Meet the 2019 IUFB Recruiting Targets: Jeramy Passmore

Image: 247 Sports

Written by: Kris Shankle

 There isn’t enough words or the right things to say when it comes to Jeramy Passmore. Let me put it this way, when gathering info for this article and talking with Passmore himself, I had to double check some of his stats, well because they weren’t normal for most high schoolers. Passmore is a Miami, FL native and attends Columbus High School. Florida has become Tom Allen’s secondary home when it comes to recruiting. It’s actually pretty impressive what he’s been able to establish in one of the most talented states for high school football prospects. QB Mike Penix from Tampa Bay Tech and the Tampa Bay Times all area offensive player of the year choose the Hoosiers over plenty of schools, Florida State being one of them. Then there is James Miller, the linebacker from Armwood. Miller was the Tampa Bay Times all area defensive player of the year. He also decided on IU and coach Tom Allen over Florida State among others. Those two aren’t the only ones though, as Penix’s teammate at Tampa Bay Tech Jonathan King a DE also spurned Florida schools, mainly Florida to become a Hoosier. To round it out, Micah McFadden from Plant High School also signed a NLI to play in Bloomington. Altogether Indiana landed 4 players on the HomeTeam top 25 list of area seniors. Those 4 were more than Florida (two), FSU (three), USF (one) as well as Miami (zero) had, which shows just how impressive of a haul the Hoosiers pulled off. 

Now that we’ve established where Passmore is from and the success that Tom Allen has had recently in the state of Florida, we can get back to talking about how talented of a player Jeramy Passmore really is. At the moment, Passmore is rated as the 641st best prospect in the country according to 247 sports. He is also the 80th best prospect in the state of Florida according to them. Recently his recruitment has taken off. 2018 isn’t that far in yet, but just in this short time, Indiana, Appalachian State, Toledo, Tulane and Boston College have all offered him. Along with those offers, he has already had some from Baylor, Florida Atlantic, Syracuse, Temple, Southern Miss to go along with interest from Miami, UCF, Rutgers, Texas Tech and Kentucky. The 6’2 defensive tackle looks like the kind of talent that that list will only grow from here, but when I asked Passmore who was recruiting him the hardest, his response was “Syracuse and Indiana”. Indiana has become somewhat of a favorite for him and he has said that he will take another trip to Bloomington this Summer. I asked Passmore about what stood out about IU. Passmore said, “the love they have shown me and the relationships I have built with the staff.” A lot of people have ideas of when and where Passmore will decide on his college destination, but when I asked him about his timetable and when he’d like to decide by he said, “not really, I’m just taking things slow. I want to take a few more visits first before I decide or make any decisions.” Syracuse is likely to get a visit as well by the sounds of it, but IU is in great shape with him.

Passmore really took his game to another level as a Junior. It led to a lot of success on the field for his team. The Columbus Explorers finished the season 10-2 (4-0). After starting the year off with a win against Mater Academy Charter, the Explorers lost to Northwestern 24-7. After the loss to Northwestern they responded big time by winning their next 9 games, which most were blowouts. Their season ended as they lost to Miami in a close one, 28-22 in the playoffs. Passmore really stood out though and put up video game like numbers. This isn’t a typo, but Passmore had 16 sacks on the season. He also had 20 TFL as well as 75 tackles in total. Passmore also forced two fumbles as well. He started off the season kind of slow, but really took off in the 3rd and 4th games with 4.5 sacks and never looked back. Talking with Passmore, I believe he has the work ethic and is always trying to improve constantly. With the Hoosiers losing a lot of talent up front and replacing some leaders as well, playing time is up for grabs if he decides to take his talents to Bloomington. Coach Hagen has already been vocal about the losses the Hoosiers will face and has made it clear that an immediate impact is possible for Passmore if he wants it. Heading into his Senior season I asked him what his strengths were and what does he want to work on before he leaves Columbus. His response was, “I feel that I’m a very good player overall, I can rush the passer, I can make plays in the backfield as well as 20 yards down field. To help my game improve, I just want to work on everything including, size, speed and strength. I also want to learn more things about rushing the passer, so I can add more to my arsenal.” Passmore is a prospect that I plan to watch over the course of his recruitment, whether the Hoosiers land him or not. He is very talented and his stats and list of schools shows plenty to back that up. His 16 sacks as a Junior will be very hard to top, but I look forward to finding out.

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