FB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[LadyBear]

Hi Reality Check,

Yes they are all reporting today!

[bceagle80]

Hi Reality Check,

Yes they are all reporting today!

In fact, they are reporting now. I am sure sure they are all excited and ready to go.

[LadyBear]

Hi Reality Check,

Yes they are all reporting today!

In fact, they are reporting now. I am sure sure they are all excited and ready to go.

I started following Ricardo Johnson III on Facebook and he has a lot of fun ONU stuff on his page!

[Kira & Jaxon's Dad]

They start camp on a Sunday?

Raiders reported yesterday.  First practice today.

[Dr. Acula]

When pics from practice start hitting your timeline it's officially football season!  Awesome.

Couple things...first, I am beyond excited to see how the QB situation evolves not only in Alliance, but also at JCU, Berg and now ONU too.  Lots of new faces at the controls in 2015 and it should be fun to watch.  I'm almost nervous about what Taurice Scott at QB could look like.  This is a kid who does stuff like return kickoffs for scores and turn short passes into long TD's and now he's going to have the ball in his hands every play?  If he can protect the ball and be accurate with his throws this could be very interesting.  Plus he's an Alliance kid and I can't help it, there's something cool about that to me. 

I read the article SaintsFan shared on RJ3 choosing ONU.  He came off like a very mature, sharp kid.  Seems like he will be a fan favorite in Ada very quickly.  What a find for Coach Paul.

I skimmed the JCU roster and to me that's the most interesting QB situation of the group.  One of the JCU guys can correct me, but I believe Keller would have been the #2 QB last year with Schaefer as the #3 (although both played).  Outside of Schaefer the Streaks have a whole lot of youth and inexperience at QB.  Their schedule is front loaded again.  After St. Vincent they have Berg, BW, ONU so the new guy won't ease into it with St. Vincent, Wilm and Etta or anything. 

I also didn't realize Berg was hitting the road to Cortland St. for their opener.  That's no picnic.  Definitely not Alma, that's for sure. 
   

[Dr. Acula]

After hovering around 100 freshmen the last 2 years it looks like the 2015 group is 83 (more in line with 2012).  The thing that immediately jumped out to me was the apparent emphasis on recruiting Michigan.  16 Michigan kids in the freshmen class.  That has to be the most ever.  That number is usually more in the 3-5 range in the past I feel like.

OH:  40
MI:  16
FL:   9
PA:  7
GA:  2
SC:  2
AZ, CA, IN, KY, MD, NV, WV:  1

[flaballcoach]

9 kids from down here....pretty impressive.

[Dr. Acula]

That's actually light for their FL haul.  The three previous years that number has been 17, 20 and 15 kids. 

[LadyBear]

Devon Price is running, cutting and looking great. The first game will be 6 months exactly from his surgery.

MU wasn't the only OAC team to get a haul from the sunshine state, I am told 3 receivers (everyone they recruited) committed from Florida and one from California. We also a have a 6'2 275 guard from Florida. I am not sure how they did it, but they were able to stack the offensive side of the ball.

Christmas in Fall!!

[Kira & Jaxon's Dad]

Heidelberg, ONU, BWU, JCU and Mount all hit FL hard in February.  There are about 4-5 "Small College Recruiting Fairs" down here where the HS coaches set up tables the first day and "sell" their seniors, and then the Colleges set up tables the second day and have the Players/Parents come and they try to "sell" the players on their schools.

[LadyBear]

Great article on ONU's new QB Ricardo Johnson III:

http://a.disquscdn.com/uploads/mediaupload/tmp/34fce0750673cc1634df4536c64b1806326c60ac7c660a93aba629b9/original.jpg

http://a.disquscdn.com/uploads/mediaupload/tmp/e38a4b95598646d0ac09bca6cbb63e24e7ff5e5db600cd84f8c8a003/original.jpg

[Walt]

Capital has 16 freshmen from Florida and 6 from California.   Honestly, I don't how Ohio coaches are able to convince kids from warm weather states to come here... But I think it's an easier sell for Cap, Otterbein, JCU, and BW because they're in large cities and have easy access to airports.

How do you sell ONU and Burg to these kids?   "Come here.  Our campus is in the middle of no where and it's an hour or more from the nearest airport."  And for ONU...a friend of ours attended there 5 years ago and had to change cellular plans b/c only one carrier had service in Ada.  Has that changed???

[LadyBear]

I am a teacher, taught in the Anacostia area of Washington DC. Where I grew up, St. Mary, we left our keys in the car, but in DC we had security walk us to our cars. For many of these kids the last place they want to go is to another city. The entire town of Ada supports ONU football. ONU is academically ranked the 2nd best university in the midwest relative to size. 10 million dollar business school was built a few years ago, the performing arts center is regionally renown, for which my best friend still volunteers years after having graduated. The stadium and training facility are great, but we also have a head coach who loves his players. When I worked in DC, I genuinely felt like a foreigner in a foreign country, but I was genuine and that resonated with those kids. Coach Paul's genuine care for his players and the fact that a player can get a "great education, be safe and play high level competitive football" is why we a D1 player said he came to Ada. btw Lima and Findlay are both about 15 minutes away and very diverse demographically.

[reality check]

My cell service was fine in Ada fifteen years ago.  I am not sure why it would be an issue now.

Let's not pretend Lima is all that great.  When we hosted bands and other performers at the Freed Center, they would refer to Lima as an acronym; Lost In Middle America. 

I can't speak for Florida recruits but I know that the idea of going to a college that made the town instead of a college in a city was part of what I was looking for.  I was seriously considering UC and ONU and after seeing both campuses, I knew where I wanted to be.  It's not for everyone, and that's just fine by me.

[Knight Raider]

"How do you sell ONU and Burg to these kids?   "Come here.  Our campus is in the middle of no where and it's an hour or more from the nearest airport."  And for ONU...a friend of ours attended there 5 years ago and had to change cellular plans b/c only one carrier had service in Ada.  Has that changed???"

That is so funny.  My son went for a school visit about 2 years ago.  His comment to me was that he ruled the school out because there was no cell service.