Top Ohio players sticking with OSU

By Doug Lesmerises

The Cleveland Plain Dealer

COLUMBUS

The first player in Ohio State’s 2011 recruiting class, Toledo defensive end Kenny Hayes, gave his pledge to the Buckeyes 10 months ago and showed up at games in Columbus last fall with “OSU” shaved into the side of his head. He’s a Buckeye through-and-through, and his summer has been all about his Ohio State future.

He has been running in his backyard with an open parachute on his back to improve his speed. He has been swinging an axe into a log to work on his upper body strength. And he has been selling potential future teammates on the merits of Ohio State and watching the Buckeyes’ recruiting class snap into place, piece by piece.

A year ago, Ohio State had just nine pledges before July 4 in a bumpy recruiting season defined by high-profile misses and 12 of the top 14 players in Ohio — the in-state players given a 4- or 5-star rating by Rivals.com — ending up somewhere other than at OSU.

With last Friday’s oral commitment of Columbus safety Ron Tanner, Ohio State has 17 players in its Class of 2011, including 12 from Ohio.

Of the 13 Ohio players with 4-star ratings from Rivals, six are pledged to Ohio State and four others remain possibilities.

“I’m very surprised that we have 17 commitments so far,” said Hayes, who is considering adding another Buckeye hair message to his current mohawk for his senior season at Toledo Whitmer.

“There’s not very many reasons to say no,” said Centerville coach Ron Ullery, who saw his highly rated defensive tackle Michael Bennett pledge to the Buckeyes in May. “Whatever angle you look at, it’s a tremendous place to be. They don’t have to put on airs or figure out what a kid wants or a family wants. They can just be themselves and sell themselves.”

The Buckeyes’ typical stranglehold on Northeast Ohio has yielded six players, including Canton McKinley defensive end Steve Miller, Elyria defensive lineman Chase Farris and three big offensive linemen in Cleveland JFK’s Chris Carter, Shaker Heights’ Antonio Underwood and Akron Firestone’s Tommy Brown.

Ranked first or second in the nation at his position, Dayton-area quarterback Braxton Miller, the cousin of former OSU receiver Dee Miller, was laser-targeted by the Buckeyes as a sophomore.

Bennett hails from the same high school that produced past Buckeyes A.J. Hawk, Mike Nugent, Kirk Herbstreit and Ullery’s son, Brent, a walk-on receiver.

When the Buckeyes are winning — and they are looking for a sixth straight Big Ten title and BCS bowl game — it’s hard for Ohio natives not to notice.

“It definitely makes your decision a lot easier,” Farris said, “because most people have to go a long way from home to be on a team that good. But we’re all Ohio boys, and Ohio State is right in the middle, two hours from everybody.”

The Glenville pipeline should yield at least one player from among lineman Aundrey Walker, linebacker Andre Sturdivant and receiver/defensive back Shane Wynn, though Tarblooders often wait until later in the recruiting process to commit.

Rivals’ top player in Ohio, St. Vincent-St. Mary safety Doran Grant, remains in the mix. Recent recruiting classes had been trending toward an even split between in-state and out-of-state players . But there is a decent chance the 2011 class could include the most Ohio players since Tressel’s first full class in 2002 counted 18 Ohioans among its 24 players.