By: Doug Lesmerises (Cleveland.com) —
Duron Carter, WR, 6-3, 185

Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (Aquinas)

4 stars (average of Scout and Rivals rankings)

When I called the high school coaches of Florida-based Ohio State recruits Carlos Hyde and Duron Carter this week, they both started with the same joke.

“What? You haven’t heard? He’s going to Florida?”

Cris Carter’s kid at Florida? Can’t be. And it’s not. Just recruiting humor.

When Carter left Ohio State after the 1986 season, he had more catches than anyone in the history of the Buckeyes. He still ranks second, surpassed only by David Boston. And now his son is coming to add to, and maybe take down, the Carter legacy.

“He’s bigger than his dad now, at least taller,” George Smith, Carter’s coach at St. Thomas Aquinas in Fort Lauderdale, said this week. And he would know, since Cris Carter is the school’s receivers coach.

“What you’re going to get is a kid still growing, still maturing, and when the total package comes through, it’s going to be unbelievable,” Smith said. “He could be a big-time ‘Wow’ down the road. He has great hands, he’s a great route runner, and does he look fast? Nah. Is he fast? Yeah.”

Carter is considered to be in the same mold of last years’s top OSU receiving recruit, DeVier Posey, who came in with through-the-roof potential but still worked in slowly during the season, maybe more slowly than I expected, as receivers coach Darrell Hazell talked about all the little things Posey needed to work on in practice.

Now Posey is expected to be one of the leaders among the OSU receivers in 2009, and Carter will be trying to work his way in.

Carter had offers from LSU, West Virginia and South Florida among others, but, not surprisingly, Smith said Carter never hesitated on his choice of Ohio State.

“There was a great chance for him to waver, I’m sure,” Smith said. “But he never bought in to any of that. I don’t think that would have ever changed.”

Carter is ranked as the No. 10 receiver in this recruiting class by Scout.com and the No. 11 receiver by Rivals.com.

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