As new coach Frank Solich and his staff were assessing the Ohio football team during recruiting, they noticed some holes on the defensive side.
In the hopes of filling these needs, defensive backs Ervin Jackson, Mark Parson and tailback Voncarie Owens were signed as mid-year transfers and are participating in spring practice.
We graduated four safeties last year
Solich said. There was an immediate need to bring more defensive backs in so we hit the recruiting trail on that end of it. And then if you just find just a great player out there in junior college that has an interest in your school you'll look at recruiting him also.
Solich said he hopes that both Jackson and Owens will be able to contribute right away.
We'd like it to work that way
he said. We'll see how it plays out. Right now it's tough to tell
but they're both athletic players
and I think they both will have a chance.
Solich also said that Parson could possibly play both safety and cornerback, so that can make a guy even more valuable.
Former Bobcat coach Brian Knorr brought in three junior college players last year and five in 2003. Two members of the 2003 class were from military schools in Virginia -the other six were from California.
When Solich took over in December, the junior college recruiting process shifted south. Owens and Jackson played against each other in Mississippi as members of the Jones County Junior College and Pearl River Community College teams, respectively. Staff contacts helped bring the athletes north.
(Defensive coordinator) Jimmy (Burrow) is actually from down in that area
so he knows a lot of coaches down there -there are some contacts down there that we have
Solich said. That always helps
if you have contacts. (Offensive coordinator) Tim (Albin) also has recruited that conference before -before they came here as coaches -and so from those previous contacts we had some coaches that knew the area
knew the schools
knew the coaches at it. We weren't starting cold at it.
All three players had several options of where to play after JUCO. But several different factors led them all to choose Ohio.
Solich coached Owens' cousin, current Philadelphia Eagles running back Cornell Buckhalter, at Nebraska.
I told him (Buckhalter) about Coach Solich
