Hey just have a quick question for you Vol fans that are in the know about recruiting. Don't worry, this is a serious question and not an attempt to poke fun at Lane Kiffin. Anyways, I was wondering just how hard or how serious Tennessee is recruiting a QB named Andrew Hendrix from Cincinnati Moeller HS for the 2010 recruiting class? The Bucks are now trying to land him since our plan for Montana's kid fell thru and we could really use him but he is said to be more interested in Tennessee and Notre Dame than tOSU because we played around and didn't offer until late. What is your situation at QB? Notre Dame is stacked at QB but tOSU has nothing after Pryor for next year and we are hurting to bring in a QB for next year and this kid might be our last shot at least at a descent QB. Just wondering if any of you had some inside info. Thanks

We have offered very few quarterbacks and Hendrix is one of them. He says that he came away from Notre Dame extremely impressed so OSU and UT might have some ground to make up even with both schools having quicker opportunites to PT than ND.
On paper, we are terrible at quarterback. Senior Jon Crompton looked awful last season and arguably the most talented backup transferred. That leaves us with two scholarship quarterbacks on the roster. We added a older guy named Rozier whose father, Mike Rozier, played in the NFL. He has been playing baseball, but is known as a terrific athlete. He's walked on for us, but is probably too raw to help us in the near future.
KN, it's interesting that you guys offered Montana, not Hendrix. We did just the opposite. We are really high on him as the strong-armed, dropback passer that Kiffin wants in the offense. I wonder if tOSU's spread style attack will work in our favor. Anyway, whether it's tOSU, ND, or UT, whoever gets his services is going to be very happy on signing day.

Yeah actually people are saying that Hendrix is a better QB prospect than Montana! Both are currently 4 star recruits but like you said, you would've thought that Tressel and Co. would have the lockdown on in state recruits but we have been going out of state more and more particularly going south to Georgia and Florida in recent years for recruits. Hell we let Brady Quinn slip away to ND a few years ago and he is from Columbus! Cincinnati has been stealing a lot of the better in state recruits away from tOSU lately because of their resurgence and early playing time that you wouldn't necessarily get at tOSU right away. Pryor has tremendous upside and showed this spring that he has a deadly accurate cannon arm combined with his agility and speed he is going to be very special when all is said and done but knowing that he is going to be at tOSU for at least the next 2 to 3 years, recruits are shying away from the Bucks. Tressel has been implementing the spread offense little by little for the past 3 years but this will be the first year when we mostly run it all the time due to Pryor's assets. Right now Pryor has a really good senior backup in Bauserman and a few walk ons as his backups. Nobody really for next year if something happens to Pryor which also leaves the Buckeye Nation scrambling for a QB recruit. I wouldn't blame Hendrix if he choose UT over tOSU to be honest.

BTW, I have a friend in Florida whom is a avid Vols fan and when I was down there on Vacation last year visiting, we watched the Tenn / Florida game. I can see why Crompton got threaten because I thought my friend and his wife were going to smash their TV. LOL You guys will be back on track to national prominence in a year or two but just promise me you'll have a few down years in 2017 and 2018 when we have a home and home series with you guys.

Home and home vs OSU is big boy scheduling. Hard to forecast that far in advance, but that could set up as one hell of a series.

I like what I've seen of tOSU and Pryor trying to get closer together on philosophy... making use of his weapons. I know you talked about Tressel moving gradually to the spread some last year; but this may be the first year he actually has all the pieces available to run it successfully. Whether y'all use it as a primary offensive scheme or not, Buckeye fans should see plenty of fireworks on the scoreboard this year. Are you guys searching for similar athletes for future QB positions, or will Tressel take Pro-style and Dual-threat guys and just adapt his offense to suit their talents?

I read in an SI/Dan Patrick interview with Tressel this week that he and the players have some reckoning on their minds with USC. I actually think you guys will have the decided advantage this time around. You'll have the QB with experience, after Sanchez bailed on Carroll. They also lost a ton of very talented players on defense. And, of course, you'll have home-field advantage. Should be a great opportunity for you to settle the score. I didn't even realize that you two hadn't played the rivalry much lately... it had been 19 years before last year's game.

Well Tressel has made a point to have at least one big non-conference game every year in recent history and you guys are the latest that we've scheduled. Leading up to our series are teams like Virginia Tech, Oklahoma, Miami FL that we have a home and home series schedule with. We've also sent the invite to Florida *cough* but they haven't excepted yet. The Gators are afraid to come north of the mason dixon line I guess. But in all honesty its also most a given that even 9 years from now, both tOSU and Tennessee will still be national powerhouse schools so you can pretty much bet that this game will be a great one. Tressel is sure to still be there as long as he keeps demolishing Michigan or doesn't retire before then. Kiffin on the other hand has IMHO what it takes to be a great coach just as long as he gets his name out of the media spot light and can return Tenn. back to the top with all his recruits. Bringing Monte Kiffin from the TB bucks isn't bad either. I forecast you guys to have one hell of a nasty defense while he is there. I actually have a buddy that lives in Tampa, FL and has met Monte at a dinner banquet and says that he is a pretty personable down to earth guy. Well best of luck to you and your Vols this year. I would like to see Kiffin do well there. I have always had respect for the Tennessee football program.

Man I really hope we can pop those condoms on Sept. 12th. tOSU and USC has been a rivalry game in the past especially in the 60's and 70's when they met several times in the Rose Bowl back in Woody's day. The players have a chip on their shoulders from that game because of how USC was just very cocky and arrogant throughout that game. I think your gonna see a whole new offense from tOSU this year but it will still contain its traditional vanilla Big Ten parts which Tressel is more conservative anyways if you can't tell when it comes to ball control especially in a tight game. Tressel always molds his offense to his QB. We ran mostly spread and 5 wide in 2005 with Troy and Teddy but then went back to traditional for 2006 in which Troy Smith did not get the chance to use his legs as much which I believe was a mistake by Tressel not to continue what we had in 2005 especially after we steam rolled Brady Quinn and ND in the Fiesta Bowl. I forgot that we also have a recruit from last year in Kenny Guiton from Texas who is a dual threat but built identical to Troy Smith. He will be Pryor's immediate back up next year and is more than capable of running the spread from what i've heard if something were to happen. "knocking on wood" LOL. Pryor is a freak of nature in being 6'6", running a 4.4 forty, and having a cannon arm so his potential is limitless and IMHO could revolutionize the QB position sort of like Tebow has done the past few years. Pryor showed during the spring that he cannot only run and be advasive, but that he can throw very accurately and also has a arm that can loft it about 70 yds with little effort. He had two beautiful deep balls for TD's in the spring game. We also have a lot of really talented young and fast WR's that we've been stockpiling the last few seasons that are going to have their chance. Remember this name: DeVier Posey - 5 star recruit from last year and a clone of David Boston when he was at tOSU in the late 90's. For now, we will take any QB recruit we can get. I'm sure they'll be a day when we go back to playing the traditional offense again. But it seems like after the success with Troy Smith, we have been looking for and offering more and more Dual Threat QBs. Buckeye fans were spoiled with the Troy and Teddy Ginn Jr. show.