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Something to keep an eye on
So far the reaction to the Urban Meyer leave of absence has been as positive as one could expect on the recruiting trail. To date, the Buckeyes have not lost a commitment and the only real negative at this point seems to be a drop with Texas safety Peyton Powell, a drop that might have been coming anyway with the Oklahoma offer he recently received.
Given the headlines and the uncertainty, I'm not sure how anyone could have expected anything better than the reaction so far. This could have easily led to a decommitment or two in the days following the leave of absence, especially since most in the media were opining that Meyer would likely be fired (not here, however).
There is one situation that I think is at least worth monitoring and that is with four-star linebacker commit Kane Patterson. Patterson was offered a few days ago by Clemson. His father was once-upon-a-time a walk-on at Alabama and his time there overlapped with that of Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney as well as Clemson defensive ends coach Lemanski Hall.
Now this is not to incite panic. To this point, Patterson has not shown any signs of wavering and has, according to sources, re-upped with the Buckeyes in the midst of all of this. So his actions so far are that of a player who is firmly committed.
Clemson made this move after missing recently on Spencer Lytle, so even if Patterson was interested in Clemson, it is fair to wonder just how much damage was done by not offering earlier. Patterson picked Ohio State over Alabama and Tennessee so the Buckeyes have already been able to fend off the in-state program that most kids grow up rooting for as well as the defending national champions, so there was clearly a very strong draw here to Ohio State on Patterson's end to say no to those programs.
I also continue to expect Meyer to be reinstated. But this is one more example of another commit who is going to have schools come at him and take the temperature. Patterson could not visit Clemson right now even if he wanted to, the visit window won't open up until September 1st.
Could certainly be nothing here, but just something I'll be monitoring in the coming weeks.
Patterson is expected to make his official visit to Ohio State this fall for a game weekend, probably Michigan.
What happened with Puckett?
Four-star Griffin (Ga.) Spalding athlete Zion Puckett is closing in on a commitment and it will not be to Ohio State. The Rivals250 product will be staying in the SEC somewhere, my pick is Auburn who Puckett has stated is leading his recruitment.
There was a time in the spring when Ohio State led for Puckett coming out of an unofficial visit. The Buckeyes never got him back on campus despite having an official visit available to use. So what the heck happened?
Quite simply Puckett had a change of heart and as he started going on more visits and really taking a close look at his situation, geography started to become much more important to him. So Stanford and Ohio State dropped drastically while regional schools like Auburn, Tennessee, and South Carolina surged.
Not much Ohio State can do on this one barring a complete change of heart in the other direction. Puckett is pretty set on staying close to home and Auburn provides that while also fielding a competitive football program which is why I believe he'll be a Tiger soon.
D-Tackle update
The Buckeyes remain without a defensive tackle so far in their 2019 recruiting class, which is not a complete surprise at this point but still leads to a lot of questions and uncertainty around the position right now.
The range still appears to be 1-2 defensive tackles in this class, depending mostly on the success rate the Buckeyes have with the top targets. This is a position where Ohio State has the luxury to not to reach to fill a firm quota but certainly you can never have too many quality players along the defensive front.
There has been a little bit of movement here recently so it's probably a good time for a status update on the top remaining targets, especially after Etinosa Reuben's pledge to Clemson took one option off the board.
Davis continues to be right at the top of the wish list for the Buckeyes at the defensive tackle position. This has morphed into a four-team race right now with Clemson, Florida State, and Miami (Fla.) joining Ohio State.
I think Ohio State has slipped a bit since the late spring/early summer months and that Florida State has made the biggest positive leap among this group of four teams. The Buckeyes are battling geography right now as Florida State and Miami seem to have improved chances over the summer and Ohio State and Clemson have seemingly slipped a little bit.
That being said, Ohio State remains right in the thick of this race and I've been told that there are people close to Davis who would like to see him at Ohio State so this one looks far from over. It is also becoming more likely that Davis goes through with official visits this fall so there's no reason to hit the panic button yet on this one.
Ellies has been considered an Ohio State lean over the past couple of months. A big question has been how hard the Buckeyes would push for a commitment and where he stacks up in the big picture. I believe Ohio State would take Ellies today if he tried to commit and that if an August decision comes as Ellies says it will, that Ohio State is the safe pick to land the four-star prospect.
This situation did become a little bit more interesting recently, however. Ellies released a top four of Ohio State, Rutgers, West Virginia, and Virginia Tech a few weeks ago, but since that point has picked up a couple of big offers from Florida and Penn State respectively. If Ohio State was hoping to keep Ellies warm but let things play out into the fall, that luxury may no longer be there as Ellies continues to add other high level options.
My gut feeling right now is that Ellies ends up in Ohio State's class.
Harrison-Hunte has had a meteoric rise over the summer and will begin his second year of organized football this fall. There is no question that Harrison-Hunte is an intriguing prospect because he just so impressive physically. But he is also the most raw prospect on this list and because of that, Ohio State has taken a more cautious approach with Jared than some of the others on this list.
The Buckeyes may have dodged a bullet recently on this one. Penn State is almost certainly the biggest competition here and would be my guess today on where Jared ultimately ends up. He was recently in Happy Valley for their big end of July recruiting event. It was thought by many close to the PSU program that James Franklin and company would push for a commitment from Harrison-Hunte. The Nittany Lions are also looking at several options at defensive tackle but the thought was that they might use that to coax JHH into committing or else he risks losing his spot.
That obviously hasn't happened coming out of the event, which buys more time here for Ohio State and allows them to continue to have an opportunity to bring him back in October for an official visit. The more time that Ohio State has here. Senior film, along with analyzing where things stand with the rest of the targets, will go a long way toward determining whether a big push is made here.
Right now, it looks like the Buckeyes will get the time they want to try and sort this situation out.
Ohio State has started to push recently for Siaki Ika out of Salt Lake City (UT) East. Ika doesn't do many interviews so information can be difficult to acquire when it comes to the nation's No. 5 ranked defensive tackle. But I'm told that Ika has been reciprocating communication with Ohio State and defensive line coach Larry Johnson so there's a start.
This will be a major long shot. Ohio State will not only be battling the usual suspects from out West, schools like USC, Washington, Oregon, Utah, and BYU (where Ika was previously committed) but Alabama is also involved here as well. But Ohio State is pushing to get Ika to make an official visit.
I've actually been told this week that among the long shots like Ika and Faatui Tuitele (who I'll get to below) that Ohio State might actually prefer Ika. So I think you'll see OSU do all it can here even with the deck stacked against them.
Tuitele remains a pretty big long shot to end up in Columbus but one thing that I have heard recently that makes this slightly more interesting from an Ohio State standpoint is that the four-star prospect might be behind a couple of others on the Alabama defensive tackle board. Alabama has been the favorite for Tuitele for a long time now so this would certainly seem to open the door at least a crack for the other programs Tuitele is considering.
Tuitele's status could certainly change with Alabama, who is in a similar position as Ohio State in terms of being picky right now and also having bigger needs. If you're holding on to some outside chance of Tuitele and Ohio State being a match, you might want to root for the Crimson Tide to upset LSU for five-star Ishmael Sopsher, the nation's top defensive tackle and a Louisiana native.
If Alabama is able to land a player like Sopsher and fill up and Ohio State is able to get a late official visit, chances would obviously increase at that point. But even if those things all play out, I'd still have Clemson and Washington ahead of Ohio State and think USC could be biggest beneficiary if things go sour with Alabama. Now Clemson is also very much a part of the Tyler Davis sweepstakes so that could impact both OSU and Clemson's pursuit of Tuitele assuming this goes into the winter as most expect.
So I'm personally still several steps away from putting Tuitele and Ohio State together as a match. Even if things turn in such a way that could help Ohio State, we don't know what the Buckeyes will do the next few months. For example, if they were able to land both Ellies and Davis in the next couple of months, I don't know that they'd even entertain taking a third defensive tackle, could very well shut things down at that point.
