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Explaining the Pryor pick
I made a new FutureCast pick for Ohio State today for Rivals100 running back Evan Pryor out of Charlotte (NC) Hough. The four-star prospect has been in that upper tier of running back targets for the Buckeyes for several months now and things have really been heading toward an Ohio State vs. North Carolina showdown with UGA and Penn State slipping and on the outside looking in.
When he first released his top schools list, I was close to putting in a pick for Ohio State and had some sources reach out in the past couple of weeks that UNC had been building some momentum and that their staff there was gaining some confidence, so there has been some volatility with this recruitment during the months of February and March.
But despite Ohio State not getting that March 18th visit that is now going to need to be rescheduled, I'm told the Buckeyes have been very aggressive here during this Dead Period and that a lot of questions and concerns have been answered.
So despite not getting the scheduled visit, which I thought would be the biggest landmark moment in Pryor's recruitment, this has still managed to trend Ohio State's way in recent days and I'm now highly confident that the Buckeyes are in line for some good news perhaps sooner rather than later.
Buckeyes get creative in recruiting
The Ohio State staff has had to quickly adjust on the fly here after learning that the vast majority of their big spring visit dates were going to be postponed at best and cancelled at worst. Now, the Buckeyes aren't in this by themselves as the NCAA quickly stepped in and enforced a mandatory dead period within days of the Buckeyes announcing their decision to suspend all on campus and in-person recruiting activity.
But college football and recruiting is all about finding an edge so when everyone is being dealt a similar hand, what can be done to make your program standout during a time when visits aren't allowed?
Ohio State and its support staff have always done a great job of staying ahead of the curve and thinking quickly when there is a seismic shift. They have done this again over the past week.
The coaches and staff have done their best to sort of "recreate" the visit experience mobilly. Of course the coaches have continued business as usual in communicating daily with their top targets, but a wrinkle has been added. Because a lot of guys were supposed to be coming up in the next few weeks and having broader questions about the school that go beyond relationship building with the staff, the Buckeyes have done their best to bring that experience to the prospects.
I've had several prospects tell me in the past few days that Ohio State has put them on the phone with academic advisors to answer questions that the athletes and their families might have or might have wanted to ask during that portion of their now postponed unofficial visits this spring.
It sounds simple and maybe it doesn't sound all that serious to you guys, but I can tell you with one-hundred percent certainty that this quick thinking strategy has paid off big-time with the prospects.
It has been greatly appreciated by the kids and their families that Ohio State is going to whatever lengths it can to bring as many aspects of what that spring visit would have entailed to them.
It has paid dividends already with today's commitment from J.K. Johnson and it's going to pay more dividends here shortly in my opinion.
Uncharted Territory
It was impossible to know how the whole COVID-19 situation and resulting NCAA actions were going to impact recruits and their families, though the data is starting to roll in here. My first impression when the recruiting visits were postponed was that, by and large, it would slow down the decision making process of these kids.
But after talking to several coaches, players, and parents, it's definitely more of a mixed bag. In the near term, I think you could see a bit of a rush of commitments nationally from kids who have a strong idea (see JK Johnson) of where they want to go and instead of waiting for a March or April visit to make the call, they are just going to go ahead and do it now and then make sure they get back to the school of their choice after the fact once the ban is lifted.
The ones who don't decide to do that and don't make announcements in the coming week or two, those are the ones who could see more of a delay.
Two guys that I know are going to be closely watched by everyone here in the coming months are Monroeville (Pa.) Gateway safety/linebacker Derrick Davis Jr. and IMG Academy (Fla.) offensive tackle J.C. Latham.
Spoke with both families this evening and right now Davis Jr. will be business as usual, which means waiting for this to blow over and then making a round of visits before deciding this summer at the earliest. I don't look for him to be one that moves things up admist all of this and, if anything, this could push official visits into the early fall.
Similar deal with Latham in that I don't see him moving things up at this time. I was told that visits to OSU and LSU (order is undetermined until more information is available on when visits can resume) will be the two schools that are prioritized when the ban is lifted and that no decision will be reached until visits to those two (and possibly some others) are made. So at this point, and I actually hinted it might be trending this direction anyway in a recent Skull Session, I could see the April/May decision time frame pushed back a bit, maybe to a June/July type of decision.
I still feel very good about OSU's chances here with both prospects. I still really like my pick of Latham to OSU eventually and I probably should have already pulled the trigger on a Davis Jr. pick to OSU, but feel that one still has some things to play out with Clemson and Penn State very much in contention and just the whole deal of where Davis fits into the defense and OSU's readiness to take him.
