Canton Rep
6/23
Thanks to Buckskin86 for the find:
OSU’s football camp on Hartline itinerary
Thursday, June 23, 2005
By Todd Porter Repository sports writer
Camping has never been this much fun. Or work.
GlenOak quarterback Mike Hartline is camping in Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin and South Bend, Ind., on a whirlwind schedule that ends Tuesday.
Hartline isn’t rubbing sticks or sleeping in a tent. He is visiting four major college football camps with hopes of landing a scholarship offer from three.
Hartline spent Wednesday in Ann Arbor at Michigan’s camp. He worked closely with Wolverines quarterbacks coach Scot Loeffler, but Hartline returned home without an offer.
“I will know Monday what their situation is,” Hartline said. “Coach Loeffler said to call him them. They’ve offered four quarterbacks, most of them from the south, and they’re waiting until July on those guys. If nothing happens with any of them, they told me I was their next one. I’m at the top of their list, right there.”
The 6-foot-5, 185-pound Hartline is heading to Ohio State’s senior advance camp Saturday. It’s the same camp where his brother, Brian, performed extremely well and earned a scholarship offer a few days after the camp. Brian Hartline accepted OSU’s offer on the spot and will be a freshman in the fall.
It is unlikely Hartline would receive an offer from the Buckeyes on Saturday. Hartline is at the top of OSU’s in-state quarterbacks list, but there are out-of-state QBs ranked higher. Ohio State will sign, at most, one quarterback in its 2006 recruiting class. The GlenOak senior would have to have a phenomenal camp Saturday to leave with an offer.
“It is a big day,” said Hartline, who’s gained 15 pounds since playing at 170 last year. “There is pressure there. I don’t see how you can’t say going to a camp and working out in front of coaches or a scholarship offer isn’t pressure. All you can do is relax. There are nervous points, but your talent takes over and you forget about the pressure and do your thing.”
Hartline has offers on the table. But summer offers are summer offers: Some are there in the fall, some are not.
Wisconsin, Illinois, Ole Miss, Michigan State, Kentucky, Marshall and Cincinnati have offered. Not a bad list for most prospects, but Hartline is on the national recruiting radar because his size fits the big-time quarterback template.
Duane Long, a football recruiting analyst for scout.com, believes Hartline is the best quarterback in Ohio. The other Ohio QBs on OSU’s radar are Bellaire’s Nate Davis, Miami Trace’s Miles Schlichter and St. Ignatius’ Rudy Kirbus. None of them were ranked in front of Isiah Williams, a quarterback from Illinois who had Ohio State at the top of his list. His decision to commit to Illinois was a surprise, but it also changed the recruiting landscape at that position.
“I think shoo-in is too strong a word for Mike Hartline at Ohio State this weekend,” Long said. “I think he’s a strong candidate. It is where he made his debut last year with a monster camp. He could come out with an offer, but the one thing he has to show is mobility. ... I think Ohio State is after more mobile quarterbacks now.”
The odds are against Hartline getting an offer from OSU this weekend. That isn’t to say he could emerge by the end of summer, which is when he wants to verbally commit to a school.
What Hartline has to show OSU coaches this weekend is a level head. The knock against him is he is too emotional on the field after a few incidents last season.
“When it comes to elite athletes, coaches expect a bit of an ego,” Long said. “I’m a firm believer in this: You can’t be the man if you don’t think you’re the man, and sometimes that goes to the head of a 17-year-old kid.”
But the Buckeyes are taking a closer look at recruits now more than ever, and attitude is a bigger part of the equation.
“Basically, I have to show Ohio State I haven’t lost a beat from last year,” Hartline said. “They want to see me up close, and see that I can compete at that level. That’s it. They want to see if I can be the person I can be, which I know I can be.”
You can reach Repository sports writer Todd Porter at (330) 580-8340 or e-mail:
[email protected]
