Today I had the pleasure of interviewing a 2015 prospect from Memphis, Tennessee named Drew Richmond. He is already one of the most coveted players in the 2015 class. He played mostly Right Tackle last year but said that he did not have a preference for which tackle position he plays in college, he just wants to do whats best to help his team. Drew is already 6″6 and 300 lbs. He is in great shape and you can tell by his highlights that he holds his blocks all the way to the whistle, and this is one reason he is so sought after by the Buckeyes. It was a pleasure to interview this young man , you can tell he was raised right and is a very intelligent kid as you can tell based on his answer to the last question I asked.

247 lists him as the number 11 overall offensive tackle
He is not yet ranked by either Rivals or Scout, but that should soon change with his recent offers from nearly every College Football powerhouse.

Q: When you were offered by Ohio State how did it feel?

A: It was truly a blessing, sometimes it’s easy to believe the phrase “dreams do come true” is clichéd, but for me it is true. That day my dream became true.

Q: What was your favorite part of your visit to Ohio State?

A: Hanging out with some players and walking on the field and meeting with Coach Meyer.

Q: Did you get a chance to meet any of the current players, if so which ones?

A: Curtis Grant, Ryan Shazier, Vonn Bell, Jalien Marshall, Deontre Wilson and a few more guys.

Q: Which schools are recruiting you the hardest?

A: Alabama, Ole Miss and Tennessee

Q: Do you have an idea on when you would like to make a commitment?

A: Right now, I truly have no idea

Q: Is it true you grew up a Buckeye fan? How did you become one?

A: It is true, I grew up a fan. I really became a true fan realizing coach Tressel’s demeanor and swag. It was special the way the guys locked arms and swayed back and forth as he led them onto the field with his arms crossed. That was a major reason also with their fashionable uniforms, unique traditions and players.

Q: Who is your primary recruiter, and how often do you speak?

A: Coach Hinton, we speak once a week or every two weeks.

Q: What do you feel is your greatest strength on the field?

A: My athleticism, I am able to do many things because of that.

Q: What do you feel you need to improve on the most?

A: I have to improve on being a better run blocker and technician in every aspect.

Q: What is your impression of Coach Meyer?

A: He cares about his players on and off the field and I think he fights to get the best out of each player.

Q: What is your personal goal for your junior season at Memphis University School?

A: Making some region and city teams or something like that. My overall goal is to win a state championship.

Q: What are some of your other hobbies besides football?

A: Shopping and hanging out with friends and being educated on historical events.

Here are some highlights of the dominant offensive lineman, check him out.

New Digs:

CollegeSpun.com put up a post about the new Buckeye’s Basketball facilities. Since May 2012 Ohio State has spent 13.7 million dollars on improving the Schottenstein Center that both the men and women basketball teams use. The improvements are to the locker rooms, practice gyms, and the weight rooms. This should show possible recruits how dedicated the university is to the basketball programs.

He Shoots He Scores: Buckeyes fan favorite Amedeo Della Valle Hits a game winning shot for his Italian team against Spain yesterday. His performance at FIBA’s U-20 European Championship could make Thad a fan for his upcoming sophomore season. Looks like maybe he has learned from the bench how to hit game winners great job Amedeo.

Show Us Your Swag: Ohio State is running a contest this month. Look Fly in July, send the Buckeyes your pic wearing your OSU gear and you could win prizes from the university. I know you all have so much to choose from since this we are the Best Damn Fans in the Land. I would enter but I’m not as Fly as Brutus.

Buckeye Smarts: Guess who leads the B1G in with Distinguished Scholars? I know you said The Ohio State University because you know they have 74 Distinguished Scholars. So nice to see many athletes that take their education seriously and work hard at both.

Buckeyes Representing: 10 athletes from the Ohio State program. Sophomore Men’s Basketball player Amedeo Della Valle playing for Italy on the Under 20 national team. Junior Diver Cheyenne Cousineau will be representing the United States at the FINA World Championships being held July 20th to July 28th in Barcelona, Spain. Women’s Soccer being represented by Senior Danica Wu and recent grad Tiffany Cameron on the Canadian National Team. Women’s Swimming will be represented by former Buckey Samantha Cheverton and incoming freshman Zulal Zeren at the FINA World CHampionships July 28th to Aug 4th. U.S. Men’s Junior National Volleyball Team will Be represented by coach Pete Hanson, junior Michael Henchy, redshirt freshman Driss Guessous, and junior Brennan Anderson as an alternate. Buckeye Nation wishes you all Good Luck.

Insider’s Story: I am going to be leaving you will an article from Buddy Martin. Martin had complete access to Urban Meyer and his staff, team, and meetings in the year between his 2 National Championships. This is a great post, informative and no hiding any truth i suggest you read it.

Well Buckeye Nation until next time…

So as is the case every year the Buckeyes are in a numbers crunch for the recruiting class. This is the last year of a 3 year 3 scholarship reduction from the punishments handed down from the NCAA. Any normal year and OSU would be looking to get to 85 scholarship players but alas this is the last years for the 82 mandate. On top of all of that this is an extremely small Senior class due to the same NCAA issues mentioned among other issues.

So as a service to those recruiting fans out there we thought we would take a look at where we sit right now and where we think they will end up come next February. So lets get started but just a reminder these numbers are extremely fluid and changing so while it might be true today an hour from now it might now be.

Basil, Drew K/P SR
Barnett, C.J. SS SR
Brown, Corey WR SR
7Norwell, Andrew OL SR
Guiton, Kenny QB SR
Brown, Corey DB SR
Blackman, Ivon OL SR
Linsley, Corey OL SR
Makridis, George LS SR
Hall, Jordan RB SR
Hall, Marcus OL SR
Mewhort, Jack OL SR
Bryant, Christian S SR
Fields, Chris WR SR
Wood, Jamie DB SR
Hyde, Carlos RB SR

So as you can see we have 16 SRs on the team as of May 28, 2013 two of which are walk-ons in George Makridis and Ivon Blackmon. This is taken directly from www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com. There were of course rumors that Jamie Wood had quit football last winter but as you can see from this story on the Ozone he is still on the team and playing. So as best I can tell all 14 of these guys are still on scholarship and will be leaving this year for the pros or future in the real world.

The next area where OSU has some scholarships available to them is from player transfers.

Se’Von Pittman– Transferred out and is now at Akron.
David Perkins– Transferred out and is now at Illinois State.
Luke Roberts- Transferred out and will attend Harvard.

Now we also have to add back in though new punter Cameron Johnston who transferred into OSU back in June from Australia.

So that puts us where we are right now as we speak at 16 spots for the Ohio State 2014 football recruiting class. Again the number is SIXTEEN lol.

Now where can OSU pick up some more numbers? There are several JRs who could declare for the NFL after the season is over. Lets take an educated guess of all those who could do it. Not saying they will but they could.

Braxton Miller
Bradley Roby
Ryan Shazier

That is about it right now but you never know what could happen in the next few months to give any of the other JRs the itch to jump to the NFL. If all 3 of them did leave that would put OSU at 19 scholarships for the 2014 class.

Finally based on recent and past history OSU will have a few more guys transfer out or get kicked off the team before February 2014 comes upon us. Is it so unreasonable to think OSU could get to 20-22 in the 2014 class? Based on the research I have just done I don’t think it is.

What do you guys think? Make your prediction for the size of the 2014 class in the comments section. Maybe I will give a prize to the 1st person to guess the correct number.

***Edited to include the fact that 2 SRs listed are in fact walk-ons who I cannot confirm were given scholarships ever.

*UPDATED*

Since I wrote this article there has been more issues come to light. Here is the updated list as of August 15th.

Tim Gardner- Kicked off the team for legal issues.

Najee Murray- Suspended indefinantly still possible may be off the team for good.

Adam Griffin- Injured possible career ender.

By my count that puts the number at 17 for sure 18 very likely and 19 semi-likely.

The 2014 class size at this point could get up to 24-25 depending on early departures and transfers.

**Updated** 8-17-13

Blake Thomas has a career ending injury his father has confirmed… Depending on what happens with Adam Griffin which also seems to be confirmed now his career is over.

That puts the number currently at 19… If Najee Murray also is off the team due to rules violations the number is at 20. The class size very likely could reach 25 very easily now.

***UPDATED*** 8-22-13

Najee Murray has officially left the team. As of today the official number is 20. A class of 25 is very likely.

****UPDATED**** 11-21-13

Bradley Roby has officially declared himself for the NFL draft…

****UPDATED**** 1-4-14

Ryan Shazier will officially enter the NFL Draft…

That puts the number at 22 officially and inches us closer to 25 recruit class size…

(Please welcome Ronnie Glickman (@ronnieglickman). We’re hoping that Ronnie becomes our “X’s and O’s guy here at Men of the Scarlet and Gray -Ed.)

There has been attention and excitement given to the Ohio State offense, under Urban Meyer and Tom Herman, prior to its second year. Braxton Miller is an early Heisman favorite at quarterback. Coach Meyer has dubbed Corey “Philly” Brown as a potential All Big Ten talent at wide receiver and Carlos Hyde has committed to rush for 1,000+ yards. Add in the return of Jordan Hall and the emergence of Chris Fields at the “hybrid” position. Place that alongside a recruiting class that includes the likes of speedsters and game breakers Jalin Marshall, Dontre Wilson, and James Clark, and the expectations continue to sky rocket for this offense.

However, there is one important position that may be the most productive and reliable out of any of the aforementioned. The tight end/H-Back position has been one that has thrived under the instruction of not only Urban Meyer, but also Tom Herman. As many are aware, Meyer had a great deal of success at Florida with Aaron Hernandez in the TE position. Hernandez racked up 68 catches in his 2009 season at Florida which is more than current Buckeye receiver Corey Brown’s total from last year. As some may not be so aware, Herman had more success with current NFL tight end James Casey while they were at Rice from 2007-2008. Casey put up gaudy numbers in the 2008 season, racking up 111 catches for 1,329 yards and 13 TD’s in his 2008 season under Herman. In 2007, Casey still had an impressive 46 receptions for 585 yards and 4 TD’s.

While it would be unfair for Buckeye fans to expect that kind of production from Jeff Heuerman, whose name was added to the Mackey Award watch list for the nation’s best tight end, or from Nick Vannett, it would be fair to expect a boost in stats. Both players are 6’6” and around the 250-255 pound range, and both have enough speed to get behind linebackers and manhandle any defensive back attempting to cover them.

Coach Meyer has been quoted about the tight end position during this past offseason: “The tight end area is the best I’ve had, and I had Aaron Hernandez at Florida. I have two legitimate guys that are very good blockers, good receivers, Nick Vannett and Jeff Heuerman, so we’re going to utilize all of our personnel.”

If there was any additional doubt about Meyer and Herman’s commitment to getting the H-Back/TE role more solidified in the offense, look at their recruiting efforts for 2014: they are pushing hard to land someone to fill that role in the future. They are telling guys like Austin Roberts, Mike Gesicki, and possibly Sam Hubbard that they would want them as a big wide receiver target on the boundaries and would also utilize them as an H-back.

Buckeye fans should look for many more two tight end sets and utilization of the H-back in the upcoming season as Ohio State makes a push for the national title. Two tight end sets have become a very popular trend in the NFL, initially beginning with the Colts in the Peyton Manning era, and continuing with great effectiveness with the New England Patriots and San Francisco 49ers. In this past offseason, Tom Herman confirmed that he did speak with some coaches from the San Francisco 49ers offense in reference to the “Diamond Formation.” Herman also stated that they received a lot of offensive film from the 49ers which would not rule out the possibility of Herman using a two tight end set such as the one seen below:

This is a pretty basic set that the 49ers used against the New England Patriots’ nickel package last season. This set includes two tight ends, one running back, and two wide receivers. One tight end (circled in yellow near the top) is lined up on the line of scrimmage as a slot receiver and the other is lined up just off the line of scrimmage, probably used as an H-Back. This type of base formation was used last season with Jake Stoneburner as the slot receiver and Heureman as the H-back. It proved to be versatile as it allowed the Buckeyes and 49ers to either cause mismatches in the passing game with the slot tight end on the nickel linebacker or the H-back on the nickel back. This formation also made downfield blocking much more effective as they now have two big mobile tight ends able to get their initial block and potentially move up to take care of the safeties downfield.

Not imaginative enough for you? Well leave it to the New England Patriots to give you a little more excitement. In the photo below, both tight ends are lined up at the bottom of the picture. This set includes two tight ends, two receivers and one running back, however it is changed a little bit from the last set. The two tight ends (circled) have been shifted to the bottom of the formation, but the Patriots also decided to throw two kinks in to this set. One is that they added a slot receiver with a little more speed to create another mismatch at the top of the formation. So Wes Welker, the slot receiver at the top of the field, could be a Chris Fields, Jordan Hall, Dontre Wilson, or Jalin Marshall.

The second kink being thrown in here is that the tight end at the very bottom of the screen is lined up as the Z receiver which leaves him one-on-one with the corner. This means a 6’6 255 lb. Jeff Heureman versus a 6’0 190 lb. defensive back. That match up may also force the deep safety to cheat more to that side of the field leaving speedsters like Brown, Smith, Fields, Wilson, and Marshall one-on-one with their man on the other side of the field.

As excited as Meyer and Herman are to have more speed on the offense, they should be equally, if not more excited, to have big versatile tight ends available at their dispense. The speed the Buckeyes will put on the field this fall will get them through the Big Ten schedule. However, when facing an SEC opponent who may be able to match that speed, a bigger stronger weapon may be the key to exposing a stubborn defense. It would be unfair to expect James Casey numbers from either one of our beloved Buckeye tight ends, although it would be fair to call on them more often to be more reliable and productive to help the Buckeyes to a national title game.

(Images via Bleacher Report)

To say Marcus Baugh made a mistake is an easy thing to do — he is 19 years old, had a fake ID, went to a bar and had some adult beverages. He was arrested late last night and gets to spend the rest of the weekend behind bars while he waits to see a judge. You see, that’s the best part of his weekend because as soon as he gets out of the pokey on Monday morning he will have to go and see Coach Meyer and Coach Marotti. Look for him to do a whole lot of extra running and maybe miss a game or two as punishment.

The news of his arrest was broke today by Alex Gleitman of 247sports/Bucknuts.

Unfortunately the meat of his story is behind a pay wall. If you want to read the post I suggest following the link in his tweet and signing up if you like.

Kyle Rowland of Eleven Warriors confirmed the arrest via his own twitter account.

Former Ohio State wide receiver Ray Small has been a lightning rod for drama from the moment he stepped on Ohio State’s campus. He was constantly in Coach Tressel’s dog house or suspended for violating the teams rules. He has been away from the Ohio State program since 2010 but that doesn’t mean he has kept the OSU name out of the media in regards to his actions. Let’s take a look at some of his actions.

In 2008, after multiple rules violations, Coach Tressel suspended Ray Small for one game. That didn’t sit well with Ray Small’s father, Ken Small, who had this to say about the suspension:

“They’re intentionally trying to blow his career,” Ken Small told The Associated Press by telephone from his home in suburban Columbus.

But Tressel and Small came to an agreement and it seemed like things would go smoothly but you could tell that there was always an underlying issue of Ray being in Tressel’s doghouse. Did it effect his career at Ohio State? Almost certainly. He had a ton of talent but never lived up to potential. He wasn’t drafted and after becoming a free agent signee, never made it out of pre-season camp and has been out of football since.

Then came the tatgate scandal that was primed to take down Coach Tressel and you could almost sense that Ray Small was salivating at the chance to gain some “revenge” for a coach he really did love but was angry at and blamed for his football career failures. In May of 2011, he got his chance and had these things to say to Ohio State newspaper The Lantern:

Small told The Lantern on Wednesday he profited off of memorabilia while at Ohio State, adding that some student-athletes “don’t even think about (NCAA) rules.”

“I had sold my things but it was just for the money,” Small said. “At that time in college, you’re kind of struggling.”

The wheeling and dealing didn’t stop with rings. The best deals came from car dealerships, Small said. “It was definitely the deals on the cars. I don’t see why it’s a big deal,” said Small, who identified Jack Maxton Chevrolet as the players’ main resource.

“They have a lot (of dirt) on everybody,” Small said, “cause everybody was doing it.”

The article was full of accusations. Some were true and others not so much. He was a kid on a mission to get even with those he deemed had wronged him.

Although I am sure he thought this might vindicate him, it estranged him from the school and teammates who all came out in droves to disassociate themselves from him and the school. He previously had a seemingly successful career of club promoting going in Columbus but that ended shortly after he became a pariah.

Things have been spiraling out of control since then for Ray Small. In February of 2012 he ran into some serious legal troubles in Ohio. Once again The Lantern was able to provide some of the details:

According to a report from the Pomeroy Daily Sentinel, Trooper James Trelka of the Gallia-Meigs Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol arrested Small, 24, Sunday at 5:56 p.m.

The report said that Small, according to Sgt. Barry Call of the Gallia-Meigs Post, allegedly possessed 243 suspected Oxycontin pills, an undisclosed amount of suspected heroin, hand-rolled marijuana cigarettes and a loaded 25-caliber pistol.

This case is still open and heading to trial soon but in the meantime, back in May of this year, Ray Small started to make amends with Ohio State, his former teammates, Coach Tressel, and the fans with this video:

In the video, Small apologies to his high school coach in Cleveland, Ted Ginn Sr., as well as Tressel and Darrell Hazell, the Buckeyes wide receivers coach during his career.

“I truly am sorry for my actions,” Small said. “… Coach Hazell was like my favorite guy because he always kept it strictly real with me. I want to apologize to Coach Tressel because he told me, he tried, he gave me many, many chances. I’m just here today to speak up on my behalf, saying that I’m a man and I understand the things that I did wrong.”

and

We would have hoped his spiral would have stopped there and he had turned his life around but, alas, that didn’t happen. There is news out today that he was arrested again last night on more drugs and weapons charges. It would seem Ray Small is destined for a long time behind bars and a product of his own devastating decisions in life. News of his arrest is being reported by Fox 28 news in Columbus, Ohio:

Ray Small, former Buckeye wide receiver from 2006-2009, was arrested last night in Franklin County. A Franklin County Grand Jury had indicted Small on narcotics trafficking and drug possession charges, including a firearm specification.

According to the Franklin County prosecutor, Ron O’Brien, Columbus Police raided Small’s Ferris Road apartment in April and found drugs and guns. Officials say they seized nearly $4,500 in cash, digital scales used in weighing drugs, over 400 Oxycodone and Alprazolam (Xanax) pills, and heroin.

Along with the pills, police also recovered a .380 semi-automatic handgun and an SKS assault rifle.

Hopefully Ray Small can turn his life around but it will be much harder now with these major criminal cases suffocating him until they are resolved. He still has a chance to become the man Coach Tressel tried to shape him to become but it is all on him now.

With the addition of Rutgers and Maryland and coupled with the B1G moving to a 9 game conference season there are lots of schedule changes and with that comes strange match ups and reactions.

The B1G just put out their press release and it is full of all kinds of interesting nuggets and here are some of the notable tidbits…

The Big Ten announced the conference schedules for the 2016 and 2017 football seasons today, featuring nine-game slates for every Big Ten program for the first time since 1984. The 2016 season gets underway on Oct. 1 in advance of the Big Ten Football Championship Game, slated for Dec. 3. The 2017 season will open on Sept. 2 and conclude with the Big Ten Football Championship Game on Dec. 2. The complete 2016 and 2017 conference schedules can be found on the PDFs at the top of the page.

Of real notice there was not only will the B1G go to a 9 game season but they will also start playing conference games as early as the first week of the season. A real change from the normal start Conf. games after all Non-conf games are over usually first week of Oct.

As a result of the nine-game conference schedule and the Big Ten’s schedule rotation, every student-athlete will have the opportunity to play against every other team in the conference at least once during a four-year period.

Personally I think it is great that they made sure every player who stays for at least 4 years will have a chance to play each of the 13 other schools. Though that will make for some weird scheduling situations like this…

https://twitter.com/ESPN_BigTen/status/355330986927587328

Here are some other notable info from the @ESPN_BigTen twitter account…

Michigan fares well in ’16, with no Nebraska and Northwestern from the West, UW at home. OSU plays Nebraska, UW and Northwestern that year.

Purdue avoids Michigan, Michigan State & Ohio State in ’16. Miss OSU, MSU and PSU in ’17. Somewhere, Darrell Hazell smiles.

Earlier Big Ten games include IU-Ohio State opener in ’17, two Week 3 games that year (Neb-Rutgers, Mich-Purdue).

That last tweet shows you that Ohio State and Indiana will have the first game of the 2017 season on opening weekend.

In 2016 OSU has home games against Rutgers, Indiana, Northwestern, Nebraska, and TTUN. Away games at Wisconsin, Penn St., Maryland, and Michigan St.

In 2017 OSU has home games against Maryland, Penn St., Michigan St., and Illinois. Away games at Indiana, Rutgers, Nebraska, Iowa, and TTUN.

Camp Announcement: Hear Ye, Hear Ye, Hear Ye. Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls of Buckeye Nation. We have the official date for the start of camp for Buckeyes Football. That’s right the start of camp is around the corner and before you know it football season will be upon us. Thanks to our friends at elevenwarriors.com for tweeting out the date.

Its your Birthday: Happy Belated Birthday (yesterday) to Urban Myer and Happy Birthday to Thad Matta (today)

History: Are you interested in knowing where or how the Ohio/Michigan beef started? Check out our friends at The Buckeye Battle Cry. Jason has an awesome article written up on it, I suggest you read it and become informed.

This Buckeye’s not Buying: Bleacher Reportis running a story about freshman quarterback J.T.Barrett. Seems this young Buckeye tweeted out the he will not be buying EA’s NCAA ’14 due to it having a former maize and blue player on the cover. So nice to see that this rivalry just keeps going all year not just on the field.

Gee stays on campus: Ohio State University announced they will be spending $190,000 on a new office for Gordon Gee. His new office will be a renovation project inside Page Hall that will create a suite for Gee and an assistant. They project which has been approved is to start August 1st and is expected to be finalized by late September to early October. Cue the haters in 3…2…1…

Horseshoe Damage: The cold front that moved through Ohio yesterday caused a lot of damage. MotSaG has learned from 10TV in Columbus that the scoreboard was damaged. The scoreboard, was just installed last year, lost on of the columns. Engineers were said to already surveying the damage. Thankfully no one was injured.

MY OPINION: I would like to close out today’s short but sweet post with something I need to get off of my chest. In one of my recent posts of Three Yards and a Cloud of Links the Holiday Edition, I wrote about a writer/radio personality from Tennessee named Clay Travis. I have only read two of his articles since his website joined up with FoxSports.com. I talked about these two articles and how it was unprofessional on his part to make up allegations about Urban Meyer. I know I’m new to the game of writing about anything let alone sports.

Sometime in the middle of August Fox Sports is going to be starting a new sports channel called Fox Sports 1 to compete with that four letter sports network. In doing this they are also changing up their College Pregame show guessing to be like that other sports channel. I as well as probably many Buckeye fans were hoping for something different to watch, something with integrity, something that reported on the sports and wasn’t biased.

Well I am sorry Buckeye fans it seems that even Fox Sports lacks integrity. It is my opinion (and only mine) that Fox is trying to do the same thing as that four letter network. You see it was just announced that a writer who can make up fictitious accusations in order to promote web hits and not have to show any facts of his ignorance will be getting a promotion. Yes Fox Sports is hiring Clay Travis to join their college pregame show. Now I normally don’t care who hires who or does what but this really frosts me.

What happened to hiring honest people, folks with integrity? This move sickens me that the whole point of his hiring is just to create ratings aka your version of Mark May but worse. I don’t care that this guy doesn’t like Ohio State or Urban Meyer. I do care that he is so embedded into the SEC culture that he will only be biased towards that conference. I do care that he was fictitious in his allegations and nothing is being done about that.

Thank You to Fox Sports for letting me down before the launch of your new network that I won’t be watching just like the four letter network.

Well Buckeye Nation until next time.