Trieu: Burly Ohio running back Stephan Byrd has 'much love' for Michigan
Stephan Byrd has a way of making great first impressions.
The first time Canal Winchester (Ohio) head coach Joshua Stratton went to see Byrd, a then-heavily touted eighth-grader play, he scored on three of his first five touches, a run, a punt return and a reception.
On Sunday, when Byrd, now a heavily recruited sophomore running back, visited Michigan for a junior day, Jim Harbaugh immediately noticed his build and made a comment about the size of his neck during the taking of a photo. After the pictures were taken, Byrd was verbally offered a scholarship by Harbaugh.
“It was great, honestly,” Byrd told The Michigan Insider following his visit. “I can’t even sugarcoat it, it’s the best experience I’ve had so far and I have much love towards (the) Michigan coaching staff for giving me and my parents a great day. My mom is from Michigan, so I think very highly of them and with the day we had, it’s even better. She was just about as happy I was.”
Byrd now has nine offers. Minnesota, West Virginia, Pittsburgh and Iowa State are the other Power 5 programs who have offered, but with two years left in his recruitment, that list could be much longer by the time he is a senior.
“He is a big, young kid,” Stratton said. “Mom’s got height, she’s about 6-foot. Dad is 6-2, 6-3, and his sister is 6-foot-1 and an athlete. She’s going to play college volleyball and was a 1,000-point scorer on the basketball team, so he’s got some genes. Stephan is a three-sport athlete and one reason everyone is enamored with him is, he just turned 16 two weeks ago, so he’s 6-foot-1, 200 pounds and he’s a baby.”
After Stratton heard the local legends about Byrd as a middle-schooler and then had that first opportunity to see the talent for himself, he was certain Byrd would not play freshman football his ninth-grade year. The plan was for him to be the starting running back on the junior varsity.
In the middle of that summer, everything changed. The back who was the returning starter tore his ACL. That same back had befriended Stephan and given him the nickname “Baby Bull.”
“I said, ‘Let’s see if the bull is ready,’” Stratton recalls. “The next day, we put him in and first play, we ran outside zone and he put his foot in the ground, cut across the grain and ran 60 yards for a touchdown against our defense, and our coaches looked at each other and I said ‘I guess he’s ready.’ We’ve never looked back.”
Byrd started all 10 games as a freshman and, even with Stratton and his staff wanting to not wear out a 14-year-old playing against varsity competition, he rushed for 1,252 yards and 12 touchdowns. His team, once a bottom dweller in their conference, was thriving as well. As a sophomore, the team was ahead by a good enough margin in many of their games that Byrd only played in 33 total quarters and still managed to rush for 1,500 yards and scored 25 total touchdowns.
Byrd is now a local celebrity. But described as a big kid himself, he still talks more about Madden than his own recruiting success. He was the first volunteer to coach youth flag football in the Canal Winchester system. At halftime of one game, Stratton said he began to wonder where Byrd was when the entire rest of the team was in the locker room. When he found out that he was still outside the locker room high-fiving every little kid that wanted a brush with the star tailback, Stratton said he never was worried again when Byrd was late to halftime.
“He has a really big heart,” Stratton added.
That has not changed as colleges have extended offers, and Byrd’s support system has also helped to keep him grounded and to truly understand what this all means.
“I think it’s really complicated,” Stratton said. “I’ve gotten insight from college coaches that I have a relationship with outside of football and it’s been explained that, in this process, these offers don’t really mean anything in the grand scheme of things. If he goes out next year and rushes for 600 yards and ix touchdowns, Jim Harbaugh is going to forget who is and Luke Fickell is not going to know who he is. He has to continue to get better, and these non-commitable offers mean we really like you, but you have to continue to improve.”
That should not be a problem for Byrd, who is grateful for the opportunities he has, including Michigan.
“I would like to thank everyone on the Michigan staff for impacting my life,” he said following his offer.
Byrd’s next visit will be this weekend at West Virginia.
More new offers go out
Michigan offered three prospects from Southeast Polk in Iowa at Sunday’s junior day. Sophomore defensive back Xavier Nwankpa, a nationally recruited prospect, sophomore quarterback Jaxon Dailey and 6-foot-6 freshman offensive tackle Kadyn Proctor were all offered.
For Dailey, it was his first offer. Nwankpa and Proctor came in holding Power 5 scholarships already.
The Wolverines also offered Santa Margarita (California) Catholic defensive end Derek Wilkins.
The 6-foot-4, 250-pound Wilkins is a four-star recruit and excellent student as well. He has 14 offers now, including Stanford, California, Boston College and more.
More information
Allen Trieu covers Midwest football recruiting for 247Sports. He has been featured on the Big Ten Network on its annual Signing Day Show. His Michigan and Michigan State recruiting columns appear weekly at detroitnews.com.