Loading ...Indiana’s top high school football player visits IU
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by Doug Wilson | Friday, January 12, 2007 - 11:13 pm UTC
As of tonight, Jerimy Finch’s interest in Indiana is more than just a rumor, according to HoosierNation.com editor John Decker.
Decker said Friday night that Finch, the top-rated in-state player in the class of 2007, is one of ten recruits in Bloomington this weekend making visits to Indiana’s football program. Finch is a 6-foot-1, 203-pound safety from Warren Central who in June gave Michigan a verbal commitment.
For a couple of months, the buzz around Indiana’s football program has been that Finch and others from the Warren Central team that won a record-breaking fourth-straight state titles were taking a hard look at putting Indiana back on the national football recruiting map by picking the Hoosiers over some of the nation’s top football programs.
That buzz has led to Finch’s verbal commitment to Michigan being downgraded by recruiting analysts to a “soft verbal,” meaning Finch is still looking at other schools. With the Hoosiers missing out on the highest-rated in-state recruits in recent years, the Warren Central standout would be easily the biggest-name player coach Terry Hoeppner has landed at Indiana.
“Finch would be Indiana’s highest-rated recruit since Levron Williams,” Decker said.
In addition to Finch, Warren Central defensive end Jeff Boyd is part of the group visiting IU this weekend, Decker said. Scout.com has the 6-foot-2, 280-pound Boyd rated as the seventh-best in-state player in the class of 2007.
Boyd previously gave Kentucky a verbal commitment, but that commitment is also now listed as a soft verbal.
Boyd could give the Hoosiers an important addition at a position of high priority as Indiana’s coaches work on adding the last few players to their 2007 recruiting class. With the loss over the last two years of senior defensive ends Victor Adeyanju, Ben Ishola and Kenny Kendal, the Hoosiers need to add to their talent and depth at this position.
We will provide more information on Finch’s visit and his interest in playing at Indiana as we get it.
Is this the type of situation that can change the feel of the entire program?
Sometimes a guy like Finch expressing interest is enough to change the way a team feels about itself. I don’t know if that makes any sense, but since I’m in State College I’ll give some context.
The 2004 season, during which the Nittany Lions went 4-7, marked the fourth time in five years that Penn State had failed to go to a bowl game. That type of streak had never before occurred in Happy Valley.
Still, top-ranked wide receiver Derrick Williams signed to play for Joe Paterno after the season. Top-ranked corner Justin King followed (choosing Penn State over Florida….whoops).
The feeling on campus about the football program changed. There was hope again.
Penn State won the Big Ten and the Orange Bowl the very next season. Williams and King both played but were not the difference-makers that saved Penn State football.
That role belonged to the players who’d already been around and had gone through all the struggles. They did the real work that lifted the program out of its lull.
But the hype generated by two big-name recruits was certainly part of the equation.