Can Ohio
State continue to pull
out of Krop?
Ohio State Head Coach Jim Tressel,
Michael Brewster, and Company did a great job in 2008 of pulling two highly
recruited players out of Miami
Krop High
School. The BrutusReport.com 2008 Football Recruiting
Chart has Krop Cornerback Travis Howard and Middle Linebacker Etienne Sabino both
rated as 4 star prospects. But does that necessarily mean that they will
continue to get recruits from one of the hottest high schools in South Florida with the University of Miami (FL) staking
their claim once again on the area?
The Buckeyes grabbed up cornerback Travis
Howard first out of Krop
High School. They then followed
up that steal of the class of 2008 by signing his classmate Etienne Sabino the
second best middle linebacker in the country according to Scout.com. This was
done on the way to getting the fourth best class overall in the country, which
included four Florida
prospects; Sabino, Howard, Brewster and quarterback/safety Orhian Johnson out
of Boca Ciega.
Miami (FL) has had some down years
but now they seem to be regaining ground and pulling in the type of classes
that led them to two National Championship games early in the decade. The
Hurricane resurgence is being led by Head Coach Randy Shannon, a Miami player from the 1987 National Championship team, who
wants to rebuild the great tradition that has slipped since Ohio State defeated
Miami in the
2001 BCS title game. In 2008, Shannon signed almost every Miami Northwestern
High School player that qualified
for a D1 scholarship, but missed out on Krop.
In 2009, look for Shannon
to try to sign a couple of Krop players. Defensive Tackle Brandon Taylor has
early interest in Miami, Ohio State, and several other southern
schools. Middle Linebacker Quan Fletcher has pretty much the same list of
schools as Taylor.
Both of these prospects are rated in the top 20 at their positions nationally. If
Ohio State
is able to have two more highly rated players follow Howard and Sabino to Ohio State,
the Buckeyes will have done something that is almost impossible to do in
recruiting, create a pipeline from a high school to a college that is 1200
miles long.