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RB Erik Haw (official thread)

Since Saban they have kept the good kids and gotten some from states previously mentioned. He has improved the facilities and is a great recruiter.

That's a good point I forgot to mention. Saban, much like Coach Tressel, is a great coach and will get the most out of his recruits. I suspect the talent in Louisiana will look a lot better after Saban gets a hold of them.
 
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RLC65: "Lemming's deserved or undeserved reputation for rarely saying anything positive about the Buckeyes"

Lemming also said (in his Buckeye Overview), that if Tressel continues to do this well nationally, he doesn't see the Bucks ever falling far from the top. He gave a feel that he believes this to be the best class we've ever had in terms of National (not just the state of Ohio) recruiting so far, & could be a springboard to future success in this area.

Mili: "I don't think I've ever felt as comfortable with our recruiting as I do now under Tressel."

I don't know about that. In my eyes, the highlights of the Cooper regime all came on NSD's. To be honest, they could bring in Krusty the Clown to coach the team & I'd be somewhat comfortable with the recruiting side of things. Conley has proven (over & over again) to be the best recruiting coordinator in the business, and Ohio State is Ohio State. It sells itself.

"We may never get the brass-ring #1 recruiting ranking from anyone while JT is here"

Well, if you look back at 2002 in retrospect, our class IS # 1. I don't think its a stretch to say that we got more talent than Texas, looking back on things.

nola: "OSU got Wells from here and now has Nader (Sp?). The Booty family is also from North LA."

I know there are many great players from Louisiana: Terry Bradshaw, Brett Favre, Jake Delhomme, & Brock Berlin, to name a few more. My point is just that recruiting is a numbers game. I could be way off, but the Top 100 kids from Louisiana annually don't compare with the Big Four states. My point is: actually, I don't know what it is, I guess LSU had a great class.
 
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Sloop

Do not get me wrong, I am an Ohio boy. I am not a LSU fan. I do love their tailgate parties! I had season tickets for years through work and could not give them away. Same with the Saints.

I have been down her 10 years now and have read the local and national press. LA has a lot of talent as I said. They have not done a good job of keeping it in state until Saban came in. The top kids all used to sign with the Florida and Texas schools not to mention other SEC teams. It makes people here as angry as when an Ohio kid goes to SCUM. If you want to do some research I believe LSU has had a top 5-10 class several years now.

I work out at an "upscale" health club. They added a speed clinic where high school and college kids work out to improve their strength and speed. I have had this conversation with the guy that runs the clinic. He has said that LA has a wealth of talent but LSU let too much of it get away. He had a list of all the kids that worked out at the club that went to Miami, Texas and Florida to mention a few. Now the list has more LSU signees.

I have lived and worked all over the country. To me Ohio football will always be #1 but the people in Texas, Alabama, Florida and Louisiana are just as crazy and proud of their teams. Go to any bank the week before the Auburn and Alabama game and you will want to withdraw all your money on the spot.
LA has a small population but they put a lot of kids in Division 1 football. I was as shocked as you are when I got down here.

As we know a high recruiting ranking does not always equal success. I think LSU will have a big letdown this year. But as long as Saban is here I believe they will keep most of the kids in state and be competitive in the SEC. Like I said I was amazed at the talent here.

I think both Tressel and Saban have fertile ground to work. I believe OSU will lose more recruits to SCUM, ND and others than Saban will lose but he cannot afford to lose that many. Ohio does have more kids but they seem to have more options.

So back to the start. If lemmonhead thinks he blew it on Haw I am sure we got a great back. I can't wait for fall.
 
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From Rivals 100.com

Here is a series of articles that explore (in depth) where football talent is coming from. It breaks down the numbers by state and by position, AND by Cap number (where the highest paid/superstars are coming from). It is very good and answers some of the questions asked on this thread. The only different is that these numbers show what states are producing PRO talent (NFL), not college talent ... but the correlation is undeniable. Here's a small sampling:

135822.gif


Part I - January 21, 2004 - Where's all the talent coming from?

Part II - January 22, 2004 - Where football talent is located: Part 2

Part III - January 23, 2004 - Where football talent is located: Part 3
 
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Sloops: When I said that we may never get the #1 class ranking, I meant exactly that...class ranking. Now, we all know that class rankings mean shit when it comes down to game accomplishments. My point was that even if no one believes our class to be as good as we feel it is, it will subsequently prove out to be as good or better than gurus say it is. As for my being "comfortable" with our recruiting, it's not only because of the talent but of the character of the kids we're getting. Plus the fact that we seem to be getting a lot more interest from a wider national geographical base. True, we've gotten kids from Louisiana, Arizona, California, etc., before, but it seems that more and more OOS kids are showing interest from the git-go. Hell, look at all the PA kids we got plus who are seriously considering us. While Ohio State certainly sells itself recruiting wise to an extent, Tressel has clearly further enhanced our stature in the eyes of HS kids national-wide.
 
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Mili,

I actually do have a couple of problems with our recruiting, and it has nothing to do with Tressel. In fact, the problems I do have extended way before the Tressel regime:

1. Ohio State has never consistently recruited great Quarterbacks. Do we get a Zwick or a Germaine or a Schlister every few years or so? Yes. But the lag in between has hurt this program immeasurably, as its difficult to maintain Top 5 or Top 10 status with Steve Bellisaris and Stanley Jacksons at the helm. scUM oversigns QBs in its classes, and is always able to produce a quality QB because of it - while some will always be busts, someone in a large QB pool will emerge. Its a big reason why they've had the edge over OSU the past twenty seasons: scUM reloads at QB with Harbaugh, Grbac, Griese, Brady, Henson, and Navarre, while we have our ups and downs. They've been a constant, and we've been volatile. I'd like to see that change. The view of OSU as a run-first school 100 years ago is the same view that kids have now. We need to get a steady stream of QB talent into the program under Tressel.

2. OSU has had problems recruiting Offensive Linemen for the past eight to ten seasons. This is inexcusable. We've had hundreds of great Offensive Linemen in this program, a rich tradition in college and NFL, and three of the greatest to ever play college football in Pace, Parker, and Hicks. This program should produce top offensive line talent and have one of the Top 10 OLs in the country year in and year out. Its embarassing how much of a discrepancy dUMb has had over us in this area recently.
 
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sloopy - I agree with your comment about consistently getting good/great QB's at OSU. It has baffled me why this isn't consistently happening.

As for the Oline, Iknow this has been discussed in other threads, but my biggest beef in the last 3 years has been with the Oline coach. It seems that scUM gets more out of their recruits (Oline that is) than what we have recently. I hope that this year, seeing as how the Oline will be the type of line that the coach wants/recruited, will put my mind at ease.
 
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prof: "I agree with your comment about consistently getting good/great QB's at OSU. It has baffled me why this isn't consistently happening."

I know why its happening: OSU is viewed as a run-first school. Len Dawson didn't go to OSU in the 50's because of it, and the same view is prevalent today. Each year (up until this one), we get our pick of the litter of HS RBs, but struggle signing a QB. The University of Miami had problems recruiting Running Backs (before Butch Davis) because it was viewed as Quarterback U.

"but my biggest beef in the last 3 years has been with the Oline coach"

I disagree. We haven't been recruiting the quality of talent on the OL that scUM has, and the coaching staff hasn't emphasized "300 and nimble," they've emphasized "330 and bruising" before the Tressel regime. We've got to get the prime talents and develop them within a scheme.
 
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the coaching staff hasn't emphasized "300 and nimble," they've emphasized "330 and bruising" before the Tressel regime. We've got to get the prime talents and develop them within a scheme.

They are off to a pretty good start with kids like Kyle Mitchum, Ben Person, John Skinner and Kirk Barton. They are all athletic kids who can run and pull. I'm willing to buy the theory that Clarke, Olivea, Step, and Bishop didn't have the attributes JT and Bollman want in their o-lineman but now is the time to see improvement up front. I'm still willing to see what Bollman can do before I write him off. If we are talking about similar offensive line problems in a year or two someone needs to be held accountable because the "they aren't Coach Tressel and Bollman's recruits" explanation will no longer hold water.
 
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What do we do with Haw in 04-05 ?

What do we do with Haw in 04-05 ?

If Ross even has an almost healthy season, Pittman continues to be a grown man, and Guilford stay's at RB, then wouldn't be wise to reshirt Haw. I am big on Haw and thought he would be the big impact freshman and still could be but Pittman looks great right now.

It would be nice to have a year between Pittman and Haw but I guess all that rely's on health and fall performances. I've seen haww and he is faster and stronger than Pittman but pittman has that priceless vision that we have longed for since big MO's absence. Nice problem to have but where do you guy's see this thing going ?
 
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Haw is going to have to do an awful lot in a short amount of time if he doesn't want to redshirt. Pittman, by enrolling early, has a major leg up on Haw in terms of learning the schemes, playbook, experience, etc. not to mention Tony has looked very sharp thus far.

However if Ira Guilford doesn't get his grades in order and Maurice Hall doesn't get healthy, we may only redshirt one of our 3 freshmen RBs.
 
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