Yale calling: Top recruit chooses Ivy League school
MARIEMONT, Ohio -- Kurry Commins did a little staff shuffling when he took over as the head football coach at Mariemont High School, a small suburban village just east of Cincinnati, after the 2012 season. He had been an assistant in the final season of Tom Crosby's 32-year career at the school but with 13 previous seasons as a head coach at Mount Healthy and Oak Hills, two larger schools in the area, he had his coaching connections and brought in new assistants.
These assistants, most of whom had coached in the big school Greater Catholic League South or Greater Miami Conference, had never seen Jon Bezney before although they had certainly heard of the kid.
"The first time we got together in the weight room, they were looking around for him," recalled Commins. "There was a kid in the room who was a little bigger kid for Mariemont and they all asked 'Is that Bezney?' I said no, you'll know when Jon walks in."
Bezney walked into the weight room and Commins saw the reaction in all of his coaches.
"Oh my gosh, that's a BCS right tackle."
If that's the path Bezney wished to choose, he had his pick of the nation's top programs to select. Kids like Bezney, who Commins says is a legitimate 6-feet-5 (and probably closer to 6-6), 295 pounds at the age of 18, kind of stick out no matter where they are playing. Bezney instead chose a different path.
Jon Bezney had his pick of the nation's top football programs, but chose a different path.
He chose Yale.
Bezney and his family went through the recruiting hustle-and-bustle. They made their rounds to numerous campus, did their due diligence researching and coming up with pros and cons before Bezney made his decision last summer, before the start of his senior season. Once he made it, it was made for good. He had Wisconsin, Vanderbilt, Kentucky and Cincinnati also in his final list of five but there was just something about the pull of the Ivy League.
"Yale was the first campus I stepped on that I felt at home," said Bezney, who wants to study medicine. "I just got that feel. It offers every aspect of what I'm looking for in an athletic part of college, which has to be a part of my life, with the academic. I love being challenged in all aspects."
Bezney was named Associated Press first team All-Ohio in Division V as a defensive lineman, although he also played offensive line and some tight end for Mariemont. He was the AP's Southwest District Division V defensive player of the year and named tri-player of the year in the Cincinnati Hills League as the Warriors made the postseason for the first time since 2005. The recruiting web site Scout.com ranks him as the No. 20 prospect overall in Ohio. He's the top-rated prospect on that list not to commit to a school from one of the big five conferences -- Big Ten, Big 12, ACC, Pac 12 and SEC -- or Notre Dame.
Commins has two former players from Oak Hills, offensive linemen Derrek and Dustin Ross, playing at Yale. He said he's coached 10-12 players who've gone on to play at BCS-level schools. Diyral Briggs wasn't one of those guys but Briggs was good enough to go from playing for Commins at Mount Healthy to Bowling Green State University to playing in the NFL and contributing to Green Bay's victory over Pittsburgh in Super Bowl XLV four years ago.
Commins says, without hesitation or sense of hyperbole, that Bezney is the best player he's coached.
"When you get to be with him on a daily basis and get to know how he goes about things, how he prepares, and then you look at his skill set of how strong he is regardless of who you're playing and how skilled he is from the waist down, he's such a good athlete for being that big and having that natural strength," said Commins. "When you combine that with how cerebral he is, it's a no-brainer. He's very gifted. He's a special one."
Verbal commitments have a way of becoming de-commits. Bezney said he's never had any intention of changing his mind once he chose Yale. That didn't stop other schools from calling. He received offers from Washington and Missouri during the season without ever speaking to anyone from the programs. He wasn't changing his mind.
"I know some people when they commit, they don't really," said Bezney. "They de-commit the last couple of days, the last couple of weeks before signing day and I feel that's not me. I've given my word so I wanted to make sure that's where I was going before I committed."
As much of a frenzy as national signing day can be, there is little such fanfare coming from Bezney's choice. Ivy League schools don't have National Letters of Intent. They don't offer scholarships based on athletic ability and coaches have little say in the admissions process. Bezney does have some paperwork to finalize and send in to Yale and at some point Mariemont will have announcement ceremony. It's likely to be rather understated by today's standards. No hats on the table. Bezney does not have a Twitter account and the only Facebook page he's ever had was one he had to set up for a class assignment.
"I haven't been on it for six months," said Bezney.
Yale has been playing football for 141 seasons and its annual game against Harvard is one of the most storied rivalries in college football. It has won 14 Ivy League titles, although its last one was in 2006. Tony Reno just completed his second season as the Elis' head coach. They went 5-5 but Bezney likes where the program is headed. He likes where his choice of Yale can take him.
"I've been competitive my whole life in sports, in athletics, acceleration training (and) weight lifting because I want to train to the point where I know I'm better than anyone else on the field," said Bezney. "I take the same mentality in school. My parents have always pushed that. If you're doing something and not giving it you're all, what's the point in the first place? Getting an Ivy League education can set me up for the next 40 years of my life. Although football is my emphasis at this point, it's going to end at some point."