I’ll get to the stories (all of them with the same quotes) on Wannstedt and the Assistants’ May travels in a later post. I do want to focus on one aspect right away.
“We had a good month and covered a lot of territory,” Wannstedt said. “We probably spent a little more time in Ohio, in Akron, Canton and there are some good kids this year in Youngstown. I spent four days myself in the Northern Virginia and Maryland area.
Some might view this with fear. That Wannstedt could be falling into the trap that got Walt Harris and Bryan Deal several years ago, by becoming too enamored with Ohio. The thing to note is that where Wannstedt said they were spending the extra time. Youngstown is no shock. That’s closer than some parts of Western PA from Pitsburgh.
As for Akron-Canton area, that’s because there is a huge void now in the high school coaching ranks. Buchtel High — which provided Pitt with Ramon Walker and Tim Murphy — has been a huge power there. Ohio State regularly has claimed plenty of top players from there. That school now has a new coach.
The longtime coach, Claude Brown, was charged with sexual battery — he had consensual sex with a 17-year old female student several times. In April he plead guilty, and was just sentenced to two years. Brown had a huge influence over the players and football in the area and while many former players speak glowingly of him, it also meant that he had a lot of control over where they went to play football.
To put it cynically and bluntly: that means that there is now a bit of a vacuum in the area with the coaches. While Ohio State is still the natural dominant force — and Jim Tressel has been chatting the coaches in the region for ages — it does open the door a bit for other coaches to come and try and make a new impression. That makes it very logical for Coach Wannstedt to spend some extra time in the Akron-Canton area to try and build relationships beyond this year.
It’s also worth noting that the assistant basketball coach at Buchtel is a guy by the name of Jerome Lane. That can’t hurt, either.
