Football
Four Future Buckeyes to Compete in Annual North-South Game
By John Porentas

The 61st annual Ohio North-South All Star High School football game will be played this Saturday, June 17 at Crew Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:00 PM. The game is the longest running high-school all star game in the nation.

Tyler Moeller, Conner Smith, Robert Rose and Jake Ballard (r-l) will be playing for the Buckeyes this fall.
Photo by Jim Davidson

This year's game will be the first in which Ohio will attempt to field teams for two all-star games on one day. The annual Big 33 game pitting an all-star team of the best in Pennsylvania against a second group of Ohio all-stars will be played that same Saturday requiring that Ohio split its talent pool.

A total of 41 of the 68 players on the combined North-South rosters have been signed to Division I college football scholarships, 14 of those in the Big Ten. Illinios nabbed wide receivers Jeff Cumberland and Joe Morgan, Michigan landed linebacker Cobrani Mixon and kicker Bryan Wright. Indiana took offensive linemen Jarrod Smith and Rodger Stafford as well as wide receiver Eric Arnett. Wisconsin got wide receiver Daven Jones and offensive lineman Bill Nagy, and Iowa grabbed quarterback Ricky Stanzi.

The remaining four Big Ten-bound players in the North-South game are all headed to Ohio State. They include offensive lineman Connor Smith, tight end Jake Ballard and linebacker Tyler Moeller with the south squad, and defensive end Robert Rose with the North team.

Robert Rose
Photo by Jim Davidson

For three of the four Buckeye signees the game will cap their high school careers prior to their summer vacation. For one, Rose, the game will not lead to much leisure time. Rose will enroll at Ohio State for summer quarter and take part in OSU summer conditioning drills.

"I move in Sunday morning after the game. I'm going to stay down here Saturday night with my family and Sunday it starts," said Rose.

Rose is a 6-4, 255 defensive end who lives to sack quarterbacks.

"Coming off that edge, it's like everything freezes, everything gets quiet. When you get up from making the sack you just hear everybody screaming," said Rose describing his mental state when rushing the quarterback.

The remaining three Buckeye-bound players will report to OSU for fall camp, but all three said they plan to take part in at least a few summer conditioning sessions in Columbus before fall camp convenes.

"I want to go up there and lift with them a couple times, but I don't have plans to really report until August for fall camp," said Moeller whose plans mirror those of Ballard and Smith.

Walley Hood is a long-time football coach who got his first coaching job as an assistant to Lee Tressel, father of OSU Head Football Coach Jim Tressel. Hood retired as the head coach at Otterbein in 2002, but has remained active in the adminstration and organization of the North-South game. Hood has seen a lot of players come through the all-star game, both as a coach who was interested in recruiting those playes, and as an administrator. After one day of practice, Hood offered some opinions on the four OSU signees in the North-South game.

Tyler Moeller
Photo by Jim Davidson

Tyler Moeller: "His intensity is unvbelievalble," said Hood. "There haven't been many players who have come through here that could match his intensity. The last one was A. J. Hawk, and I would say that when it comes to intensity, Moeller is in the same league as Hawk."

Moeller does not have the prototypical Big Ten linebacker body. He is listed on the North-South roster at 6-5, 205, though we're sure the height figure is definitely a mistprint. He was listed at 6-0, 200 by OSU on signing day, and after seeing him on Monday, we would say that the 6-0 number is a pretty good, though he looked like he was a bit bigger than 200 pounds. Some have conjectured that Moeller will have to either get bigger in order to stay at linebacker or move to safety at OSU. Moeller himself said he doesn't care how that goes, as long as the path he takes leads to the playing field.

"Whatever the coaches decide for me," said Moeller when asked if he has a preference. "I've heard that I might go to safety or that I might go to linebacker, I'm not sure. I'll do whatever will get me on the field the fastest."

Hood says he thinks Moeller will get bigger in college and can be a Cie Grant-type outside linebacker at OSU.

Connor Smith: At 6-5, 300 pounds, Smith has the size necessary to compete at the Division I level. According to Hood, Smith should be able to do just that...with time, and is probably a redshirt candidate that will have to develop some at OSU before he can contribute. Like Moeller, Smith does not plan on enrolling early at OSU but will take part in some summer workouts with the Buckeyes.

Jake Ballard
Photo by Jim Davidson

Jake Ballard: At 6-7, 268 Ballard is a big, impressive athlete. He is agile enough to have been a basketball standout as well as a football standout in high school.

"Three or four years ago I thought I was going to play basketball in college," said Ballard.

"I had Purdue looking at me, Ohio State, Wright State and Southern Illinois. I was a power forward," Ballard said.

"My sophomre year I got a lot ofDivision I attention (for basketball), but after my sophomore season I sat down with my basketball coach and told him I wanted to play football, so he told everybody I was going to be a football players and not a basketball player," Ballard said.

Hood likes Ballard as a football player, but says that he could be great one if he would decide to move over a spot and concentrate on blocking rather than trying to be both a blocker and a receiver.

"He would make an excellent tackle," said Hood. "He would be very athletic at that position, but I'm not sure he can be a Ben Hartsock-type tight end. He might develop at tight end, but he doesn't stand out at that position like Ben did when we had him here at this camp, but I think Jake could be excellent at tackle."

Hood's opinion on Robert Rose was simple and consice.

"He's a beast," said Hood.

Notes: None of the four players headed to Ohio State were overly concerned about the departure of Al Johnson as OSU's strength coach.

"I'm not exactly sure who's coming in but I'm sure they will be a good strength coach," said Connor Smith.

"They're always going to have good people at Ohio State so I know the next person will be good just like this last person was," added Tyler Moeller.

The player who was least concerned about Johnson's departure was Robert Rose, at least until we asked him if he was in fact concerned. That's because nobody had told Rose that Johnson had resigned. The news came as somewhat of a surprise to him.

"He has?" Rose questioned when told that Johnson was moving on. "I didn't know that. I didn't know anything about it. Why did he resign?" he asked. "I'm very surprised."

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