Buckeyes Toast YSU, Add First '09 Commit

Obviously there's a lot to talk about on this first week of college football. The Buckeyes waxed Jim Tressel's old school, Youngstown State, 38-6 at the 'Shoe. Todd Boeckman won his first start and a number of highly regarded freshmen played major roles. We'll do a fulll rundown tomorrow of the game, which had some great moments, revealed some areas that need improvement, and unfortunately included a big injury.

For the time being, I wanted to pass along some great news. On the first official day that offers cold be extended to juniors, Ohio State received a verbal commitment from one of the top linebackers in the country. Jordan Whiting offered his verbal to the coaches after an unofficial visit to the game. He's already been named to the Rivals 100 to Watch list, and should be one of the premier seniors in the '09 class. Whiting will likely be joined shortly by Storm Klein, an Ohio athlete that could play linebacker or fullback. Though Klein is not on Rivals watch list, he has appeared on numerous other '09 lists and is considered one of the top players in the state.

J.B. Fitzgerald is a Wolverine!

New Jersey LB J.B. Fitzgerald decided to announce his commitment to Michigan tonight. He decided that there is no need to take official visits. Michigan has been very confident about landing Fitzgerald for some time now. The bottom line is that he and his family took three unofficial visits to UM in the last several months (coming all the way from New Jersey). That fact cannot be denied by those who thought the other schools had a good chance at getting him. We even offered him before Rutgers or Florida. There were also reports that he silently verballed to UM on the last visit. As well, there have been many leaks from New Jersey that J.B. has been actively recruiting other Jersey kids to UM over the last month (especially Brandon Smith). New Jersey has now supplied the wolverines with two four-star linebackers this year. We only request that New Jersey give us one or two more of their native sons this year and in exchange we promise we will leave their women and children alone.

As to J.B., he will very possibly be our starting Mike in 2009. He’s 6’4” and 240 lbs. He’s got a 4.7 forty yard dash time. He’s got the 3.4 GPA that we like :). The bottom line is that he’s just a classic looking Michigan Mike. Andrew Sweat is the classic OSU LB and J.B. Fitzgerald is the classic Michigan LB (Sweat is more versatile but Fitzgerald probably is better built for the middle which is where Michigan plans on playing him). With all that said, these are high school kids and projecting them to college is an inexact science.

Michigan is extremely happy to get J.B. and we can now turn our focus and our resources to the remaining critical needs.

Beach Buckeyes

The Ohio State side of the blog is hanging in the Outer Banks this week, so you'll have to do without my witty ramblings leading up to the season opener against I-AA Youngstown State. A few quick thoughts:

*This should be a blow out, but remember that Coach Tressel (a) will want to play a lot of kids; and (b) he doesn't like to run it up. Though I've learned to bet against the Buckeyes, will Tressel really want to embarass his old school? A large margin of victory will have to come from defensive td's, big plays, etc.

*Boeckman is the starter as I've said all along, but all three should see action. I'm really looking forward to seeing Boeckman's accuracy on the intermediate and timing routes, which will be key down the road.

*Devon Lyons, Ray Small and Albert Dukes are all banged up. That leaves true freshmen Dane Sanzenbacher and Taurian Washington as the #3 and #4 receivers for this game. Sanzenbacher sounds like he's been anightmare to cover in camp.

*A thin offensive line is on life support with Kyle Mitchum and Jon Skinner still out. Two of the most impressive campers have been Conner Smith and Bryant Browning, who will most certainly see substantial playing time this season. But they are the only recognizable scholarship players in the second line rotation. Any injuries would be tragic at this point.

*Jake Ballard is the backup to Rory Nicol right now, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him outperform Nicol this season.

*On the defensive line, redhsirt freshman Dexter Larimore and sophmore Robert Rose may be listed as the #3 guys at DT and DE, but they'll in the rotation more often than not. I keep saying it, but Gholston, Wilson and Rose are simply going to terrorize quaterbacks this season.

*No real surprises at linebacker, though with Curtis Terry hurt, Tyler Moeller and Thaddeus Gibson are backing up Larry Grant. Grant could be the brakout player of the year on the defensive side of the ball.

*At cornerback, All-American candidate Malcolm Jenkins and Donald Washington are back as starters. Redshirt freshman Chimdi Chekwa and true freshman Gene Clifford are battling for the nickel spot. Expect Chekwa to win out early, but Clifford to be there by the end of the season. Against spread offenses, it won't matter because they'll both be in.

*Anderson Russell made it all the way back from his ACL injury and is starting at free safety. As expected, Kurt Coleman has lept Jamario O'Neal to start at strong safety.

*Kicker could be a position to watch, and not in a good way. Sophomore Aaron Pettrey has lost the job to redshirt sophomore Ryan Pretorious, though neither was very impressive in the kick scrimmage.