Laurinaitis Leaving Early?
I was reading an article about Andrew Sweat in the recruiting forum and the following quote really stood out to me.
Sweat: "Wait (Ohio State junior linebacker James) Laurinaitis, two-time All-American, will be making $60 million in a couple months."
It seems like the incoming recruits are always one of the first to know that we have players who are planning on leaving. I remember in interviews with Chimdi Chekwa he mentioned that 2 of our DBs were leaving early and Whitner and Youboty later declared.
I wonder if that is not the case here as well. If Sweat is being told that James is likely to leave, it would explain his decision to come in early and compete for playing time at middle linebacker next season. With James already being a captain as a junior, I could definitely see him leaving ealry if he thinks he'll be an early pick.
Laurinaitis would be a big loss as we could be real contenders in 2008. It would be huge having a talented, experienced leader at MLB as we go out to USC early in the year.
The rest of the article is below, for context:
Yancich reminisced with Sweat, an Ohio State recruit, about how maybe this was the plan all along. After all, they used to flash the touchdown signal as they crossed home plate after hitting a home run in baseball. They played against each other in grade school, but were reunited in high school. The best friends will be opponents again in college when Penn State plays Ohio State, which is usually the Lions' most anticipated game of the season.
That thought triggers a debate, and it goes something like this.
Sweat: "Penn State might be better this year, but then Ohio State the next four years."
Yancich: "What?"
Sweat: "We have this running back named Chris Wells."
Yancich: "(Sweat) will be at Penn State with me and I'll be like, 'Sean Lee just intercepted that. Oh is he at the 40, 30, 20, 10, touchdown?' "
Sweat: "Wait (Ohio State junior linebacker James) Laurinaitis, two-time All-American, will be making $60 million in a couple months."
But once the bickering calms down, Sweat puts things into perspective, and Yancich agrees with his philosophy.
"We just live life," Sweat said. "We're just still kids. We don't know what to expect. We just love the game and we play it."
Yancich and Sweat are laid-back and high-strung at the same time. They don't feel the pressure of joining programs with high expectations. Their hyper side comes out when they perform toe-touches to see whose is better and talk really loudly when they get excited about playing in college. But there is a serious side to them, especially Yancich, who, along with Sweat, is expected to lead a Trinity team that hopes to improve upon a 6-4 finish and advance past the first round of the playoffs, where the Hillers' season ended last year.
