Ohio has offered a scholarship to Aurora High School defensive end Patrick Dougherty. The 6-5, 250-pounder also has offers from Akron, Ball St., BC, BG, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Indiana, Miami (OH) and Toledo. According to Rivals.com, he has narrowed his choices to Ohio and Indiana and expects to make a decision in the next couple of weeks.

ScoutingOhio.com video:

I hope it's Ohio.  He's not on my Wish List not because of lack of talent on his part but I've been in the bad habit of bypassing guys like him with multiple bcs offers and this guy has em from all the MAC schools + schools like UC and Syracuse and Indiana and BC.  I need to rethink that strategy since guys like him are now obviously 50/50....we went from a zero chance to land a guy like him 10 years ago to a 50/50 chance......me likey.

I had been watching Patrick on 247sports, and it has been showing 50-50 with the Hoosiers for awhile. Between the two, it may seem odd to say this, comparing a MAC team to a Big Ten team, but Ohio is clearly the stronger program at the moment, with a better chance for wins, bowls, ranking, etc. Conversely, the argument for Indiana is that he might play sooner there, because they obviously have some major needs.

I think the winning argument in favor of Ohio is that Ohio has the better coaching. They have a history of taking players, and coaching them up, to be better players. Over the last 8 years, Ohio's recruiting classes have typically ranked about #80-100, and yet the team has been a consistent winner, and typically ended the year ranking about #70ish. Now we're seeing recruiting classes that are going to be in the #50-70 range, so I expect to see teams ending up ranked #30-50ish. That's about the preseason rank for Ohio next year. Phil Steele put Ohio at about #31, but most of the other rankings have placed them about #55.

I hope Patrick chooses to be a Bobcat, but if not, I wish him success as a Hoosier.

Well, he picked IU, but good luck to him.