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2007 MAC Football Recruiting - Ball State Cardinals

Overview
The Cardinals signed 24 players from eight different states with a heavy emphasis on defense. Fifteen players as listed on the defensive side of the ball with eight listed for offense, and one kicking specialist. As Coach Hoke has done so well over the past three years, BSU hit Ohio and Georgia hard for quality prospects with nine players signed from the buckeye state and three coming from the peach state. Ball State also signed players from Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Florida, Illinois and South Carolina. Defensive line, linebacker and defensive backs were the main points of emphasis with this class.

Below is a list of Ball State football recruits with their listed position, height, weight, hometown and high school.

Sean Baker DB 6-1 200 Canfield, Ohio (Canfield)

Koreen Burch CB 5-9 163 Broxton, Ga. (Coffee)

Brandon Carnegie CB 5-11 180 Novi, Mich. ( Novi)

Brendan Choy TE 6-4 240 Bradenton, Fla. ( Lakewood Ranch)

Frank Edmonds RB 5-8 191 Cleveland, Ohio (St. Edward)

Jerrod Gray DL 6-3 255 Bradley, Ill. ( Bourbonnais)

Ryan Hartke LB 6-4 200 St. Henry, Ohio (St. Henry)

Derrick Henry CB 6-1 190 Columbus, Ohio ( Worthington Kilbourne)

Jermaine Houston DL 6-4 230 Newberry, S.C. (Newberry)

Kreg Hunter OL 6-3 300 Lebanon, Ind. ( Lebanon)

Daniel Ifft WR 6-3 175 Dover, Ohio ( Dover)

Ben Jacoby OL 6-2 270 Lawrenceville, Ga. (Buford)

Simeon Kelley WR 5-11 180 Atlanta, Ga. (Grady)

Rayondon Kennedy DL 6-2 235 Dolton, Ill. ( Mount Carmel)

Dee Lett LB 5-11 203 Hopkinsville, Ky. ( Christian County)

Ian McGarvey PK/P 5-9 200 Greenwood, Ind. (Center Grove)

Rene Perry DT 5-11 270 Lake City, Fla. ( Columbia)

Jafe Pitcock DT 6-2 257 Piqua, Ohio ( Piqua)

Andrew Puthoff DL 6-3 230 St. Henry, Ohio (St. Henry)

Pete Rolf LB 6-4 220 Piqua, Ohio ( Piqua)

Drew Sharick TE 6-6 230 Champaign, Ill. (Central)

Michael Switzer OL 6-5 285 Indianapolis, Ind. ( Lawrence North)

Lorren Womack LB 6-0 210 Dayton Huber Heights, Ohio ( Wayne)

Quarterbacks
No players were listed for this position.

Receivers
Dan Ifft is a Ricky Proehl type of possession receiver but put up huge numbers in high school in a pass happy offense. Ifft scored 48 TDs in high school and had over 4,200 receiving yards during his prep career. Ifft had several MAC offers. Simeon Kelley is from Atlanta is smaller that Ifft. Kelley is a solid playmaker who received a lot of attention from mid-level DI-A schools. TE Brendan Choy excelled at Bradenton (FL) lake Range High and will participate in that state’s high school North/South All-star game. Drew Sharick is a big target (6-6, 230) from Champaign, IL.

Offensive Line
The Indianapolis native Michael Switzer was one of the top linemen in the state and was rated a top-30 player in Indiana. Kreg Hunter earned county player of the year honors and is an Indiana native too. Ben Jacoby is from Lawrenceville (GA) and blocked for a team that was ranked #3 in the state. He received a lot of interest from Conference USA schools.

Defensive Line
The strength of the Cardinal class is in its defensive line prospects. Pete Rolf from Piqua (OH) was originally from Salt Lake City (UT) and is of Polynesian descent. He is rated as the #39 player in Ohio as a hybrid DE/OLB prospect. He picked Ball State over Oregon and BYU. DT Jafe Pitcock was a high school teammate of Rolf at Piqua and is the younger brother of former Ohio State DL star, Quinn Pitcock. Rene Perry from Lake City (FL) was highly recruited and considered a three-star prospect by two different recruiting services. Other defensive line prospects listed are Jerrod Gray, Jermaine Houston, Rayondon Kennedy and Andrew Puthoff.

Linebackers
Pete Rolf may end up as a LB and is highlighted above in the defensive line section. Overall the LB corps was a point of emphasis with this class. Ryan Hartke was a high school teammate of Andrew Puthoff at St. Henry (OH), brings a lot of size and athleticism to the position. Davyd Jones is a hometown product of Muncie (IN) and earned honorable mention all-state honors as a junior and senior. Dee Lett is an undersized OLB prospect from Kentucky who has a lot of speed while Lorren Womack from Dayton’s (OH) Huber Hts Wayne High could be the real gem of this unit in the future.

Defensive Backs
Sean Baker is an excellent safety prospect with 4.5/40 speed. The Canfield (OH) native was rated the #54 payer in the state. Koreen Burch and Brandon Carnegie are undersized CBs who should grow into the position. Derrick Henry is another Ohio prospect from the Columbus area.

Specialists
Is there a MAC school that produces better kickers historically that Ball State? I don’t think so. The next highly regarded Cardinal kicker looks to be Greenwood (IN) native Ian McGarvey who earned Indiana’s Mr. Football Kicker Award as a senior. He connected on 10 of 15 FGs and has a range of nearly 55-yards.

Final Analysis
Each year I look at Brady Hoke’s class and wonder how is able to get so many solid Ohio and Georgia recruits and this year is no different. Ball State signed some very impressive players from each of those states and landing Frank Edmonds and Pete Rolf is a real coup. Ball State needed to get bigger along the defensive line and throughout the LB corps and they did just that with this class. Throw in a quality kicker and some solid player makers at WR and DB and this is a very solid class for the Cardinal faithful. Overall this class rates as EXCELLENT compared to other conference schools this year.

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