I came across an interesting recruiting story today when I was reading ESPN The Magazine’s article on current USC quarterback Mark Sanchez and I figured I would share. Sanchez was a highly touted and recruited QB out of Mission Viejo High in California and was recruited by the likes of USC, Texas, Notre Dame, Nebraska and Ohio State. In the end he chose to stay home in Southern California and enrolled in USC but he talked briefly about being recruited by Ohio State and more specifically Jim Tressel in this excerpt:

Sanchez remembers Jim Tressel sitting behind his desk in the Buckeyes’ football office, delivering his pitch: “Mark, you know the two most important people in the state of Ohio are the governor and the quarterback for Ohio State.”

Tressel then paused before adding, “And the quarterback for Ohio State is No. 1.”

Now thats good stuff. What a sell. If I was a 17 year old kid and heard that, I would’ve committed on the spot but Sanchez wasn’t from Ohio and had his mind dead set on following the recent quarterback tradition at SC. Tressel has become an amazing recruiter as of late and finally someone shed some light into some of his tactics.

I love it and most of the time the coaches who recruit these kids are feeding these players a bunch of BS and what they want to hear and most of the time it isn’t true, but I would have to say being QB at OSU is up there along with Jim Tressel as the head coach.