Archives for February 2012

After losing out on a top rated WR recruit on Friday Night Ohio States Coach Meyer and his staff went into complete hibernation and depressed mode….. NOT. They had a huge weekend lined up with Sunday being a one of many Junior Days that will occur this year. Some of those in attendance had already been offered and some walked away with fresh offers. One though came away very impressed and chose to end his recruitment early and committed to Ohio State.

Billy Price a 6’4″ 285 lbs DT from Youngstown, Ohio is listed as a 4 star by every recruiting service. ESPN has him as one of their ESPNU 150 players. 247sports has him listed as the 148th best recruit in the nation. Rivals has him as the 130th best recruit in the nation. All of them say the same thing he is a strong strong strong young man. He has the ability to play OT or DT at the next level and could play anywhere on either line if needed. He becomes the 3rd recruit in the 2013 class joining Jalin Marshall and Cam Burrows.

By now you’ve heard that Bret Bielema and Mark Dantonio are a couple of giant babies, each complaining to some degree about the way Urban Meyer recruits.  Dantonio called Meyer “unethical” for doing what every other Big Ten coach–including the head Spartan himself–does, namely recruiting kids they would like to have play on their football teams.  Bielema stepped it up a notch, because he’s the Earl of Douchebury, flat out accusing Meyer of “illegal” tactics and even asking Daddy Alvarez to escalate his concerns to Big Ten chief Jim Delany.

To Alvarez’s credit (wow that was hard to type guys), he basically turned the whining around his head coach, declaring that Meyer’s aggressiveness is not unscrupulous, a thinly-veiled way of lighting a fire under Bielema’s lazy recruiting strategy.

I imagine that most of you are like me, and find Dantonio’s participation in this Lifetime movie to be more surprising than Bielema’s.  As a Buckeye fan with fond memories of Dantonio’s suffocating defenses, I have always cheered for his teams after he moved on (unless they were playing us, of course).  I admired him for his no-nonsense demeanor and occasional major risk-taking in games.  Meanwhile, Bielema is Bielema; this is what he does.

If you hadn’t seen it, you would have never guessed that these were the two coaches who faced off in the conference championship game last season.  Oh wait, that’s the whole point, isn’t it?  Look at it from their perspective:  the Big Ten has just been divided in such a way that there are essentially three “powers” in each division.  Chances are that some combination of those teams (Michigan, Michigan State, and Nebraska vs. Ohio State, Penn State, and Wisconsin) will be featured in 90% of the Big Ten title games we witness.

So what does Dantonio see?  A Nebraska team that will still take a couple of years to adjust their new environment coached by a guy who is perpetually fighting the urge to FINISH his own players Mortal Kombat-style, and a Michigan team that had a nice turnaround under new coach Brady Hoke but still didn’t beat “Little Brother.”  The future was wide open.

And Bielema was probably just downright schoolgirl-giddy.  Both of his primary divisional nemeses had just lost their legendary head coaches to scandal.  It is still unlikely that Penn State will recover any time soon.  Things were going to be so easy for him: cruise through the Leaders, then tangle with Sparty every year for the BCS spot.

Then Urban Meyer showed up with a hungry staff looking to add a little spark to what was at the time a decent but not special recruiting class.  And then the kids started flipping like it was Cirque Du Soleil up in here.  If you think Penn State’s Bill O’Brien has been silent on the issue because he doesn’t care or is too preoccupied with the Patriots, you’re wrong.  He’s just trying to make it to Sunday without Meyer turning Gronkowski.

Finally, if there was any doubt as to the effect this would have on Meyer:

“You’re pissed because we went after a committed guy? Guess what, we got 9 guys who better go do it again. Do it a little harder next time.” – Urban Meyer

(h/t Brandon Castel @ theOzone.net)

With National Signing Day in the books, the finest football minds of America’s basements decided to pool their impressive brainpower and share their insights and thoughts of the day’s results. We decided to throw our $0.02 in as well.

As most of you almost certainly don’t know, I’m not one to follow recruiting all that much. I learned my lesson when I got all pumped about Erik Haw from NCAA Football ’04 or something and then never seemed to see the guy in a Buckeye uniform. Which was a damned shame because he was a BEAST in that game.

However, with a new staff taking over and going to work flipping recruits from Dantonio, Bielema, and whoever’s coaching Penn State (like it matters) it was hard to stay completely detached. When other Buckeye Bloggers started asking for thoughts, well, we couldn’t just let that opportunity pass.

• Who are you most excited to see in the Scarlet and Gray?  – I’m curious to see how Bri’onte Dunn does in Urban’s offense. He’s a big kid and when I think of Urban’s usual backs I think of shifty little dudes like Demps or Harvin. Imagine Beanie in that system. Besides the players I’m pretty pumped about seeing Urban Meyer on the sidelines and – a little sentimentally – Fickell as well. Considering what he went through it’s amazing he stayed sane throughout the whole thing.
• Who makes an immediate impact from the 2012 class?  Really any of the offensive linemen. Since the cupboard was pretty bare after last season that seems to be an optimal place for someone to step up. That or any of the beasts on the defensive line. B1G quarterbacks had better get used to the training room. I imagine a certain lineman who will be playing up North will spend a lot of time being tossed around come November.
• Who do you wish that OSU hadn’t “missed” on? Honestly – and I may be the worst person to ask about this because I don’t follow recruiting as much as a lot of you clowns – I don’t have a single complaint. But it’s way too early in the process to start saying, “If only we’d gotten that guy” because none of these newbies have played a down of college football yet.

For other and potentially better perspectives from the Buckeye Bloggers Network:

• Buckeye Battlecry: Three Questions From Ohio State’s 2012 Signing Day
• The Buckeye Blog: It’s An Amazing Day For Ohio State
• Our Honor Defend: National Signing Day Thoughts
• Buckeye House Call: National Signing Day: A New Beginning

Good News Penn State fans this one isn’t a loss for you guys as it appears Coach Meyer is done raiding your recruiting class. This flip is going to anger Bret Bielema and the Wisconsin Badger fans. After flipping 5 PSU recruits and 2 Notre Dame recruits Urban set his eyes on Wisconsin and one of their recruits.

Kyle Dodson is a 6’6″ 315 lbs 4 star OT recruit from Cleveland, Ohio. Dodson who always wanted to be a Buckeye but for whatever reason wasn’t recruited very much by the previous staff chose Wisconsin over OSU back in November but as soon as Coach Meyer took the HC job at OSU he started to recruit Dodson hard and got Dodson to visit OSU officially and unofficially. During the process Dodson also visited other schools and eventually choose OSU over Wisky, Michigan St., and Southern Cal. Dodson is a US Army All-American and is ranked as high as the 16th best OT prospect in the 2012 class. He has size and speed and a real nasty streak that will make him a good LT or RT but has the ability to play anywhere on the OL. This is a huge get for OSU as it helps fill a need and it takes a recruit away from a rival. Dodson becomes the 25th recruit in OSUs 2012 class.