On the same day freshman Jashon Cornell began spring semester classes at Ohio State, he sat in the student union as the Buckeyes — the team for which he committed to play football — pounded Oregon 42-20 to win the national championship.
Cornell, who arrived on campus only three days earlier, watched the game on TV with another football early enrollee. The victory affirmed Ohio State as a program capable of making championship dreams a reality for the former Cretin-Derham Hall defensive end once ranked as the nation’s No. 1 recruit.
“I have the opportunity to play if I grind it out and learn lessons every day,” said Cornell, who graduated high school in December, six months before his senior peers. “I want to play at the high level they need me to.”
Cornell heads the Star Tribune’s 17th annual Super Preps class, a collection of the state’s premier Division I college football prospects. His size (6-4, 255 pounds) and explosiveness rocketed him to prominence as ESPN’s No. 1 college football recruit as a junior heading into the fall of 2013.
He drew more than 30 college scholarship offers, even as he struggled for two seasons with playing weight and focus, national analysts and one of his high school coaches said. Though he dropped to No. 33 overall and seventh at his position in the latest ESPN rankings released this month, Cornell remains the state’s top recruit, according to ESPN and Rivals.com.
Continue Reading: Super Preps 2015: No. 1 in the state is off to No. 1 in the land
