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I have had a theory for quite a long time....before BG began to expand its recruiting outside the state, including Fla. and Ga. for example.

The theory is that we've been MOST successful when we've had a rather heavy influx of players from the NE Ohio section of the state... followed by a relatively significant group from SW Ohio (Cincy area). Now I know I couldn't prove this, but it seems to me if we look back in "history" a bit, we've had some very good teams when the NE and SW presence is heavy. When it declines a bit, the success falls with it.

I know I'm generalizing a bit here, but when you think of players like Sanders, Hewitt, Hart , Haneline (Chris) etc. just as an example, I think you see what I'm referring to. And guys like PJ Pope have made obvious contributions to that success also.

I'm happy that we've expanded our base, but I'd still like to see more of a presence in NE Ohio than we've had in the down years. Last year we picked up players like Mahone and Brown, for example, but I'd like to see even more....Tressel has locked up the superstar types in NE Ohio for the past 4 yrs. or so, and the results show the thing that I'm referring to. Can we compete recruiting wise with them? No, probably not....but there's a heck of a lot of talent that could be courted who can play at the D-I level.

Anyone have any opinions on this?

Yes...there are eight D1A programs in Ohio and Notre Dame, most of the Big 10 and some of the Big East hits the state really hard each year. We get a good number of Ohio kids each year, but we miss on a lot too because they want to go to a "BCS school". That's where the BCS has really hurt upper echelon mid majors. The non BCS label makes us seem like a less attractive option that a school like Indiana or Cincy.

I'd love to see us get more talent from Ohio, but it's a very competitive market. I'm glad we have the reputation that allows us to recruit from a wider area.

As far as I am concerned I don't care where our players come from as long as they produce and win games for us. MACC in 07'!

Flipper wrote:Yes...there are eight D1A programs in Ohio

I'd love to see us get more talent from Ohio, but it's a very competitive market. I'm glad we have the reputation that allows us to recruit from a wider area.

Flip,
I know these facts that you've stated, but my "theory" as I posed it, specifically targeted NE OHIO, not necessarily the entire state.... seems as if we've lost a bit of a presence here in past few years, and that's my concern. Don't know which coach(es) were responsible for recruiting this area of the state; but it seems as if we've fallen behind a bit compared to the "good old days". I said I couldn't prove this, but nearly all the truly strong, successful Falcon teams in the past, going back to(gasp) the late 50's and early 60's when I was carrying my stone tablets from class to class seemed to have a great many NE Ohio kids on the roster; and those kids played prominent roles.

Good topic, 61. I'm biased and would love to see more NE Oh kids as well as SW Oh but also like the idea of recruiting as many places as possible. We won't get the top kids in Ohio, for the most part. They head to Columbus more often than not.

Just find the best players wherever they are. Magner from Alaska, Sharon from FL, Patton and Newson from GA for a few examples. Bullock from LA seems like a great signing so far.

We have such a limited budget compared to the BSC schools so our margin for error is much less.

Just win, baby.

GO FOOTBALL

I think NE Ohio has specifically opened up as more of a "national hotbed" than decades past, and that could be a reason, too. Just seeing that Wisconsin scheduled that game with us in Cleveland so they could keep a foothold in the area recruting-wise speaks volumes to that.

Looking at the roster, I think we have 11 underclassmen players from NE Ohio.

Macon, Hargrove, Brown, Mahone, Dozier, Schaefer, Haneline, Buckosh, Fink, Pronty, Darius Smith.

I think NE Ohio is still a very high recruiting priority with this coaching staff. We got Pronty from Maple Heights and we're getting at least one more guy from Maple Heights in next year's recruiting class. Give a couple of these guys some time and we'll have some guys that you can mention with the other NE Ohio players, like Hewitt, Sanders, etc.

Falconfreak90 wrote:We won't get the top kids in Ohio, for the most part. They head to Columbus more often than not.

You're absolutely right. And it's a shame there are plenty of good athletes in our area.
I, too, have a bit of a bias having grown up in Stark County and having seen some fantastic high school players. Tressell, as a native Northeast Ohioan, does a very good job of recruiting the top talent in the area. Consider the following: eight of Ohio State's top skill players are all Northeast Ohioans:
QBs - Troy Smith (Cleveland) and Justin Zwick (Orville, shady transfer to Massillon)
RBs - Chris Wells (Akron) and Antonio Pittman (Akron)
WRs - Ted Ginn (Cleveland) Anthony Gonzalez (Avon Lake) Brian Robiskie (Chagrin Falls) and Brian Hartline (North Canton).

And I tend to disagree with someone else's point about Northeast Ohio being some sort of "new" national recruiting hotbed. One can look through the years at men such from Harry Stuhdreher to Alan Page, Todd Blackledge to Desmond Howard....plenty of very good college football players that don't play at Ohio State have come from the area.

Class of 61 wrote:...going back to(gasp) the late 50's and early 60's when I was carrying my stone tablets from class to class seemed to have a great many NE Ohio kids on the roster; and those kids...

Did you also have to park your dinosaur out in Lot 6 or were you allowed to park them closer to the main campus?

Ne Ohio isn't any different from the rest of the state in the attention it gets from outside programs. In fact, the Ted Ginn bus tour that runs the camp circuit in the summer has probably brought more attention to NE Ohio than the rest of the state.

I don't think we're ignoring or demphazing the state or any region of it, it's just a fricking hard market to mine.

jacojdm wrote:And I tend to disagree with someone else's point about Northeast Ohio being some sort of "new" national recruiting hotbed. One can look through the years at men such from Harry Stuhdreher to Alan Page, Todd Blackledge to Desmond Howard....plenty of very good college football players that don't play at Ohio State have come from the area.

You can add Frank Solich to that list as well.

Dayons_Den wrote:You can add Frank Solich to that list as well.

And dozens of other successful collegiate and professional football coaches.

Den:

A small point, but worth mentioning is the "homesick" factor. I know sometimes forget that these are, really, just kids. And they are kids who being thrust into a very intense situation - there is much more being expected of them academically AND athletically, all happening in a whole new world. If that "new world" is a 1,000 miles away, well, the transition has to be that much more difficult.

1987alum wrote:Den:

A small point, but worth mentioning is the "homesick" factor. I know sometimes forget that these are, really, just kids. And they are kids who being thrust into a very intense situation - there is much more being expected of them academically AND athletically, all happening in a whole new world. If that "new world" is a 1,000 miles away, well, the transition has to be that much more difficult.

Karl,
Do you think this had a bearing on two young kickers leaving...in addition to the things we've already kicked around ad nauseum?
Perhaps all the more reason to re-focus a bit on in state kids... Only 11 underclassmen per an earlier post out of approx. 100 players on the roster doesn't seem to be much of an impact, even though most of the kids you've mentioned are already contributing, which was my point to begin with.

transfer2BGSU wrote:

Class of 61 wrote:...going back to(gasp) the late 50's and early 60's when I was carrying my stone tablets from class to class seemed to have a great many NE Ohio kids on the roster; and those kids...

Did you also have to park your dinosaur out in Lot 6 or were you allowed to park them closer to the main campus?

Actually, the pteradactyls we used could stay aloft for hours at a time, as long as we fed them a diet of "rockets". So the parking situation wasn't that big a problem. They'd just pick us up at the dorm, fly us to class and back. Wonder if the "illegal" stadium lights would have been a problem back then.