As all is quiet on the (mid)western front, here’s Wednesday’s bucket o’ links and commentary.

One Of Those Weeks...

Buckeye 411

• Let’s Go Camping!!  Well, it’s summer and the final quarter at Ohio State is wrapping up as we speak. So, how better to celebrate than cramming all the kiddos in the family truckster and heading out to the great outdoors. Ah, the wilderness… where legends are made and- what? That’s not the kind of camping that we’ll be seeing at the WHAC? Shoot- I had my Deet all squared away and everything.

Nope, this weekend starts the summer football camp season in Columbus, which is a B1G deal for the 2013/14 classes as well as for Coach Meyer’s continued scorched earth policy building relationships with coaches and programs across the state. This weekend’s a one day camp, and the process builds to July’s Friday Night Lights event.  For many HS students, this might be the make or break opportunity that they’ve been looking- a number of OSU targets have been encouraged to camp in order to either earn an offer or to be evaluated and have their offer “bumped up” to “Commit-able”. Many thought that QBs Malik Zaire and Mitch Trubisky were in this category, as Urban wanted to see them camp prior to having them join the 2013 class… obviously they wanted to be somewhere else or wanted someone who didn’t require them to “audition”.

Names to keep an ear out for this weekend include national #3 safety Vonn Bell, who will be making his second unofficial in less than a month- that’s got to be a good sign, methinks. Also, Lakota’s Kyle Meadows will be participating, as will Wayne’s Lovell Peterson, both will be looking to earn offers. Finally, North Carolina DE/LB Tyquan Lewis will also be present- another interesting recruit from the Tar Heel State.

• ZEKE! Speaking of recruiting, Ezekiel Elliott earned RB MVP honors at the Illinois Nike event and an invite to the big doin’s in Oregon later this summer.  Here’s a great interview with Scout.com about how he felt his performance went and what he’s most looking forward to. Read More

Tags: Arkansas, B1G, Dave Brandon, E. Gordon Gee, Ezekiel Elliott, Jerry Sandusky, Jim Delany, Kyle Meadows, Lovell Peterson, SBP, Tyquan Lewis, Uniforms, Urban Meyer, Vonn Bell
Categories: College Football, Conference Expansion, Ohio State Football, Recruiting

If you haven't noticed, I try to channel this guy every time I talk about offensive linemen.

I established in my last update that recruiting rankings don’t matter. If you don’t buy that, at the very least they are terrible indicators of how successful a player will be in college, and that is a fact.

At the same time, recruiting clearly does matter to college football.

The reasons why are pretty clear, but to state the obvious, the teams that do the best job filling their needs  from year to year with the best talent, or at least talent that fits their system, will be the teams that have the most success each fall.

That brings me to Ohio State and their major need in the 2012 and 2013 recruiting classes. Most of you probably know what I am talking about already, but for those that don’t, the Buckeyes need offensive tackles.

There are currently four true tackles on the roster: Mike Adams (SR), J.B. Shugarts (SR), Marcus Hall (RS SO),  and Andrew Norwell (SO).

Beyond those four, the Buckeyes will have to get a little creative to fill the depth chart. Read More

Tags: Evan Lisle, George "Bam" Bradley, Kyle Meadows, LaTroy Lewis, Nick Davidson, Steve Mathie
Categories: Ohio State Football, Recruiting