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College football: Buckeyes find sweet pickings in Peach State
Tressel develops Georgia pipeline
Sunday, January 25, 2009
By Ken Gordon
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
When her son first discussed playing football for Ohio State, Charlotte Heyward-Blackwell was, "totally against it."
"That's too far away," she told Cameron Heyward, who was a junior at Peachtree Ridge High School in Suwanee, Ga. "I don't want you to go that far."
"We were coming up for a game and I was kind of going with the mind-set of, 'We'll go visit just to erase (OSU) off the list,' Charlotte recalls. "Instead, we got there and I just fell in love with everything about it."
Cameron, a defensive lineman, played immediately as a true freshman in 2007, and this past season he earned a starting role. His experience is just another slice of the Buckeyes' recent history of success in recruiting Georgia kids.
Heyward was not the first Georgia recruit of the Jim Tressel era -- safety Brandon Mitchell was a member of the 2002 recruiting class. Eventually, Mitchell begat Anderson Russell, who begat Antonio Henton, who begat Heyward, who begat Keith Wells.
And the coaching staff is trying to add more peaches from Georgia to its upcoming classes.
It makes sense. Although many people think of Florida as the gold standard of Southern football talent, Georgia by some accounts is just as fertile.
"I read something the other day that said that for our size, we produce the most Division I talent (to out-of-state colleges) because we only have two major universities (Georgia and Georgia Tech)," said Todd Wofford, assistant coach at Gainesville (Ga.) High School, Wells' alma mater. "The in-state schools can only sign so many; the kids have to go somewhere, and colleges across the country know that."
Bill Kurelic, recruiting analyst for Bucknuts.com, said, "Everybody thinks of Florida, but Georgia is a great state for talent, and there's not as much (recruiting) competition as there is in Florida."
BuckeyeXtra - The Columbus Dispatch : College football: Buckeyes find sweet pickings in Peach State
Georgia on their minds
Sunday, January 25, 2009
A look at Ohio State's recruits from Georgia since coach Jim Tressel arrived in 2001:
**** 2002
S Brandon Mitchell (Atlanta)
**** 2005
S Anderson Russell (Atlanta)
**** 2006
QB Antonio Henton* (Fort Valley)
**** 2007
DL Cameron Heyward (Suwanee)
**** 2008
DL Keith Wells (Gainesville)
*--Henton transferred to Georgia Southern in June 2008
http://www.columbusdispatch.com/liv...hart.ART_ART_01-25-09_C5_MBCLM3B.html?sid=101