Winning football games each fall Saturday is every college football team’s goal week in and week out.
Accomplishing this takes coaching, team chemistry and quality recruiting classes each year. Without a solid recruiting class, a team has a weak roster and if they have a weak roster, the team’s performance is poor.
Ohio coach Frank Solich arrived in Athens prior to the 2005 season. He took over a team that hadn’t seen a winning season since Jim Grobe’s 2000 squad. The first step for the former Nebraska head man was to start recruiting talent into the program.
In Solich’s nine-year career at Ohio, he has brought in easily the best recruiting classes Ohio has ever seen. It seems like each year, the signing day signatures get more and more impressive for the Mid-American Conference school located on the Hocking River.
As the 5-2 Bobcats head into this week’s matchup against archrival Miami, it’s evident to coaches and fans that the Bobcats who made this program what it was the past few years, are on their way out.
Redshirt seniors quarterback Tyler Tettleton, running back Beau Blankenship and cornerback Travis Carrie, among others will begin to pursue their future football aspirations in less that three months.
Luckily, for the Ohio football program, Solich has pieced together a 2013 recruiting class that has a great chance to be Ohio’s highest touted class of all time.
The group of high school seniors includes three-star prospects running back Robbie Walker, quarterback Joey Duckworth, offensive tackle Joe Lowry and tight end Connor Brown.
Not to mention, Solich’s staff has earned verbal commitments from some of the Buckeye State’s top high school talent. Offensive linemen Jake Pruehs and Steve Langenkamp, tight end Kyle Kuhar, defensive end Kent Berger, cornerback Jalen Fox, linebackers Bryan DiCillo and Jared Brumfield are all ranked inside the 247sports’ top 120 football prospects from the state of Ohio — a historic hotbed for high school football prospects.
Extending out of Ohio’s mid-western boundaries, Solich has secured commitments from Tampa, Fla. natives Derrick Ingram and Chris Murray. Ingram received attention from Florida State and Kentucky prior to committing to Ohio, while Murray has played his last two seasons at Hutchinson Community College in Kansas.
Also, Ohio will bring in a Michigan top-50 prospect cornerback Curtis Brunson that picked the Bobcats over other MAC offers.
With 15 commits at this point in time, Solich still has room for more additions, as a typical recruiting class holds around 20 commitments, as the Bobcats have 18 redshirt seniors on its current roster.
Look for Solich and company to lock down even more touted recruits before National Signing Day on Feb. 5, 2014.
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@SKwiatkowski247
