IF "Little Animal" stays...

Jacob Hester. :hihi:

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h_X8p_AfRQXFxseHfhS_KOAYDWNQD8U5UVR80

"COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Two-time All-America linebacker James Laurinaitis will stay at Ohio State for his senior year.

"After a long thought process and strategic evaluation of the pros and cons of this decision with my close family and friends, I've decided to stay at Ohio State," Laurinaitis said in a statement issued by the school.

Laurinaitis, a 6-foot-3, 244-pounder from Hamel, Minn., won the 2007 Butkus Award as the nation's top linebacker and the 2006 Nagurski Award as the top defensive player in college football."

So, now that the thread title is correct ;), if we can't get Phillips or Ellis and we don't get a good offer to trade down, I think Keith Rivers is the guy. I'm a big fan of his and think that he can be just the type of impact player that our D needs. That being said, Jonathan Goff and Shawn Crable are 2 pretty good 2nd round prospects, so maybe LB isn't the way to go. Mike Jenkins might be the guy and don't rule out an offensive player like DeSean Jackson or even Ryan Clady. Ultimately, if it feels like we'd be reaching for a defender and there's a good value offensive player on the board, as poor as our defense has been, a mediocre prospect isn't going to help us much, so maybe BPA will be the key. I would hope we trade down a good 10 picks or so and pick up Connor or even Crable, but we'll see what happens.