I briefly spoke to Woodbridge (VA) asst. coach, John Harris. He told me Urban Meyer and Zach Smith will be stopping by Woodbridge either tomorrow or next week to check in on Hand. Hand still holds a top five of Alabama, Michigan, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia Tech. The Buckeyes are the sixth school on Hand's list and he still talks to Coach Smith "a lot."
While it doesn't look good for the Bucks right now, it wouldn't surprise me if they jumped back into the thick of the race for Hand's commitment.
good. i'll be happy as long as bama or ttun doesn't get him
Long way to go in this one
This^^^^
Wait till after the season and see what he thinks about OSU;-)
"There's nothing that cleanses your soul like getting the hell kicked out of you."
"I love football. I think it is most wonderful game in world and I despise to lose."
Woody Hayes 1913 - 1987
Wait until a few more 2014 commit and then he will see how special of a class it can become especially with him a part of it
I just don't have a good feeling about us landing him. We're the only school he has visited that is not in his top 5 (and he even came for the scUM game) which seems really odd to me. Hopefully Urbz can work his magic.
Same boat. Premiere game, winning season, lots of momentum for OSU, yet schools without visits are ahead of us in that top 5. Could easily change, long way to go, but it gives me a bit of a feeling/impression that its going to be a tough run for OSU.
Maybe going to the other schools will make his time at OSU sparkle a little more.
My daughter's first football game was at the Shoe... let's just say she isn't impressed when she goes to a University of Delaware game.
Lame
Can't be dissing on the Blue Hens! I'm stationed at Dover and wasn't thoroughly impressed with their stadium lol
I'm not worried about his top 5 in January of 2013 when he commits in February of 2014.
+1
Kids like this want to play for winners, and if we have a good season like we're expecting (Rose Bowl, minimum), that may go a long way.
understand theres a long way to go. just odd that were the only school he's visited not in his top 5 and he visited for "the game" which idk how much better of an atmosphere, coach, or record you can give a recruit
I thought the same thing, OTrain.
A couple of points unrelated to your post:
1) there's a long time till NSD 2014, so a lot could change
However, 2) the idea I've seen that "he'll change his mind when he sees how good we are next year" I don't think holds much water. The only team on his top 5 that's going to sniff the national championship game (imo) is Alabama. So you can't think that how good the team is (again, aside from Bama) has much to do with his top 5. From what I've heard, he's judging these schools largely by academics in the field he wants to pursue (i.e. supposedly Michigan has a great engineering program and that's what he wants to go into iirc--might be misremembering though). Not that that's the only factor, but it makes sense that a school like UM (who he watched us beat soundly), would have the edge if they have a better engineering (I believe that's what he's pursuing) program than OSU does.
good call. OSU has a pretty good engineering program from what I remember too. I don't think Alabama and academics belong in the same sentence or post lol
For sure. Bama and VT are the only two schools in his final 5 that I don't think are academically-motivated if I had to psycho-analyze haha. He has a good relationship with Bud Foster at VT, and Bama has won 3 of the last 4 championships.
I guess being 6th is better than not being in consideration at all, just trying not to get my hopes up.
Yes, the school's engineering program is a huge factor per Hand. Bodes well for Michigan. He also has a great relationship with Michigan's coaching staff. VaTech is still the one to beat.
Those who stay will be CHAMPIONS!
~Bo Schembechler
What field of engineering? I only ask because OSU's engineering department is one of their best academic fields. It's not stereotypically known as a "great" program, like UM, though--so that bodes well in your favor.
*EDIT: I stand corrected, UM ranks at #7, we're at 30.
Apparently Civil Engineering, Hodge. The website below ranks both Michigan and VaTech in the top 10 (#6 and #9, respectively).
http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-doctorate-civil
http://www.techsideline.com/2013/01/09/dashawn-hand-lists-top-5/
Those who stay will be CHAMPIONS!
~Bo Schembechler
@LLJJGG VA Tech also has an excellent engineering program. It's not top-10 like UM, but it's very good.
Ahhhh, I see I see! Learn something new everyday.
From a marketing perspecting Urban knows that he has to get OSU's name attached to as many high profile recruits as he can whether we land them or not. The guy is an amazing recruiter and will never have less than a top 10 class IMO.
he's in it for academics?
ha! as if these guys go to school for an education if this was true they would all be at an ivy league school.
mark may wins douchebag of the year... again
The truth is that if you're talented enough to get into an ivy league school, then you're talented enough to succeed without an ivy league education. It's the reason why I would never advise someone leave the state of Ohio for an education. There are too many awesome schools In-State. You could name all of the public schools here (I'm even talking Kent State, Toledo, Akron, BG) and I could tell you a program that they have that is fantastic and going to get you to where you want to go.
Kent State's fashion design program for example is great. I have a friend from high school who did that and is making 60k right out of college (in NYC though, so standard of living adjustment) working for a fashion magazine.
The only thing I would disagree with you on is never advising someone to leave the state if there were an IVY leaugue opportunity.
The doors that open for you just because of their prestige alone are to innumerable to mention. These universities educate the elite of the elites and are well worth considering a move out of state for that reason alone.
“Right now, Michigan is not at the pinnacle of college football, and that’s all Urban Meyer cares about...He’s been there and knows what it takes to get there.”
*if you can leave that Ivy with no or little (<20,000) of debt. I've seen plenty of my peers whether it's for law school, investment banking, or graduate programs beat out Ivy candidates. And I went to a public school in Ohio that isn't Ohio State. Otherwise I agree with you.
I left Ohio to go to an Ivy and would absolutely recommend it.
1) it's not as expensive as you think - the price of tuition you see isn't what is actually paid. A ridiculous amount of that is given back to each student (even if the kid is well of) in order to game the US News ranking system and make it look like the school gives more aid.
2) The connections that you make at the school are much better (can't speak to if the professors are better b/c I can't compare, but I don't think it's as important). In terms of networking, it really does open up more doors. This becomes important nationally as opposed to staying in Ohio .
3) A state school grad can beat out an ivy grad. But, this argument is just like the 3 star versus 5 star recruit argument. Sure 3 stars outperform 5 stars sometimes (but I don't think it's the norm), but there is generally a presumption in the early hiring process that the ivy grad is more qualified and unless you have a 3.9 from OSU you aren't beating out a kid with a decent GPA from Harvard, Yale or Princeton.
However, the girls are much hotter at state schools, the parties are much more fun and the football games...yea the games were free at my school...
Thanks for the thoughtful response. I wasn't trying to rag on the Ivy league. Just that it can be a little overrated and that there are situations where it makes sense to turn it down for other opportunities.
1) you are point on with this, but it does depend on the Ivy. I know that Harvard is trying to go to a point where no one has to pay to attend, but right now it's good enough where whatever they ask you to pay probably won't saddle you with debt. However, that's not the case across all Ivys.
2) Absolutely right. I didn't originally respond to this whole by saying that Ivys are overrated or worthless. Rather, that kids could be serious about listing academics (like Hand) and NOT consider any of the Ivys or even schools like Notre Dame/Stanford. That being said, Ivys DO NOT have a superior network to ALL other schools. I would say that schools like Ohio State, Notre Dame, Michigan, etc will open doors for you nationally. Yes they definitely be more of a force regionally, but they are nationally recognized schools. I went to Miami University
(refrained from mentioning it because people automatically hate on Miami, because 1) some of my fellow alums are obnoxious about their love for it 2) its tendency to attract an egotistical and entitled student body and 3) it is the only public school in Ohio that one could make the argument is a better school than Ohio State. The only private being Case Western. But both of those comparisons don't compare apples with apples because of the size of OSU versus the other two)
and I would argue that the networking available there is really, really special in part because of how many successful people send their kids there AND how out of state it is (around 35-40% out of state).
3) My point here was that if you put in the work it doesn't matter where you go to school because you will get recognized if you are good enough. And there are some programs where going local is better than going Ivy. For instance, I would put Ohio's Scripps school of Journalism over some of the Ivy League's schools programs. And that is what we were originally talking about with Hand looking at Michigan's engineering program.
I can respect a very gifted athelete who also loves to learn about the things he's interested in. We all know Da'Shawn Hand is probably the next Clowney atheletically but he would also run circles around Clowney with his brain. This is why we won't see Hand play for a 'dumbed-down' SEC team. If he likes UM's engineering program so be it. Personally I think theres a better chance he goes to Va Tech than anywhere else because its the home state and they are also known to have a serious engineering program as well.
Although I would love for Hand to cap off an already epic OSU class in '14, none of us should loose any sleep over his going somewhere else. Especially the way the Bucks are recruiting now on the defensive line.
"Get him a body bag, Yeah!"
UM's engineering program is not just good, but one of the best in the world. It's a tier above depending on what he's looking for.
Enginnering is tough & schools like TTUN that have top engineering programs require you to be smart and dedicate a good amount of time to it. I bet he ends up in Kinesiology if he goes to TTUN. TTUN loves to talk about academics but none of their football players are in the programs that make their school what it is.
Thats why it is BS that they play up the academic angle when they're recruiting. Their B-school, engineering school, architecture school, math & science programs will look pretty good on your resume. But their general studies program & kinesiology programs? Give me a break. 3.7 GPA from Ross will get a job at WallStreet. 2.5 General Studies won't do you anything.
So yea color me a skeptic but smart money has it that he's not the next Andrew Luck. He'll go there and figure out he's bottom 20% in intelligence and go Gen Studies.
edit - if he has a 3.8+ gpa in high school, takes AP courses, gets 2000+ SAT then I'll say I'm sorry but otherwise I'll stick by what I said, even if he is "smart" by football player standards.
engineering is though no matter what school you go to. engineering at OSU is incredibly tough. i graduated high school with a 3.9 gpa from a very high ranked columbus suburb high school and got a 29 on my ACT, and it was very very rough for me to get through engineering (graduating in may). i cant believe any D1 bcs football recruit would have the time to do engineering. if he does, color me impressed (i know there have been a few, but it takes a special person to do it)
While your general point that it is difficult for a D1 football player to simultaneously excel in a challenging academic field is reasonable, your statement that Hand will be in the bottom 20% is baseless and presumptuous.
It's not too cool to assume Hand isn't smart just because he's a freak athelete. It is possible he can be both and even choose to focus more on education that NFL.
"Get him a body bag, Yeah!"