The rumors are breaking that Purdue has its first high school verbal for the class of 2010, and it is a pretty decent prospect. After not having a recruit from the state of Indiana in our entire 2009 class, the first one (other than Robert Marve) for 2010 is Charles Torwudzo out of Brownsburg, IN. Scout reported yesterday that he has commited to Purdue. He is listed as a 3-star prospect on their site, while Rivals has not given him a ranking.
I think this is a good pickup because he is a receiver with some size. One of my biggest complaints about Tiller's years of coaching was that we always seemed to lack size in our receivers. Many of his bigger receivers were holdovers from Jim Colletto (Chris Daniels, Randall Lane, etc.). When he did get big guys not many of them panned out. Greg Orton is about the only one that had a full, decent career (though John Standeford did have some size). Torwudzo brings a 6'4" frame that we badly need at the outside receiver position. Rivals even has him listed at 6'5", 195 lbs. He was listed on Brownsburg's basketball last season as well. I love receivers that were basketball players in high school because they know how to use their body in traffic to go up and get the ball. As a sophomore, he was not listed on Brownsburg's varsity roster, but he probably saw plenty of practice time against Butler's Gordon Hayward and Miami (OH)'s Julian Mavunga as the Bulldogs won the 2008 Class 4A state title in Indiana.
Looking at his list of schools, Torwudzo was drawing some decent interest here in the Midwest. Ohio State and Cincinnati were BCS programs a year ago, while Illinois and Michigan State have been recruiting very well recently. It is also a good sign that we haven't completely lost ties with the state of Indiana since it produces very few high prospects in football each year.
As for his high school team, don't expect to see them on any highlight shows soon. Brownsburg is known for its baseball program (they produced a first round MLB draft pick this year in Stanford's Drew Storen). Their basketball program is decent. but their football team last won a sectional in 1985. They went on to win t e second of two straight state championships that year, but they have done little else since. They play in the Hoosier Crossroads Conference. That is a pretty good football conference, but with 10 members and a nine game regular season in Indiana they have no non-conference games. They are also in the same sectional as seven time state champion Ben Davis, two-time state champion Zionsville, and rising power Pike. Brownsburg was 5-6 last year and lost in the second round of the sectional against Ben Davis 45-10.
For those that live in the Lafayette area who want a close-up look at Torwudzo, Brownsburg plays at Lafayette Jeff on September 25th, the night before the Notre Dame game.