We continue our countdown of Ohio High magazine’s top 50 football prospects for 2010 with today’s look at the No. 2-ranked prospect, Cincinnati Anderson offensive lineman Andrew Norwell.
We will wrap up this countdown with a look at the No. 1-ranked prospect in the state later this week. The list will then be updated for the Fall edition of Ohio High magazine. Click here for information on how to subscribe to Ohio High.
For this look at Norwell, we have a special added treat. This is Gary Housteau’s feature on Norwell from the Summer 2009 edition of Bucknuts The Magazine.
Here is our look at Norwell:
Headline: Strong Building Block
By Gary Housteau
It took a mere three months for Andrew Norwell of Anderson High School in Cincinnati to officially become the third member of the 2010 recruiting class for Ohio State.
A few days after Anderson won their first playoff game last season, in their attempt to defend their school’s first-ever state championship that they earned during the ’07 campaign, Norwell got word from both OSU assistant coach John Peterson and head coach Jim Tressel that a scholarship offer would be in the mail.
And on national signing day in February, three calendar months after verbally receiving the offer, Norwell verbally committed to Ohio State.
“I really like the coaches a lot,” said Norwell as he began to explain why he chose to commit to Ohio State. “And I liked the atmosphere at the stadium. It was pretty sweet when the game starts.”
At close to 6-7 and somewhere around 270 pounds, Norwell has started at left tackle in each of the past two seasons -- both of which resulted in a state championship game appearance for the Redskins.
In Norwell’s sophomore campaign, Anderson finished the year as the Division II state champions with a 13-2 mark after beating Louisville 31-25 in the title tilt. And last year, Norwell’s junior season, the Redskins finished 12-3 after losing to Sylvania Southview 29-25 in the D-II state final.
“I think you’d have to say (they were) our best two years, yeah. Anytime you win a state championship and you’re a runner-up the next year and you’re in a position to win it again obviously,” said Anderson third-year head coach Jeff Giesting, who presided at the helm over that span. “But we’ve had great teams before and Coach (Vince) Suriano did a great job for years and he put things in place for us to be successful and we’ve continued with that. And when you have players as good as Andrew it makes you a lot better coach for sure.”
Giesting, an assistant at Anderson for 19 years prior to becoming the head coach there, had nothing but great things to say about his standout left tackle.
“I think Andrew is the best offensive lineman since I’ve been at Anderson in my 21 years there and we’ve sent some kids to Boston College, his brother (Chris) went to Illinois and played, and we’ve sent kids to Louisville, Kentucky and everywhere else,” Giesting said. “But Andrew is definitely a huge reason for our success the last couple of years. We were able to control the line of scrimmage and run the football.”
Ohio State started courting Norwell, ranked third in Ohio’s class of 2010 by Ohio High magazine, between those two very successful Division II seasons. The Redskins dropped down from D-I for the start of the ’07 campaign, the same time Giesting took over the reins.
“After my sophomore year when we won the state, I talked to Coach Peterson like in the spring and went up to the spring game in my sophomore year,” Norwell said. “And that’s how it first came about.”
But, admittedly, Norwell wasn’t exactly a hopelessly devoted Ohio State fan when they first extended him the offer.
“I was an Illinois fan for a little bit because my brother played there,” Norwell said. “But I’ve always been an Ohio State fan. I have to root for my state.”
Norwell’s brother Chris also prepped at Anderson before becoming a defensive lineman for the Illini. He was a member of that infamous Illinois team that almost ruined Ohio State’s national championship bid by defeating the previously-unbeaten Buckeyes 28-21 at Ohio Stadium in 2007.
“Chris wasn’t as big as Andrew in high school. Chris came out of high school at about 245 (pounds),” Giesting said. “Chris was an all-city basketball player and was a tremendous post player (Anderson’s career scoring and rebounding leader on the hardwood). So Chris didn’t really get, probably, as serious about football until maybe the end of his junior year, whereas Andrew had known since his freshman year that football was the way he was going to go.
“But they’re very similar and they’re both a couple of the most competitive players that we’ve ever had. When it’s time to get the job done they’re just kind of workmanlike about it and they really step up when you need them to. And they make plays. That’s the big similarity between the two of them, how competitive they are. When they get you down they want to beat you and that’s the reason why they’re both successful.”
But in the end, however, it wasn’t difficult for Andrew to opt for Ohio State over his brother’s team or any of the other schools that had already offered him a scholarship.
“No, it wasn’t tough. He just said I should make my own decision and left it up to me,” said Norwell when asked if it was difficult for him not to follow his brother to Illinois. “But he gave me advice on what to do and stuff.”
But a coaching change on the Illinois staff sort of helped to eliminate the Illini for Norwell from any serious contention.
“I really liked the O-line coach up at Illinois (Eric Wolford) but he moved to a different school or whatever,” Norwell said. “But I think it was just a better fit with me going to Ohio State.”
So with his scholarship to OSU now secured, Norwell will try to help his team rebound from that disappointing loss in the state title game from this past year.
“It was pretty difficult. The bus ride home was terrible,” Norwell said. “When I think about it, it still gets me mad. We should have won. It was just for a couple of plays.”
But he has no regrets from that championship-game defeat to Southview.
“I don’t have any regrets from that game. I played my heart out,” Norwell said. “We were playing good but we just came up short. But I have no regrets because I played my hardest.”
Known as a devastating run blocker, Norwell is a pretty darn good offensive lineman when he plays his heart out.
“Just finishing every play is basically what the coaches like,” said Norwell when he began describing some of the things that some of the coaches recruiting him have told Norwell that they like most about him. “And they like to see me throw around guys a little bit. Pancake them.”
But as nasty as that sounds with regard to Norwell’s run-blocking prowess, he hasn’t given up a sack in each of the past two seasons.
“I work on that every day in one-on-one pass rush with the defense,” Norwell said. “I just work on my technique to get better. Don’t lean and just basically work on my technique.”
But Anderson isn’t exactly a pass-happy school by any means.
“We’re not like a traditional drop-back team where he has to pass block while we’re in the pocket throwing it 30 times, but he’s shown that he’s very capable,” Giesting said. “With his size and his long arms he really knows how to use his leverage, that’s how he controls rushers. But with his run blocking, I think the thing about it is how he finishes. He gets somebody moving and he really does go about finishing the block off the best way he can. He’s very physical with how he finishes things.”
So, in a nutshell, Norwell is big, nasty, physical, hard-working and equally talented at both run and pass blocking.
“Well, I think that my pass blocking can improve a little bit. I can make my feet faster but my feet are already good,” Norwell said. “But I can improve on just about everything.”
According to Giesting, Norwell has so much more than just his size going for him.
“He’s got a lot of physical tools for his size. He’s very agile and he’s got great balance,” the coach said. “But I think the biggest thing that I’ve noticed about Andrew the last few years is how coachable he is. He always wants to improve. He’s always asking Matt Stanyard, our offensive line coach, how he can do something better or work on a different technique. And that’s the thing with Andrew, he really wants to be as good as he can be.”
Having a great attitude and a strong work ethic also works in Norwell’s favor.
“He’s working hard in the weight room now and working on his agility even more,” Giesting said. “For a big, tall kid that’s almost 6-7 and weighs 275 pounds, some of the athletic things that he does are pretty amazing to see. But I think it’s his attitude and how he goes about his business that’s been most impressive to me.”
And like his brother Chris, Andrew plays basketball for the Redskins. He was still a little below his football weight at the beginning of summer.
“When I was playing basketball I dropped down to like 260 or 265,” said Norwell, whose other brother Adam played basketball at Northern Kentucky. “I dropped a little bit of weight but I’m getting it back up. It’s all football now.”
His dreams about his eventual future at Ohio State seem somewhat modest but focused.
“What I think about now is going up there and just proving myself. How I’m going to prove myself up there,” Norwell said. “I know there’s a lot of competition up there but I’ll find my way into a spot.”
And he’s flexible with regards to landing a spot anywhere along the offensive line at Ohio State.
“It doesn’t matter to me. I can play guard too,” Norwell said. “So whichever spot gets me in faster is where I’ll play. I like to play football so it doesn’t matter to me.”
But it will certainly be much harder for Norwell and his Anderson teammates to make it back to the state championship game for the third-consecutive season. After just two very successful seasons in the Division II ranks, Anderson has been bumped back up to the big-school division for the upcoming season.
“Everybody is already dogging us, saying we’re not going to be able to do anything in the playoffs and stuff,” Norwell said. “So hopefully we’ll make a run this year and beat a big D-I school in the first round of the playoffs or something. So I’m looking forward to that, being in D-I in my senior year.”
And make no mistake about it, Norwell, a Redskin captain this season, will continue to do his part to prepare himself for combat in the ’09 season.
“I’m just, basically, trying to get a little stronger and stuff,” he said. “And just work on my game to improve every day.”
He’s obviously a no-nonsense type of young man. And that’s one of the reasons why Norwell committed to Ohio State as early as he did.
“I thought it was the right time to do it,” said Norwell who has also committed to playing in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl in January after his senior season. “Ohio State was always, in the back of my mind, they were like my number one school. So I decided to commit to get it done with and just focus on my senior year and being a kid so I don’t have to worry about it.”
One of seven siblings in the Norwell family, Andrew’s better days on the gridiron are still ahead of him according to Giesting.
“I think Andrew still has a little bit of growing left and I think he’s going to make a lot more gains with his strength if he keeps committing to the weight room in the next few years,” the coach said. “And by the time he’s 20 or 21-years-old he’s going to be over 300 pounds and he’s going to be an extremely powerful lineman for the Buckeyes. He keeps developing in our program and he still got a lot of upside to him. I really believe that.”
So with his future at Ohio State all set, Norwell is excited about the prospects for Anderson football despite the fact that they’re one of the smaller D-I programs in the state in terms of enrollment.
“I’m thinking our line will be good again. We’ll have guys working in at the guard positions, we got like three guys there and all three of them are pretty good,” Norwell said. “So I think our line is going to be looking good and our running back, Kyle Slater, is going to be good. It’s my last year so I want to take everything in. I’m looking forward to it, to play my last year of football in high school. It’s going to be fun.”
Ohio State is certainly in for a treat the way Giesting sees it.
“It’s just been a fun thing to watch him grow from kind of a quiet sophomore to now he’s a leader on our team and how he’s matured as a person,” he said. “He knows it’s the greatest team sport going out there and he’s a great teammate to the other players on our team. Even though he’s one of our best players he doesn’t act that way.
“He just wants to do what’s best for our team and I think that’s what’s most impressive about him. He cares about Anderson football and he wants Anderson to be successful. He’ll be the same way with the Buckeyes.”
ScoutingOhio.com’s Mark Porter on Norwell: Norwell fits the NFL prototype for an offensive tackle and has a nasty streak to go with it. His wingspan and footwork make him a force in pass protection. Plays very physical in the run game and runs his feet to drive defenders off the ball. Has all the tools to play left tackle in college.
Here is video of Norwell in action, courtesy of ScoutingOhio.com:
