Burroughs' Zeke Elliott Signs to Play at Ohio State

Zeke Elliott, clearly the most talented football player in John Burroughs history, who rushed for 4,000 career yards and 70 TDs the past two seasons announced on live television that he was taking his talents to The Ohio State University.

It would be fair to say, that broke the collective hearts of Mizzou Tiger fans. It was not a great surprise to Zeke’s class mates. To the student, they all said OSU--for sure. His dad, Stacy Elliott’s red tie was a dead give-away of the decision.

More photos on the Ladue-Frontenac Facebook page.

Probably there are two or three big reasons why Elliott chose the Buckeyes.

First, Urban Meyer does a great job of developing backs who both run and catch the ball. That had particular appeal to No. 2 in a Burroughs uniform.

Secondly, as his coach Gus Frerotte explained: OSU did a much better job of recruiting than Mizzou. “They (Ohio State) did a much better job of recruiting Zeke from beginning to end,” said the Burroughs coach.

Elliott was anxious to get all of this behind him. “I’m glad for all this to be over. There were a lot of ups and downs and hard times. This was a big decision.”

Adding, “Burroughs is a special community and  I love Burroughs and Burroughs will always be a strong part of my life.”

Elliott will go from crowds of 300 to those of more than 100,000. “Yea, the ‘Shoe’ is crazy. They seat 108,000 and their games are all sold out. It will be more difficult, but I’m up for the challenge," he said.

Elliott will go where Olympian Jesse Owens made his mark in track and field.

“I don’t know if I’ll be running track up there. Depends upon how my freshman season goes. I’ll decide that when I get there. I love track, but I don’t know if I’ll be doing this after the spring.”

His father was emotional about the decision. “If you asked me two years ago, I don’t know if I would have ever thought this would be the outcome,” said Stacy Elliott, who played football at Mizzou and was on the team that lost the infamous 5th Down game vs. Colorado.

Emily Goodloe signs with Bucknell

Before the televisioned news conference, Emily Goodloe signed a National Letter of Intent to play field hockey at Bucknell University.