The Front Row

Bill, one thing I noticed is 247 has him as # 1 dual threat QB, #38 overall and #7 prospect in Texas. ESPN does not even have him in the ESPN 150 and is only like #35 overall prospect in Texas. Someone is way off on the recruiting of this kid! Where do you really think he is?

Look at the film on this kid. ESPN is smoking crack!

U mean we weren't stacked with Bauserman at the helm???

No offense Play, but we were always sold a bill of goods on QBs under Tressel that did not always fit. We would usually have a solid starting QB, but rarely did Coach Tressel continually bring in top flight QB talent. I'm glad we are no longer allowing the excuse that because we signed a highly rated QB (e.g., Braxton), it justifies not recruiting top QBs. Other top programs have never struggled to bring in elite QB prospects (even in consecutive years) and neither should TOSU.

I think you missed what I was saying. Coach Tressel recruited highly rated QBs, but not consistently every year. While we took Boeckman, Quinn was the QB the staff really wanted. Taylor Graham was only taken for depth after inexplicably only targeting Nick Montana. Henton and Schoenhoft were not considered elite QBs. When Bauserman came here, he was a walk on initially. Kenny G came here late in the process after about every QB turned us down.

During his tenure, Coach Tressel recruited ONE elite QB every three to four years. There is no reason why he could not recruit more elite level QBs. The excuse that elite QBs would not consider TOSU because of that one elite QB we recruited is garbage. Other programs recruit elite QBs in consecutive years (whether they work out or not). At Florida, Meyer had Tebow and still brough in Cam Newton and John Brantley.

Tressel's problem was that he rode the same QB regardless of the outcome. Once established, he stuck with one guy, and did not give the backups any reps at all. Who knows what guys like McMullen and Zwick could have done had JT shown just a little bit of confidence in them.

Now you are basing on what you believe we will bring in for the future.

Lets just say, I don't believe recruiting was our issue with QB's. I believe it was scheme, primarily, and then development.

Also, your argument is surprisingly based on recruiting opinions. Which seems to go against your opinion on the ESPN thread about their rankings. Brantley may have been considered Elite then but not now. Smith may not have been considered elite, but he was later. How is this not credited in recruiting? Why is the staff not credited for recruiting elite talent when it becomes elite? And why is a staff credited for recruiting elite talent when it busts?

At least with my Zwick argument it was because of reps. Zwick actually wasn't that bad. And people forget that there was much debate about who should be starter back in 2005. There were many on here who wanted Zwick still. But the staff chose Troy and stuck with Troy and Troy got all the reps and Troy got developed. Zwick, however remained a solid backup. Is that a bust?

Thats basically my point. I don't think recruiting was the issue at all. And I think you are taking something Meyer was able to do once and make it the norm.

Personally, if Meyer recruits elite qb's in consecutive years here, I'm not going to treat it as if Meyer is just doing his job. Thats what it sounds like with you here. It sounds like with you this should be expected. But with me, if Meyer pulls something like that off again, I will treat it as something incredibly rare and he will be praised for it. Because I don't believe its the norm at any school. Even the top ones.

Topics evolve... Live with it! If you don't like it, bring it back by introducing new perspective instead of holding your breath and stomping your feet because other people aren't talking about what you want to talk about.

Put your big boy britches on and start having a conversation about the things you want to discuss instead of pissing yourself over what Pula and I are discussing. Discussing in a mature and cordial manner I'd like to add. Until you decided you were the thread police.

nobody is stopping you from discussing what you want to discuss.

My argument on the rankings is that they do matter despite what people try to tell you. There's a reason why people get excited about highly ranked talent. In most cases, they don't work out for other reasons (e.g., personal problems, injury, academics).

Recruiting is all based on perception. No one really knows if Braxton Miller will turn out to be an elite QB. We have reasons to hope. He was a top recruited QB, which JT Barrett was well aware of.

It's just not true that a program like TOSU cannot recruit elite leve QB talent simply beacuse they brought in a player the previous year. Adding JT proves this point. He was not a guy that was coveted by a number of top programs. Having great QBs will be nothing new to TOSU fans, but having depth at the QB position will be.

Where has anyone said OSU "cannot" recruit elite level QB talent simply because they brought in a player the previous year? Where did I say in my argument that not consecutively recruiting elite QB's was due to the QB recruited the previous year?

I have been saying that its difficult. Not necessarily because of the QB recruited prior, but because there simply aren't a lot of elite level QB's out there.

So I think you are arguing something different than me. I'm saying if Urban pulls it off, awesome! But its not the norm and it should not be expected. Its incredibly rare and very VERY difficult to maintain. But your previous posts suggest that this should be the norm at tOSU. I disagree. I think its difficult to ask that of any program. One elite QB every 3 years is pretty damn good.

You mention depth. Now we go back to where we were a while ago. I argue we have had depth. I argue that there have been times I felt we have been stacked. Maybe not with highly rated QB's coming out of high school. But with quality talent and potential.

So how do you define depth then? Can depth only be accomplished with a large number of touted recruits?

Does anyone have a list of the prospects that will be at the spring game?