Ohio State target Sam Greer's injury forces Hoban football to reshuffle offensive line
Ohio State recruiting target Sam Greer is still expected to play for Archbishop Hoban in the upcoming 2023 high school football season, but patience will be required.
Greer suffered a fractured leg while practicing July 31, underwent surgery two days later and will be sidelined for an estimated six to 10 weeks, Knights coach Tim Tyrrell told the Beacon Journal on Monday during Hoban's media day.
“He's going to play this year,” Tyrrell said. “... It wasn't a bad break. It wasn't one of the ligament [injuries]. It was a clean break of a non-weight-bearing bone.”
Hoban has reshuffled its offensive line because of the injury, moving senior J'Von Lindsey from left guard to left tackle and opening an ongoing three-player competition at left guard.
A silver lining is the 6-foot-1, 283-pound Lindsey has played tackle for the Knights, who will open the season Aug. 19 at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium against Frederick Douglass, the Class 5A state champion in Kentucky last year.
Lindsey started five games last season and served as the top backup on the O-line.
“I'm very comfortable there,” Lindsey said of playing left tackle. “I feel more comfortable there than at guard.”
Senior Nate Townend has emerged from a position battle to win the starting right guard job, Tyrrell said.
Senior William Satterwhite will start at right tackle and junior Nate Cross will start at center, Tyrrell said. Satterwhite and Cross are Hoban's returning full-time starters on the O-line.
Greer, 15, is a newcomer to varsity football. However, his size (Hoban lists him as 6 feet, 7 inches and 300 pounds) and the footwork he displayed as a freshman basketball standout on the Knights' Division I state championship team led Ohio State to offer him a football scholarship in April. Offers from Florida, the University of Miami, Purdue, Central Michigan and Michigan followed. Greer has received basketball offers from Akron and Kent State.
Tyrrell said Greer had been dominant in practice before he suffered the injury. And despite being on crutches and in a cast after surgery, Greer has kept his spirits high, Tyrrell said.
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In other words, the Knights still have sky-high expectations for Greer.
“He has a lot of heart,” said Satterwhite, who committed last month to continue his football career at the University of Tennessee. “He's never going to give up on you. No matter what you say, he's going to put 110% in, do what needs to be done, do it to the best of his ability.
“That mixed with his size, keeping him in the weight room, keeping him strong, he has his speed, just all those aspects make him one of the best tackles, one of the best young tackles, too, in Ohio.”
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Lindsey said he has received football offers from six Division II programs and one Division I school: Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
“He's a very athletic kid,” Tyrrell said. “He's very fast and can move for his size.”
Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. On Twitter: @ByNateUlrich.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Ohio State recruiting target Sam Greer injured to begin Hoban's season
