Michigan cornerback recruit Courtney Avery draws high praise on and off field

Get Lexington (Ohio) High School football coach B.J. Payne going about Courtney Avery and he won’t stop.

“He’s the type of kid that if he wants to be president of the United States one day, he will be,” Payne said. “I got two compliments I could give him. That’s the first, and the second is if my daughter was 18, she could date him.

“I’ve coached a lot of cats in seven years, and he’s the only kid that I can say that about.”

A near 4.0 student who “yes, sir’s” complete strangers, Avery draws equally high praise for his play on the football field.

He started four years at quarterback for Lexington, totaling more than 7,000 yards of offense and 72 touchdowns, and he will sign with Michigan on Wednesday to play cornerback.

Payne said Avery, who won three basketball national titles as a backup point guard for the AAU team All-Ohio Red, is the best athlete and best football player he’s ever coached. Former Ohio State receiver Brian Hartline, now with the Miami Dolphins, is another of Payne’s protÃ©gÃ©s.

“When I came in after Courtney’s eighth-grade year, I made the decision Courtney was going to be our starting quarterback his freshman year,” Payne said. “And he took snap one and took every snap that year.

“His junior year he was first-team all-Ohio corner, but he was also our conference Offensive Player of the Year. He was our newspaper Offensive Player of the Year. The kid can do absolutely everything. If he was 6-2, he’d be going anywhere he wants as a quarterback.”

Avery, 5-foot-10 and 170 pounds, was recruited primarily as a defensive back, though schools like Colorado and Villanova wanted him to play offense.

He only seriously considered two schools, Michigan and Stanford, where he originally committed last spring to play both football and basketball, and he only considered one position.

“I was just trying to think about what would be my best chances of getting to the next, next level,” said Avery, who won’t play basketball at Michigan. “It would be a corner.”

At Lexington, Avery started two seasons on defense, intercepting one pass and breaking up 21 others. Payne said opponents completed just 8 percent of the passes thrown Avery’s way.

“He a true cover corner,” Payne said. “He’s a Deion (Sanders)-type corner. He’ll lock you down. And he’ll come up and hit. He thinks he’s 6-3, 220. We had to tell him, hey, tone it down a little bit because he was our quarterback, too.”

Avery’s a bit more modest when it comes to evaluating his game.

He said he still needs “tweaking” on the finer points of the position and is excited to finally be able to focus on defense, where he’ll have an opportunity to play as a true freshman.

“I still got a pretty big upside,” he said.

He also has high hopes for Michigan’s secondary, where his friend and fellow cornerback recruit Cullen Christian projects as another future staple.

“It’s going to be pretty strong,” Avery said. “It’s going to be hard to pass on us.”

â€¢ Michigan football team recruiting list

Dave Birkett covers University of Michigan football for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached by phone at 734-623-2552 or by e-mail at davidbirkett@annarbor.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.