Football Recruiting
Class of 2003 - How We See It
Part I
By John Porentas
The ink is dry on the letters of intent, and the analysis has poured
forth ad nauseum. If you are in the business of reporting OSU sports
it is obligatory, it seems, that you offer your analysis of the
incoming recruiting class.
The-Ozone has been reluctant to do that. What, we asked ourselves,
are we analyzing? How can you possibly evaluate the effectiveness
of a player on the college level until you've seen him on the college
level? We still are pondering that one, and when we have an answer,
we'll let you know, but don't look for it soon. We're still clueless
as to how we could do that, so we gave up.
The best we could do, it occurred to us, was to look and see if
the Buckeyes filled their needs at positions, and then maybe ask
some people in whom we have some trust about some of the players.
So that's what we set out to do.
Needs
We thought it was going to be simple to figure out if the Buckeyes
had filled their needs. We'd just look at the roster, see what they
needed, see who they took, then go to the press conference and ask
if they were happy with the mix. We did that, but then Jim Tressel
threw everybody a breaking ball that had everybody swinging and
missing.
The analysts are up in arms over the lack of offensive linemen,
the overabundance of defensive backs, and the fact that there are
11 defensive players in a class of 15, leaving room for only four
offensive players. Tressel said, in a word (actually two), not so.
To begin, Tressel said the recruiting class started taking shape
long before national signing day.
"I think the recruiting year began, the closing part of it
if you will, when Will Smith, Darrion Scott and Michael Jenkins
chose to come back for their senior year. That was obviously something
that we had to be alert for and plan for. It was a heck of a beginning
of the final stages of this recruiting year," Tressel said.
Tressel then added that the Buckeyes had a couple of other breaks
before signing day as well.
"The next step was two guys coming in and beginning the year
in the midterm. That's Donte Whitner and Ashton Youboty. Whenever
you can have three guys chose an extra year and two guys come in
with the talents that Donte and Ashton have, you have a heck of
a start," he said.
That's all pretty straight forward, but Tressel wasn't done. He
went right from the high hard one to the curve ball. The Buckeyes,
it seems, no longer recruit by position, but by player type.
Zip! Out the window goes all that analysis.
"If you start breaking down our recruiting class, I think
you can break it down into various components. In the game of football
it's crucial to have great speed," said Tressel describing
the first type of player the Buckeyes looked for.
"There's another area of the team we call big speed, which
is those kind of in between guys, linebacker, tight end, fullback
kind of guys. Then there's the power guys," he said, describing
the three categories of players the Buckeyes recruit.
A man that has just coached his team to a national championship
should know better than that. That kind of thinking takes all the
fun out of recruiting analysis. How can we figure out if there are
enough (select one) offensive linemen, tight ends, defensive backs,
fullbacks, and so on, if the coaching staff isn't really sure how
many of each they got?
Like we said in the beginning, we can't, and neither can anybody
else. The best anybody can do is guess as to whether the Buckeyes
got any good football players, period. Then guess if those players
have any chance to fit the Buckeye needs.
The Buckeyes took six players that are listed as defensive backs,
and one that is listed as a wide receiver. In Tressel's view, however,
the Buckeyes took seven speed players, many of whom could play at
any number of positions.
"The speed component starts with Donte (Whitner) and Ashton
(Youboty) and their great speed and athleticism, and there's a couple
of guys you could list on either side of the ball. Tony Gonzales
is a guy who can play wide receiver. He can play defensive back.
I was told in that same training area where Donte worked, I think
he was actually timed by Donte's coach, that Tony ran a 4.25 in
one of their winter workouts. Anthony Gonzales has a lot of speed
and athleticism," Tressel began.
That was the first real hint. The coaching staff really
hasn't decided where a lot of these players are going to play. As
a matter of fact, the debate is still going on.
"There's been quite a bit of jousting in our staff meetings,
Coach Daniels talking about the robbery of Chris Gamble from his
receiver corps and maybe he's going to steal some of these fast
guys to catch some balls, so I don't know exactly what guys like
Tony Gonzales will play for sure, other than we'll have him here
in camp in preseason and the quickest way we can get him on the
field, we will," said Tressel.
"The same goes with Darius Hiley. Donte has talked about the
fact that Darius is a game breaker, he's a difference maker. His
nickname is superman. They call him Supe. I think it's because of
his speed. I asked Donte is he (Hiley) is as fast as some of those
guys on the Glennville relay teams, and he told me that with his
helmet on, he was faster than all of them, and that's what we're
looking for, guys that play the game with their helmets on and can
run fast," Tressel said.
Coach speak? Nope. The day after signing day we asked a the players
what the OSU coaches were saying to them in the recruiting process.
They confirmed what Tressel said.
"Pretty much they told me they want me to be ready to play
on both sides of the ball a little bit, like Chris Gamble,"
said Hiley.
Hiley is uniquely qualified to do just that.
"I've been doing it for four years now in high school. In
high school I went both ways, returned kicks and punts, and did
the kicking and punting too. I got off the field about six plays
a game. I averaged about 45 yards per punt as a kicker. I played
wide receiver and quarterback on offense. I had about 35 catches
and about 27 passes for touchdowns, nine rushing touchdowns,"
he said.
It was the same thing with Gonzales.
"Mostly they said nickel back this year, and then they said
maybe a slot receiver sort of thing even," said Gonzales.
We wanted to make sure we got it right, so we asked him again,
did the coaches say you should be prepared for either side of the
ball?
"That is what they said so far, yes," he said.
The list goes on. Take Ira Guilford. Here's what Tressel had to
say.
"Ira Guilford is a guy who is listed as a safety. We think
he's a big hitter. He's also a great tailback. I think he had 23
or 24 hundred yards. He's a guy who will begin as a safety but can
also be a guy that can help us on the offensive side. In fact Coach
Spencer told him all you have to know is three plays and you can
help me on offense," he said.
Poof! There goes the lack of running backs in the class.
Even players whose positions seem clear-cut aren't. Take Kurt Lukens.
He's probably a defensive player, but where on the defense is still
a question, and, he's expected to do more than just line up from
scrimmage.
"Kurt Lukens is a guy who brings speed a little bit more inside
the defense. You've seen with guys like Cie Grant and Mike Doss
and Will Allen who played in the middle of those coverages and we
think Kurt Lukens is one of those football players. He was an excellent
receiver in high school as well. He's penciled in on the defensive
side as well," said Tressel.
"In this day and age we think philosophically in recruiting
you better go away from the traditional just recruiting DBs or just
recruiting linebackers or just recruiting front people. You better
recruit some of those guys each year that can make up those specialty
positions, and we think Kurt Lukens, being the type defensive player
he is, is one of those fast defensive guys that just has a nose
for the football," he said.
We could bore you here by doing this player by player. We won't.
We'll do that later further down the column just in case you have
to get back to work, but this is a great spot to let Tressel sum
it up.
"Really those are not necessarily six DBs. I guess it comes
down to 'What's Chris Gamble?' Every time we talked about what is
so-and-so going to play, Joe Daniels would stand on his chair and
say 'What about Chris Gamble?' The fact that these guys are so versatile,
really the only guy that I look at that had to have any question
on whether he would help on the flip side of the ball is Devon Jordon,
because he's a guy who is a real technique receiver that that's
been the thing that we earmarked him from day one. But Tim Spencer
expects to have Ira Guilford. I think about in 1984, we signed William
White who was an 1,800 yard tailback and Greg Rogan who was a 1,900
yard tailback, and they became our corners. If Keith Byars had broken
his foot earlier in his career, one of those guys may have been
our tailback," said Tressel trying to explain how the Buckeyes
allocated scholarships.
"If you get good enough guys, you can handle anything that
comes your way, so I don't think it's a position thing. It was just
excellence we were looking for," he added.
Bill Conley said there was definitely a plan, and the Buckeyes
definitely got it done within that plan.
"In percentages of what the class was, we hit almost exactly
what we wanted," he said.
The player who probably most typifies this approach to recruiting
is Marcel Frost.
"I've watched him (Frost) play defensive end, tight end, flexed
out as a wideout, quarterback, mike linebacker, sam linebacker and
defensive tackle," said OSU defensive coordinator Mark Dantonio.
"That's seven positions, and the guy is 6-5 and 245 pounds
and has great explosion. I watched him play basketball and he has
excellent first step quickness. That guy you can plug into a lot
of positions and he can help us."
End of Part 1
Part
2
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