RECRUITING REPORT: Ohio State football land a four-star Running back

Ohio State football secured a spot in the country’s unanimous top five recruiting class with yet another outstanding class. Once more, the class has a lot of football’s top players on the attacking side. Texas produced a four-star running back that the Buckeyes selected.

Name: James Peoples

School: Veterans Memorial High School (San Antonio, TX)

Height: 5’9″

Weight: 200 lbs

Position: Running Back

Strengths

Peoples seems to be the archetypal three-down back, capable of both being a strong passing player and taking on a heavy workload. He is more than athletic enough to take advantage of the defense’s smallest openings. Additionally, Peoples’ size is irrelevant because he is already strong enough to handle a Big Ten workload and has room to grow by at least another fifteen pounds.

Weaknesses

Peoples isn’t much of a plaything. TreVeyon Henderson, who has the ability to bring the house down on every play, is what Ohio State fans are used to, and Peoples is just not that. He more closely resembles the traditional three yards and a cloud of dust approach of well-known Buckeye backs from the past. Additionally, he runs more upright than he ought to, which is something that a college coach might easily work on.

Expectations

Peoples might be Ohio State’s lead back in the future. Because Ohio State has such depth, he won’t be expected to take over as the starting back anytime soon, which should give him time to develop into a more complete back who is prepared for the Big Ten.