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Welcome back for another edition of “A-Deck” at BuckeyeGrove.com, presented by Infinit Nutrition, where I’ll bring you thoughts, what I’m hearing, inside scoop, tidbits, and more for Ohio State recruiting and team coverage, every Wednesday.
Last week’s A-Deck talked with a new Ohio State commit and looked ahead to the Buckeyes' 2021 class following National Signing Day.
This week, I debut a regular feature of mine in the past on Rivals, Behind The Scenes: National Signing Day, where I tell some of the "untold stories" and "behind the scenes" details on prospects the Buckeyes recruited during the past cycle.
Today, we bring you Part 1 of this three part feature, with the second part coming in A-Deck on February 19 and the final part coming in A-Deck on February 26.
Luke Wypler: There was complete madness surrounding Wypler’s pledge to Ohio State back in July of 2018, if I'm being honest. Coming into the week that Wypler was going to commit, it was thought to be a foregone conclusion that the Buckeyes were the pick. Greg Schiano had great relationships at his school and with the prospect himself, and Urban Meyer did a tremendous job in this one as well. Being a Jersey guy, I had been talking to Luke for a while and he agreed to give me quotes in an interview that I would keep under wraps until he publicly announced his decision. When I got on the phone with Luke for that interview, I said “so it’s Ohio State, right?”. He responded “Actually, it’s Stanford”. I was pretty surprised, to say the least, but did the interview and gave the quotes to the Stanford writer at 247Sports (where I was at the time). A few hours later I got a text from Luke saying something along the lines of “hold that article”. He went on to explain that once Meyer and Schiano got word that he was actually picking the Cardinal and not the Buckeyes, they made a last ditch effort to flip the decision, including spending hours on the phone with Wypler’s head coach to figure out what had happened and if/how they could fix it. After a few days of talking with his coach, his family, and thinking on things, Wypler decided that while Stanford was a world class education, that he could get a great degree from Ohio State and be developed for both football and life after football in Columbus, where he felt more comfortable. The rest is history---although there was a little bump in the road when Meyer retired and Schiano wasn’t retained---with Ryan Day and Greg Studrawa doing an excellent job in making Wypler feel comfortable about the future at OSU, and having him shut things down shortly after.
Paris Johnson Jr.: Everyone is familiar with Johnson’s story, as he committed to Ohio State when Urban Meyer was the head coach, but had some pause once Meyer stepped down and Ryan Day was named as the next guy up. To the dismay of many fans, Johnson took a ton of visits in the months after, before eventually re-affirming his pledge to the Buckeyes in the first half of 2019. The key here for Ohio State keeping Johnson was indeed Day. The approach he took in this recruitment played very favorably into PJ’s decision. Day could have tried to force Johnson’s hand, pressured him into re-affirming, talked to him about not taking visits, etc., but he simply supported Johnson’s desire to look around and make sure that Columbus was the best place for him. Johnson and his mother, Monica, are both on record in saying how Day handled the situation couldn’t have been better, and that strategy paid off, as the Bucks landed one of the best offensive linemen in America.
Ryan Watts: Watts was committed to Oklahoma for a long time, but Ohio State never gave up in pursuit of the long, athletic defensive back. The little story to tell here is that the Buckeyes were actually able to get Watts up on a “secret visit” over the summer, that they were somehow able to keep very quiet for the most part. That trip laid the groundwork and helped OSU plant the seed to eventually land Watts in the fall, and is a reason that both myself and Marc had confidence in the Buckeyes’ ability to flip Watts, even when he was pledged to the Sooners.
Miyan Williams: There was somewhat of a “split room” on Williams inside the WHAC early on in the recruiting process, and there was never a decision made to “go” on him. Williams wasn’t going to wait around (even though I’m told Ohio State was a desired destination the entire time), and developed a relationship with Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell, and his staff, which led to him pledging to the Cyclones. As you know, the Buckeyes eventually offered, but I was told at that time, things weren’t a complete slam dunk for OSU. Williams is a “different dude”, as one source put it, and he felt a sense of loyalty to the Cyclones program, as well as the fact that he was fully comfortable with his relationships there, and not as much with OSU. The Buckeyes, led by Tony Alford, did a great job in growing their relationship with Williams, and it was an unofficial visit for the Penn State game that ultimately sealed the deal here, with an announcement coming a bit after that.
Jacolbe Cowan: Cowan was a player that Ohio State identified early on as someone they wanted to target, but it wasn’t always a no-brainer that he would be a taker. That wasn’t due to his ability on the football field, but there were some questions that need to be answered in the classroom, which Cowan certainly made sure happened. At one point, some inside the WHAC felt that Cowan’s teammate Kedrick Bingley-Jones (UNC signee) was more likely to end up in Scarlet and Gray than Cowan. Clearly you saw how things played out.
CJ Stroud: As you know by now, Stroud blew up last year at the Elite 11 and wasn’t that highly recruited before then. Around that time is when Ohio State started showing interest and building the relationship. While people may be aware, personal quarterback trainer Quincy Avery played a big part in this one, letting Stroud know just how good Ryan Day was at developing quarterbacks, as he saw first-hand with clients Dwayne Haskins and Justin Fields. Additionally, Avery was a good source for Ohio State in learning more about Stroud, not only as a player, but as a person. Ohio State played their cards right here, as they had Jack Miller committed and needed to make sure that if they could get Stroud that it wouldn’t “ruffle any feathers”. That is why an official offer didn’t come until months after the relationship started being built, but Day/OSU were on the same page with Stroud throughout the entire process. It became clear early, especially after the first unofficial visit that Ohio State was where Stroud wanted to end up, but the Buckeyes definitely had to thwart off competition along the way. At first, it was Oregon and Baylor that were major players, and later Michigan and Georgia. I’m told the Wolverines felt like they had a legitimate shot after their official visit, and that the Bulldogs even thought they had a chance all the way to the end. But it was OSU who got the last the last official visit before the Early Signing Period, and I’m told Stroud was 1,000-percent sure it was going to be Columbus as his future home on that trip (even though he was pretty certain before that). The late smoke that it was UGA was just that, and the rest is history.
Cameron Martinez: This one looked like a “no worries about it” recruitment until Jeff Hafley left for Boston College. Immediately, Martinez was telling people it wouldn’t matter, but he chose not to sign with Ohio State in December, which is a huge cause for concern with actions being louder than words. Martinez told OSU that he just wanted to wait to see who was hired as the new secondary coach but was considering pitches from other programs coming at him hard, including Northwestern, Michigan State, and Notre Dame, among others. Like with Paris Johnson, Ohio State handled this very well, with Ryan Day being supportive of Martinez taking his time to make a decision and giving him his space to do that on his own will. I am told that strategy played very well in the Martinez household, and showed them just how genuine Day and his staff were in wanting the best for Cam. Inside the WHAC, they truly felt it was 50-50 whether they would be able to keep Martinez, but there was cautious optimism that once they could get a coach in place that they could sort it out. The problem was that the Titans kept winning, delaying the announcement of Kerry Coombs, as well as his ability to get on the trail and meet Martinez. Obviously, things were being communicated back-channel about what the plan was, and it was clear what the program’s priorities were when Coombs was hired, as Martinez was his first stop. That first meeting between Coombs and Martinez went extremely well, as did Ryan Day’s in-home visit (after a basketball game that NW and ND were at as well) the week before, leading to Martinez deciding to shut things down and sign with the Buckeyes last week.
Zach Evans: This is one of the wildest recruitments I’ve ever seen. I don’t know all of the details by any means, but when it comes to Ohio State, he did put the Buckeyes on an early top five list and said he’d be visiting in the near future back in the summer. When I asked an OSU source about this, they basically said that they wouldn’t turn away a visit, but that they weren’t going to pursue him hard unless there was a genuine show of interest on the player’s side. Ohio State ultimately felt there were some red flags off the field and that Evans was a bit of a “game player”, both of which weren’t worth their time and effort here unless he actually showed up on campus or showed a serious interest in looking at the program. Clearly that didn’t happen, and answers the questions of many as to why the Buckeyes didn’t try to land the Texas-native.
Bijan Robinson: Without a doubt in my mind, Bijan Robinson at one point stated his intentions to the staff that he was going to be Columbus bound. I had multiple recruits that told me Robinson was going to Ohio State, and I even interviewed his high school coach about a week or so before his scheduled announcement to get quotes on what the Buckeyes were getting in the star back. But throughout the process, there were family members involved that were very influential in this decision-making process, and at least one in particular favored Texas. While others involved may have not necessarily been “all-in” on Texas as this one family member, they weren’t thrilled about Robinson going all the way to Ohio (one favored USC, etc.). In the end, the pull of influential family members seems to have won out here, and a relationship with Tim Beck and Stan Drayton was also strong in favor of the Longhorns. A few days before the scheduled announcement, it became clear to the OSU staff that Robinson was no longer going to commit, and I was told “likely Texas, but maybe USC” at the time. It ended up being UT, and despite some bumps along the way, and OSU continuing to stay in contact throughout the process, Tom Herman was able to hang on to the Arizona-native without much struggle.
Jhamyr Gibbs: I truly don’t know the whole story here, but it was very definitive that Ohio State made a decision to stop pursuing Gibbs in January for some reason. He was scheduled to take an official visit the weekend of the 17th and that was abruptly cancelled the week leading up to that. I do know that for the entire process those close to Gibbs said it would be extremely hard to pull him out of the South. I’m not sure if OSU just felt that was true and that with Georgia Tech, LSU, Florida, Alabama, and others involved they didn’t really have a shot---or if they caught some sort of red flag that turned them off. But either way this went from “possible if he comes on his visit” to “over and done” pretty quickly.
Be sure to check back in with A-Deck the next two weeks for parts 2 and 3 of "Behind The Scenes: National Signing Day 2020"
