The verbal commitments are coming fast and furious for Ohio State now.
The Buckeyes grabbed their sixth verbal of the past week and 23rd in the class of 2009 when Jonathan Newsome
continued the Cleveland Glenville pipeline by dialing assistant coach
Taver Johnson and OSU head man Jim Tressel Tuesday afternoon and
pledging to Ohio State.
Newsome picked Ohio State from 22 offers just days after
taking part in the Ted Ginn bus tour of camps, which included a stop at
OSU. The 6-2½, 240-pounder said that trip helped make his decision
easy.
“In the back of my head I always wanted to go to Ohio
State, and the reason I probably didn’t commit the day they gave me a
scholarship offer was I wanted to be able to weigh my options and see
other schools,” he said. “The bus tour helped me out to get to see a
lot of the other schools that offered me scholarships. Just going to
the other camps, a lot of the camps felt good but they didn’t feel like
home. Ohio State definitely did.”
Newsome is listed by Scout.com as the No. 58 defensive
end in the nation and a three-star recruit. He is the first Tarblooder
to commit to Ohio State in the class of 2009 and the fourth defensive
linemen – all from Ohio – after five-star tackle Johnny Simon (Youngstown Cardinal Mooney), five-star end Melvin Fellows (Garfield Heights) and three-star tackle Adam Bellamy (Aurora).
Glenville has established quite the tradition of sending players to
OSU, and that helped Newsome make his decision, as did the guidance of
his mother Kimberly.
“Coming from Glenville, Coach Ginn has a big
relationship with them and I didn’t want to be the one to break that
chain,” he said. “My mother loves Ohio State, I love Ohio State and it
seemed like the right fit.”
Ohio State also is recruiting five-star offensive lineman Marcus Hall of Glenville in the class of 2009, but Newsome said he wouldn’t be pushing his teammate to make a decision.
“We talk about what schools we want to go to, and right
now he’s undecided,” Newsome said. “I’m not going to pressure him. I’m
just going to let him do what he’s going to do and go through the
process, take as much time as he wants to take.”
Newsome was part of the bus tour that checked out Ohio
State Friday, and he spent the first half of the day working out before
the bus had to leave for another stop. The message he received while at
Buckeye camp was that he could take as much time as he needed to make a
choice. That apparently turned out to be just four more days.
“They told me on Friday I could take as much time as I
wanted, but I guess to me that didn’t make sense to take any more
time,” he said. “After I saw the schools on my unofficial visits and
the camps, I knew for sure I was going to Ohio State, so there was no
need to waste any more time. I might as well get it over with, relieve
all of the stress and focus on my football season.”