I don't have the link to the story. This is a copy and paste from the Let's Go Herd board but I'm guessing it appeared in the Cincy paper.

______________________________________

"Sounds like we got a good one.....In the Cincinnati Paper the other day he was the defensive player of the
year in the Cincinnati area."


Matt Couch has grown up watching carloads of Marshall fans turn his hometown of Hamilton, Ohio, into a parking lot
every time the Herd played at Miami.

So, he decided to join the parade.
"I committed to Marshall Tuesday night," said Couch. "I knew it's where I wanted to be."
Dick Ballard, who coaches the 6-foot-2, 222-pound linebacker at Ross High School, figures the foundation for Couch's
decision was laid on one of those Marshall at Miami game days.

"We're only 10 minutes from Oxford," said Ballard. "You literally can't leave our school when Marshall is playing up
here."

That made such an impression on Couch, he didn't even consider the hometown RedHawks and actually turned down an
opportunity to play in the prestigious Southeastern Conference.

"The bigtimers were just starting to get in on him," said Ballard. "Vanderbilt had already offered a scholarship. And Matt
had a visit scheduled to Arkansas and they were going to offer. I think Indiana was going to offer him a scholarship, too.

"I think Marshall kind of stole one in Matt.
"He's a heckuva player. He squats 600 pounds, bench presses 320, runs a legit 4.6 40, weighs 222 pounds and he
doesn't even take Creatine. He's the real deal."

The question then is how did Marshall manage to pull "grand theft" recruiting?
"Because of the chance to play early," answered Couch. "I want to play early and I definitely think I have a chance to do
that at Marshall. And I really like Coach Gale (MU inside linebacker coach Mark Gale) and Coach Pruett (head coach
Bobby Pruett) and the fans.

"It's a good fit for me."
Ballard couldn't agree more.
"Marshall was a nice fit for him," said the high school coach. "I think it will be a real nice match for him. I would be
surprised if he doesn't factor in down there pretty early. In fact, he has talked about graduating early from high school, so
he could enroll at Marshall for the second semester.

"That's how much he wants to play. He's a throwback. He's like a 1950s kid. He would sleep in his uniform if you'd let
him. We had one game this year that got delayed by lightning. We waited and waited and finally had to call it off.

"But Matt refused to take his uniform off. He just stood there, banging his head against the wall."
Which is exactly what Miami, Vanderbilt, Arkansas and Indiana feel like doing now that they've lost Matt Couch to
Marshall.

It's not in either of the Cincinnati papers, the Hamilton paper, or the Dayton paper. It's a Chuck Landon article. (First clue was that the papers around here know that Ross is a separate town from Hamilton.)

He does sound like a good catch for the Herd. He's a second-team all state in D-II, which isn't bad and he also played both RB and LB. However, I can't find any reference to "defensive player of the year" honors. I'm not saying it wasn't there, I just couldn't find it at the Enquirer and Post's sites.

Of course, to give any credence to the "stolen" reference, Mullet boy should have shown that Miami offered Couch a scholarship in the first place. I know it says he didn't consider Miami, but did Miami even consider him?

My apologies. My first search was evidently defective. Couch was SW Ohio Defensive Player of the Year in Division III in 2001. However, he did not garner the same accolades in 2002 when he played in D-II. In addition, he was first-team all-Ohio in both years in his respective divisions, and was Butler County D-POTY this year. Still no sign of a similar accolade for Hamilton County or greater Cincinnati as has been supposed on some Herd boards.

And as a service to you Herd fans, here are some links. Please don't say I never did anything for you...

*<a href='http://www.journal-news.com/sports/newsfd/auto/feed/sports/2002/11/23/1038035819.03162.1282.3408.html' target='_blank'>BUTLER COUNTY Defensive POTY</a>
*<a href='http://www.cincypost.com/2002/11/14/swteams11-14-2002.html' target='_blank'>Couch First-team Ohio (D-II) in 2002</a>
*<a href='http://www.cincypost.com/2001/nov/28/hsfoot112801.html' target='_blank'>Couch First-team Ohio (D-III) in 2001</a>
*<a href='http://www.cincypost.com/2001/nov/13/swdist111301.html' target='_blank'>Couch SW Ohio D-POTY in 2001</a>

Quote:Of course, to give any credence to the "stolen" reference, Mullet boy should have shown that Miami offered Couch a scholarship in the first place.

Miami was the last school to offer him according to this article.

<a href='http://www.herald-dispatch.com/2002/December/12/MUlist1.htm' target='_blank'>This article says he was offered by every school in the MAC.</a>

Quote:However, I can't find any reference to "defensive player of the year" honors.

This article written about three weeks ago says he was Butler County defensive player of the year. It also says that Miami wasn't interested in him. Apparently, Miami did not offer him until recently.

<a href='http://www.journal-news.com/sports/newsfd/auto/feed/sports/2002/11/23/1038035819.03162.1282.3408.html' target='_blank'>Butler County Defensive Player of the Year</a>

I don't normally get too interested in recruiting, however I thought this was very interesting. Apparently, this recruit and his coach were impressed by the thousands of Herd fans that visited Oxford every other year. So for those who think it isn't important to have travelling fans, here is one more link.

<a href='http://dailymail.com/news/MU+Sports/2002121221/' target='_blank'>Impressed by Marshall crowds in Oxford</a>



<!--EDIT|Stick4489|Dec 13 2002, 06:54 PM-->

Question (and I ask this in all seriousness, no disrespect intended to Mr. Couch): don't you think it is odd that Miami didn't offer this kid in their own back yard until very late? It's not like Miami could overlook him -- the high school is right off of the road to Oxford, 25 minutes from Campus.

Quote:Question (and I ask this in all seriousness, no disrespect intended to Mr. Couch): don't you think it is odd that Miami didn't offer this kid in their own back yard until very late?

Yes.

Quote:don't you think it is odd that Miami didn't offer this kid in their own back yard until very late?

Actually, I don't think it's that strange at all. There are four potential reasons I can think of for not offering a kid "in your back yard." First, you simply may not be recruiting for that position. I have no idea who Miami is recruiting right now but it is entirely possible that this year, for example, they are concentrating on linemen. Next year, they will concentrate on lb's and db's. Second, most kids want to get the hell away from home anyway. A whole lot of them pass up closer schools simply because they want to break the umbilical cord leading to mommy and daddy. Third, with the exception of the elite schools, you have to build either a defense or an offense around either size or speed. While the Florida's of the college football world may be able to recruit linebackers that are 6'4", 260 and run a 4.6 40, the Miami's and Marshall's of the college football world either have to go for either the guy that's big or the guy that's quick. Even if you are recruiting for a particular position, it may be that the player doesn't fit your offensive or defensive recruiting philosophy; i.e. he's got speed and you recruit for size or he's got size and you recruit for speed. Fourth, and probably most likely of all, two different recruiting coordinators could watch a kid and, unless he is an elite player, have a different assessment of his abilities. It takes about 3 years to find out which one was right. Perhaps Miami didn't have a really great assessment of him but Marshall did.

Just four possibilities that I can think of.

RedSteve...could have been one of those situations that you (coaches) think well he's right next door or in the area so we should be able to sign him without any problem, they kinda backburner a kid and then when the school is ready to do something the kid has written them off for not giving him the attention he feels he deserves. By that time its too late to make it up to him and the kid goes elsewhere. Miami may have thought it was a foregone conclusion on the part of Couch and his family that he would attend Miami of Ohio.. obviously it wasnt..our good fortune, hopefully..

There is too much competition for kids in the Cincinnati area -- from the Big 10+1, CONusa, SEC, and MAC, among others -- for us to think that we automatically have dibs on anyone. If we wanted him badly, we would have recruited him aggressively. Like Mako said, your coaches either saw something in him that ours didn't, or we weren't recruiting him or his type of player.

And let's read between the lines here, if I may: he thought he would play sooner at Marshall than he would at Vandy or Indiana -- not necessarily two of the powers in their conferences. If he's not playing that soon at those schools, he's probably got some work to do no matter what. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure he's a good kid, and I'm sure he'll make you guys proud, but I don't know that this is as big of a steal as Chucky is making it out to be.

IMO, The Mullett is only making a big deal of this because 1) the kid lives close to Oxford but didn't go to Maimi and 2) something good -- in his mind -- finally came of those traffic jams of people who can't figure out there's more than one road into Oxford...



<!--EDIT|RedSteve|Dec 13 2002, 06:17 PM-->

Very true RS..its not like the guy is the next Lombardi award winner or NFL all Pro...good player for a mid level school.