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Michigan football's history
with the state of Ohio and
the resurgence under .Hoke
By: Ben Estes, Daily Sports Editor
CINCINNATI - It's just
past dawn on a day in early
August here, though this
scene could befound anywhere in
this state: other big cities such as
Columbus or Cleveland, smaller sub-
urbs such as Pickerington or Lake-
wood, quainter towns like Findlay.
A group of 16- and 17-year-olds
find themselves trudging across a
vast grass field. The sun is beginning
to peek through the clouds, and it is
at the same time glorious and fore-
boding. Glorious, because the rays
soften the gloominess of the long,
arduous day set before these teen-
agers; foreboding, because the rays
also promise misery once morn-
ing recedes into afternoon and the
August heat begins to stifle them
once again.
For young men to be awake this
early on a late summer morning -
the last days of freedom before the
school year seizes their lives for nine
more months again - they have tobe
either insane or they have to be foot-
ball players.
These are the latter.
The same routine unfolds in every
state across this country, which val-
ues its football as dearly as it does its
freedoms. But there's something dif-
ferent about football in Ohio.
It might not be a way of life here,
but it's a big part of life. Communi-
ties are centered around high school
football teams; coaches are scruti-
nized as if they were coaching pro-
fessionals; players engulf themselves
in the sport. The state of Ohio is a
football hotbed, and the talent that
grows here and the intensity that
envelops communities speak to that.
It -is, without a doubt, the locus of
Midwestern football.
Brady Hoke knows all about Ohio
high school football. He's recruited
the state almost his whole coach-
ing career, which has most recently
brought, him to the head coaching
position at Michigan.
But Hoke also grew up here. He
saw the fervor firsthand as a line-
backer and center (and senior cap-
tain) for Fairmont East High School
in Kettering, a suburb of Dayton.
The passion permeates the state.
"Friday nights in Ohio are kind of
important," Hoke said.
Horace G. Prettyman arrived at
the University of Michigan in 1882.
He came from Bryan, Ohio, a town in
the northwest part of the state that's
closer to the Indiana border than it
is to Toledo, the nearest major Ohio
city.
A "forward" for each of the next
four years, Prettyman was the first
Ohioan to play on the Michigan
football team, three years after
the first-ever group of Wolverines
played their inagural game. He
was joined by other Buckeye State
natives beginning in 1886, and soon
the quality of these Ohioans sky-
rocketed.
Pontius Miller, from Circleville,
was the first Ohio-bred football
player to become an All-American
at Michigan as a tackle in 1913. The
next decade saw four
of his peers accomplish the
same, including Benny Friedman,
one of the most prolific quarterbacks
in school history.
Men like Prettyman and Miller
couldn't have known it at the time,
but they established a legacy that has
been central to the storied tradition
of Michigan football: dependence on
players who hail from Ohio.
"It's always been part of Michi-
gan's recruiting," Hoke said. "We
have two Heisman winners from the
state of Ohio."
They are Desmond Howard and
Charles Woodson. Hoke went on
to name other luminaries 'hailing
from the state, including Bo Schem-
bechler, Jerry Hanlon and Gary
Moeller.
"It's a big part of it. You've got a
state that's got great coaching, very
passionate about the game of foot-
ball," Hoke said.
To put it bluntly, Michigan's all-
time success could not have hap-
pened without Ohio-born players.
'The state of Michigan produces
some high-quality players, but not
enough to fully.support a dominant
program.
Ohio, on the other hand, pro-
duces enough players to supply
multiple progsins, and it has.
Recent Ohio-born Wol-
verines include players
such as Mario Manning-
ham and Shawn Cra-
ble. Redshirt junior
running back Fitzgerald
Toussaint and fifth-year senior safe-
ty Jordan Kovacs are two of the more
prominent names on Team '133' who
hail from the state.
All told, Michigan has had 126
separate players earn All-America
distinction. Twenty-one of them,
or about 17 percent, have been from
Ohio.
Twelve of those 21 All-Americans
have come in the last 43 years, dat-
ing from when Ohio native Schem-
bechler assumed control of the
Wolverines. The Ohio flavor has
been more pronounced ever since.
And it's only gotten stronger
under Hoke.
When Hoke was hired by Michi-
gan'in January 2011, he and his staff
made clear that recruiting the state
of Ohio would be an emphasis.
"Obviously being the state right
next door like it is, it's a high prior-
ity," said linebackersi coach Mark'
Smith. "And from the standpoint of
the quality of the football that's pro-
duced in Ohio, you'd be stupid not to
go in the state of Ohio."
Hoke was thrown into the fire
recruiting-wise due to the timing of
his hire, with National Signing Day
less than a month away. After mak-
ing sure the recruits who had already
committed to Michigan under for-
mer coach Rich Rodriguez would
be retained, Hoke went to work
on adding more players, including
four Ohioans - defensive end Keith
Heitzman, linebacker Antonio Poole,
defensive end Frank Clark and since-
departed cornerback Tamani Carter.
But Hoke's recruiting genius in his
native state fully emerged in recruit-
ing the class of 2012, his first full
group with the Wolverines.
All told, he signed nine players
from Ohio, including one five-star
(offensive tackle Kyle Kalis) and four
four-stars, according to-Rivals.com's
rankings. Three of them -
See OHIO, Page 6
4 I FootballSaturday - September 8, 2012
TheMichiganDaily - www.michigandaily.com 5