We recently had the opportunity to sit down and talk with four-star outside linebacker prospect and Ohio State commit, Gabe Powers. We previously broke down Powers and his likeness to former Buckeye greats like Chris Spielman and James Laurinaitis, but now we are going to dive into his feelings about being rated a four-star instead of sitting as a prestigious five.
“I was a five-star recruit at one time, the bumped me down about a couple of months ago, but why I should be a five-star recruit — my dedication to the game. I’m training six times a week on top of lifting four or five times a week. I take it very seriously not only on the field but off the field. Academically, I’m 3.8 GPA right now.”
Although no one has told Powers directly why he has fallen in the rankings, Powers feels the questions about his athleticism may be the reason.
“I’ve seen people say oh, I don’t know if he’s that fast, but they’ve never seen me run a 40,” Powers stated while discussing some of the criticisms he has heard. In response to this, Powers has started to work with famed Ohio State and Olympic track legend, Butch Reynolds. According to his coverage coach, Ryan Stewart, who has spent time at both Boise State and Ohio State, Powers now runs the forty in the 4.5s with consistency.
Another possible reason for the loss in ranking is the fact that Powers was being critiqued on his lack of size as most sights listed him in the low 220- pound range, but like with most of the criticism Powers hears, he doesn’t get upset he just sees it as an opportunity to improve. In regard to his size, Powers has changed his diet and is now safely in the 230-pound range and feels he could potentially even hit 250 pounds before football season.
The ironic part is that since gaining the additional weight, rumors are floating around that he may be best playing defensive end rather than linebacker. It has to be somewhat frustrating for someone to hear that they are too small to play linebacker and now those same people want to project you as a defensive lineman, but again Powers keeps a positive attitude.
“I’ll play any position they (Ohio State) want me to play,” Is what Power said when we were discussing the conversations surrounding his future position.
Ohio State commit Gabe Powers has throwback style, attitude like Chris Spielman https://t.co/tilANrRsWH
— Buckeyes Wire (@BuckeyesWire) May 27, 2021
Before exiting the interview, Powers expressed to me that he feels strongly he will regain his fifth star. If so, it’ll give Ohio State. Stewart, who has worked with Kerry Coombs has seen a lot of top-level athletes first hand both at OSU and Boise, believes that Powers is one of the best he’s seen.
“I’ve been at all these different places. I was at Ohio State, Boise State, and there’s nodoby that I can say is more athletic than what I’ve seen from Gabe,” Stewart said. “There are people that are just as athletic … From Boise State it’s Doug Martin and Kyle Wilson. It’s Braxton Miller and Ryan Shazier, and Joey Bosa (from Ohio State). It’s like the top notch guys I’ve been around are just as good as him — as Gabe. Gabe is on another level … I’ve never seen a high school junior that was even close to as good.”
Sounds like a five-star athlete to me. At the least, Powers is a five-star person. We’ll keep an eye on the next update and see if Powers does indeed regain that five-star status from recruiting services. If he does, it’ll make the fourth five-star OSU has in the 2022 class.