Bo Cramer talks about decision to walk-on at Vandy

Shortly after the 2007 National Signing Day on February 7th, VandySports.com reported that the Commodore staff had secured a commitment from Charlotte (N.C.) Country Day defensive tackle Bo Cramer to join the team as a invited walk-on. The 6-foot-4, 260-pound Bucs standout had at one time held offers from a couple of Division 1-A programs including one from the Big Ten.

However, the numbers game caught up to Cramer in several situations and a long interest in the Vanderbilt program led him to the decision that Nashville would be his destination. Now after waiting for acceptence from the admissions department, Cramer is happy that he's soon to be a Commodore.

"Vanderbilt just always felt like the right school, and I was always extremely comfortable with the people as well as the campus," Cramer told VandySports.com on Friday. "The big thing is that Vandy is where I feel I was supposed to be.

"After my official visit during January, I knew that Vanderbilt was where I wanted to go. Vanderbilt was the school that I visited first during my junior year and it had always been my favorite.

"When I got home from the official and talked things over with my parents, they felt the same way. The hard part was calling coaches at other schools where I had scholarships to tell them I was going to try and walk-on at Vanderbilt.

"Some people questioned the decision but I knew it was the right one," Cramer continued. "I called Coach [Bobby] Johnson and told him that I was going to walk-on at Vanderbilt, if I was admitted, and I made calls to Coach [Warren] Belin, my recruiter, as well as Coach [Ricky] Logo. They were all really pleased, but we just had to wait through the admissions process and see if I would be able to."

Cramer waited for close to two months for the admissions process to come through, but shortly before Vanderbilt's Black and Gold Scrimmage in late March, Cramer found out the good news.

"I found out that I had been accepted the Wednesday of the Spring Game, which was great timing," said Cramer. "And we filled out the forms and sent the deposit in that afternoon to make it official. Once we sent the letter off, I called the coaches again and they were really excited.

"When I went up with my family for the scrimmage, everything felt great. It was good to get to see the coaches again, as well as some of the players I had gotten to know on my visit. It was also the first chance I had to meet the other guys in my class. I already know Austin [Monahan] really well since we went to school together for three years, but I had never met anyone else before.

"I spent most of the game with Rob Ashabranner and Davis Flowers [A fellow prospect that will join the team as a walk-on. Davis and I are rooming together next year. All of the guys that were there were really cool and nice. I'm really excited about the guys in this class and think we have a great class. The weekend definitely reaffirmed my decision."

As indicated before, Cramer's decision was a tough one to make. At one time he had offers from Northwestern and Rice and later other Division 1-AA programs would also offer scholarships.

"Northwestern offered me early during my junior year, and I really liked the school and program, but with the death of head coach Randy Walker, I had to re-think some things and got caught up in a numbers game," said Cramer. "When I got offered by Rice, it was kind of the same thing. I went to visit and really liked the players and coaches, but when I got back home some things started to happen, and I got caught in a numbers game again. Then a lot of the coaching staff started to move around.

"I also had offers at Richmond and WIlliam and Mary, both great schools but I didn't have the same feeling there as I did at Vandy. Wofford also said they would put a package together for me, but it was the same thing. A lot of the Ivy League schools were talking to me as well, particularly Dartmouth and Princeton. I liked both schools a lot, but I just could not stop thinking about Vandy throughout the entire process.

"So while it has been a long process, with a lot of ups and downs, I really feel that Vandy was the right choice, and was the place that I was supposed to be all along. I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to come to Vanderbilt and play.

"Once I let schools know that I was going to walk-on at Vandy if I was accepted, things really quieted down on the recruiting front," Cramer continued. "A couple of schools kept in touch for a while, but nothing serious. So I'm really happy that I got admitted, otherwise it would have been crazy trying to get back in touch with the schools."

As a senior, Cramer helped Country Day to a 9-2 record and a conference championship while posting 16 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks. As a junior in 2005, Cramer racked up 41 tackles and two sacks while helping the Bucs to a 8-4 record.

Last May, Cramer participated in the Gainesville NIKE camp where he posted the top forty time among defensive tackles at the event with a 5.34, though Cramer has been timed around a 4.9 before as well. That camp also included Ole Miss defensive tackle signee Lawon Scott and Notre Dame defensive tackle signee Ian Williams. Cramer also posted the second best bench rep total at the camp, benching 185 pounds 23 times.

Cramer says that his decision to walk-on was well received by the Vanderbilt coaching staff. The staff had recruited Cramer throughout the summer and had invited him to campus on several occasions.

"When I called Coach Johnson to tell him that I was accepted and wanted to come to Vandy, he was thrilled," said Cramer. "He said it felt like they had gotten another scholarship player in the class. I then talked with Coach [Bruce] Fowler and he told me that he was really excited and that he had actually been a walk-on for Coach Johnson as well so it was cool to hear that.

"Coach Belin was really happy as well, we had talked so much throughout the recruiting process, when things looked good and bad, and we had really developed a relationship with each other as well as with my family, so he was really happy everything worked out," Cramer continued. "Coach Logo was really pleased too. He said he was looking forward to having the chance to coach me and thought I would fit in well.

"Coach Logo said he didn't want me trying to put on too much weight, cause he said Coach [John] Sisk and "Magic" [Vanderbilt's food coach, Majid Noori] can easily do that once I get up there.

"I'm going to try and show up around 270-275 pounds at the end of the summer. The big thing they said is they didn't want me to put on the wrong type of weight and lose any quickness or agility."

Cramer says he will enroll during the summer so he could get a jump on things.

"I'm going to come up for the June summer school session, which starts June 3rd, so I will be in Nashville most of the Summer. I wanted to get up there with the team as soon as possible and start working out and learning the system, as well as trying to knock out some of the class requirements."

Cramer is a standout student, carrying a 4.0 GPA and a 2030 SAT II [1410 original]score. He also received significant attention from North Carolina, Duke, Wake Forest, Virginia, Stanford, Colorado, and Furman.

Cramer was named to the 2006 NCISAA all-state team in late November.