Ohio High School Football Receiver Andy Cruse

Wide receiver Andy Cruse, and incoming senior at Turpin High School in Cincinnati, Ohio, gave a verbal commit to Miami (Ohio) as part of their 2008 football recruiting class. The six-foot-four-inch, 205-pound player runs the forty in 4.6 seconds, benches 245 pounds, and squats 390 pounds. In his junior year, he had 44 carries, 1,143 yards, averaging 25.9 yards, and scored 14 touchdowns for his team. He missed two games last season after breaking his thumb.

Andy Cruse picked up several honors his junior year, including second-team All-State, first-team All-City, first-team All-Conference, and first-team All-District.

Going to Miami (Ohio)
Before verbally committing to Miami (Ohio) at the end of June, Cruse received an offer from Eastern Michigan and Cincinnati, where he also attended camp. He considered Cincinnati seriously before finally settling on Miami. Other schools of interest for this wide receiver were Indiana, Purdue, West Virginia, Akron, and Western Michigan.

Andy Cruse's offer at Eastern Michigan was to play receiver, and Cincinnati had said they wanted him to play tight end, and although he said it became a choice between Cincinnati and Miami (Ohio), Cruse felt strongly that he wanted to continue playing receiver at the college level. He expects the coaching staff at Miami will position him as a backside receiver. Football was not his only consideration when choosing what school to give his verbal commitment to - he based his decision on going to play for Miami on its academic record as well. He said, "Miami's academics had a huge roll in it too."

Turpin High School teammate and linebacker Luke Kelly has also already given a verbal commitment to Miami (Ohio), and while he finds it "pretty cool" that he will play with Kelly, a good friend of his, he told Scout.com that there were other reasons he chose the Redhawks. "I went on a visit ... and when I went there I said to myself 'I'm going here, this is amazing.' The campus is amazing; the coaches are all really nice, very laid back." He also commented that Miami's campus "felt like a place I belonged, it felt right" to him.

Andy Cruse feels his size is an asset to the Miami team, but that he wants to improve "catching the ball short, making people miss, and gaining more yards after the catch."

During his final high school football season, Cruse hopes Turpin will "not lose one game."