting one QB. This obviously worked brilliantly with Pryor, but it put the staff in a bind in 2009, and for 2010, they struck out on their first two choices before moving on to Taylor Graham (who I believe is a better prospect than either Montana or Hendrix, BTW). With Pryor being a major exception, most top QBs decide well before their senior year starts. Going from one QB prospect to the next in terms of the offering sequence can put you behind the eight ball if you strike out on your first choice. Of course, if you offer several kids at a time, you may land the one you are least high on. Given the Miller AND Randall offers, I wonder whether the OSU coaches have rethought their approach.

--Larry Johnson (OSU version). OSU really doesn't have that guy on the staff that is the ace recruiter/closer. Sure Taver Johnson and Luke Fickell especially are mentioned frequently-- quite deservedly-- as very good recruiters, but there doesn't seem to be that go-to guy when the staff needs to wow recruits. Of course, guys like this might not mesh well with the current staff, and might conflict with Tressel's overall aim in recruiting for the OSU football program.

Anyway, as I said, I'm just spitballing here. Some of these I wouldn't mind seeing put into action, others I'm not overly fond of. I just wonder whether any of these options might benefit Tressel and company or whether there are other options that might. Of course, I imagine a lot of people will also say "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

 

[NFBuck]

Man, I'll just never get why so many of you feel the need to dwell on the negative. If tOSU wan't winning 10+ games a year, B10 titles, beating scUM and going to premier bowls year after year, I'd get it. But come on, these guys know what they're doing. They're also coming off two of the best classes in school history. So we didn't clean up this year. We already have two highly rated DL for 2011. We won a Rose Bowl a month ago. 2010 is shaping up to be a special year. Give it a rest already.