Football Recruiting
Class of 2003 - How We See It
Part II
By John Porentas
As discussed in Part I,
Tressel and company picked up seven speed players in the 2003
class. Of those, only Devon Jordan is seen as a player who is locked
into a specific position according to Jim Tressel.
"Devon Jordan would be the last one in that group of the speed
guys. He's a guy that's penciled in at wide receiver. He's a guy
who has excellent technique and knows how to run routes and read
coverages. He's a very, very bright football player," Tressel
said.
The Buckeyes took four players in the class that Tressel would
call "big speed". They include Louis Irizarry, Marcel
Frost, Reggie Smith and Air Force transfer Anthony Schlegel.
OSU's big speed players differ some from the speed players in that
as a group, they are more easily pigeonholed at a position.
"Probably one of the outstanding guys in the big speed phase
of our recruiting class is Louis Irizarry," said Tressel.
"He is a big play guy at tight end. He's a guy who is a tremendous
route runner, but what he does with the football after he catches
it is extraordinary. He's a tight end that you can have in the game
that can stretch the whole defense. We had about a 41-day look at
what a tight end can do to you as we trained to play against a guy
like Kellen Winslow. Louis Irizarry in our eyes is that kind of
big speed person who can do a heck of a job there," Tressel
said.
Two other recruits, Reggie Smith and Anthony Schlegel, definitely
fall into the category of middle linebackers, a fact that pleased
defensive coordinator Mark Dantonio. Dantonio spoke at length about
Schlegel.
"There was a scarcity of linebackers out there this year really.
He fit the mold of a mike linebacker, had already participated at
this level and had success and could help our football team,"
said Dantonio.
"He was voted team captain after his freshman year by his
peers. I think that's big, huge. I've never heard of that. What
I didn't know is that he won the state wrestling championship as
a junior and won the national AAU championship. He had 130 wins
and 7 losses. He has two world records in the dead lift in two categories,
which I did not know that. He's a football player. He's a butt-you-in-the-head
kind of guy," said Dantonio with a grin like the cat that ate
the canary.
Reggie Smith is a player that is currently in the linebacker mold,
but Tressel hinted that he also the kind of player that could grow
into a different position.
"Inside linebacker wise in that big speed category, Reggie
Smith is a guy we really became impressed with when he was in our
youth camp. He's a tremendous leader and a guy who just has a passion
to play the game. He bubbles with excitement about playing the game
of football. He's a big linebacker. He's probably 230 pounds right
now, and who knows how big he's going to get," Tressel said.
That the Buckeyes took two players that look like inside linebackers
probably says something about the need at that position as the coaching
staff sees the situation.
As covered in Part I, Marcel Frost is one of those players that
the coaches don't want to put into a position, simply because they
haven't figured out where the versatile Frost can best help them.
How good are those four players? Schlegel is a proven commodity.
He can play, and judging from Tressel's remarks, the OSU coaching
staff is very high on Irizarry.
We're not in a position to evaluate either Frost or Smith, but
we know someone who is. John McCallister runs The McCallister
Scouting Report, a scouting service he provides not to recruiting
enthusiasts, but to recruiting coordinators across the country.
McCallister makes his living by evaluating Ohio talent and selling
his evaluations to recruiting coordinators at various universities.
McCallister shuns making his evaluations public, but in our experience
he's good, very good. How good is he? Last year he told us (with
the understanding that we wouldn't publish it) that Rob Sims was
the best offensive lineman in the state, that Mike D'Andrea would
have a lot to learn at linebacker, and that Justin Zwick and Doug
Datish would most likely redshirt. He told us all that in July.
Pretty much he hit it all on the head.
McCallister sent us his evaluations this year as well, with a note
that said "Please respect my privacy on this." We've done
so, but yesterday we talked to him, and here is what he had to say
about some of the Ohio players we've covered in Part I and so far
in Part II.
In the speed category, McCallister called Donte Whitner
"simply the best football player in Ohio." McCallister
ranked Curt Lukens the second-best DB in Ohio, but added
that the strong safety candidate could easily grow into an OLB at
the college level, much in the mold of Cie Grant, and added that
Lukens has what he calls "special toughness."
OSU defensive coordinator Mark Dantonio agreed completely with
McCallister on Whitner.
"I've been recruiting Ohio for eight years, and I think Donte
Whitner is maybe the best defensive, the total package, that I've
seen come out of the state as a high school player," said Dantonio.
"He's very much about business. I've been very favorably impressed
with his attitude. He comes in and watches film, does all those
kind of things to try and establish himself here as a young player.
The three things it takes to be a great defensive back are judgment,
tackling and change of direction. He's demonstrated that he can
do that in camp and then on game film," said Dantonio.
McCallister ranked Darius Hiley and Tony Gonzales
one and two in the state at wide receiver, though he adds that either
of those players could play defense as well. That is very consistent
with what Tressel said at his press conference, and what both those
player said to us when we spoke to them. McCallister ranked Devon
Jordan the fifth best receiver in Ohio, saying he has great
hands. McCallister does not rank out-of-state prospects, so he did
not have comments on Ashton Youboty or Ira Guilford.
McCallister raved about all three of OSU's big speed players from
Ohio. He ranked Irizarry and Frost one and two at
tight end respectively, and like the OSU coaching staff, rates Irizarry
a tremendous pass catching prospect and Frost a prospect that could
excel at any number of positions, adding that Frost could very likely
get much bigger as he matures.
As much as McCallister like Irizarry and Frost, he really loved
Reggie Smith. He called him "One of the toughest, quickest,
and most aggressive defensive players in Ohio." Great burst,
toughness and quickness were the attributes that McCallister liked
in Smith.
In the "ones that got away" category, McCallister rates
Shawn Crable the number one prospect in Ohio at outside linebacker,
noting that it is very likely that Crable will grow into a defensive
end. In a very surprising evaluation, McCallister likes Prescott
Burgess as the best defensive line prospect in the state, just
ahead of Buckeye signee David Patterson, but based more on potential
than current ability. McCallister does not see enough speed in Burgess
to be a DB, but sees him as an OLB initially who has the potential
to grow into a defensive end.
Part III to follow tomorrow: The power players.
Part I
Part III
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