Sitting on eight offers and pretty much intent on staying in "Big Ten country", Ohio quarterback Malik Zaire is a name that has been getting a lot of buzz recently, and deservedly so. From the Dayton area, Zaire is currently ranked as the No. 2 dual-style quarterback at 247Sports.
Zaire has an offer from a number of the conference elite, including Nebraska, Wisconsin, and the in-state Buckeyes, who may have the inside track on Zaire. He does not hold an offer from Penn State, but recently spoke with coaches from State College, and could be hearing more from them in the near future. It will have to be soon; Zaire is hoping to gain an invitation to the national Elite 11 QB camp in July, and plans to have a decision made by then.
"[My commitment] will be sometime in June."
As is the case with many Ohio prospects, Zaire grew up an Ohio State fan, but has said that he still plans to look around before making his ultimate decision.
"It is very difficult living in Ohio and not being a Buckeye fan. They have great fan support and their fans definitely check on you a lot. They are really high on my list.
"I'm planning on taking 3 trips to Pitt, Nebraska, and Wisconsin. Those are my top schools so far, but I'm open to look at any other schools that like me."
Though Penn State isn't at the top yet, Zaire has been keeping tabs on the Nittany Lions, including the incoming coaching staff.
"[The Patriots offense] definitely is exciting to me as a QB because I watch Brady growing up and loving the system he played in. It's a similar offense that I want to be a part of so that I may be well prepared enough to win championships and being prepared for the next level."
Is it too late for Penn State? Zaire is good friends with a pair of Ohio State commits, five-star athlete Jalin Marshall and four-star cornerback Cameron Burrows. Zaire is also friends with Robert Foster, a five-star wide receiver from Pennsylvania, the top recruit in the Keystone State in 2013. While Foster is currently uncommitted, Zaire has big plans for them in the future.
"Robert has interest in a lot of schools and OSU is one of his tops. But the plan, for me hopefully, is for me and him to be at the same school. So we would be great together. I guess I'm doing a little recruiting myself."
If Zaire and Foster are indeed a package deal, it would certainly behoove schools to ramp up their recruiting of these guys, as the clock is ticking. Both major in-state programs would love to keep Foster within the PA border, but Pitt and Penn State fans may be out of luck. Either prospect would be great for the Nittany Lions, while landing both would add quality depth at some key spots. But those Buckeyes will be tough to beat.
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0 recs | 41 comments
What are his priorities?
Academics? Playing time? Getting ready for the NFL?
Sounds like we might be coming late to Malik’s party; any idea how we move up on his radar screen?
PSU_Lions_84 - February 5, 2012
Doing an interview like this one, IMO
Is a way to put us on his radar.
misdreavus79 - February 5, 2012
Academics obviously isn't a priority
If he’s considering OSU PITT NEB.
PSUinOH - February 5, 2012 via mobile
To be fair, Pitt is a fairly good school
Not that I’d ever admit that to a Pitt fan.
ppfcpp - February 5, 2012
Show some more self respect...
…PSU may be having problems, but they haven’t dropped so far that they have to discuss academics in a sports forum.
ProveIt - February 6, 2012
I'm confused by this comment
because we’ve always discussed academics when it comes to our athletes and prospective athletes.
Cari Greene - February 6, 2012
Well, then lets hope the Pats put up 50 today
ICEICETHATGUY13 - February 5, 2012
I wish this young man well
as an OSU Buckeye.
#URBZ
Tailgate Shogun - February 5, 2012
It doesn't matter...
whether he commits in June. Urban has changed the B1G’s recruiting to the point where no other coaches will honor Zaire’s or any one else’s verbal commitment. They will actively recruit this kid regardless of commitment status until LOI day next year.
NittanyBlueHen - February 5, 2012
I just have a gut feeling PSU has no chance with this kid or Foster.
This kid will end up at Ohio State. Foster will end up at Pitt or Ohio State.
Don’t underestimate the damage the media did to PSU with the whole Sandusky scandal. Coach O’Brien really has his work cut out for him. The recruits who changed their minds…the ones who went elsewhere (Spence, and Cox even admitted the scandal impacted his decision) – those things aren’t going to change overnight. It’s going to take some time to get that smear job behind PSU. The fact that this kid has Pitt in his top 3 and PSU isn’t even on the radar and has yet to even offer says a lot about the image/status of PSU football right now.
J Breezy - February 5, 2012
Too early to say
I don’t think it’s very likely that they’ll pull this kid out of Ohio but as for Foster, I can’t see why he wouldn’t want to play in a more passing oriented offense. I would think Meyer is going to run more of a spread oriented offense with Miller
Artiefufkin10 - February 5, 2012 via mobile
QB recruits
I do have hope that we can get some good qb recruits and develop them. Hopefully, recruits will want to play for someone who has coached Tom Brady.
psfann - February 5, 2012
Ohio
Anyone know what percentage of 4 and 5 star Ohio recruits play at Ohio State? It seems like all of them do. I wish we could recruit PA like that. Maybe there’s a bias in how I look at it and I just notice the one’s that do stay in Ohio.
psfann - February 5, 2012
OSU is the biggest name in state
They don’t have a “Pitt” type school to worry about. Akron, Toledo, Ohio U, Miami OH are all really at a Temple level
Artiefufkin10 - February 5, 2012 via mobile
You left out Cincinnati
That’s probably their biggest in-state competition, and I’d put them with Pitt, if not above. I don’t think Pitt is a good enough program that they should be stealing this many West PA kids from us…hopefully it will change with all their turnover and struggles and our younger, more energetic staff.
wjh150 - February 5, 2012
Cincy is was below Pitt.
In overall, real, percieved, and Ohio reputation. Cincy has no history or tradition. Pitt does.
Part of the reason Cincy and all other schools in Ohio are irrelevant is because Woody Hayes would not play any other school in Ohio. He did not want to “legitimize” any other school….he believed that if lived in Ohio and wanted to play in the Shoe then you came to Ohio State. I don’t know if he got any crap from the Ohio media or government…if he did he didn’t care, but I hate how everybody from W. Pa (especially the media) and even some state politicians act like PSU is obligated to play Pitt. I’m with Woody….no need to legitimize them. If a kid wants to play in Beaver Stadium then go to PSU and not Pitt. It’s that simple.
J Breezy - February 5, 2012
^ This
I live in Ohio and Cincy isn’t any more popular than Akron or Kent State. Maybe in basketball when Bob Huggins was there, but now that OSU is good in bball, that isn’t even the same.
If you grow up in Ohio wanting to play football, then you are looking at Ohio State. It’s a state wide love fest for the Buckeyes. I mean, at the Cleveland Browns home games they play Hang on Sloopy. There are very few states in this country that have such a big pool of athletic talent and only 1 school that gets ALL of the attention.
GMac14 - February 5, 2012
Yep.
And one other thing, and this hurts and is tough for us to admit. But Ohio has more and better football talent than PA does.
Tressel did a really good job at Ohio State, but Urban will take it to another level. Another way of thinking of it is the new staff could improve PSU to the point that they’d be better (most times) than the OSU teams of the past 15 years, but now that won’t be good enough because Urban will up the ante. So even if PSU improves they’ll be in the same position as they’ve been against OSU.
J Breezy - February 5, 2012
Not just taking a recruit here & there
but having the #2 population center badmouthing us constantly. What if the Cleveland papers were doing that to them all the time?
No.21 - February 5, 2012
It's tough for PSU to get highly-touted western PA kids
Columbus isn’t that far away, and the kids have grown up in a “fuck PSU” environment their entire lives thanks to Pitt’s fantastic sports media. I think getting back to playing Pitt on a semi-regular basis will help, as thumping the bejesus out of Pitt and proving dominance will take the ammo out of the negative bias.
06Lion - February 5, 2012
Yes, I want to play Pitt!
Maybe that’s a possibility now, I heard JoePa was the reason the series ended. Playing Pitt, Temple, and a Pac-12 school every year on the non-conference schedule would be solid for us.
wjh150 - February 5, 2012
$$$$ was the reason, not Joe
and I don’t think playing Pitt will do anything for recruiting western Pa. Moving to the ACC, Pitt won’t be able to play the same OOC schedule either.
BMAN13 - February 5, 2012
Agree.
See my post above. NOT playing them would help PSU recruit better in W. Pa. PSU should make it so if a W. Pa kid wants to play in Beaver Stadium then he has to go to PSU. Otherwise let them play in a half empty rented off campus stadium in Pgh.
J Breezy - February 5, 2012
My point isn't
that PSU should play Pitt to keep Western PA kids from going to Pitt instead of PSU, but to keep them from going to OSU. The negativity towards PSU from Pittsburgh media and the general populace has to influence the best kids, so they go to the other premiere program within a 3 hour drive, OSU, to play in front of 100+k every weekend.
06Lion - February 5, 2012
Yeah but playing Pitt only makes your chances worse with a good W Pa kid.
The hate from the media and subsequent brainwashing against PSU will be there regardless. OSU already plays PSU, so a kid who wants to go there will get to play in Beaver Stadium anyway. Why give another team…THE local team…a chance to afford a kid the same opportunity?
The Pitt series was great for about a 10-15 year period over 30 years ago. But now I see little to no benefit to playing Pitt. The risk is far greater than the reward. So F-em is what I say.
J Breezy - February 5, 2012
Not to troll or anything
But I have to throw this in:
oaklandzoo12 - February 6, 2012
not to troll or anything, but PSU has played Pitt out of conference more than any other school other than Temple since joining the BiG. So basically that statement above is a hill of beans. If Joe didn’t want PSU to play Pitt, PSU would not have played Pitt and since that has happened numerous times in the last 20 years then that entire statement must be taken out of text or misquoted because it is horseshit.
BMAN13 - February 6, 2012
And, we just scheduled a new home and home with them
while Joe was still coach.
Cari Greene - February 6, 2012
It had nothing to do with Joe - That's just what Pitt media wants everyone to think
The real reason is that Big Ten scheduling made it nearly impossible to keep a permanent rival. Playing Pitt every year would significantly limit PSU’s ability to play other teams, and playing Pitt just wasn’t worth doing that.
ppfcpp - February 5, 2012
You had me interested with this question...
From Scout.com top 300 list:
2012 9 of 21
tOSU 9
tSUN 6
NW, Sparty, ND, Oregon, WVU, Missouri 1
2011 10 of 17
tOSU 10
Sparty ND Bama 2
tSUN USC 1
2010 5 of 15
tOSU 5
ND 2
tSUN 2
Sparty Iowa LSU Miami (FL) Texas Akron 1
20096 of 11
tOSU 6
NW tSUN WVU Cinci Tenn 1
2008 4 of 10
tOSU 4
tSUN 3
ND 2
PSU Illini FSU 1
…and a bug at Scout’s site saw the next page disappear…
I am guessing the Vest averaged around 1/2 of the 4 and 5 star athletes.
tSUN and ND are the biggest competitors for Ohio recruits (when they aren’t being coached by RR)
Expect this to drop in the future – Urban is looking more outside the borders.
Only about 1/3 of his 2012 recruits came from Ohio.
Only about 1/4 of his 2012 offers so far are from Ohio.
PSU, tSUN, ND, and the rest of the B1G could be in a good position to benefit from this.
ProveIt - February 5, 2012
Many in Norther Ohio go to Michigan
kijana's acl - February 5, 2012
COME TA PENN SSHTATE!
tlrpsu - February 5, 2012
/green'd
dbl5030 - February 5, 2012
This kid is simply entertaining us
Frankly, no one but OSU will get this kid. Their program is soaring right now and any recruit that leaves the state of Ohio for anything else other than Alabama is absolutely insane. Guys I love psu but its gonna get rough these next couple years. Everything just hit the fan at the wrong time.
ReddWhitenBlue - February 5, 2012
It's a bit early to say that OSU's program is soaring right now
Is it looking good? Sure. But OSU just had the worst record they’ve had in the past 100 years this past season. Plus, they won’t be eligible to play in the CCG or a bowl game next year.
I understand that Urban will be a monster recruiter, and that his teams should be solid. But come on, neither Urban or BoB has coached a game for their current team yet.
Sure, you could be right. But how about we let a season play out before damning the next 5 years.
ppfcpp - February 5, 2012
Soaring is a bit much
Especially when you can’t even play in a bowl game next year. And your coach will be at his next dream job in three.
kijana's acl - February 5, 2012
And especially if this kid is a dual threat QB, he's gotta love the offense Urbs runs.
I know he commented about seeing Tom Brady play, but I don’t remember seeing Tom Brady run around much these past however many years. I would imagine that if BOB and the PSU guys recruit this kid, it’s because they want his receiver friend more.
I may be wrong in this assumption, but I don’t see BOB going after many dual threat QB’s in the future. I just don’t think he will run an offense that would feature a mobile QB. I think PSU is looking at pocket passers.
And I agree with everyone else, this kid is a Buckeye commit. No doubt about it.
GMac14 - February 5, 2012
Meh
New staff probably prefers Hackenberg or Burns. Or both.
OmarLittle - February 5, 2012
I could be wrong....
…because i haven’t watched all of the pregame coverage, but have they said ANYTHING about the fact that there is a coach is this game that as of tomorrow will be the central figure in the most significant coaching change in college football history?
Not saying there’s ulterior motives, and maybe i should be glad because any time the national media mentions PSU, it’s usually a hatchet job, but can’t imagine it would hurt as far as recruiting goes to have a story about Tom Brady’s coach moving on to the head job at Penn State. But, i guess the five-billionth interview with Archie and Olivia Manning is more important.
phillyinvegas - February 5, 2012
Uh-oh
BOB just ran an end-around. But, it got twelve yards, so i guess it’s not THAT bad of a sign.
phillyinvegas - February 5, 2012
As long as you know when to run it, it’s not so bad
OmarLittle - February 5, 2012
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