St. Ignatius sophomore Liam Eichenberg's offer from Ohio State a troubling trend: Tim Warsinskey's Take continues downward recruiting trend: Tim Warsinskey's Take
St. Ignatius incoming sophomore Liam Eichenberg said the football scholarship offer he received from Ohio State will only motivate him to work harder. (Chuck Crow, The Plain Dealer)
Tim Warsinskey, The Plain Dealer
July 18, 2013
CLEVELAND, Ohio ? If you're going into the 10th grade and you don't have a college football scholarship offer, son, time's a wastin' and the clock is tickin'.
Welcome to the new normal in high school football recruiting. Or should we say junior high school recruiting?
Ohio State recently made a scholarship offer to St. Ignatius offensive tackle Liam Eichenberg. He's 15. He just finished his freshman year. He has yet to play a down of varsity football, having spent all of last season on the Wildcats' freshman team.
?You'd think they would want to see some (varsity game) film,'' St. Ignatius coach Chuck Kyle said.
But OSU coaches took a long look at the 6-4, 250-pounder from Westlake at Ohio State's Skill and Big Men Camp on June 18-19. Before it was over, Eichenberg had, in theory, his future potentially secured to 2021, even though he doesn't yet have his driver's license.
?I was shocked, for one, because he's so young,'' said his father, Gregg, a salesman.
?I was blown away,'' said his mother, Heather, a special education teacher at Westlake High.
Ever wonder how that happens? This is Liam's account:
?They have a game at the end of the camp called Buckeye Bowl and during that a coach said, 'I need to see you run because I'm trying to get you a scholarship.' So, I started running around,'' Liam said. ?We won the game and there were five coaches and they called me over and said, 'What's your name?' and I gave them my name, and 'What's your phone number?' and I gave them that. They said, 'It's nice to meet you.'
?They went to talk to my parents. Toward the end, the running backs coach, Stan Drayton, came up to me and said, 'Do you like Ohio State?' I said, 'Yes, I love it.' He said, 'Here's what I'm going to do. I'll give you a scholarship and when you're a junior, we'll talk again. But if your grades drop or you get in trouble, I'm going to pull it.'?
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