Sun, Jul 05 2009
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Published February 20, 2008 01:58 am - The moment of truth came Tuesday morning for Chris Fields. Fields to live his dreams at OSU Harvey star makes verbal commitment to play for Buckeyes KARL PEARSON Star Beacon The moment of truth came Tuesday morning for Chris Fields.
With Ohio State head football coach Jim Tressel on the other end of the phone, Harvey High School’s junior wide receiver faced a decision about his collegiate football future: Make a verbal commitment to the Buckeyes’ recruiting class of 2009 or take some more time and weigh some of the other hefty offers he’s been receiving lately. With Red Raiders coach Devlin Culliver sitting in the room, Fields excused himself and put Tressel on hold briefly. “He put the phone on pause, turned to me and said, ‘Coach, what do you think?’” Culliver said. “I said, ‘You want to go to Ohio State, right?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ I said, ‘Then tell (Tressel) you accept,’ and that’s what he did.” With that acceptance, the 6-foot-1, 177-pound Fields became what is believed to be the first Harvey football player to agree to play at Ohio State since John Mummey made the decision to sign on with the Buckeyes of Woody Hayes in 1958. Mummey, who resides in Fairport, went on to letter for the Buckeyes from 1960-62 and later served as an assistant coach at OSU. The son of Brian and Kathy Fields said Kansas, where former Red Raiders teammate Jeff Spikes ended up last year, Penn State and Illinois, plus a number of Mid-American Conference schools, have entered the picture recently, but he always has had the idea of attending Ohio State. “I made my unofficial visit about two weeks ago,” Fields said. “I had a chance to make all the home games. I went over to the Woody Hayes facility and saw the campus. I loved it. “I’m real happy with Ohio State. I’d planned to visit Kansas, and it might have been nice to go out there and play with (Spikes), but I’ve always had it in the back of my mind to go to Ohio State. I was thinking about making all my five visits, but I just decided Ohio State was right for me.” A strong relationship has existed between Fields, Tressel and OSU assistant coaches Darrell Hazell, the assistant head coach and wide receivers coach, and cornerbacks coach Taver Johnson. He has only met offensive coordinator Jim Bollman, a Harbor High School graduate, in passing so far. “I really like the coaching staff at Ohio State,” Fields said. “I think we have a good relationship.” Culliver is quite comfortable with Fields’ choice, too. He has known Tressel and Bollman since his high school days, when they were trying to recruit him to Youngstown State when they were running the show there. “I trust both of them,” Culliver said. “I believe in being loyal to people who have been loyal to me. Between Chris and I, we’d kind of made the decision from the first time we all met.” Knowing what it takes to produce a Division I athlete is one of Culliver’s strengths. Not only has he produced Spikes and now Fields at Harvey, but he’s also worked with Chris Rowell, a 2005 Warrensville Heights graduate who is playing now at Iowa, and Reggie Smith, a 2002 Shaw product who had a brief stay at Ohio State. So he was aware Fields had what it took to make it to the big time. “Chris has all the intangibles,” Culliver said. “He has the height, he has the speed and he has the hands. He looks the part. 
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