OHIO STATE RUNNING BACKS COACH TONY ALFORD RE-ESTABLISHES HIMSELF AS ELITE RECRUITER WITH THREE BIG COMMITMENTS IN TWO WEEKS
After missing out on some of his top running back targets over the past three years, the heat was on for Tony Alford to step up his recruiting efforts this offseason.
Ohio State landed a pair of talented running backs in 2018, Master Teague and Brian Snead, but Alford admitted himself in his performance review that summer that No. 1-ranked running back Zamir White was “the one that got away.”
The Buckeyes landed another pair of running backs in 2019, Steele Chambers and Marcus Crowley, but Ryan Day still wanted to see Alford take his recruiting to another level, listing “recruit an elite RB” as an area to work on in that year’s performance review.
That didn’t happen in the class of 2020, as the Buckeyes ended up with just one running back – three-star recruit Miyan Williams – who they circled back to late in the cycle after missing out on several higher-ranked targets including No. 1-ranked Bijan Robinson, No. 7-ranked Kendall Milton and No. 11-ranked Jaylan Knighton.
Despite coaching J.K. Dobbins to Ohio State’s first-ever 2,000-yard season while Teague ran for nearly 800 yards as his backup in 2019, Alford received only a one-year contract extension this offseason and an $18,000 raise – the second-smallest raise among returning assistant coaches – and reading between the lines, one can infer that was because his recruiting efforts did not meet expectations.
In just two weeks, however, Alford has flipped that narrative on its head and proven once again that he can recruit at an elite level.
First, he landed a commitment from Evan Pryor, the No. 6-ranked running back and No. 85 overall prospect in the high school class of 2021, who had been one of the Buckeyes’ top running back targets from the beginning of this recruiting cycle. The fast, well-rounded four-star prospect from Cornelius, North Carolina, was one of the first 2021 running backs to receive an offer from Ohio State back in February 2019, and after building a relationship with the Buckeyes’ coaches for the past year, he locked in his commitment to Ohio State on March 16.
Alford’s recruiting approach was a big reason why Pryor was ultimately sold on taking his talents to Columbus, and he felt all along that Alford’s recent misses on the trail shouldn’t be held against him.
“I think Coach Alford’s a great guy,” Pryor told
Eleven Warriors’ Zack Carpenter in November. “Two running backs backing out, I don’t think it was Coach Alford’s fault. I think it was two guys who may have found a better situation for him and his family to get to his goal, and it may not have been at Ohio State. I would not put that on coach Alford. People do other things and wanna experience other stuff. I wouldn’t put that on Coach Alford at all.”
Entire article:
https://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio...uiter-with-three-big-commitments-in-two-weeks
