ohio state buckeyes football
january 2003 archive


01-31-03 (7:05pm) not much of an update for now, at least as far as buckeye information is concerned. i am still getting lots of email and it is still nearly 100% positive. i only had the one borderline hate mail so far. anyways, it is time for some random thoughts, and not this crap i have been passing off as random thoughts either. i have indulged in the liquid literary laxative and i intend to let it flow for the rest of this update (which is brought to you by the creamy smoothness of guinness draught).

as a public service announcement for the site, i want to remind people what this site is all about. looking back on the site, i haven't been very funny lately with the rush for the national championship and recruiting information, maybe it has been because i have seriously cut down my alcohol consumption since the end of football season, who knows. anyways, it is time to get this site back to its roots.

this is my personal webpage. it is not a corporate entity and not a professional organization, in fact i expressly retain my amateur status in hope of making the football website olympics someday. as such, don't expect a professional response from me if you want to mouth off. this reminds me of political correctness. don't hold me to that silly standard until i decide to become a politician or run for office.

being a personal webpage, i let it fly over hear. i realize some readers won't like my style of site and won't visit because of it. oh well, don't let the back button hit you on the rear when you leave. some readers seem to love the site though. i do all this my own personal enjoyment and to help serve those readers who enjoy the site.

i understand the site is no longer like it was back when i started it in 1999, back when it was just me and a couple of friends on the site joking around about what was the better dirty nickname at the time in college football (the vote between jeff 'dick' smoker of michigan state and brian poli-chix-with-dixon the wide out from ucla was too close to bother counting). the site now serves up buckeye crap to typically 3000 to 4000 different fans fresh daily. this expanded audience doesn't mean i am going to stop saying what i want to say though.

as for my thoughts on recruiting experts and whatnot, it reminds me of the term porn star. every woman filmed in that industry anymore is all of a sudden called a porn star, as if everyone was a superstar and there were no regular old skanky actresses. well, i sort of think of recruiting experts like i do porn stars, just because you can babble on (and not in the hammurabi sense of term either) about recruiting it does not make you a recruiting expert, you are a recruiting commentator at best. as for me, i am not an expert or even a commentator, i am simply a knowledgeable fan who could afford a free webpage.

the one difference i can see between porn stars and recruiting experts is how their mistakes are handled. you can log on to kazaa and download comical porn bloopers for weeks on end (not that that is legal or recommended or endorsed by the vg in any way shape or form). when recruiting experts make mistakes though it is largely forgotten about and not discussed at all. when the vg calls one out for making too many mistakes to retain the expert title or all experts in general for not even going to high school games, he is outcast from the community and shunned like he is amish all of a sudden.

you know what though, i could honestly care less. all this schtick is here just to entertain me and the masses that think like me or at least enjoy reading about this nonsense.

well that is about all i have in me for now. as i sit back and proofread this stream of thoughts before pressing the upload button, i am pretty happy with what i have said tonight. not bad at all for just having two of the guinness draughts down so far tonight. if something comes to me, i may have more tonight, but honestly i think i am looking for a type of fun that doesn't involve a computer or the buckeyes tonight. enjoy the weekend as you live it.
01-31-03 (1:10pm) lots of nonsense to talk about at lunch today. i got recruiting rumors and gossip of course and i have a little hate mail. i decided to include the hater's email address if any readers would care to debate his point with him. obviously i don't encourage such action, but i would certainly find it funny.

in stanley mcclover news, there isn't any really. it is still looking like a signing day decision. still though, osu has some nice ties to his high school and he has reaffirmed his verbal to us twice now. i think he is a buckeye, but it isn't like i am a recruiting expert or anything, i am merely a fan like the rest of you.

in turk mcbride news, osu has not stopped recruiting him and he has not eliminated the buckeyes from consideration despite what has been previously reported. i still don't think it looks good for us landing mcbride, but it isn't over yet. no news on when he is planning on making the call as to which college he will be attending.

in james lee news, things are looking good there. lee is down to osu, georgia, and florida as a final three. both georgia and florida are loaded with offensive line recruits this class already, and james lee knows it. his decision will come down to how much he values a chance at early playing time versus how close to home he wants to be. if i had to guess, i would say he will be a buckeye come signing day, but it isn't like i am psychic or anything.

in todd boeckman grayshirt news, here is what is most likely to happen. he is going on scholarship in 2004 and not 2003. he will most likely start classes this fall at osu as a part time student and then enroll full time for winter quarter in 2003 on a full athletic ride. the motivation for boeckman to pay his way for a quarter is to put a gap between him and the two redshirt freshmen qb's troy smith and justin zwick. essentially, boeckman delaying the start of his school buys him an additional year of eligibility, maturity, and most importantly practice. good luck to todd in school this fall.

in jamesley jean news, we are done there. who knows who dropped who, but who cares either. it isn't going to happen and we all wish jean the best of luck wherever he ends up (as long as he isn't playing the buckeyes of course).

last bit of news before i have a little me time and some fun with the site (which is afterall why i do this in the first place). this is on former air force linebacker anthony schlegel. he has decided to transfer from air force and is rumored to be considering ohio state. schlegel was one of the top players on the falcons defense as a sophomore and could contribute at linebacker for ohio state. is it just a rumor and is there any truth to the rumor? i honestly have no clue, i just thought maybe buckeye fans would like to know.

in further daily linkage to keep us all regular, i don't have anything important really. i do have a link from the miami student newspaper (it is old) that contains some mention of a bunch of hurricane club members actually being buckeye fans in disguise to get their tickets at face value. of course this information was brought to you first by the vg and his friend from osu who just graduated from the miami mba program. i have received a bunch of emails from fans thanking us for the link and we thought that maybe you would like to see what was mentioned about you in the miami paper. note, you do need to register for free access to their paper (just like the lantern). if you don't want to register, i included most of the relevant text in the textbox that pops up when you put your cursor on the link. congrats to the readers of the site that took advantage of the loophole in hurricane club policies as laid out here and a special big thanks to my friend from miami for letting me in on this loophole originally and making sure other buckeye fans were able to get to the fiesta bowl for face value.

in order to not pat myself on the back too much for helping a bunch of buckeye fans live out their fiesta bowl destiny at face value, i thought it was only fair that i share some of the hate mail the site gets. i decided to reprint his email in full below this paragraph. after that i decided to add my comments on his email below. enjoy.

I am a "neutral" observer in the fact that I check out many Ohio State related sites. But, that being said, as one who has really been paying attention to what has been going on between you and Bucknuts and having some knowledge of both you and Duane Long I have come to this conclusion... You are an idiot! Big time, and here is why.

To tell people you have done nothing to provoke the reaction of the folks at Bucknuts is purely bogus. The biggest disappointment is that you have tried to come off as a "hero" of the free site people. But, this part is the least of your bull.

Here is the beef with those of us that understand this recruiting/site game:

1. You can "go" to all of the high school games you want, but your evaluation of players is no better than Duane's, if not even up to par with his.

2. And this is a BIG one, you have no sources, none that I have seen, except other sites information about what breaking news there is. So to act smug about the fact that you are posting news broken by BSB or whoever before Bucknuts has posted it is like showing all your friends you were the first to have a PS2 only because you stole it from somebody else and your're proud of it.

3. Duane Long constantly keeps in contact with virtually every HS coach in the state as well as all the players they are recruiting and they all respect him because he is good at what he does and only posts info. that they give him. To call him a liar or a rumor spreader is crazy. You ask anyone in the recruiting game in this state or even players all over the country and they will all tell you who DL is. Who is VG you ask, they have no idea.

4. And lastly, oh the hell with it, you are just an idiot plain and simple. You don't get it. You site was the very first site I found when I started getting on OSU websites, but face it, besides your video's, which aren't half bad, you have absolutely nothing new to offer and that is where Bucknuts and BSB leave you in the dust. And by the way, most of what Bucknuts offers is still free... And I know that has to bug you.

A true OSU buff who is tired of you "game".

anyways, that is the only hate mail i have received lately. i thought i would share it with the readers just to be balanced and fair in the different views of this site. anyways, i don't want to republish his words without giving him credit, so here is this hopefully former reader's email address [editors note: i removed the guys email address as an olive branch here].

now for a little response to his bullet points. as for point one, i do go to all the games i want to, but i don't see how that makes my analysis of high school players any worse than his. i just comment on what i see, if you don't like it, don't read it or factor in that you don't yet trust my opinion. it isn't like i am charging you to read what i have to say or seek your eyeballs on the page.

as for point 2 above, you are right, i have no sources. i run a fan site built by fans for fans. i don't have a staff of people pestering coaches and recruits for quotes that i can add a couple of sentences to and then use them to sell subscriptions to the site. i do all this for free and as a hobby. last note here, i don't recall claiming to have ever had a source more qualified than the guy working the hot dog stand or the lady bagging my groceries. i could see your point if i was claiming to have broken the news myself or had the inside scoop, but i don't so your point is rather dull and pointless.

as for point 3, good for duane. though i honestly think if you ask around the country who is the expert in ohio high school football you will hear the name bill kurelic first followed by john mcallister second and then duane long third. i can't imagine you would ever hear the name vg mentioned as a recruiting expert, especially since i am not one. i have not even sat for my certified recruiting expert exam let alone passed the test. i have never held myself out as an expert either.

as for your fourth point, you may feel that i am an idiot and you are entitled to that opinion. i would think my doctorate degree would tend to show evidence otherwise, but what the hell would i know. now go back to your 6th period study hall and do your homework like a good little boy. that short bus is going to be at your school here in another hour or so and i would hate to see you miss it.

on a side note for the regular 3000 or so people that frequent this page daily, i am stopping this type of update monday so enjoy it while you can and the normal routine updates will resume then. thanks again for all the support.
01-31-03 (10:25am eastern standard time; 10:09am bucknuts make believe time) lyndhurst brush tight end - defensive end marcel frost has just announced that he will be a buckeye. that is the news as i saw it break on buckeye sports bulletin's message board. they broke the news and are the best pay source for osu information bar none. frost is approximately 6'5" 235 pounds and runs the fourty in about 4.75 seconds. he initially committed to iowa but started to rethink that decision when it became apparent that the buckeyes were interested. iowa was recruiting him as a tight end, the buckeyes were recruiting frost as a defensive end. as for frost, he doesn't care where he plays, he just wants to get on the field. anyways, good luck marcel and welcome to the family.

in further linkage today, the akron beacon journal has a piece on an awards show that had jim tressel and maurice clarett in the house. the tribune chronicle has an article on this as well, but honestly it is hardly worth reading. last link for now is on stark county hall of famer and former buckeye great jeff logan. suprisingly a good read from the canton repository. todd porter has been doing a good job lately.

anyways, that is all i have for now, but for lunch time i will have thoughts on the stanley mcclover situation, james lee's impending decision, turk mcbride's deal, and the deal with todd boeckman and his gray shirt. if you couldn't tell, i plan on dominating today and the rest of the recruiting season. if you honestly couldn't tell my plan for dominance, check out the free recruiting videos of top prospects like devon jordan, shawn crable, tony gonzalez, louis irizarry, donte whitner, and dareus hiley in the video archive. the videos are linked at the top of the left hand column as always and the link is called 'vg recruiting videos'. if those seniors weren't enough of a reason to check out the videos, i got clips on super juniors delbert ferguson, ted ginn jr., marcus freeman, anthony turner, darryl clark, and mike massey in there as well as clips on top sophs like ryan brinson, javon ringer, jamario o'neal, brett donaldson, brandon harrison, and others. i still have more video to add (guys like mario manningham, curtis smith and many more, i just need to get back in the studio and compress the video down.) anyways, enjoy the friday as it drags on and i will be back for a nice lunchtime update.
01-31-03 (8:35am) just one link for now, but it is a good one. the columbus dispatch and 1460 the fan has a piece on marcel frost and recruiting in general. the big news from that article is that marcel frost will announce his college decision at 10am. i will of course post the news here as soon as i find out, i would anticipate by 10:10am at the very latest. at that point i will have a much more extended morning update. i am a little fired up and motivated to say the least this morning. enjoy.
01-30-03 (11:55pm) first off i wanted to thank everyone out there for the emails. i have received nearly 100 emails since 5pm and they don't seem to be stopping except for when the mailbox is full. i emptied it out again so if your mail got bounced, feel free to resend her now. out of all the email responses i got, every single one was positive other than one neutral party. i tried to answer them all, but it is hard honestly (and when i say it is hard, i am not talking about that being hard either).

second comment for the night, i appreciated all the support fans of the site have left on the bucknuts recruiting board. they are just getting locked down and deleted as soon as they are posted, but it is nice to see some fans have my back. also, i personally found the entire ordeal amusing. you fans made this sick man feel a whole lot better today (just in time for the weekend too).

now to clear up the situation. i didn't start this despite what anyone says. is it my fault if i report the fact that they were flat out wrong about things like kenyon buford becoming a buckeye or maurice hall transferring? is it my fault that duane has dubious computer problems that only impact the free board, can be fixed with four clicks of the mouse, and took 18 days to fix? is it my fault that bucknuts promised certain things when they went to insiders that they couldn't live up to? don't shoot the messenger bucknuts.

some parties on their board are trying to spin this as my fault. i just got to laugh at that. i am never anything but helpful when i am on their board. admittedly i do critique the other sites (bsb, the ozone, and $ucknuts) often. i do this as a service to buckeye fans so they know where to spend their hard earned cash if they choose to purchase premium subscriptions or products from a site. i never started calling people names until today and i did that after they banned me from the board despite not breaking any rules (which annoyed the hell out of me) and removing my link from their links section (i could care less there; due to the quality of the site, i am placed higher than bucknuts on most search engines already).

is it my fault that $ucknuts creates loads of opportunities for criticism that the other professional sites (bsb and the ozone) don't create? hardly. if you want to hold yourself out as a professional site worth paying money to read, you hold yourself out to public critique. i would be just as critical of the other sites (and i have critiqued the ozone for covering women's sports while they refuse to play topless and the bsb for providing virtually no free information and never interacting with their free message boards). $ucknuts, you aren't alone in drawing critique from this site, you are alone in the amount of criticism for sure, but that doesn't seem to be my fault.

as for why i was banned and de-linked (if that is even a word), i still haven't heard. maybe a fan of the site can find out for me and let me know, they don't seem to want anything to do with me, and i must say the feeling is mutual.

i suspect they did what they did because they were tired of getting their brains beat in every single day by someone with more football knowledge and someone who has actually seen these recruits play football in person instead of pretending to be an expert. honestly though, if i ran this site as a business i wouldn't link other buckeye sites either. fortunately for the readers, i don't run this site as a business and i try to make it easy to navigate to the other buckeye websites out there. it seems most readers appreciate having all the top buckeye links in one spot instead of having to store them in bookmarks or search for them.

on to the recruiting expert game, what qualifies one as a recruiting expert exactly? did guys like duane long and bill kurelic pass some sort of test? did they attend recruiting college? did they play or coach football? all of us take their word as gospel yet neither party has ever documented what exactly that makes them recruiting experts. am i wrong for questioning them?

i need to start wrapping this up and save some for tomorrow so here come some thoughts straight off the top of my head. i don't encourage anyone to flame the recruiting message board in my name. i did enjoy seeing it and i did get a good laugh out of it. i will probably get a laugh out of that anytime i see it, but i don't encourage it. i am a big boy (literally, i am like 6'4" and 240 pounds of thunder), i can more than take care of myself.

to summarize, am i still mad? hell yea i am mad. do i have any plans to even up the score? nope. i am going back to business as usual here probably monday. i imagine i will screw around with them a little more friday and maybe even this weekend (just to entertain the masses), but after that i am just going to pretend they don't exist like more and more of their readers seem to be doing.
01-30-03 (4:15pm) i wanted to post again today, but i couldn't find anything worth posting out there. sorry about that, but i am not going to make up stuff about false potential transfers or kids committing that don't even have a scholarship offer. afterall, it isn't like i have an audience to fleece or premium subscriptions to sell.

for those that follow the buckeyes via the web closely, that was obviously a shot at the corporate entity formerly known as bucknuts. why would i take a shot at them you ask. good question. i used to enjoy the site back in the day before the sell out and i still frequent the page often, especially the message board for recruiting. in duane's absence (due to alleged computer problems that sounded fishy at best) i did what i could to help out the community over there by answering a bunch of questions the best i could. i figured that since i, unlike duane, have seen these players actually play a little football that i would be qualified to answer a question or two.

well, it looks like i am no longer welcome there. i am now banned from posting on their board and they have decided to remove my link from their links page so i have decided to respond here to their actions [NOTE: i was banned and my link was removed BEFORE any bad mouthing on my part just for the record]. now i didn't break any rules of theirs or anything like that, i guess they just feel i am a competitor of theirs, and being a business they feel the need to eliminate me. funny thing though was i always envisioned myself as a collaborator more than a competitor of the other buckeye sites. oh well, if it is competition they want, who am i to not aim to please. competition they will get.

i, BIATCHabutuka, would like to take this time to say goodbye to all the other posters on the bucknuts recruiting message board. i enjoyed passing along my wisdom from having actually seen the recruits play ball. i never claimed to be an expert (not that duane long has ever listed his credentials as an expert other than calling himself one by the way), but i enjoyed sharing that knowledge all the same. i would post my goodbye over there, but that is not going to happen, i am not allowed to post there anymore. maybe a reader of this site can say goodbye for me instead. i would appreciate it and i am sure some of the fellow posters over there would like to know why i am no longer there. the vg would appreciate it for sure. who knows, maybe even mr bucknuts himself would like to explain why i was banned from the boards despite providing top shelf free information, including videos and never violating board rules. that would require a backbone of course and i don't expect to ever find out why.

so what does the vg plan on doing to get back at the evil mr bucknuts and the bucknuts website, good question again. honestly i don't plan on doing anything different. i plan on still beating them every single day of the year on a free information basis, nothing more nothing less. i am going to change their link to say $ucknuts instead of bucknuts though. that change has already been implemented. i also plan on doing a review of their magazine (you know the pamphlet passed off as a magazine) and the ohio's future stars magazine (especially with regard to the poor photography and writing). maybe i will work on those this weekend.

i would also urge any readers from giving them free photographs for their corporate use. they are currently soliciting for free photographs of recruits. you don't get anything out of it, but they get to improve their corporate product. funny thing, i don't remember many other corporate entities seeking donations like this. unique strategy there mr bucknuts.

so how does this impact the future of the vanilla gorilla website, good question again. i imagine my regulars who visited the website through the $ucknuts link will have to use a search engine to find me again until they bookmark the site. otherwise though, i see no impact at all. the quality of the free $ucknuts message board will probably not be the same, but this won't have an impact on me at all honestly. i will still have all the good information to go along with a complete analysis and it will still be free.

anyways, i just thought i would let everyone out there know what has transpired today. sorry i didn't have any buckeye information for you this update but i hope this update was at least mildly entertaining.
01-30-03 (10:10am) first off i got another link dealing with some recruiting rumors. this link is from a florida newspaper on stanley mcclover reconsidering his college decision. it sounds like he will make his final decision on february 5th between ohio state and auburn. mcclover of course committed a few weeks ago but has since reconsidered and calls it 50 - 50 either osu or auburn. i know it looks like we have a bunch of depth at defensive line and we are stock piling even more this year, but if you look at it long term, we need guys like mcclover bad.

next year we lose potential all americans will smith, darrion scott, and tim anderson. simon fraser will be back, but he will be a senior. after those four guys, everyone else is completely unproven on the field and living off of recruiting hype, and none of the guys we got have the type of hype behind them that stanley mcclover has except maybe quinn pitcock who is a defensive tackle and not an end like mcclover.

also next year is not a good year for defensive linemen in ohio so our chances of bringing in a player on the defensive line are not good in state. the only one getting a bunch of hype right now is mike massey of st ignatius and i see him ending up at michigan with his older brother honestly.

in the end i think it comes down to a simple choice for mcclover, stay close to home and play for auburn or come north away from the family and into an NFL prep school for defensive linemen. i know ohio isn't anywhere near close to florida for the family, but we have our own family in columbus and i think mcclover will see that and decide to join his 84 scarlet clad brothers in the fall.

one more link for now is from the detroit free press on their top 20 prospects in the midwest. lots of buckeyes on that list including donte whitner, dareus hiley, louis irizarry, david patterson and with some luck shawn crable. don't forget i have free videos on guys like whitner, hiley, irizarry, and crable in the vg recruiting videos portion of this site. i have film on another prospect on that list too from warren harding, but i don't even feel like typing his traitorous name right now.

in bad recruiting news from the south, it doesn't look like we have a chance with alabama offensive lineman aaron sears anymore. sears has issued a list of his final three and the buckeyes aren't on it but tennecheats, auburn, and miami are. oh well. good luck getting a job after college with a hillbilly education aaron.

in the lack of news department, i have no idea when marcel frost is holding his press conference at brush high in lyndhurst. when i find out i will of course list that here.

last bit from the lack of news department. i contacted ohio state athletic department yesterday about dates for spring practice, the spring game, and the details on practice (as in am i still allowed to go and bring my camera like last season or did bucknuts ruin that for all of us last year). unfortunately, the athletic department wasn't able to help me with any of that and they didn't know when they would know either. i have seen reports of the spring game being april 26th and that is what i list it as in the left hand column. where that date is coming from though i have no clue. it certainly isn't coming from the guy i spoke to at the athletic department.

anyways, that is all i have for now. i will try to dig up some more here and post it for all to enjoy.
01-30-03 (8:55am) i got some links this morning, and they all aren't about ira guilford's college decision either in a suprise. first off i got a piece from the cleveland plain dealer on jim tressel's pregame speach as written by ken pryor. the canton repository has an article on ira guilford as does the columbus dispatch and 1460 the fan. last link for now is from the detroit free press of all places and it is on donte whitner.

anyways, that is all i have for now. i am still feeling pretty sick, but i think the cold medicine and the zinc is starting to kick in. i will have another update here either real quick or at lunch. enjoy.
01-29-03 (5:35pm) ira guilford has just announced that he will be a buckeye. guilford is one of the top rated safeties in the nation out of hoboken new jersey. he could add depth at tailback as well since he was the top tailback in jersey this year. he is 5'11" 185 pounds and runs right around a 4.5 fourty. guilford is the final piece in what will undoubtedly be the top collection of defensive backs in the nation this year along with donte whitner, dareus hiley, tony gonzalez, curt lukens, and ashton youboty. i still think hiley is a wide out and maybe gonzo too, but for now they are part of the best haul of defensive backs in the nation.

if you want to hear from ira guilford, he will be on 1460 the fan live at 6:05pm. should be an interesting interview. anyways, the link is in the left hand column in the newspapers and radio section if you want to listen on the net for those of us not within the one mile radius that gets 1460 the fan on their radio.

in other recruiting news, marcel frost has scheduled a press conference friday at his high school to announce his college decision. marcel is of course on his official visit to ohio state today and thursday and it looks like he will talk it over with his family thursday night and make the decision friday. he does have a scholarship offer from coach tressel and he said ohio state had about a 50% chance of getting his signature on a letter of intent on the fifth.

florida two way lineman james lee is down to osu, florida, and georgia. lee stated today that there is a greater than 50% chance of him being a buckeye and that he will make his announcement on february fifth.

in further recruiting news today, louis irizarry was interviewed by herbstreit today on 1460. irizarry said that he felt ohio state was honest throughout the process and that coach coker and staff wasn't so honest and straight forward. irizarry said he would like to be used like a kellen winslow and that he doesn't see himself being an effective blocker right away. he also said that while he is fully qualified, he will be retaking the ACT again to raise his score. he said if he could get his score up to a 28 (which is getting close to the vg range) that it would be easier for him to get into the honors program for industrial engineering. good luck on the test and in the weight room this offseason louis.

last note for now and it isn't even college football related. ohio resident and funniest man alive dave chappelle has the second episode of his new show airing tonight on comedy central at 10:30pm. being a big fan of dave and having ripped off his act more than a couple of times for this site it only seems fair to give the man a plug.
01-29-03 (2:25pm) i can't find anything about ira guilford's press conference being broadcast on the net live. it may be on the nbc4 website, but they don't have anything about it there that i saw.

it must have been the cold medicine getting me down, but i forgot some news this morning. lyndhurst brush tight end - defensive end marcel frost started his official visit to ohio state today. rumor has it that he is being recruited as a defensive end more than a tight end. frost is a verbal commit of iowa at the moment, but i could see him switching over to the buckeyes if tressel were to reaffirm the scholarship offer. i wonder if guilford's decision today will have any impact on frost thursday (his last day of his visit). if guilford were to pick ND instead of the buckeyes, maybe that opens up a scholarship that frost can use. who knows. anyways, i will be online at approximately 5:35pm with the info on ira guilford. stay tuned.
01-29-03 (1:10pm) there is no news out there at all today and nothing for us buckeye fans to read. i am sick as an ohio kid wanting to play for michigan and lloyd carr, but i am ready to step up and feed the buckeye addiction.

there is some debate on where ira guilford is ending up at school. everyone thinks that it is osu or nd but experts from each team's sites think he is theirs. me, i still think he is a buckeye but i will find out at 5:32pm for sure. when i do find out i will pass along that information here of course.

there was a quote by prescott burgess recently saying that shawn crable will be a wolverine. how a guy from massillon can go to ann arbor and plan on ever returning home is beyond me. i honestly don't believe it, but you never know. maybe michigan is telling him what he wants to hear and crable is buying it.

another rumor i heard was that mike bush may not even make an announcement on the 5th and may wait for his test score to announce. this comes from a dubious source at best so take that for what it is worth.

it looks like the canton repository has stirred up the pot with todd boeckman today. lots of buckeye fans trying to figure out if he is a scholarship or a gray shirt. me, i think he is a scholarship and not a gray shirt. todd porter has no true knowledge of the buckeye program and i just think he made a mistake. maybe he is right, who knows.

anyways, that is all i have in me for right now, i am going to search around for the net and see if we can't find a streaming video or audio link to the guilford press conference. if i find it, i will be sure to post it here. otherwise i will have the news as soon as i hear it. enjoy.
01-29-03 (8:10am) i got three links for the morning. the columbus dispatch and 1460 the fan have a piece on ira guilford announcing his college choice today. the canton reporsitory has two articles today. this one is on mike doss taking a break from conditioning to sign free autographs in stark county this friday. the other article is interesting and a must read. it covers ira guilford, shawn crable, aaron sears, james lee, moe dampeer, and of course mike bush. it also has a recap of every verbal commit at the end of the article. here is where it gets interesting. the article lists todd boeckman as a gray shirt and not a scholarship player. that means boeckman will not be on scholarship this season, will pay his own way, and then will get a scholarship in january. i don't know if this is true or not, but it is interesting all the same.

in vg news, i am quite ill today. i am about to choke on the sinus drainage and i am going to take it easy today. the chat i was going to do at lunchtime today is just not going to happen until i feel better. i will be online for the ira guilford decision for sure and i will still probably do a lunchtime update, i just don't see the chat going down unless this medicine kicks in with some ferocity. enjoy.
01-28-03 (2:50pm) there will be a press conference at 5:30pm wednesday at ira guilford's high school for him to announce his college decision. i will be online at that time and will have the word as soon as it is out. just thought you would like to know. enjoy.
01-28-03 (high noon) just a couple of more links and then a random thought or two. the akron beacon journal has a piece on shawn crable being named parade all american. the other link is from miami and it covers hurricane recruiting with some info on the louis irizarry situation. nothing really new there, but it is buckeye information all the same.

in today's mandatory michael bush update i got some potentially bad news. apparently a radio station in tennesse is under the impression that michael bush will become a volunteer here on signing day. it is looking more and more like bush will be a signing day decision like shawn crable. february 5th is going to be very interesting this year.

another day and another debate on which premium recruiting information is right and which is make believe and a complete fraud. i love this stuff if you couldn't tell. anyways, bucknuts is reporting we are done with turk mcbride the big jersey defensive end. i repeated this 'fact' last night on the website as is within intellectual property laws (just because some message boards don't allow premium information doesn't change the law any here). now i wake up this morning and find out that buckeye sports bulletin is saying that is a load of crap and we are still trying to land mcbride and he has not eliminated us. i forget what the score is in the battle of greedy premium sites so i am just enjoying this for what it is. two companies and their experts in a cat fight. i just hope my cat fight fantasy doesn't come true and there is no accidental nudity here between bill kurelic and duane long.

anyways, that is all i have for now. if anyone out there has a camcorder feel free to tape the bitch smack that bill kurelic is going to lay on duane long or vice versa. i would love to see it for myself.
01-28-03 (real damn early) first off one link and then some recruiting rumors for the morning. the link is from the dayton daily news and it is a collection of thoughts with some on the current state of recruiting. nothing new there, but it is nice to see another article from doug harris again. now on to some recruiting rumors.

in ira guilford news, it looks like he will be making his decision known to the public this wednesday. right now all reports have it coming down to ohio state or notre dame for the standout jersey safety. with guilfords's comments about there being nothing to do in south bend, i really like the way this one is looking.

in other recruiting news, it doesn't look like the buckeyes will be landing jersey standout defensive end turk mcbride. mcbride would have been an interesting guy to pair with buckeye commit stanley mcclover, but we will never get to see it. oh well. good luck to turk mcbride wherever he ends up going to school.

in the mandatory michael bush update, it looks like bush is wide open about where he will play his college ball. kentucky is coming on strong as of late, but i don't see it. the kid is from louisville and they just hate everything from UK there. throw in the fact that they are on probation and it just doesn't make sense to me. the other players are the hometown louisville cardinals, tennecheats with fatman fullmer, and the ohio state buckeyes, the defending national champs, duh. i haven't heard much about him and michigan state lately so i think they are done. bush is probably the highest rated player we are still recruiting and he would be a major boost to this class. i don't expect to hear about him until signing day unfortunately.

final bit of news is on ohio tight end - defensive end marcel frost. it seems that frost will be visiting campus this week and he could commit to the bucks if coach tressel reaffirms the scholarship offer. we will have to wait and see there though. i don't think we need another tight end, but we could use another defensive end with mcbride eliminating the buckeyes. i know we have a bunch of ends on campus right now with seniors will smith and darrion scott and junior simon fraser waiting his turn on the bench, but they won't be here much longer and i would like to have the defensive ends on campus for a year before we need to depend on them. i like the way we rotate bodies up front to break the guys in and i can't think of three ends i would rather have teach a guy like marcel frost other than smith, scott, and fraser. maybe tressel is thinking it will be hard to get another tight end next year with irizarry in the fold and there not being many tight end types in the state of ohio. who knows.

anyways, the sun isn't even close to sizzling yet this morning. i am snoozing out for a few more and then i will try to find some more linkage to keep us regular. enjoy.
01-27-03 (2:10pm) not much news out there today. there was a report on texas kicker david dyches. it looks like the bucks are trying to get dyches to do the same thing as cedric scott is doing. that is come to school without a scholarship for a year and then get a scholarship in 2004. there is an outside shot that one of these 'grayshirts' could get a scholarship this year if we have an additional scholarship this year we can't fill on signing day. i honestly imagine it would go to one of the walk ons this year though and then a grayshirt could have the scholarship in 2004 like promised.

in site news, i was working on a redesign this weekend. by now everyone knows that i have stripped this page down in order to get ready for national signing day. i planned on bringing the page back to its original quality after signing day, but then i started thinking (which is usually a dangerous thing).

i was thinking about just starting the page design template over from scratch. my only problem though is supporting all the different browsers that come to the page. right now this page is designed for microsoft internet explorer and netscape navigator 4+ and it works in both of them at just about any monitor size.

the big problem here isn't microsoft, it is netscape. approximately 10% of the viewers still use netscape to view the site and unfortunately over half of them are using netscape 4 or lower. netscape decided to make their newer browsers much different than version 4 and most of the web stuff that works in netscape 4 or lower won't work in the newer versions (pretty stupid of them huh).

no business would ever stop their website from being accessible to 5% of their customers, but honestly this page isn't a business either. right now i have no plan on not suporting netscape 4 right away, but i would like to urge the 1 out of 20 visitors to consider upgrading their technology (it is a free upgrade by the way). i think netscape 4 is something like 5 years old now and it just doesn't cut it. it makes life difficult at best for guys who make webpages and it cheats the users out of seeing some good content. there is a reason that web designers refer to netscape as nutscrape afterall.

anyways, if i see something good out there i will post it here, but i honestly doubt i will find anything good again until tonight at the earliest. enjoy the rest of monday as it drags on and on and on.
01-27-03 (11:20am) sorry about the lack of a morning update today. i slept in a little late and just didn't have the time. as for links there really weren't any so i guess i didn't miss much this morning anyway.

in the rumors department, it is time to put another rumor to bed. bucknuts had been starting rumors about maurice hall transferring to oklahoma. a moderator on their message board (the recruiting one) even used this information as a good reason to subscribe to the premium site. the logic was if you paid your money to read their updates you would get the scoop on maurice hall transferring and other bombshells like that days before it happens. i guess they forgot to mention that maurice hall is transferring his credit card balance in search of a low introductory rate instead of transferring schools like they led people to believe was worth paying for.

in other news, strongville offensive lineman dan pribula has confirmed that he will not play college football and will pursue track (shot put) instead. ohi state had not offerred pribula as far as i iknow, but he was widely considered one of the better 6 or 7 offensive linemen in the state this year. it sounds like he doesn't have the passion for football plain and simple.

speaking of offensive line recruiting, things are looking better with two way florida lineman james lee than i thoughht. i really didn't think we would get him out of the south and in a scarlet and gray uniform, but it seems much more possible today. lee was recently quoted as having us and florida as his favorites. everyone knows the buckeyes could use another offensive lineman in this class. things were looking bad with the recent loss of kyle thornton to texas, maybe coach tressel has one up his sleeve here. tressel has always recruited florida hard, even at youngstown state. maybe lee will be a suprise buckeye this year.

in non-recruiting news, i think i may have the date for the spring game finally. this was posted on the ozone message board and obviously it wasn't an official release from the athletic department, but the report is that the spring game is going to be held april 26th in the shoe. i am putting the date in the left hand column now and will look into the date and time and such to make sure it is accurate. that date coincides with day one of the NFL draft and i don't recall that ever happening before.

in site news, i have been looking for volunteers in different parts of the country that would be willing to go to a few high school football games in their area to take pictures or film on top prospects. if anyone out there is interested, i will send you a list of top players in your region and guide you through any hardware or software issues you have. i can even help you set up your own free sony imagestation account to host your videos and put a link to them on this page so the rest of the buckeye nation can watch as well.

even if you don't have a still camera or a video camera but would still like to go to a game or two in your neighborhood you could help out. so many recruiting services have exaggerated sizes and speeds, if nothing else you could comment on a guy's size being legit or not and file your own opinion here for the world to see. anyways, like i said before, if you are interested in seeing some top prospects in your area, let me know via email and i will get you a list of prospects in the area and prospects from out of the area that will be making the road trip to your community.

i have had a few parties step up and when i get my information sorted out i will be mailing it out to them. another thing i am looking for help with is lists of top prospects in the various grade levels. if anyone out there has any such information, please email me the link or better yet cut and paste the article and send that to me. for example, student sports has posted their sophomore and junior all american teams on their pay site (you can get to the link by going to bucknuts daily links). information like that would be greatly appreciated and put to good use for the buckeye community as a whole.

final site administration note for now, i am going to host another chat this wednesday during the lunch hour (approximately 12 - 1, give or take a half an hour). feel free to drop by and ask any questions or just shoot the breeze. like everything with the vg, the chat is free. i am going to try to get back online here within the hour and see if i can't dig up anymore dirt, if i find anything i will be sure to post it here. enjoy.
01-26-03 (11:25pm) just checking in on the night shift tonight. i do have some recruiting rumors to spread around the net, but first i should say something about the superbowl.

the superbowl is over and man was it boring. i am sitting in front of the computer wanting to comment on the game a little bit, but honestly nothing from the game stands out worth commenting on. now i can comment on some of the game festivities so here we go.

the halftime show featured shania twain, no doubt, and sting. maybe it was just me and the cbg, but did it seem like shania was lip synching and the musicians weren't really playing their instruments? don't get me wrong, i don't watch her for the music anyway, afterall she is responsible for putting the count back in country music (by the way the over - under for hate emails from that joke is currently at 11, i am hoping for the under, but my money is on the over).

i even thought the superbowl commercials sucked this year more than most. the only one i enjoyed in the least bit was the office linebacker spot for reebok. oh well.

now for some recruiting gossip, unfortunately tonights update is all bad news. oh well.

in the moe dampeer derby, i think the buckeyes are done there. it is looking like oklahoma is able to be a little more lenient with the academics and that is going to swing their way. it looks like the buckeye coaching staff has figured this out a couple of weeks ago and has stopped contacting moe dampeer. good luck at oklahoma moe, maybe you can be the next tommie harris there.

this news isn't even a rumor. texas offensive lineman kyle thornton has committed to texas over the buckeyes and kansas state. thornton joins his brother in austin and will be facing off against the buckeyes in a few years. good luck kyle, other than the games we plan on exposing mr february mack brown for what he is of course.

in other recruits committing elsewhere news, texas de tim washington has decided to join nick saban in lsu for a few years. lsu is doing a fantastic job recruiting under saban. if the tigers start to win some games finally they are primed to become a power in the sec again. of course if they do, saban will leave for another job again (probably NFL again next time). if the tigers don't start contending for more than their half of the conference on a regular basis, mack brown may have more competition for the crown of mr february.

one final note about the previous post today to clear up any confusion, i am not saying that chad hoobler doesn't exist or anything like that, i just haven't heard of him until he popped up on all the recruiting experts lists all of a sudden. i know he was first team all ohio this year and second team all ohio last year as a soph, i just haven't heard much buzz about him until all of a sudden. i probably haven't heard much about him becuase carrollton isn't exacty a football power and they don't play elite competition either. i typically only see more elite teams with a more established talent pipeline. i wasn't passing any opinion on him as a player. i only author an opinion on players i have actually seen play in person unlike the 'experts'.

anyways, that is all i have for now. if you are looking for some more recruiting info, gossip, and baseless speculation check out the post below. i went over the state of buckeye recruiting in detail earlier today, including a look ahead at the class of 2004 in ohio as a whole. enjoy.
01-26-03 (11:10am) well, i looked all over the net and i can't find any news or rumors worth posting (much like yesterday). since most of us buckeye fans are hardcore addicts for buckeye info and the other buckeye sites seem to be taking the day off for the most part, i feel it is time i step up and make up some crap for us to read.

now for making up crap, i am not fabricating information here like potential transfers or saying guys are committing when in fact they aren't. i mean making up crap like just typing away, with no thought on where this is going and seeing what comes out.

for starters, how about a state of the buckeye union address. national signing day is coming up soon on february 5th. that is the driving force behind buckeye football news, information, and gossip. for being this close to signing day, i have never seen a weekend as dead as this one. it seems like the coaches know more than us buckeye fans (shocker huh) about who is coming to campus and who isn't.

the general consensus is that we have 3 or 4 scholarships left. of course we can oversign by 3 this year if we get back a few more signed letters of intent than we anticipate. we would need to be down to 85 scholarships by next season, but that type of thing has a way of sorting itself out.

with three scholarships left, here is how i see it going down. the first to commit will be jersey standout safety ira guilford. he is at rutgers this weekend and will verbal either monday or tuesday in my opinion. that leaves us with two scholarships.

after guilford, i see news coming to a screeching halt until signing day. signing day to me is a holiday for college football fans. there are always suprises and i expect this year to be one of the best signing days as far as suprises are concerned. we still have a legitimate shot at superstars shawn crable, michael bush, moe dampeer, and aaron sears. i expect all four of those guys to announce on signing day. i personally think shawn crable announces to the public that he will be, and will always be, a buckeye february fifth. that leaves one scholarship for sure and the possibility of oversigning a few more.

michael bush is the most likely to sign out of the players i mentioned for the final scholarship. i used to think he was a slam dunk, but it looks like fatman fullmer's lies are swaying bush his way. i would say right now we have a 50% chance at landing this star qb in the making.

as for dampeer and sears, i just don't see it happening. i think dampeer ends up a sooner and sears stays in the south. so what happens if we miss out on these guys, good question.

i think the next most likely guy to get sent a letter of intent from the coaching staff is texas lineman kyle thornton. thornton has liked the buckeyes for some time now and it seems that he could be ours if we send him the LOI. after that, i don't know if we take anyone else on scholarship or not. maybe we would try to get back in on adam graessele the kicker punter from dublin. if we had a scholarship available, and were willing to give it to a 5th kicker - punter this year, i could see adam being a buckeye. i could also see coach tressel banking the scholarship for next season and giving it to a walkon this year as a reward for being a buckeye hero.

ohio is loaded with talent next year (though not as much as some recruiting experts hype in an effort to sell premium materials; as in it isn't as good as last year for example, it is just the players are getting more hype and coverage earlier and earlier every year; just because most buckeye fans can name a dozen or so juniors, doesn't mean those juniors are the elite player some would have you pay to believe). if this weren't ncaa college football and it was EA sports ncaa college football (that way i would be qualified to coach and recruit) i would take these following guys early in ohio and i would make everyone else wait and prove the hype.

i definitely take warren harding's delbert ferguson. delbert is one of the top big backs in the nation and will be priority recruit number one next season. i would take a second tailback next year too, and maybe even a third. unfortunately, i don't see another one in ohio worth taking at this point in time. sure guys like ray williams, antonio pittman, and jimmy calhoun are getting pub. i gotta admit i haven't seen any of them in person and only williams on television, but i don't like their reported size and speed if that is even accurate. maybe they are just fantastically talented and i haven't seen them yet. who knows. regardless, i wait on a national tailback or one of the ohio guys to prove it in summer camp and their senior season before i offer another ohio tailback outside of delbert ferguson.

i definitely take cleveland glenville corner ted ginn early. ted has some of the best speed in the state and is sound in coverage already. as for the other in state defensive backs, i make all of them wait for summer camps and their senior seasons. i know a bunch of people are pumped up about brandon underwood (ej's brother), but i wait there. we don't need many db's next year. if underwood or the rest of the instate db's are worth the scholarship they will get it in due time, just not early in the process with our complete lack of need at the position.

another guy i take early is huber heights wayne linebacker marcus freeman. freeman is a very skilled football player and a great athlete. he isn't as big as most experts say he is, but he is big enough. how can these experts be so far off on his height and weight you ask, good question. simply put they haven't seen freeman play in person, i have. he is 6'1" or 6'2" and probably around 220 and running a 4.65 or 4.7 and not 6'4" and 240 pound like he is listed and i am medically measured as being. all that said, he is highly skilled and i offer him early for sure. i just don't understand how these jokers can call themselves experts and substantially miss so badly on a guys size. as for other ohio linebackers, i don't take any early.

as for chad hoobler from carrolton (a linebacker - tight end - defensive end type), i haven't seen him play so i can't comment here. for all i know he is a make believe guy that some joker has slipped in on the experts like a certain stud recruit called tony tolbert. i don't live that far from carrolton and i haven't heard about him other than through these experts. not saying that he doesn't exist either, i am just joking here. also, the quality of football there would lead me to ignore the school and county in general so that could be a reason why i haven't heard about him. basically, i haven't seen him play and i haven't heard about him other than experts whose credentials are dubious at best. i wait to offer him until i see him (and remember this whole bit is based on this not being real football, but EA sports college football). all that being said, hoobler sounds good from the reports i have read, but to me seeing is believing.

as for the quarterbacks in ohio, i don't offer any of them early. anthony turner, darryl clark, and brian hoyer all look like they will be effective college quarterbacks, but it isn't a position of need assuming we get mike bush. i make the ohio guys wait until summer camps and their senior season for offers. if we don't get bush, i take one qb max next season and i don't do it early, i make these guys prove it in summer camp and their senior seasons.

at wide out, i haven't seen one player worth offering early. from what i have read fred davis (toledo rogers) and michael bell (shaker heights) are the best two prospects in the state at the position (miles williams of austintown fitch and trumaine smith of warrensville heights are just a notch below them). davis sounds like a top 20 player in the nation, but i haven't seen him so i won't pretend to be an expert and comment on him other than saying that if the hype is true he does get offerred early and is a superstar in the making. simply put, fred davis is number one on my wishlist for guys to see next season that i haven't already seen.

the only other ohio guy i offer early is st ignatius defensive end mike massey. massey has the good genetics and the great feel for the game. i offer him early just to keep the iggy pipeline primed and flowing freely if nothing else. seriously though, massey has a great upside as a college player and could be a simon fraser type of defensive end (only about 2 inches shorter though). i offer him a scholarship early.

there has been a bunch of hype of the ohio offensive linemen (guys like brandon braxton, steve rehrig, ben person, chase clowser, and branden armstrong), but i don't offer any in state linemen early. i have only seen braxton (and he will probably get an offer at some point) i must admit. basically, i would never offer an offensive lineman until having had him in summer camp and seen some senior film on him against quality competition. offensive line to me is the hardest to project and i wouldn't take the risk here. there are no korey stringers or orlando paces in state so why bother with an early offer. if one or two of the guys step up, the offer will be there at a later date.

anyways, i hope that gives you some info to get your daily buckeye fix from. also, sorry i didn't post within the hour as promised the previous update. call me butter, but i got on a roll and just went with it. enjoy super sunday as it happens.
01-26-03 (9:45am) still not much going on in buckeye land. i do have another link for the day though. 1460 the fan has an article on the class act that is buckeye football.

in other news, today is the superbowl for those currently living under a rock. probably the only guy out there living under a rock is saddam hussein, though i don't expect that to last long with us scheduled to turn that rock into shrapnel any day now.

this website gets an enourmous amount of military traffic and i would just like to thank them in advance for the imminent ass beating they are about to administer. without guys like you, guys like me and buckeye fans in general wouldn't be able to worry about silly things like recruiting and what not. you make sites like this and sports like football possible. whevever you are, i hope they at least let you guys watch the superbowl today as a small reward.

speaking of the superbowl, i am expecting a good one today. on paper this is an entertaining matchup, similar to a certain fiesta bowl. todays game features one of the better offenses in recent football history versus one of the best defenses in football history. it is the irresistible force versus the immovable object. personally, i can't wait.

as for buckeye fans today, here is who we have to root on. tampa bay has rickey dudley and tom tupa on their squad and both should get some decent airtime today. on the raiders side, we have no football players and we have a buckeye antichrist in charles woodson. so do we all root on tampa then, not so fast my friend. the raiders have a buckeye legend on the coaching staff in fred pagac sr. as if playing for woody, and then coaching at ohio state for nearly 30 years wasn't enough to tie pug to the program, his son even plays here (and is probably a better linebacker than some people realize).

as for me, i am just rooting on an entertaining game. i will be happy if either team wins, just as long as buckeye antichrist charles woodson doesn't shine and the game is close throughout. the one thing that could sway me to root on a particular team isn't even football related. i can see myself rooting on oakland in a close game just because of the post game celebration possibilities. i can see oakland erupting into one of the great parties of all time, especially if metallica happens to roll up on a flat bed truck and jam out some tunes to the near rioutous crowd.

anyways, that is all i have for now. i am going to look around the net and come up with another update here within the hour.
01-25-03 (9:05am) not much going on in buckeye land today. the columbus dispatch has an article about louis irizarry recommitting to the buckeyes free on 1460 the fan for starters today.

in other news, there must be some sort of problem with the internet today. i have noticed several sites are unaccessible this morning including the o-zone. also, my advertiser seems to be impacted by this problem as well since his ad is not loading. i did hear something on the morning news about another code red worm type of thing going around in a big way, maybe this is all part of that. who knows.

anyways, i will be back online later today when i find out something worth reporting. enjoy superbowl eve.
01-24-03 (2:45pm) just one link and then some more random thoughts for now. the warren tribune chronicle has a piece on buckeye great being on the ballot for the NFL hall of fame. that is all i have for linkage, now on to some random thoughts.

the buckeye nation is all abuzz about the louis irizarry recommittment. i gotta admit, i am too. i saw him play twice last year and i am pumped to see him play another 50 games or so in the scarlet and gray in the future. for those who haven't seen irizarry play ball, check out some of the free videos i posted on him and see for yourself. the videos are linked at the top of the left hand column and the link is called 'vg recruiting videos'. you do need to register for a free sony imagestation account, but it is worth it trust me and a few other thousand regular readers who have already checked them out.

i finally heard what is up with the michael bush injury. nothing serious, but he does have a badly sprained ankle from hoops practice. this will probably shelve him from hoops for a little while. speaking of hoops, bush was quoted recently as saying he wants to play football only in college. i don't think this impacts us either way. we are obviously a football school first and foremost, but out hoops program is typically pretty strong too (unlike this year due to injuries mostly). maybe the no hoops for bush thing helps us out with louisville in that rick pitino is no longer a factor in the recruiting game. who knows.

anyways, that is all i have for now. i will keep my eye on the buckeye scene and post something here when i hear about it. enjoy the weekend.
01-24-03 (12:35pm) it looks like louis irizarry recommitting to osu is for real. it was even reported by spielman on the radio. for those unfamiliar with irizarry or his game i highly suggest you check out my free recruiting videos. they are linked at the top of the left hand column and the link is called 'vg recruiting videos'. i think i only have two pass receptions in there, but they are nice. i also have a bunch of clips of him blocking for delbert ferguson and playing defense (like miami was trying to trick him into doing). if you have never been there before you will need to register for a free sony imagestation account, but it isn't like me or sony are asking you for your credit card number or anything. matter of fact, sony has yet to even spam me once.

for those unfamiliar with louis irizarry, here is the short version of his story. he is the top tight end in the state and has been for quite some time now. irizarry is a big tight end with speed. he is ball park 6'5" and maybe 240 pounds. i would estimate his speed to be in the 4.6 to 4.7 range. he isn't the prototype osu tight end that blocks first and asks questions later. irizarry is a pass receiving tight end.

louis irizarry will allow the buckeyes to stretch the middle of the field and he should see time immediately in my opinion in two tight end sets. he isn't just a pass catcher either. irizarry can block. in the past, ursuline loved to run the ball and louis irizarry was at the point of attack in that ground game. sure they had a great line, but they would use irizarry in motion and as a lead blocker often. he has plenty of experience blocking and i don't anticipate that being a problem for him.

now for the recruiting story. louis irizarry committed to coach tressel real early in the process. as the season developed and the tight ends didn't get a bunch of balls thrown their way (despite ben hartsock showing solid hands), irizarry started thinking more and more. it also sounded like his high school coach murphy was talking up miami and how they use their tight ends. long story short, kellen winslow jr catches 11 balls in a losing effort in the national championship game and larry coker promises him that he will get early playing time despite them having 5 tight ends on the roster ahead of him without a senior in the bunch. irizarry then decided it would be in his professional interest to attend miami instead of ohio state. he called up coach tressel and gave him the bad news and then called up coach coker and gave him the good news. that was a few weeks ago. now irizarry has had time to sift through the lies and realizes that his best opportunity is the home state buckeyes. welcome aboard louis irizarry.
01-24-03 (high noon) i am a cheapskate so i don't subscribe to any of the pay sites, but the headline on the ticker at bucknuts says irizarry to the buckeyes. i know for a fact that irizarry himself said he wasn't saying anything until signing day now. either he changed his mind or bucknuts is speculating that he will commit (which does sound quite likely now) and is trying to scoop their rival bsb by posting their speculation. who knows.

in other news from the bucknuts ticker, there was something about michael bush being injured. i can only assume it is a hoops related injury, but i don't know either.

when i do find out what that premium information says, i will be certain to summarize it here within the legal limits of intellectual property law so all buckeye fans can read all about it.

anyways, i will keep the eyes peeled and the ears open and i will be back when i know more. stay tuned.
01-24-03 (7:45am) i can't find a link for the life of me this morning, that doesn't mean i just sit back and leave you all out to dry. i got recruiting rumors and gossip for us to get our morning buckeye fix from. as always, i must remind the readers that i am not psychic and certainly not a recruiting expert. i failed both my certified miss cleo exam and my certified recruiting expert examination so take this for what it is worth, entertaining gossip at best.

first off i got more news on the scott mcmullen transferring nonsense. there was in fact a segment on y-town tv last night about mcmullen transferring to youngstown state, fortunately it was just the reporter there commenting on an unconfirmed rumor he read. despite all the efforts of that television station, all the buckeye websites, and myself there is no confirmation because it isn't happening. it looks like someone is just trying to stir up some crap and that crap made the evening news in y-town. nothing more, nothing less.

i know mcmullen leaving would open up a slot for another stud high school football player to come aboard, but i am glad scotty is back. i have been a fan of mcmullen for quite some time now and i even have an evil plan to get mcmullen a year of starting at ohio state. my plan goes like this. mcmullen participates in spring ball like usual and pushes krenzel to refine his game. come fall ball a 'doctor' diagnoses mcmullen with an 'injury' requiring him to miss his 5th year as a senior. this would be a gamble for mcmullen, but he could then petition the NCAA for an additional year of eligibilty (a medical redshirt) and then come back strong in 2004 for one shot at the big time. will this happen, highly unlikely, but i think it is worth a shot all the same.

this weekend is another official visit weekend for the bucks. probably the only two relevant names visiting for the bucks are tim washington the defensive end out of texas and marcel frost, the ohio tight end that is a soft verbal commit to iowa. now i am not saying that the tyrone moss (if he does in fact visit), devin stearns (cali wide out who is staying on the left coast), or ryan brown (the south carolina linebacker who is scheduled to visit per bucknuts but is rumored to have been cancelled by osu due to us being full at lb) aren't relevant recruits, i just don't think we have a chance of signing any of those three.

the most interesting visit by far this weekend is marcel frost. does marcel decommit from iowa and become a buckeye? is louis irizarry already recommitted to the buckeyes and does that impact marcel frost? who knows, certainly not me. it will be interesting what happens with frost though. frost is a potentially great player in his own right and his recruitment seems to be provide a good read on the louis irizarry situation too.

in the recruiting tidbits portion of this morning's update i got a few sentences on a few players. hardly a paragraphs worth of info honestly. fortunately for you i don't require a credit card to read three sentences on a recruit like some sites. anyways, doing this dragnet style, it looks like the battle for moe dampeer may swing on academics more than anything. osu seems intent on having a fully qualified dampeer or no dampeer at all, oklahoma seems willing to take dampeer eligible or not. i don't think this is going to work out in our favor unless dampeer gets a qualifying test score in the next two weeks.

in ira guilford news, things are still looking good there. it appears some of the gold leaf is starting to peel off guilford's memories from the notre dame visit and i expect him to announce he will be a buckeye by wednesday of next week. now whether he makes that announcement public or just tells the coaches to make sure he doesn't miss out on a scholarship, i don't know. i do think that is the bigger question right now than what school he choses.

final tidbit for this update is on texas o-lineman kyle thornton. he is still a wild card for the buckeyes. i just got the feeling that aaron sears and james lee aren't coming north. that leaves thornton as our only line prospect out there. if the buckeyes want another offensive lineman, they better jump on thornton soon because k-state already is all over him and texas may come in late here too.

anyways, that is all i have for now. if i find any links or hear any more good gossip i will be sure to pass it along. enjoy the friday in anticipation of the weekend as it happens.
01-23-03 (11:10pm) just checking in on the night shift again. first off i have a link i was going to post this morning but i forgot about. this piece is on the use of hot chicks and even strippers by schools such as michigan to lure recruits to campus.

otherwise there is not much news out there. somebody is intent on spreading the rumor that buckeye backup qb scott mcmullen is transferring to youngstown state, but it looks to just be a rumor and nobody can confirm it.

now for the recruiting rumor portion of tonights update, i don't have a bunch, but as always i will share what i got.

for starters michael bush is now being hotly prusued by the university of kentucky. kentucky of course is on probation in football, but they have one of the historically elite college basketball teams. i can't imagine bush, from louisville, being a big uk wildcat fan but you never know. i imagine if any kentucky college is a player here it is louisville. their football program isn't on probation and they have rick pitino as coach for another year or two until he gets bored and tries to rebuild another program to elite status. i still think tennecheats is the biggest player for bush outside of the buckeyes, but you never know, he could want to be a home state hero like tim couch.

this irizarry thing looks like it will be a signing day announcement for sure. irizarry was quoted saying he advises all high school kids to keep their mouth shut and just announce on signing day. it sounds like the recruiting process is starting to wear down on him. honestly i can't blame him, as if the college coaches calling all the time wasn't bad enough, he has experts like kurelic and long and the national jokers like former mailman tom lemming and all-around-tool and part time hillbilly jamie newberg calling him all the time begging to get a quote so they can sell more premium memberships and justify their existence.

anyways, it looks like he has realized all the tight ends at miami can't be all getting moved to another position and that early playing time may not be in his future there. couple that with the distance from his home and family and things are significantly looking up for the buckeyes. also i remember irizarry saying he wanted to be a materials engineer in college, ohio is one of the top plastic producing states in the nation and you might think the colleges around here may just know a thing or two about materials engineering. i think irizarry will be a pleasant suprise for the buckeyes on national signing day unless jim tressel goes completely against his character and holds a grudge for the decommit.

in other rumor mongering, the buckeyes have cancelled the visit of south carolina stud linebacker ryan brown. apparently brown said something about osu being full with linebackers. funny thing though is we haven't signed a scholarship linebacker in some time and that was reggie smith a couple of months ago, who still isn't eleigible yet as a freshman (he still is looking like he is on track to be eligible though). maybe the osu coaches are thinking that walk ons like cliff reynolds and cedric scott will provide the depth they need, but i doubt it. if i had to bet though i would think this could be good news about one of my personal favorites shawn crable, the pride of massillon ohio.

i have heard that it was mostly the buckeyes and the pitt panthers for crable. pitt just lost a couple of assistant coaches too, i don't know if they were a position coach or the coach recruiting crable, but that could be a factor there. personally, i want crable in this recruiting class more than anybody out there (with mike bush a close second, and moe dampeer just a hair behind him). crable has all the physical tools to be a dominant game changing force at either linebacker or defensive end. i honestly see him playing from day one on special teams and as a situational pass rusher with the ability to drop into zone coverage for the zone blitz package, but then again what do i know. my entire defensive coordinator experience is engineering dominant defenses in the EA sports version of the game so i could be wrong, but i got a real good feeling about crable.

anyways, that is all the dirt i can dig up tonight. i will be back online in the morning again as usual with some more links and whatnot. enjoy the night as you sleep through it.
01-23-03 (5:40pm) i just logged back on my site to check for news and i didn't find any. i checked the traffic on the site and noticed a crazy spike in traffic. usually that means news is breaking somewhere. after hunting around, i still couldn't find any news, but i found a rumor that may or may not be worth passing around that probably caused the spike in traffic.

how credible this rumor is, i have no clue, but here it is for you to decide. the rumor is that louis irizarry is done with miami officially. they are off the list. the rumor then varies. one incarnation has him deciding between ohio state and penn state the other version has him as a silent verbal to ohio state that won't announce until signing day.

if any of those rumors are true or not i have no clue. i don't think irizarry to penn state is true though. louis irizarry himself was quoted as saying that if he did eliminate miami that he would only consider ohio state. in my opinion if the decommit from miami is true, the silent verbal to osu is more likely to be true than the either penn state or ohio state rumor.

enjoy.
01-23-03 (4:35pm) some national recruiting news for starters. donald defrand the juco corner out of kansas has committed to nebraska. the buckeyes were after defrand early in the process, but he has been off our radar screen for a month or two now.

in other national news, ohioan raymond edwards has decommitted from purdue. he still isn't looking at the buckeyes (or is that vice versa). edwards is looking at purdue still along with tennecheats and south carolina.

speaking of tennecheats, they just signed a quarterback and his name isn't michael bush. the vols signed qb bo hardegree today. hardegree isn't a nationally known qb, but some of that may be because he spent a bunch of time being a top flight tennis player. maybe this is a sign from fatman fullmer that they don't like their chances with michael bush. who knows.

in further national recruiting news, boston college has two more commits from ohio in cincy elder lineman tom anevski and st iggy lineman kevin sheridan. boston college has done well recruiting ohio lately and they are a potential competitor to keep an eye on recruiting wise.

last bit of non-buckeye information comes out of massillon washington high school, and no it doesn't involve shawn crable. massillon db markeys scott has decided to attend toledo. good program for a good kid. congratulations markeys.

in buckeye news, i think i was wrong when i earlier posted that louis irizarry's mother has not yet contacted coach tressel. it looks like she has contacted him, we just don't know how that conversation went. in further buckeye news, it looks like the buckeyes are still interested in syracuse NY safety tony tolbert. i was under the impression that it was guilford or nobody at safety, but it looks like tolbert is still a possibility.

anyways, that is all i have for now. hopefully tomorrow there is some more news to report. enjoy.
01-23-03 (12:35pm) first off i am in the chat room and will be until 1:30 or 2pm if anyone has any recruiting questions or questions about the 2003 team.

just one more link and then some recruiting rumor mongering. the cleveland plain dealer has a piece on the verbal commit of akron st vincent st mary defensive tackle sian cotton. actually a very decent article. i don't know who this tim rogers is writing for the plain dealer, but maybe he will replace bruce hooley and bill livingston. hey i can dream can't i?

in recruiting rumor action, there isn't much out there today. still no word on the louis irizarry situation. no word on whether or not his mother has made the call to columbus and what the outcome of that was or whether or not irizarry has called coach coker and been lied to again. to me this sounds like irizarry is really wanting to get out of his miami commit and come back to ohio state with as much grace as is possible in this situation. hopefully it works out for him.

rumor has it that ira guilford liked what the contingent of osu coaches had to say yesterday at his school. i think he is just giving rutgers a courtesy visit this weekend and then he will announce for ohio state in the early part of next week.

i have heard the rumor about scott mcmullen transferring to youngstown state, but i don't believe it. some of the good people on the o-zone message board exposed that poster as posing as ben hartsock when in fact he was not. i am not saying i couldn't see mcmullen transferring, i just don't believe that poster. we will see what happens.

in the pay site duel, it looks like bucknuts may have scored a half a point with tyrone moss not supposed to be visiting this weekend. it is still too early to award the half point, but it is looking like they were right and kurelic was wrong this time. that would make the score bsb1 bucknuts 1/2.

speaking of official visits, there is some confusion as to whether or not de tim washington is visiting. i can't tell from the rumors so i will look into this situation some more.

anyways, that is all i have for now. i am going to jump into the chat room and i should be there until 1:30m or 2pm. i would love to post a transcript of the chat for readers that can't afford the free click, but it doesnt' want to let me cut and paste from the chat applet. if anyone can figure this out, it would be appreciated. thanks.
01-23-03 (8:10am) first off, there are some links today and they are in the post below this one. now back to some random thoughts. well, i looked all over the net for some recruiting dirt, but i can't find any. i did stumble upon this though from wtvn. it is a little flash audio video presentation celebrating the buckeyes national championship. i haven't seen it yet so i figured i would help spread it around to the rest of the buckeye nation. i am going to keep my eyes peeled and my ears open and find some recruiting rumors here before lunch hopefully. when i do find them, i will post them here for sure.

in a site administration update, the bandwidth saving is going much better than i anticipated 8 hours into the plan. if this keeps up, i may even be able to bring back the site logo (which took me way too long to paint not to display) and the background graphic. i will still need to refrain from posting pictures on the front page for the time being, but things are looking up for the site. if you have no clue about what i am talking about, here is the quick version. bandwidth is the amount of kilobytes you transfer. i am limited to a certain amount of transfer a month or the page gets shut down temporarily (unless i notice it happen and i pay them more $). due to enormous growth in the audience the past two months, i was on pace to be shut down big time for national signing day on february fifth so i implemented a low bandwidth page to budget out my bandwidth. long story short, it is going much much better than expected and things are looking good for the site for the next couple of weeks.

in even better news for the site and its bandwidth crunch is the way i have structured the site. the recruiting videos reside on an unlimited bandwidth server so feel free to download and watch them as much as you want. that is what they are there for. i also have the site message board and the new chat room on a different server so they should be safe too. final note, thanks again to everyone who stopped by for the chat yesterday. i can't say for sure, but i am thinking about having another one today during the lunchtime type of hour (approximately 12 - 1pm). if i do, i will post it here. enjoy.
01-23-03 (7:25am) just some quick links for the morning, bullet style for the lazy webmaster in me. by the way, if you were wondering why the background didn't load today, check out the post below this one. it explains it all. now for some linkage to keep us regular. anyways, that is all i have for right now. i am going to try and dig up some recruiting rumors and see what is going on today. enjoy.
01-23-03 (midnight) first off, there isn't anything wrong with the page. i just implemented the low bandwidth version of this page in an effort to manage the bandwidth in anticipation of increased traffic over the next couple of weeks. it is stripped of graphics (the ad isn't my graphic on my server) and some of the less popular links in this version. the old page will reappear after the rush for recruiting information passes on national signing day (february 5th). this change will not impact the amount of material posted daily on this page in any way.

the page should load much faster now as a result of this change and it probably won't crash due to having too much traffic these next couple of weeks. i know the page doesn't look as nice as it used to, but it will be back in that format in a couple of weeks.

if for some reason you needed the old page it is still on the server and the link is at the bottom of the daily random thoughts. it is not being updated at all though and won't be until i kill off this temporary page and reimplement the old page.

why make this change now, good question. this site has grown its audience quite a bit over the past couple of months. during football season i would get maybe 25,000 different visitors a month if i was lucky. as the season developed the page has picked up more readers with the national championship and recruiting. i now have approximately 20,000 unique visitors a week and the server is having a difficult time keeping up with the traffic already. historically, the next two weeks are the biggest two weeks of the year with national signing day approaching and i felt the need to budget out the bandwidth in an effort to ensure that the entire page wouldn't crash completely. anyways, this is only a temporary change and it shouldn't last more than 2 - 3 weeks i imagine.

final bandwidth note for now. the recruiting videos are on a different server and they won't be impacted by this temporary move so feel free to download or watch them as much as you like.

thanks to all the readers for supporting the site with their loyal viewership and i promise the site will be back to its old self in probably two to three weeks. thanks again. i should have more recruiting rumors to spread around in the morning.
01-22-03 (10:20pm) just checking in on the night shift. no news out there so i won't have much of an update for right now. the chat went over pretty good today. the software got a workout and held up fine for the most part. i will probably try to do a chat like that maybe every week or two depending on demand.

in other news, ohio resident and funniest man alive dave chappelle has his own television show premier tonight on comedy central at 10:30pm. me and the cbg have been waiting on this for some time and are pumped up for the show.

in other news, i am way behind on posting new recruiting videos, fan submitted pictures, and i have yet to hear back from vladimir gonzalez about his video captures. i think we are all a little burned out after the national championship game, but it is crunch time with signing day coming up. i am planning on creating a special bandwidth saving page to try and ensure that the page doesn't crash during the next couple of weeks. all the old stuff on the page will still be available on the server, it just won't be on the front page as usual. in other words there will be a temporary front page for about two weeks with the new updates and a link to the old front page if you need to check any of that material out.

anyways, it is about time for the chappelle show, so i am getting offline and back to the television. more in the morning.
01-22-03 (4:35pm) i just wanted to thank all those for stopping by the chat room today and let you know i am out of there for the day. thanks again for stopping by.
01-22-03 (1pm) another site administration update. i have recently posted all the junior profiles i have done in the left hand column. i created a menu type thing of all my top internal links like the recruiting videos, the message board, and the junior recruiting profiles. i may go back through my archives and add profiles of the seniors i have seen here, but with the rush for recruiting coming to an end, i may just skip that and look forward to the underclassmen like the rest of the juniors and some of the sophomores and freshmen i have seen.

final note, i posted a link in the menu to a chat room. it is completely unmoderated and you don't have to register at all to join in. i am going to keep the chat window open on my computer the rest of the day, so if anyone wants to drop by and ask a question or just chat in general with me or any of the other readers feel free. i may not be able to answer immediately from time to time today, but i will have the window open and i will get to anyone and everyone eventually. final note on the chat room. this is a java applet, so you will need to have java enabled in your browser and it will take a few seconds to load. internet explorer will say the page is 'done' before it actually loads the applet too, so don't be fooled by shoddy programming by bill gates either. the link is near the top of the left hand column. enjoy.
01-22-03 (high noon) first off an announcement, then some rumor mongering recruiting style, and finally a little bit more on the newest buckeye defensive tackle, sian cotton.

in the announcement category i have a programming reminder for those out there with cable. tonight at 10:30pm on comedy central is the premier of the chappelle show. dave chappelle is an ohio resident and probably the funniest man alive. make sure you check out his show if you enjoy comedy. it can't be as good as his live act due to the censorship of basic cable, but it should still be pretty good. now for some recruiting rumors.

the buckeyes are putting the full court press on jersey standout safety ira guilford today. three assistant coaches are flying out to jersey to visit with guilford and try to sway him to the buckeyes. recently notre dame has come on strong with guilford and now is a serious player for him. i can see guilford making the decision to verbal today, but i don't see it becoming known to the public just yet. he is scheduled to visit rutgers this coming weekend and i imagine that his decision (hopefully to attend ohio state) becomes public knowledge after that visit. if i was forced to predict the date of an ira guilford decision (say chris webber had a gun pointed at my head for example) i would say he will announce for the scarlet and gray this next tuesday, but it isn't like i am psychic or anything.

in more moe dampeer news, he is retaking the ACT this weekend and won't be going on that official visit to miami afterall. good luck with the test moe.

in the bad news department, jersey standout wide out jesse holley has eliminated the buckeyes from his finalists. it looks like he is acc bound and torn between north carolina and virginia.

in the funny news department, there is another duel going on right now between bsb and bucknuts, the two big pay sites in the buckeye world. to refresh your recollection on the duel as it stands, it is time for a little history. bucknuts broke the news of the kenyon buford verbal to ohio state. shortly after they broke that news, bsb reported that he did not have a verbal and in fact did not even have a scholarship offer from ohio state to accept. bsb stuck by their guns and bucknuts refused to remove him from their commitment list and stuck to their guns. as recently as a week or two ago bucknuts again made mention of buford as a verbal commit in a new article. not just keeping it on the list, but a new reference to his verbal. well now buford has in fact committed to middle tennessee state and bucknuts finally removed him from their commitment list. they didn't post the news and eat any crow or anything either. they simply finally corrected their error. bsb 1 - bucknuts 0.

now we have another disagreement between the pay sites. bsb just today reported that florida tailback tyrone moss is visiting this weekend. bucknuts is reporting today that he is not visiting this weekend and the miami coaches don't want him to visit. whether he is visiting or not i have no clue, i just hope whichever pay site that is proven wrong in the end is man enough to own up to their mistake this time.

since the stakes are much lower here than a commit, i don't think it is possible for bucknuts to even up the score in the pay site feud. if this works out in their favor i am scoring it as only a half victory (using that washington state logic). anyways, stay tuned for more on this topic. i love the battle between the two pay sites.

now for a little bit on sian cotton. sian cotton, the newest member of the buckeye family.  cotton is a large defensive tackle with excellent speed for a big man.  he should add depth to a defensive line that will lose three seniors after next season. sian cotton is listed as a 6'5" 295 pound defensive tackle by the consensus of the recruiting services. from my seats in the stands i can't disagree with those numbers, but some fans insist he is only 6'2" or 6'3". either way, that is enough size to play defensive tackle in college with his type of mobility.

i only had the privilege of seeing cotton play football once this year, and before anyone goes to the video archive looking for highlights of him, i don't have any. not that he didn't put on the show that game, it was just raining so bad that i couldn't risk bringing out the digital camcorder in that type of weather. i felt lucky to get the few still pics that i did when the weather infrequently broke.

on the field, cotton was impressive. on offense he played fullback and not offensive line. as a fullback he was brutally devastating as a lead blocker and it wouldn't suprise me to see him get a shot at playing a little fullback in short yardage situations like andre tyree did this year.

defensively though is where cotton stood out. he is very adept at occupying linemen and keeping them off of the linebackers. that style won't lead to big plays for a tackle, but it will lead to big plays for the linebackers and it will earn you tons of respect from your teammates and coaches. cotton does have some skill at collapsing the pocket too, he isn't just a plugger and a run stuffer. with his type of quickness, cotton is a mismatch inside kind of like kenny peterson was a mismatch against the vastly overhyped miami offensive line. cotton does need to add some strength to get into the kenny peterson league, but the potential is there for the coaches to mold for sure.

anyways, that is all i have for right now. i need to eat some lunch and then i will try to get back online again here later in the afternoon. enjoy hump day as it happens.
01-22-03 (9:20am) lots of news this morning and nearly all good news to boot.

the buckeyes have another verbal commitment in the fold in the form of sian cotton the big defensive tackle out of akron st. vincent. st. mary st. lebron. i saw cotton once this year and he looked very mobile for a big guy. he played fullback on offense and it wouldn't shock me to see him get a look there in short yardage situations. some speculate that cotton may end up on the o-line, but i doubt that. he is being brought in as a defensive tackle and will be a good one. big congrats to the big man.

in other news, it looks like youngstown ursuline tight end louis irizarry may still be a buckeye. he hasn't officially decommitted from the coCanes (as if anything with verbals was official), but he is rumored to be a buckeye lean again. louis irizarry is getting my mr kotter award, welcome back louis irizarry.

you can read something like 5 sentences on these two stars in the making in the columbus dispatch passed off as an article worth paying 5 bucks a month to read written by the barely literate one, tim may. seriously though, i think that last sentence i busted off was about as long as may's article in the dispatch and 1460 the fan.

now for some bad news to keep us all in check, this time the news is about moe dampeer. he didn't commit to oklahoma, but his commitment seems imminent. needless to say, things are not looking good for osu and big moe dampeer. too bad because he is a good one with a chance to be a great one.

only the most optimistic buckeye fan would consider this bad news, but marlyand linebacker wesley jefferson did finally commit to te home state terps. just make sure you beat the criminoles once or twice in that pathetic football conference and i will be happy.

anyways, that is all i have for right now. i will be back online with some more random thoughts. i might even have another junior profile today or i might just do a profile on sian cotton instead. anyways, enjoy the day as it happens.
01-21-03 (3:15pm) not much news out there today. in an effort to pick up some of the slack, it is time for another profile of one of the top juniors in the state of ohio.

Darryl Clark

One of the top quarterbacks in Ohio for the class of 2004, Darryl Clark from Youngstown Ursuline.

Position: Quarterback

Height: 6'1.5"

Weight: 190 pounds

40 Time: 4.65 seconds

High School: Youngstown Ursuline

Notes:

Darryl Clark had the strongest arm I saw last year in my travels around Ohio. He isn't just all arm either. Clark is very mobile in the pocket and he can put some nice touch on the ball when he needs to.

Darryl is one of the top three quarterbacks in the state of Ohio heading into his senior season. He has top 100 potential, but he will need to put it all together to get such a lofty ranking. He should be one of the top 10 players in the state of Ohio as a senior.

Clark is is strictly a quarterback, I don't see a position change in his future. Clark's calling card is the arm strength and it is impressive. He has tremendous velocity when he throws the ball. He can throw the deep out with no arc on the ball at all. When he goes deep, he has great touch on the ball and is on target for the most part.

As a runner, Clark has the ability to elude the pass rush and the good pocket presence to step up and keep looking downfield for receivers. When Darryl does have to pull the ball down and run with it, he is dangerous. That doesn't seem to be what he wants to do though. He usually dumps the ball off to a running back when pressured.

If I had to criticize Clark, it would have to be about his size. He is right around 6'1" or 6'2". That is about the bare minimum for most major college recruits for a quarterback. Also, he played for a new coach this past year and had to learn a new offense. He still has some learning to do, but the shotgun offense he is in now should pay off at the next level.
01-21-03 (11:40am) first off some site administration news and then on to some rumor mongering, recruiting style of course.

in site administration news, notice the ad at the top of the page. originally the ad was scheduled to run for one month. in fact i pulled the ad this weekend since that month was up. well she is back and will be for some time. today i negotiated a much longer term arrangement with that company to continue to support the site. not only did i get a generous up front fee again, i even get a large portion of the gross sales now. great news for the site for sure. i even have some good news for those interested in the product. recently, they have slashed their price down to $5.95 for their product. that makes this a very inexpensive way to show your buckeye pride to your email correspondence. anyways, check out their product if you like and remember any purchases substantially help out with defraying the costs of the site.

now for some random thoughts on recruiting. first off a little more on michael bush. bu