HIGH SCHOOL PUNTER UPDATE. While Wednesday was obviously a fantastic day for Urban Meyer and his entire staff, Jim Tressel had to be smiling as well. Though it seemed that Von Bell's commitment to Ohio State would be the story of the day in Ohio, a high school punter managed to steal some of the five-star safety's thunder.Johnny Townsend, an Ohio State commit since June, was expected to fax his NLOI to OSU at a ceremony at his school at noon on Wednesday. The ceremony was pushed back several hours initially, and then ultimately canceled.
Speculation began as to what was going on behind the scenes and, while I won't discuss some of the more "out there" theories, the most common one was that circumstances had changed and his scholarship offer had been pulled. Townsend's father was adamant that was not the case, and his scholarship offer still stood at Ohio State, that the recent indecision was due to personal issues.
Yesterday, Townsend did fax his NLOI, only to Will Muschamp and the Florida Gators. Alex
Gleitman reported that, though the situation was evolving, it was possible that his opportunities had changed, once Urban Meyer landed Bell, Clark and Wilson. Later, however, the Orlando Sentinel interviewed Townsend, and reported that his opportunities only changed in the sense that Florida, his dream school, had offered him a scholarship in the eleventh hour.
In the interview, which you can
watch here, Townsend talks about his personal history with the University of Florida, his respect for Ohio State and the coaching staff, and why he had to make this decision for himself to decommit and attend his dream school. Surely we can all respect that.