College Football Recruiting 2013: Top Recruits Who Bolted out of State

Schools take pride in locking fences around their areas, cities, states and regions. Recruits take pride in staying home and playing for their local school.

However, some recruits don't appeal to the idea of staying at home. Some recruits want to leave, explore new areas of the country and play against different players in a different conference than what they've seen at home.

Some recruits choose not to stay at home. Some recruits leave the state to ball out in college.

For this read, here are the top recruits who bolted for out-of-state schools.

Joey Bosa, DL

Bosa is a Florida native who plays in the defensive trenches for powerhouse St. Thomas Aquinas. He stands 6'4" and weighs in at the 270-pound range.

Bosa drew interest from all the top Florida schools and could have stayed home to be a Gator, Hurricane or Seminole, yet he is moving north. He is committed to Ohio State, and the Sunshine State native is slated to play college ball in Columbus.

Ryan Burns, QB

Burns is a 6'5", 220-pound QB prospect from Virginia. He has a good arm strength, touch, accuracy and works well in the intermediate passing game.

He could have stayed to played for the Hokies or Cavaliers, or he could've gone to Marshall or West Virginia, but Burns is leaving the entire region.

He's opted to commit to Stanford, where next year he will travel to Palo Alto to try becoming the next stud Cardinal field general.

Greg Bryant, RB

Bryant was thought to likely stay inside Florida, as he's big time in the Sunshine State and is one of the top overall recruits from Florida this year.

However, he took a trip to Norman in the spring and just fell in love with Oklahoma, which is where he is headed now.

A 5'10", 200-pound runner, Bryant attacks downhill and has good run strength. He runs hard and tough, and he will soften up many Big 12 defenses.

Eli Woodard, CB

When I worked for the Giants, an East Coaster told me, "Kids around here usually end up going to Rutgers, Penn State, Syracuse or sometimes Notre Dame."

Well, for Eli Woodard, he is bucking that trend and doing something entirely different.

Woodard, a New Jersey native, is headed to Ohio State to play DB for Urban Meyer. An elite recruit, he goes 6'0" and 185 pounds, and I expect him to become a defensive cornerstone in Columbus. 

Christian Hackenburg, QB

Hackenburg is going to continue to get better and better, as the 6'3", 215-pounder has a high ceiling. He's a bit more mobile than you think and has great timing and rhythm to his game.

Committed to Penn State, Hackenburg spurned the Virginia/Big East/ACC region to go to Happy Valley and toss the rock for Bill O'Brien.

Ty Isaac, RB

Isaac is the most shocking player to make this list. Many felt huge variables in his recruitment were location and distance from his family.

An Illinois native, Isaac is a 6'3", 220-pound RB prospect with a big-time skill set, plus excellent hands to catch the football.

Michigan and Notre Dame were thought to be the favorites for him, which would have kept him near his family in the Midwest. However, Isaac is sewn up to USC.

Carl Lawson, DE

Lawson is one of the best pure football players in this year's class. He's a 6'2", 250-pound DE prospect from Georgia who is an excellent pass-rusher and is stout versus the run.

A young Jerome McDougle comes to mind with Lawson.

Georgia was never really appealing to him, and neither was Georgia Tech. Lawson tripped to Auburn awhile ago, loved it and is scheduled to play on The Plains after high school.

Max Browne, QB

You can't really blame Browne for leaving the state of Washington, as Steve Sarkisian took two of the country's top 15 QB prospects in Cyler Miles and Jeff Lindquist last year.

Yet, Sark and the Huskies still tried their hand to land Browne, but he opted to leave the state.

Browne—a 6'5", 215-pounder with excellent pre-snap read ability, a quick release and excellent skills—is heading to Los Angeles to play at USC.

Kenny Bigelow, DT

Bigelow is a Delaware native who plays ball in Maryland these days. He's a 6'3", 297-pound monster in the trenches and just gives OLs fits.

With him being from back East, you'd think he'd want to stay close to home.

However, Bigelow is really taking on the advice of "Go West, young man," as he is committed to USC. Look for him to become a star in Hollywood.

Robert Nkemdiche, DE

Nkemdiche is the top player in the country and hails from Georgia. I figured he wouldn't end up at Georgia Tech, but Georgia tried and tried and tried—didn't they?

Playing in the Peach State doesn't seem to appeal much to the 6'4", 270-pound beast of a DE.

LSU, Ole Miss and Alabama were thought to be the favorites here. Yet, once Nkemdiche saw his friends and Grayson High School teammates start to lock into Clemson one by one, he knew his table was set.

Edwin Weathersby has worked in scouting/player personnel departments for three professional football teams, including the New York Giants, Cleveland Browns and the Las Vegas Gladiators of the Arena League. He spent a year evaluating prep prospects and writing specific recruiting and scouting content articles for Student Sports Football (now ESPN Rise-HS).

A syndicated scout and writer, he's also contributed to WeAreSC.com, GatorBait.net and Diamonds in the Rough Inc., a college football and NFL draft magazine.