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Wednesday, February 4, 2009
The mysterious Kenny Guiton
Having the nation’s former top-rated recruit and a former minor-league baseball player making up your quarterback depth chart wasn’t enough for Ohio State. As the Buckeyes’ recruiting class filled with major successes, coaches continued to search for a quarterback to join the group, more as a safety net than a program savior.
The first choice went elsewhere, and second choice Austin Boucher of Alter High School stuck with Miami University. That made Kenny Guiton of Houston’s Eisenhower High School the quarterback signed Wednesday by the Buckeyes.
When fans learned Guiton had committed, they began their frantic search for information on the man who could someday be their starting quarterback.
Let’s start with what’s easy to see. Guiton was the quarterback of a high school team that will send at least 19 signees to college programs, including receiver Greg Timmons to Texas, receiver Jaz Reynolds to Oklahoma and defensive back Craig Loston to LSU.
You’d think the signal-caller for such a team would get more attention, but until the Buckeyes visited his school last week and offered him a scholarship a day later, Guiton’s reported top choices were Houston and Wyoming.
He’s a proven athlete, as one could see by his credentials as the basketball team’s point guard and a hurdler in track.
While Guiton might be an unknown character in Ohio State recruiting, his choice has caused many fans to remember Troy Smith, who was, legend has it, the last member to commit to hsi recruiting class.
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TweetThe best position at Ohio State
Jordan Hall. Sounds like one of the New Kids on the Block, right?
Instead, he’s one of the Ohio State football team’s 25 recuits who signed national letters of intent today to play for the Buckeyes. Of course, if you’re a hardcore OSU fan, you already knew that.
You knew that Hall is from Jeannette, Pa., the same school as quarterback Terrelle Pryor. You might even know he averaged 8.5 yards per carry as a senior, one year behind Pryor. You might know still that he was also a 1,000-point scorer in basketball.
Many people who don’t follow recruiting at a consistent level, though, look at the list of today’s signees and notice Kenny Guiton because he’s a quarterback or Sam Longo (Bellbrook), C.J. Barnett (Northmont) and Adam Homan (Coldwater) because they’re from the Miami Valley.
But Hall might be in the best position of all of them, as far as pressure goes. Along with being a very good high school player, Hall remains in Pryor’s shadow. The Jeannette attention is exhausted, used up on the quarterback.
Hall is by no means a throw in. He was one of the first commitments to join the recruiting class, not a package deal to take Pryor. Pryor is carrying the Jeannette banner, not Hall. In many fans’ minds, whatever Hall does is icing.
One of the biggest problems major-college football players have is adjusting to the pressure. Hall has faced his share, no doubt, but in Columbus he’ll be asked about Pryor four times for every time he’s asked about himself. At least in the first year.
That will make his transition to Ohio State easier, and it could help him be a better player earlier for the Buckeyes.
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