'05 GA LB Tavares Kearney (Georgia signee)

[tsteele316]

http://ohiostate.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=372646is visiting osu 1/14.

#38 OLB by rivals.


He played DE, OLB, and Safety in his video clips.
In his senior year he had 91 solo tackles and 18 sacks.

6'1'' 210, 4.5.

Haas OSU and South Carolina as high interest. His visits the cocks on 1/7.

[BuckNutty]

http://florida.rivals.com/viewprospect.asp?pr_key=23863
http://scout.scout.com/a.z?s=145&p=8&c=1&nid=1201644



Tavares Kearney
Outside linebacker
Tucker (GA)

Height: 6-foot-1
Weight: 210 pounds
40-yard dash: 4.5 seconds
Bench max: 315 pounds
Vertical leap: 23 inches

Biography:
A super outside linebacker prospect that recorded 17 sacks as a senior.
Kearney: "I think I bring strength and speed to the field. I can bench 315, squat and power clean 260. I need to work on my footwork and my cover skills."

Kearney is the #38 OLB in the country, according to Rivals.com. Scout.com ranks him at #26, a 4 star player.

Rivals Premium

South Carolina, Louisville and Ohio State are the schools that have been calling Kearney the most. All 3 have offered. He also has offers from Mississippi, Maryland and Mississippi St.

South Carolina(visiting 1/7) and Ohio State(visiting 1/14) are his leaders at this point. He had 97 solo tackles during his senior year and 18 sacks.

[osubuckeyes2731]

Sounds like a goood player...

[Buckskin86]

http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sp...lb/image5.html

http://www.ajc.com/highschool/conten...kadplayer.html

TAVARES KEARNEY
School, class: Tucker, senior

Position: Linebacker, tight end

Vital statistics: 6-1, 220

Just the facts: Last year had 63 tackles, including eight for losses, and four sacks. Clocked at 4.5 in the 40-yard dash.

Colleges: Offers from Georgia Tech, Mississippi State, Maryland, Clemson, North Carolina, Bowling Green, Troy State and Connecticut.

Scholastics: 2.5 GPA.

If I weren't an athlete, I'd probably be: "An accountant. I'd do something with money."

Favorite NFL team, NFL player: Buccaneers, John Lynch

General comment on season: "A lot of people don't expect us to be as good as last year, but we've got talent. We just need to come together, and if we do that, we can go to the state championship." Three things I can't live without: "Education, football and money."

He had a big year this year and was named Dekalb County Defensive Player of the Year.

ALL-AREA FOOTBALL: DEKALB DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Kearney piles up hits, sacks
Michael Carvell - Staff
Thursday, December 23, 2004

Tucker's Tavares Kearney, the DeKalb defensive player of the year, was fun to watch even when he wasn't making the tackle.

The senior linebacker was one of the hardest hitters to come through the area in years. Even when Kearney wasn't in on the tackle, he usually could be found making contact with someone on the field.

"I just love to hit," Kearney said. "Every play, my goal was to make the tackle. And if I didn't make the tackle, I was going to hit everybody in the way."

Kearney was that rarest of defenders in that he could change the course of the game on that side of the ball. He led DeKalb County with 14 sacks and had 12 tackles for losses and a stunning 51 quarterback hurries.

"He had a lot of hits behind the line of scrimmage," Tucker coach Bill Ballard said. "He did a really good job of going after the other team's quarterback in passing situations. If he didn't get the sack, he would usually get pressure on the passer."

Ballard said Kearney's speed was often overlooked because of his physical style of play. "Tavares can consistently run under 4.5 seconds," Ballard said. "Even if the play ran to the other side of the field, [Kearney] was always a threat to catch up with the play. You can't say that about many football players."

The 6-foot-1, 220-pound Kearney appeared to have a breakout year during his senior season, but Ballard said that was not the case. He said Kearney was stellar as a junior, but just overshadowed by teammates such as Brandon Lang (who signed with Georgia) and James Swinton (Auburn).

During Kearney's junior year, he started the first seven games at defensive end. When tailback Thomas Brown was injured in midseason, Kearney was moved to free safety, the position he will most likely play in college. As a senior, he lined up just about everywhere on defense to keep other teams from keying on him.

Tavares' mom is a radio talk show host in Atlanta

[sears3820]

Just from reading those articles, I can't help but think of current Buckeye Curtis Terry. Roughly the same measurables and stats.

Pretty funny how this late in the recruiting process a new name like this pops up.

[BGriffBuckeye]

I think Kearney may be a bit bigger/hevier than Terry is (isn't Curtis a slight 205-210?). But, I do like this kid and think he could be a major player for us, as tsafety or at OLB. He comes up for a visit and maybe we can get Anderson to call him, or even Carlos Thomas if Thomas does decide on us. We could use nother LB with James and Spitler and, hopefully, McCoy. He has legit speed and a olis dframe at 220lbs. Perfect fit if you ask me.

[BuckNutty]

Rivals Premium

Kearney's favorites at this point are South Carolina, Ohio State and Louisville. He really likes the Buckeye staff, the fact Ohio State puts so many people in the NFL and he thinks he can play early here. He has visits scheduled to Ohio State and South Carolina and will likely visit Louisville.

[CoosMeister]

If we take this kid and Rico...that means Lenix is a S right?

[funman]

Originally Posted by CoosMeister

If we take this kid and Rico...that means Lenix is a S right?

IIRC Lenix stated OSU was recruiting him as a S or RB.

[osugrad21]

Gator Country

Kearney has made his final list: Florida, South Carolina, Ohio State, Maryland, and North Carolina. SC and UNC already have scheduled visits. If tOSU or Florida offer, he will visit both. Right now, tOSU is maintaining steady contact through Coach Tucker, but it is a numbers game. Tucker is supposed to call Kearney Monday with a final decision on an offer.

[osugrad21]

Kurelic $

Kearney enjoyed his visit to South Carolina. He enjoyed facilities, coaches, and the Columbia area. He did not commit and plans to visit tOSU this weekend (1/14). tOSU and SC are in the lead but Georgia and Louisville have come in late.

[Highstreet]

Scout update:
http://scout.scout.com/a.z?s=145&p=9...=1201644&fhn=1

South Carolina, Ohio State, and North Carolina. Those are my Top 3.
It did not look like his visit this weekend was a certainty.

[tsteele316]

to futher add to the drama, the coaches were spposed to call him with an offer this week, and if so, he would visit. he plays OLB like mccoy. mccoy was supposedly going to inform the coaches of his decision before he went to the AA game.

i'll let you speculate from here.

[osugrad21]

Scout $

Final Four list: Georgia, tOSU, Florida, and South Carolina. Kearney is scheduled to visit tOSU this weekend. He has offers from all schools in his final four except Georgia. The SC trip is being used to gauge his other visits but the implied impression is that Tavares is expecting more. He is still setting up a visit with UF and waiting to hear from UGA.

[wadc45]

http://ohiostate.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=377879

Coaches have been coming on strong since he got his qualiying test score. He was the anchor on his school's state championship 4 x 400 relay team last year. The rest is more of the same...