clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Why is this news?: Ohio State commit Joe Burrow compared to Alex Smith

All the big Ohio State news in one helpful place.

Bo Pelini suggests taking out National Signing Day to make offers more valuable.
Bo Pelini suggests taking out National Signing Day to make offers more valuable.
Andrew Weber-US PRESSWIRE

"'You can't pass up the chance to be coached by Urban Meyer and win championships and possibly the Heisman,' Burrow said."

- Joe Burrow, via Doug Lesmerises, Cleveland Plain Dealer

'15 quarterback Joe Burrow is the most recent commitment for Ohio State and head coach Urban Meyer and while Burrow might not light up recruiting boards like a five-star commitment, there are still high expectations when you come to Columbus to play quarterback. Coach Meyer clearly has some confidence in the third member of the class of 2015, going so far as to compare him to former Meyer-coached and Utah quarterback Alex Smith.

Burrow shared that out of the quarterbacks coach Meyer has had under him, Smith is the one that Burrow compares to the most because of his leadership qualities, and the ability to know the offense. The young quarterback has high hopes for his chance in Columbus, but the Athens-native certainly has the right attitude about it, explaining that there are "four or five other guys" that he'll have to compete and beat out if he wants a starting spot.

"If somebody has offered a kid (a scholarship), let him sign, it's over. That will stop some of the things that are happening -- people just throwing out offers, some of them with really no intention of taking a kid."

- Nebraska head coach Bo Pelini via Adam Rittenberg, ESPN.com

It seems that every year, recruiting gets faster and faster, as schools try and compete to find the best recruits in the country (even if that means offering a 12 or 13-year-old kid that has the slightest chance of becoming a star). Because of this, top programs in the country will send out offers almost as soon as they hear any whispers of potential, even if they don't intend on recruiting them when it's all said and done.

Remember back to when coach Meyer was hired, Buckeye fans got new words added to their recruiting dictionaries: Commitable and non-commitable offers. Sure, that may have existed beforehand, but it seemed like a new tactic in trying to catch interest from the hundreds of recruits. Nebraska head coach Bo Pelini thinks he knows a way to fix this: get rid of National Signing Day altogether and put more emphasis on the scholarship offers to recruits.

Pelini thinks recruits should be able to sign with teams as soon as they receive those scholarship offers. If coaches choose to offer scholarships to freshmen and sophomores, they would have to be prepared for those players to sign on for the distant future. It's an interesting proposal for sure and call me old-fashioned, but I sort of like the idea.

"And then he tried to put an end to the flips. 'I banned him from doing that,' John Bosa said. 'He may still do it once in a while, but I told him I don't want him doing that anymore. It gives me a heart attack.'"

- Joey Bosa's father, John Bosa, via Doug Lesmerises, Cleveland Plain Dealer

The video of Joey Bosa back-flipping from two years ago has made the rounds on the Internet yet again, and brought up a conversation from John Bosa about how the Ohio State defensive end gives him 'heart attacks' every time he does it. John is well aware that Joey is an extremely athletic specimen, even citing that he's 'a freak' but would prefer his son to refrain as much as possible from performing the acrobatic maneuver.

Almost ironically, Bosa's father used to fully support the flipping and even hired a camera crew to get the flip in all of it's glory. Perhaps with Joey help leading the Ohio State defensive line this year, John would like to keep him as healthy as possible and I can't argue with that line of thinking.

"'For him, not unlike any other upperclassman, you want to get the ‘wow' play to being ‘that was just another play.' You want the consistency,'" Whitfield said. 'It doesn't have to be two 450-foot home runs. It just needs to be they know you're going to get on base three-for-four every day.'"

- Quarterback guru George Whitfield, via Tim May, The Columbus Dispatch

Ohio State quarterback Braxton Miller missed the Spring Game and spring practice while recovering from arthroscopic surgery on his throwing shoulder back in late February, but is now throwing around a Nerf football as fall camp approaches. There's no need for worry if Miller will be ready, considering it's only the beginning of June.

Whitfield actually makes a nice point, saying he'd much rather Miller be working back from a shoulder surgery than a knee injury, which can often be very difficult to get back to 100% again. Miller has been working with the coaching staff from a mental standpoint as well, making sure he's watching film and leading other players during those sessions.

STICK TO SPORTS