Meyer Back At It: Se'Von Pittman Becomes Buckeye #18

by Ben van Ooyen on Dec 15, 2011 9:00 AM EST in 2012 Ohio State Football Commitments

Se'Von Pittman from Canton McKinley HS in Canton, OH becomes Ohio State's 18th member of the 2012 recruiting class.

Fewer than four hours after the news that Tommy Schutt committed to Ohio State on Monday, we learned that longtime Michigan State commitment Se'Von Pittman also made the switch and issued his pledge to become a member of what is shaping up to be one of the best defensive line classes in recent history.

Pittman was in Columbus last weekend with his now fellow teammates and current Buckeye players and came away wanting to be a Buckeye. Then, on Monday, Coach Meyer and Coach Fickell went to Canton to visit Se'Von at his home and he issued his pledge to them on the spot.

Pittman's name had come up a lot in recent discussions on who would close out the class of 2012. He never completely shut off his contact with other programs after committing to Michigan State, and the settling of the turmoil at Ohio State calmed his unease about the Buckeye program.

Pittman mentioned in his interview with Bill Greene over at Scout that Luke Fickell and his mother also had a important role on where he ended up. He stated that "Fickell never gave up the thought that I needed be at Ohio State. Even when he didn't know if he would be staying on or not, he kept telling me what I would get out of being a Buckeye would last me a lifetime, just like it did for him. That impressed me so much."

As far as Pittman's mother, she told him to follow his heart and that she would support him wherever he ended up deciding to attend college. After being around the coaching staff, she felt comfortable with them and gave him her blessing to make the switch to Ohio State.

Read more about the 18th member of the 2012 class beyond the jump.

School
McKinley HS
Canton, OH

Measurements
Ht: 6'4"
Wt: 260 lbs.
40: 4.92 secs.
Vertical: 25.8"
Bench: N/A
Shuttle:4.65 secs.

Stats and Rankings

Pittman is listed by most sources as a top 10 DE in the country, and he is listed as the #3 overall prospect in the state behind future teammate Adolphus Washington and Michigan commit Kyle Kalis. He was a 2010 and 2011 All-Ohio team member, and his junior numbers were astounding with 96 tackles, 14 tackles for a loss, and 6 sacks.

Rivals 250: 4 Stars
Scout 300: 4 Stars
ESPN 150: 4 Stars

Positives

- Adding him into the mix with recent commit Tommy Schutt and Adolphus Washington makes this one of the best defensive line classes we have seen at Ohio State maybe ever. With their pursuit of Noah Spence and his visit coming this weekend, we might have a front four that could dominate for years to come.

- It is always nice getting a recruit like Pittman from your home state, but it may be even better when you get him after he had been committed to Big Ten foe Michigan State for most of the year. Getting a four star player to reconsider his initial offer from the Buckeyes was huge and it looks to be the trend for the end of this recruiting class.

- Pittman has stated that he feels like he has bonded with his future teammates already, which is a great sign that these kids are close and intend on making what happened at Ohio State this season a one-time thing. Meyer has focused his attention on getting high quality kids, but he also knows that he needs kids who will play together and bond as a team which these kids seem to be doing already.

Questions

- Like Schutt, when will we see Se'Von hit the field? My take is with John Simon, Jonathan Hankins and Nathan Williams all coming back next season, they will get to learn from some of the best in the Big Ten for a year and then start to contribute in year number two.

- Ohio State has really never been a school that went after kids who were previously committed elsewhere under the Jim Tressel era. Urban Meyer in his not even three week reign has switched two kids who were previously committed to other Big Ten schools, and also has his eyes on Kyle Dodson a Wisconsin commit. Could we see a changing trend where Meyer goes after the best kids in the country right up until the ink has dried on a NLOI?

Free Film

Click above to watch the eighteenth member of the Ohio State Buckeye recruiting class.

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Comments

Nice write up! Thanks!

by biggy84 on Dec 15, 2011 1:09 PM EST reply actions

We've poached so many other Big Ten commits

I LOVE IT. They all have to be so bitter.

by Brutus89 on Dec 15, 2011 2:05 PM EST reply actions

Read the comments section of the mlive.com story from two days ago

Fans of both Sparty & the Wolverines were absolutely fuming. Fun to read.

by njny on Dec 15, 2011 6:06 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs

Read the comments section of the mlive.com story from two days ago

by njny on Dec 15, 2011 6:06 PM EST reply actions

Are we overplaying Meyer a bit?

Dunn recommitted – the only thing easier than convincing a top Ohio RB to attend tOSU is convincing a top Ohio RB not to change his previous commitment to tOSU.

Washington signed at the 1st hint Meyer would be hired – this Ohio boy was just waiting to see if the next HC would be a star or a RichRod.

Southward swapped and for his efforts was promptly downgraded by the recruiting boards :) He’s a Florida boy who grew up watching Urban, and Miami has their own problems these days.

Schutt swapped for the same reason tOSU had problems recruiting before Meyers – he had signed with a program who doesn’t have a coach for the 2012 season.

Pittman swapped – While not as easy as RBs, convincing an Ohio boy to choose the silver bullets to play college DL isn’t a hard sale – the only reason he considered Sparty was the uncertainty at tOSU.

…and he may swap another Ohio boy, Dodson… though Dodson’s commitment to Bucky isn’t that strong (is there really much difference between high interest and a soft verbal when the landscape changes?).

If I recall, the Vest came in with a major swap of his own from ND – a kid who landed the Vest a NC before he landed in prison.

The real test will be Urban’s pursuit of the rest of the class.
He is casting his net for 4 and 5 star recruits in PA, IL, MD, and VA to fill holes on the OL and at WR. These kids didn’t grow up with Urban or the Bucks as their home state team, and didn’t consider tOSU among their top list of programs 4 weeks ago.

Until then, I am just going to enjoy the cries from other fan bases.

Proud proponent of the 52 team Uber Conference

by ProveIt on Dec 15, 2011 8:58 PM EST reply actions

Until then, I am just going to enjoy the cries from other fan bases.

I will as well. While reading all the crying, the laments of how unfair it is, think back to all the unmitigated joy those fanbases were experiencing during the osu scandal and during the teams struggles throughout the season. Now, their world is crumbling around them and it all happened so quick. Extremely satisfying. They are basically left grasping at straws like “well, maybe he’ll end up like rich rod,” or “at least we have integrity (lol). I find that integrity lament is always made by fans of teams that have nothing else left to hang on to. The most humrous quotes are ’ESPN is so biased FOR Ohio State” Seriously. They’re perception is SO skewed that they actually think ESPN ‘caters’ to the buckeyes when in reality ESPN has spent the better part of the last 6 years absolutely lambasting them every chance they get.

by jonnyphoenix on Dec 18, 2011 6:43 PM EST up reply actions