On Tuesday morning, Class of 2021 DB Michael Gravely, Jr. was going about his day in Cleveland, Ohio, normally.
Before late, his coach at Glenville High School, Ted Ginn, Sr., informed him that Colorado was hoping to talk to him. By the end of the morning, he’d picked up his first P5 scholarship offer courtesy of the Buffaloes.
Ginn, Glenville and Cleveland have increasingly gotten on Colorado’s radar as of late. The Buffaloes this weekend host one of Gravely’s teammates, 2020 ATH William Anglen, whom CU is recruiting as a safety, for an OV.
Mel Tucker and Ginn go back significantly, when the former coached the latter’s son Ted, Jr. at Ohio State in 2004. At the time, the younger Ginn was an incoming five-star recruit at OSU and Tucker was co-defensive coordinator with the Buckeyes.
With Tucker’s roots coming from Cleveland, and considering his coaching history first at Ohio State from 2001-04 and later the Cleveland Browns from 2005-08, when Tucker did get his first head coaching job with the Buffaloes in December of 2018, it seemed a fair bet that at some point he’d try his hand at recruiting the state and area.
Ginn, Sr. has helped facilitate that desire, first with Anglen and now with Gravely, who is 6-foot-1 and 185 pounds. As was the case with Anglen’s offer, Gravely received his directly from the boss.
“Coach Mel Tucker granted me the offer, telling me I was big-time at (Glenville) and that I was up next to be a rising star,” Gravely said. “I was very honored and blessed. I was shocked — Colorado is a big-time school and it was always a dream of mine to play at a school like Colorado.”
Gravely said he also got some time on the phone with Buffs corners coach Travares Tillman as well as recruiting assistant Matt Pick.
By all indications, Tucker and Ginn, Sr. are forming quite the partnership in working to recruit the Cleveland area with an eye on bringing local talent to Boulder.
By the end of the calendar week, Gravely may very well have some further insider information about how the Buffs do business in Boulder, when his good friend Anglen returns from his official visit. Gravely said he and Anglen spoke over the phone moments after Colorado offered.
“I grew up with William. That’s my boy — I love him,” Gravely said. “I said ‘Go Buffs’ and we were talking about how we could meet up in college. We just talked about it recently. He’s very excited. (Colorado) is his first official visit. He’s really excited about going down to Colorado. He went down there (last fall) with coach Ginn, but he’s excited to get down there and reunite with the family.”
As his recruitment begins to take off, Gravely said that a main focus of his will be improving his speed. His latest 40-yard dash time was 4.51 seconds, but he has aspirations of dropping it down to below 4.4.
Gravely, who recently picked up an offer from Cincinnati, as well, plans on working to improve his 40 time as much as often as possible, which for him means at least three times a month.
Via his junior season highlights, Gravely sticks out as a contact-seeking DB with good backfield vision who can break off coverage and tackle the ball handler.
