The word from AJ's best friend in Covington is that OU put him on full scholarship. Hope this is true because the kid deserves it.

If it's true that he has a schollie, we are real heavy in RB's for a change. Hard to believe that they all stay for the duration. It just doesn't add up that we have that many on scholarship, even if you use some for kickoffs and punt returns. Or am I the only one that thinks this?

Arkley's blog confirms that he was awarded a scholarship, along with Mike Terpin, Bubba Williams, and Chad More.

Ohio didn't have one to give up front. It was only when Jones, Leavitt, Washington, and Brumfield failed to qualify, and that Schany was declared medially ineligible that some scholarships opened up, which were given to walkons. The trend these days seems to be to promise more scholarships than you can deliver, and then scramble to deal with the problems that result. I respect that that Ohio under-promises and over-delivers.

Based on this thread, he was a walkon by May 6th. I'm not sure when Ohio learned which players would eventually fail to qualify, but I doubt they knew for sure that early.

As for the approach of awarding so many scholarships to walkons, I like it. I feel as if each year the quality of walkons in the program gets better.  Some schools use walkons primarily for practice fodder, but I feel like at Ohio every player gets the same coaching, and has a chance to make it. Players that started as walkons who are likely to contribute this year are:
OL - Zach Adams, Seth Everhart, Bubba Williams
TE - Devin Saunders
QB - JD Sprague
RB - AJ Ouellette, Bo Hardy
WR - Kawmae Sawyer, Ian Dixon, Randy Stites
DL - none
LB - Cody Grillot, Chad Moore, Travis Daugherty
DB - Mike Terpin, Devin Jones, Blake Scipio
Other - Josiah Yazdani, Miles Chapman

That's a lot of players, and is not complete - there will no doubt be other walkons that get some playing time before the year is up. But, the list alone doesn't fully represent their contribution. The walkons come in knowing they have to prove themselves, and therefore they come in expecting to have to out-work the scholarship athletes. That, in turn pushes the scholarship athletes to work harder themselves, and makes the entire team get better.

Note that Ohio has had some very good walkons over the years. When I say the program is "getting better" it is because the impact of the group now seems to be across the board, affecting nearly every position, whereas in the past there were typically a few walkons that were really good, but a lot of the walkons were buried deeply on the depth chart.

Lots of running backs on board, maybe he'll redshirt. I thought he was injured and didn't play in the last scrimmage.

Sorry, I didn't mean to say that it was a serious injury, just that he was injured enough to not play in the scrimmage

Not sure this is a big deal - not getting mentioned by Solich.  After all, the kid just now earned a scholarship and isn't starting or anything like that. 

Hopefully this turns into a great story for the program and for Ouellette.  If and when it does, I'm sure Ouellette will get plenty of publicity.

Congrats to Ouellette on getting a scholarship.  He gambled on his talent and won.  Takes guts to do that.

Kinda, Chad Brinker II, right?

How could so many schools have missed on AJ?!

Not often you see a true Freshman walkon get handed the ball 6 times with the game on the line in the last 2 minutes. We will see a lot more of him.

If you fumble the ball as a RB for Frank, you might as well go take a shower you are done for the night unless you play special teams.

I think we found our new starting running back, or should be. A freashman that is fast powerful and knows how to hold on to the ball, something we need. I feel the others would just be good at slot but as running back? The answer OUELLETTE im a fan