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Colorado State earned a transfer when they were able to land offensive tackle Joey O'Connor who has decided to leave Ohio State to be closer to home. Out of high school O'Connor first committed to Penn State, and then changed to Ohio State when Urban Meyer cam calling. O'Connor was never comfortable in his first year at Ohio State, and that is a main reason he decided to transfer.
This is one of the highest rated players ever to head to Colorado State, O'Connor was a four-star recruit out of high school and he was the nation's 112th player overall and the 12th tackle of the 2012 class.
O'Connor spoke to the media about his decision to transfer, and he thought Colorado State was going in the right direction as a reason he chose the Rams:
"When I decided I was going to transfer I knew that coach (Jim) McElwain had a good thing going on at Colorado State," O'Connor said. "I talked to them a little bit once I was released I just knew that it was close to home and close to my support. It seemed like it was the right place to go."
Here is more of what O'Connor said to Gold and Green News:
"When I was thinking about transferring, I was trying to think about what other place was closest to home, but also had a good program," O'Connor told GoldandGreenNews.com Saturday morning.
"CSU came to my mind right away. It's closer to my family and the people who support me. Once I got a release and everything, I actually started talking to Coach McElwain, Coach Baldwin and Coach Frazier.
"Just talking to them, they have a great thing going and they're definitely turning the program around which is awesome and I'm very excited about that. They seem like very genuine people who care about their players and I'm very excited to be a part of that."
Once concern is that O'Connor is recovering from microfracture surgery on his left knee, but the doctors at Ohio State say he is ahead of schedule. He should be running in April and be completely healthy once he arrives to Colorado State in June.
O'Connor is still going to finish out his freshman year at Ohio State and will enroll in min-June at Colorado State. He redshirted his first year and after sitting out the mandated one-year for transfer he will have three years of eligibility left.