Trotwood football talent on OSU's radar

Area players on Ohio State’s football roster from 2001-10 under Jim Tressel. The list includes scholarship and walk-on players.

* Includes redshirt season

# Recruited by John Cooper

2 or more from the area

5: Centerville

3: Coldwater, Northmont, Wayne

2: Alter, Bellbrook, Piqua, Sidney, Springfield Shawnee

Sources: Ohio State University; CNN/SI; ohiostatefansite.net; fanbase.com

Ohio State University football coaches always have beaten a path to land the Miami Valley’s best players. Running backs Leo Hayden of Roosevelt High School (mid-1960s), Keith Byars of Roth (early ’80s) and Alter center Nick Mangold (early 2000s) are just a few that span the eras of some of the Buckeyes’ greatest teams.

For most Ohio high school football coaches, it gets no better than sending a player to Columbus. That’s why it stung so much when the Jim Tressel era (2000-10) didn’t include one of the area’s most successful programs, Trotwood-Madison.

“We always felt like if they wanted to get black kids out of Ohio, they went to (Cleveland) Glenville,” said George “Bam” Bradley, the Rams’ highly sought-after senior defensive back.

“It was like there was nothing down south. (Tressel) recruited the way he wanted to recruit. There wasn’t nothing that we could do about it.”

With consecutive appearances in the Division II state championship game and a 2011 state title, no area team has come close to what the Rams have done on the field the past two seasons. But the Rams haven’t come close to matching OSU’s area recruits the past decade.

Not counting Will Allen, who transferred from Trotwood to Wayne for his senior year, the Rams haven’t sent a player to Ohio State since tight end John Lumpkin (1996-98), who was recruited by John Cooper.

In contrast, Centerville has had five players at OSU in that time.

“It’s been something that I’ve wondered about, literally, for years,” said Columbus-based Duane Long of the recruiting service Bucknuts.com.

“I’ve asked people what they’ve thought; I’ve talked about it on the Internet and talked about it privately. Nobody could come up with an explanation why,” Long said.

That could change Feb. 1, Signing Day for football. Although uncommitted, Bradley took an official visit to OSU this weekend.

He’s already deleted Penn State from his favorites because of the Jerry Sandusky scandal. Pittsburgh also was in his final four, but that was before former head coach Todd Graham announced via Twitter that he was bolting to Arizona State.

That leaves Bradley with OSU and Stanford, and the heat to verbally commit before Signing Day is on.

He said that he intends to announce his decision during the Semper Fidelis All-American Bowl Game at Phoenix on Jan. 3. He’ll play for the East team and T-M coach Maurice Douglass will serve as an East assistant.

Sudden impact

Why the growing interest in Trotwood football? That’s easy. The Rams resemble an all-star team loaded with desirable Division I talent.

It didn’t take new OSU coach Urban Meyer long to connect.

“We talked the night before (the state championship game),” Douglass said. “He was reiterating the fact that they wanted to make Trotwood one of their main stops throughout Ohio and the nation. It’s a little different spin.”

Meyer landed three blue-chip Ohio players who had committed elsewhere during his first couple of weeks with the Buckeyes. Defensive linemen Se’von Pittman (Canton McKinley) and Tommy Schutt (Chicago) and running back Bri’onte Dunn (Canton GlenOak) all pledged their Buckeye allegiance after announcing otherwise or wavering on their OSU intentions.

Defensive end Adolphus Washington (Cincinnati Taft) expressed his desire to play for Meyer before the former Florida coach even landed in Columbus.

That kind of sudden recruiting impact that Meyer brings has put a pinch on available scholarships for the Class of 2012. So do possible NCAA sanctions above OSU’s recommended loss of five scholarships as the fallout from the tattoo scandal that cost Tressel his job.

“With Urban Meyer and the momentum he has on the recruiting trail, I don’t think that you can bet against (OSU) for anybody if they’re a major player,” said Josh Helmholdt, the Midwest analyst for Rivals.com.

“I think they have a great shot if they go hard after Bam and have him fill that strong safety role for them.”

Rams on radar

Bradley isn’t the only Ram coveted by the Buckeyes. Junior cornerback Cameron Burrows will be Scout.com’s No. 1 player in Ohio when its rankings are released this spring.

A unique combination of size (6 feet 2 inches) and sprinter’s speed, he fits the growing trend for big corners who can stay with tall, physical wide receivers.

“(Burrows) is an extraordinary talent and one of those rare once-in-a-decade type cornerbacks that we’ll get in the Midwest where they’re just big, long, fast and fluid and have the hips and the speed to stay at that cornerback position at 6-2,” Helmholdt said. “That’s rare.”

Douglass said Burrows received an offer from Tressel last spring. Current OSU coach Luke Fickell hit up Bradley last summer.

Tight end Brandon Moore, a 2008 Trotwood graduate, also received an offer from Tressel ... to play defensive end.

“I thought that was one of the strangest things,” Long said. “When they finally did decide to come in and take a look at a Trotwood kid, that’s what they did. I’ll never understand it.”

Instead, Moore went to Michigan with classmates Roy Roundtree and Michael Shaw.

A new bond

Neither Bradley nor Burrows has indicated which school they’ll choose. But it’s also no secret that they’re die-hard Buckeyes fans and would like to be the first from Trotwood to reconnect with OSU.

“It’s going to be good for up-and-coming (Trotwood) players,” said Bradley, at 6-1, 210 pounds a hammer of a strong safety.

“A lot of players around here grew up Ohio State fans. Their families grew up Ohio State fans. For them to get offers by Ohio State and for them to come down here and look at the players here would make it a lot easier for players and families to be comfortable in where you always dreamed of playing.”

Bradley isn’t a sure thing for OSU. Owner of a 4.2 GPA, he took the ACT exam for the third time last weekend. He already has scored a 23, but likely will need a higher score to attend Stanford.

“Football is not who he is; football is what he does,” said his mother, Ernestine Grigsby.

Trotwood junior linebacker Michael McCray also is on the Buckeyes’ radar, as is junior running back Isreal Green, who set several records in a 42-28 defeat of Avon in the state title game.

This is an unprecedented era for Rams football. Rekindled recruiting interest from OSU confirms that.

“It’s just a matter of time (before a Trotwood player signs with OSU),” Douglass said.

“We were glad that we ended up getting (an offer) from Coach Tress. That’s the main thing and now having Urban there, that just solidifies everything else. The future looks bright for Trotwood and Ohio State.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2381 or mpendleton @DaytonDailyNews.com.