I never thought blogging would be something I would ever, especially given that I am more a student of Math than English (please forgive any grammatical or spelling errors). However, my love of sports and aspirations to be a guest on the Jim Rome show (or dethrone him as the host), or have the ability to create and host my own show related to all things Ohio, and in particular my BELOVED BUCKEYES, has lead me to blogging as a way to at least get my knowledge, and opinions, out to the sports word – and what better day to start then the first of the month and National Signing Day for college football.
If you are a fan of any collegiate team that has been hit with scandal within the last decade, you like me, are struggling with bipolar feelings today. On one hand you are excited and hopeful for the future of the program, especially with the land of a big recruit, but on the other side you may be disappointed if a player, especially one from the home state, signs with a different school, thus violating the unwritten loyalty clause. And then there is the stress that starts today and lasts anywhere from one day to four or so years as we try to guess, and ultimately find out, which of these stellar recruits is not so when it comes to academics or off the field decisions.
As a Buckeye fan you don’t have to dig too deep into the memory to pluck a few names of high profile recruits that have broken your heart in recent years- most notably the gang from last season lead by the top recruit Terrell Pryor and before that the antics of Maurice Clarrett. Based on these and other happenings in recent years around the NCAA (cough… Reggie Bush) I find myself at times hoping we land good recruits, but not the 5-star, has offers from every school in the country, kind of players. A part of me would rather have a team of 3-star, the newspaper came and took a picture of me and the news had a thirty second blurb about my signing but it wasn’t a national press conference, kind of recruits that have a lot of talent and can work together as a team than a player whose name is already bigger than the program. Ultimately, the TEAM must play together and each player know and execute their role for success to occur. Too often we hear of “top” recruiting classes, but they aren’t always what they are cracked up to be. A prime example of this is Notre Dame. In the Charlie Weiss era, the school had consecutive top five recruiting classes and yet never clicked and has not been as successful on the field as they appear on paper.
While I am very loyal to my home state and The Ohio State Buckeyes and secretly get irritated when a player we are recruiting chooses a different school, I am more afraid of the heartache that a kid aged 18-22 could bring upon a team, a school, a state and a nation. We as a society are composed of sports nuts (myself being one), who take victory as our own and defeat just as hard as those playing. So, I have a request and a challenge for all you top recruits – please enjoy your time in college, but do so responsibly; if you think what you are doing may not be the right choice, STOP, ask for help and make the most educated decision; do not let the headline of your college career be the mistakes you make off the field, but rather the great plays and decisions you make in all aspects of your life while a student-athlete; and prove wrong my prediction that at least one of the top 150 recruits in the nation will be involved in a NCAA violation scandal during their tenure in collegiate football.
