Recruiting review: 2003

[Flipper]

Since most of us like to say "you can't judgs a class for a couple of years", let's take a look back at the classes from a few years ago to see how things panned out.

We'll start with the class that signed in Feb of 2003. This was Gregg Brandon's first class and he was hampered by a limited window to work within after Urban Meyer did a 180 and bolted to Utah. Whatever became of coach Meyer? I recall reading somewhere that his currrent team put the hurt on some trade school from Ohio...any details?

Anyhoo...here's the class

Jack Battle Defensive Line 6-2 1/2, 255 Lovejoy, GA/Lovejoy HS

Robert Browning Defensive Back 6-0, 175 Springfield, OH/South HS

Jimmy Carson Wide Receiver 5-10, 155 Ft. Pierce, FL/John Carroll HS

Melvin Cole Running Back 5-10, 200 Memphis, TN/Briarcrest HS

Cameron Durham Defensive Tackle 6-4, 270 Richmond Heights,

Loren Hargrove Defensive Back 5-11, 193 Berea, OH/Berea HS

Kevin Huelsman Offensive Line 6-5, 275 St. Henry, OH/St. Henry HS

Gregory Hutcherson Wide Receiver 6-3, 185 Vandergrift, PA/Vandergrift HS

Benjy Kennedy Quarterback 6-1, 185 Morris, IL/Morris HS

Korey Lichtensteiger Offensive Line 6-3, 295 Van Wert, OH/Crestview HS

Dan Macon Running Back/Linebacker 6-1, 205 Sagamore Hills,

Edmond Massey Offensive Line 6-3, 300 Lorain, OH/Amherst Steele HS

Ryan Newble Defensive End 6-4, 256 Brownsville, TN/Haywood HS/Ft. Scott

Kevin Norris Wide Receiver/Quarterback 6-2, 188 Detroit, MI/

Drew Nystrom Offensive Line 6-5, 285 Crystal Lake, IL/Prairie Ridge HS

Sean O'Drobinak Tight End 6-4, 245 Crown Point, IN/Crown Point HS

Devon Parks Defensive End 6-3, 248 Libertyville, IL/Libertyville HS

Deaudre Perry Defensive Back 6-1, 195 River Rouge, MI/River Rouge HS

Jenkins Reese Linebacker 6-3, 215 Indianapolis, IN/Warren Central HS

Virgil Robinson IV Defensive Back/Wide Receiver 5-10, 185 Akron

Josef Timchenko Punter 6-4, 212 Glendora, CA/Arroyo HS/Pasadena City

Nick Thurman Quarterback 6-4, 232 Warren, MI/Warren Mott HS

Patrick Watson Offensive Line 6-5, 265 Naperville, IL/Central HS


A mixed bag to be sure. Many of those guys washed out or left due to injury. Deuadre Perry was a key contributor, but he was forced to leave the program due to a medical problem IIRC.

Perry, Virgil Robinson, Hutcherson and Kennedy were all *** recruits on Rivals. Only Perry ever contributed and Kennedy is the only guy still here. He has never been able to get much PT after moving from QB to WR.

Parks and Lichtensteiger are/were all MAC players. O'Drobinak has turned into a solid TE as a blocker and a reciever.

Huelsman, Hargrove, Nystrom, Watson and Macon have been able to contribute.

Timchenko earned the nickname Timshanko...nuff said

Newble was a decent depth guy on the DL

So...23 guys signed. Two were superstars. One was a superstar in the making before becoming one of the 12 guys who washed out, got hurt, just plain quit or got busted for pot.

Of the 11 who stuck....only one became an anonymous name on the roster (Kennedy). The other 10 contributed in some form or another as either giants with an NFL future (Lichtensteiger), frequent contributers (Macon and O'Drobinak) or solid guys to have around (Hargrove epitomizes that).

All or nothing, sink or swim, feast or famine...chances were taken, hearts were broken...Virgil Robinson could walk on water but not pass a simple history quiz so he himself became history.

So...I'm thinking under the circumstances this class doesn't look all that bad. Maybe a B or a C

Whaddya think? Not that I care, but whaddya think?

[Globetrotter]

Great read, We built an o-line on that class