One more big one for UC

About 20 minutes after Brian Kelly finished talking to the media about his 2008 recruiting class, UC landed perhaps the most talented player in the class in running back Isaiah Pead from Columbus Eastmoor. Pead announced at a 4 p.m. press conference that he was signing with UC.

“We’ve got a guy who’s a high-profile athletic running back at a school that everybody knew was there,” Kelly said. “He was heavily recruited by all of the major schools and at the end of the day we thought we had a great opportunity because of our situation being in the spread. He likes to catch the football. He’s a guy who sees he has an opportunity to play right away. We told him he’ll have a chance to compete for playing time right away. It came down to us, Pittsburgh, West Virginia and Indiana.”

Pead, the Ohio Division IV player of the year, rushed for 2,204 yards and 39 touchdowns as a senior. He gained 4,443 yards in his career, breaking the school record by Archie Griffin.