Football profile: Kenny Guiton: Last minute QB from Texas fills out 2009 class

When looking for a quarterback in the 2009 recruiting class, Ohio State was set on Tajh Boyd, the five-star recruit from Hampton, Va., but Boyd was seeing orange.

After Boyd jumped from offer to offer, eventually choosing Clemson University, OSU had to reevaluate its quarterback search. In less than a week, the Buckeyes found 6-feet-2, 178-pound Kenny Guiton from Eisenhower High School in Aldine, Texas.

"Boyd had numerous scholarship offers," said Steve Helwagen, the managing editor of Bucknuts Media Network. "Kenny was like a needle-in-a-haystack find and a last minute decision at that."

Kenny Guiton

Guiton signed with the Buckeyes three days before National Signing Day, which was a huge benefit on both sides. He had offers from schools such as Northwestern, Iowa State and Kansas.

However, after seeing some of his teammates go to big-time schools, he was still looking for something better.

Eisenhower wide receivers Greg Timmons and Jaz Reynolds signed with Texas and Oklahoma, respectively, while defensive back Craig Loston committed to LSU.

"Kenny really didn't have the big-time offers that some of the other kids at his school did, but OSU kind of rescued him in a way," Helwagen said.

After Boyd became a Clemson Tiger, OSU assistant coach John Peterson tracked Guiton down.

"The Buckeyes were already familiar with what Kenny was doing, as well as Eisenhower because it has turned out many Division I-A quarterbacks in past years," said Kevin Noon, publisher of buckeyegrove.com.

Now that they have him, it is unlikely that Pryor will cease his starting role for the team, meaning Guiton will most likely redshirt his freshman year.

Noon said Guiton's redshirt status would be a good thing because it would mean that Pryor is doing OK, both health-wise and performance-wise.

Besides Pryor, OSU already had soon-to-be sophomore Joe Bauserman, a former minor league baseball pitcher, in the QB position. Because both of these men have three years of eligibility left, there was no need for a long quarterback roster.

Though he isn't on the same level as Pryor was this time last year, he has impressive stats that make him a candidate for D-I football.

As a junior, Guiton recorded 2,592 yards passing, 329 yards rushing and scored 29 times. He is also a member of Eisenhower's basketball and track teams and has a 3.3 grade point average.

Helwagen said Guiton's grades and performance in other sports shows his versatility that will only benefit the Buckeyes.

"Guiton will be a good role player, so if he doesn't fit at quarterback then he can easily change positions," he said. "He's got a lot of potential and he's a tremendous athlete; no one expects him to start at QB but he will still give that camp a good look."