The Ozone has come out with Ohio scout John McCallister's take on OSU's offensive commitments, in the same fashion as the previous analysis of the defensive commits posted last week. Enjoy
http://theozone.net/recruiting/2012_13/McCallister_OvvensiveCommits.html
Further comment:
- Interesting that he says Marshall is the top overall prospect in Ohio, as this is something scout's have widely disagreed upon, but obviously McCallister has more time to look at a player in terms of his projection at the next level.
- Looks like Lisle is destined for a redshirt, which is good, because another tackle spot will be up for grabs when he hits his redshirt freshman season.
- On Houston: "William is a fullback, and schools always need a fullback. I think he will be a very good fullback at Ohio State. But he's just a fullback. He's not a linebacker, he doesn't have a burst. He's just a good old fullback who will hit you. He's the old pro-style fullback" I wish I knew what position Houston plays, hmm.
- Good to hear about Gibson's physicality. A lot of burner slot type WRs are small and can't fight for balls, and we need guys to carry in the footsteps of the quick WRs who can still go up and get catches, a la Devin Smith (at times)
Don't know much about the guy, but he doesn't seem too overly impressed with anyone. Is that just how he is or does he not really LOVE any of these guys and loves other guys?
He seems pragmatic to me. Why get intensely excited over a kid that may or may not pan out in college or the NFL? No one is a sure thing, and it's not like this guy is gonna be a huge OSU fan about it, so I actually admire the objectivity with which he views each Ohio player.
I posted this there, but I don't agree with his assessment of Marshon Lattimore as being "a lot like Ted Ginn Jr." Seems like every skill player in Ohio these days is immediately compared to Teddy, not that that's an insult in any way haha.
But if you watch their tape, what excites me about Marshon Lattimore isn't that he looks like Ted Ginn Jr. (because I just don't see it, different type of players), but that his skill-set is nearly IDENTICAL to Stefon Diggs'. We missed on Diggs, but we could very well end up with the exact same type of player in Marshon Lattimore only two years later. I agree with him, though, in that Lattimore will likely be a dynamic Slot WR at OSU. But where Ginn was more about raw speed (top speed unlike almost any player we've ever had), Lattimore's speed isn't Ginn-like at all. He's fast compared to most WRs, but he doesn't have elite top-speed. Instead he is shifty, can run through contact, and can go up and get the ball. It may seem like I'm making a big deal of small differences, but when you look at Ginn and Diggs, they're both tremendous playmakers but completely different types of playmakers at the same position. Marshon is more like Diggs to me than Ginn.
I get what you're saying, but though Ginn and Diggs aren't exactly the same, Diggs is a freshman in college, while Ginn is an archetype and a college legend. There's a reason a skill player is always a Ginn, or a Harvin, and an OL is always a Jake Long or Orlando Pace, rather than a Taylor Decker.
I totally agree with you, but I suppose it comes with the territory.
Except Lattimore will more than likely end at CB and be an All-American/first round draft pick. Incredible burst and frame for a CB. I guess we'll see.
Well yeah, that would be practical, but the spotlight immediately heads to the playmaker/legend aura that comes with an athlete of this caliber. Like I said in my comments, expert analysis projects him as a CB, but we'll see if the staff can reject his playmaking ability. It also depends on what the needs are at the time with the team.
I would say it comes down to whether Jalin Marshall is a gamebreaker or if they need someone else to step up.
I think it comes down to a number of things.
Marshall won't likely get enough significant playing time to show whether he'll be a gamebreaker or not, by the time Lattimore comes in. Whether he shows his potential by the time Lattimore gets placed somewhere or is needed, remains to be seen.
I could see him playing CB, and playing quite well. But when you look at his tape, my goodness, what a waste it is not to add that kind of playmaking ability to your WR corps. Not to say that we're not already going to have a lot of playmaking ability there. To me Conley is a guy who fits better at CB, whereas Lattimore screams playmaking slot WR to me.
Then again, these guys get paid for a reason, I'm sure they see things there that I don't.
I enjoy his insight on the commits and targets on both sides of the ball, but I was increasingly annoyed by his short choppy sentences. I know I'm not the greatest when it comes to grammar and other writing skills, but anyways, I though his views were realistic for each player in how HS players should be viewed.
I said this downthread too..
I tweeted Castel about this... he said that all this is direct quotes over the phone, which was the reason behind the grammar and chopy sentences. Really, Gerd should have edited the quotes into an article and not just directly dictated what was said over the phones into chunks of poorly formed text.
Cause I couldn't go for three
I think he can play both sides of the ball, just depends on how our recievers pan out. If our receivers can make an impact, he stays on defense. Vice versa
His break downs are pretty lack luster. He doesnt give any real insight or any meaning information
I tweeted Castel about this... he said that all this is direct quotes over the phone...
I think it's a pretty piss poor article. He uses the words 'really good" SO MUCH throughout. There are some nuggets here or there (like how he doesn't think Burrows has the hips to be a shutdown corner or how Marshall's throwing may be better than advertised). But overall, I got really bored and was left wanting.
Cause I couldn't go for three
McCallister has been doing this for a long time. He has been scouting Ohio for a lot longer than most of us have been following high school recruiting. He used to have a magazine that rated players in Ohio I'm not sure if he still does. The biggest difference between him and most "scouts" is that he goes to games and watches and rates the players he sees. He does not watch youtube clips or highlight videos, he goes and sees all of the players he has rated. McCallister goes to 7on7's, camps and games all around the state the guy is everywhere. McCallister has been doing this for a long time. I'm not saying he is spot on, on all of his advise but I know that he is not rating kids based on a 5min highlight tape.
I have no problem with his evaluations, just that I am more wondering if this is how he always is? Is his job to scout players for their college potential or NFL potential? I say this because as I said before he doesnt really "drool" over anybody, and Booker for example is going to be a top LB prospect in the country and he kinda says "he's not really a LBer yet." that was in the link to the defensive players in that article above
Just curious about the guy and if this is consistently how he is
I really like his style. The services look at guys and build a bunch of hype about them to get publicity. I guarantee the way McCallister looks at things is the same way the coaches look at things. Booker is a great athlete and any college would take him, but he's right, we can't say for sure that his body type will definitely be LB type. He's seen enough players to know what kind of guys can be successful in certain systems, but he's not taking anything for granted.