RECRUITING STORYLINE

Darrell Givens originally committed to the Buckeyes on April 19th at the Ohio State spring game.

“Yes, I did commit to Ohio State today,” Givens admitted. “It just felt like the right place for me and I just fell in love with Ohio State.”

“I told all the coaches today that I wanted to be a Buckeye,” Givens said. “I spoke to Jim Tressel and also to coach [Taver] Johnson, coach [Luke] Fickell and coach [Darrell] Hazell. I’m very happy to be a Buckeye.”

But just this past weekend, the top 10 cornerback from Lackey High School, MD attended Penn State’s State College NIKE camp and switched his verbal to the Lions on the spot. His high school teammate, Malcolm Willis already committed to the Lions in late April.

A top 10 recruit in his cornerback position, Givens was holding offers from at least 16 major programs:

COLLEGE CHOICES	INTEREST	OFFER	VISIT	RECRUITED BY
Penn State (solid verbal)	COMMITTED (5/10/2008)		None
Pittsburgh	None		None	Bryan Bossard
Rutgers	None		None
Tennessee	None		None
Virginia	None		None
Virginia Tech	None		None
Boston College	None		None	Ryan Day
Florida	None		None
Illinois	None		None
Maryland	None		None
Miami	None		None
Michigan	None		None
North Carolina	None		None
Ohio State	Decommitted (4/19/2008)		None
Oklahoma	None		None
Oregon	None		None

Darrell Givens

Overjoyed. Everytime we get a verbal from a highly rated player, thats reason to celebrate. I know the arguments against using stars from recruiting services as an indication of talent. But I would prefer 20 four to five star recruits over just a couple any day of the year. When you stockpile highly ranked recruits like Ohio State and USC does, the odds of finding those breakout stars are higher than if you risk recruiting only a few each year.

But there is cause for concern with recruits like Givens. Not that there is anything wrong with 18 year old kids changing their minds. But Givens’ willingness to commit on the spot at Ohio State in April and now to Penn State at the NIKE camp should be worrying to Lion fans considering Givens has a trip down to Miami scheduled.

So lets not officially count this one yet. Buckeye fans are still scratching their collective heads over Givens ‘ decision, lets just hope Lion fans won’t suffer the same fate.