Draft Talk
A lot of talk over the weekend about how the success Ohio State had in this 2016 draft could help with recruiting moving forward. Because of that, I was really curious to see what the reaction would be among the prospects that I was going to speak with at yesterday's New Jersey Rivals Camp.
I thought the best way to get a feel for that would be to NOT ask specifically about the draft, at least not in the first handful of questions. It's one thing to bring the draft results up to a kid and then have him say nice things about it. It's another thing to have that be at the forefront of a kid's mind and have him bring it up when talking about Ohio State.
The latter is what happened in the vast majority of the cases on Saturday. Guys like D'Andre Swift and Tyler Friday both immediately pointed to this weekend's draft as something that jumped off the page to them when it comes to Ohio State. Both did it without me asking about it, as did several other kids that I either interviewed or chatted with.
Now in terms of the long term impact of this on the recruiting trail and turning the hype of the draft into tangible results, I think you have to look at this from two different angles. First with the 2017 kids and second with the underclassmen.
With the 2017 kids, a lot of those opinions have been formed on schools and a lot of the relationships have been developed. So because of that, it is unlikely (though not impossible) that this weekend's draft is going to take Ohio State from being a non-factor for a kid to landing him just based on draft results.
Where it can, and should, help is with maybe breaking some ties on some of the 2017 guys. Most kids develop really good relationships with a handful of schools, not just the school that they ultimately pick. So when some of these guys get down to a top 3 or 5 and have great relationships with all of them, having the belief or trust that the Ohio State staff will do as good, if not better, of a job of developing them into an NFL player could be something that could make the difference.
Now as for the underclassmen, I always felt that the National Championship bump would come in the 2017 and 2018 crops, not the 2016 group. Again, when the Buckeyes won the title, relationships and opinions had mostly been formed. So sometimes the bumps schools get off of certain things can take a year to really make an impact.
The class of 2018 and 2019 prospects are still in the infant stages of building relationships and forming opinions on the schools recruiting them. When they watch the draft and are thinking about the beginning of their own recruiting process and which schools they want to learn more about, having Ohio State hammered down their throat for three days on ESPN couldn't have hurt.
When you get a head start like this with a kid as one of his early schools that he likes and wants to learn more about, it's easier to get that kid to visit and it's much easier to build a relationship with a prospect who is interested in doing the same thing as opposed to trying to chase a kid that doesn't particularly care much about Ohio State.
Simply put, it automatically opens doors as opposed to the coaches having to try to kick those doors down.
A lot of psychology involved here, but I think you could see an even bigger impact on the 2018's and 2019's than the 2017's as the relationships for 2017 are already pretty far advanced and, for Ohio State, the board is pretty well set at many positions.
New Jersey Notes
As you know, I spent my day Saturday in New Jersey at our regional camp stop to see some of the top talent in the Garden State and surrounding areas. A lot of my time was spent watching the linemen, where several Ohio State targets were competing on either the offensive or defensive side of the football. Will just go prospect-by-prospect here.....
2017 DT Dalyn Wade-Perry: Wade-Perry finds himself in the same position that basically every defensive tackle not named Marvin Wilson or Aubrey Solomon finds themself in and that is waiting to see what Ohio State is going to do from a numbers standpoint.
As for DWP's performance, I saw a lot to like. He definitely needs to shed some bad weight, he's about 20-30 pounds heavier than he needs to be. But with that being said, he moves that weight very well. He has great upper body strength and an excellent rip move. He also was among the most competitive kids at the camp, and make no mistake, that matters. Some kids take a loss and drift towards the back of the line, but he was getting as many reps as he could. Loved the energy I saw out of him.
2017 DE Luiji Vilain: As long as chances remain pretty good with Top 100 DE Chase Young, Vilain is probably in that next wave of guys that the Buckeyes like but wouldn't yet take at this stage. I think in a year where they were actively looking to take 2 or 3 defensive ends, this would be a no-brainer
Performance: Vilain has always passed the look test. He's a tall kid with really long arms that is still growing into his frame. I thought he looked stronger on Saturday than in previous evaluations and his highlight came on a rep where he blew right past five-star offensive tackle Isaiah Wilson. Again, in most years I think we'd be talking about this kid more than we are right now, but numbers are tight at defensive end.
2017 RB D'Andre Swift: Swift is defintely a longer shot than Cam Akers to be in this class and is probably even a longer shot than Najee Harris, but he remains on the radar for Ohio State and we'll see if the summer visit he wants to make materializes. Until it does, again, he's a long shot for the class but a supremely talented kid that you keep recruiting.
Performance: Absolute monster. He was embarrassing guys in 1-on-1's yesterday. Because he is so good in space and with his hands and route running, he often times mistakenly gets labeled a scat back. He is definitely not a scat back. He is pushing 210-pounds and is absolutely shredded. It just so happens he can also run great routes and can catch the football like a wide receiver. Special talent in a special year for running backs.
2018 DL Tyler Friday: Friday already has a monster offer list, with the Buckeyes joining that list recently. He has Ohio State as a must visit destination for this summer and with it being so early, we'll know a little more about what the chances are if that materializes.
Performance: Won the D-Line MVP. I would have went with the guy right below, but Friday was certainly very deserving and had a great day. Friday isn't built like most of the defensive ends that Ohio State has recruited recently, he's not super tall, just a hair under 6-foot-3, probably, but boy is he strong. I could actually see him growing into a three-technique, like a stronger Jashon Cornell at the same stage.
2018 DE Micah Parsons: Parsons is from the heart of Penn State country at Central Dauphin High School outside Harrisburg, PA and has already committed to the Nittany Lions. Still, I'm told Ohio State is very interested and that Larry Johnson will be stopping at his school in the next two weeks so we'll see if the Buckeyes are able to get in the game here.
Performance: I mentioned above that Friday wasn't really built like most of the DE's that Ohio State has recruited recently, but Parsons is. He's tall and long and still 30+ pounds away from his playing weight. This is what Jalyn Holmes, Josh Sweat, Terrell Hall, Lorenzo Carter, Chase Young, Sam Hubbard and many of the other major DE targets Ohio State has recruited recently have looked like as high school juniors from a body type stand point. Parsons is a freakishly explosive athlete who is just scratching the surface of what he could be in three years.
2018 DT P.J. Mustipher: Mustipher is a guy that Ohio State has identified very early on and the Buckeyes have done a great job recruiting him so far. I'll have a story on him tomorrow, but he's coming back in June just to spend a day at camp working with Larry Johnson despite already having an offer. That usually bodes pretty well for Ohio State's long term chances. He also kind of scoffed at the notion that he would go to Notre Dame just because his older brother is there and the way he said it and the tone he said it in leads me to believe that he's going to give some other schools, especially Ohio State, a real chance.
Performance: Absolutely loved the physical tools I saw out of Mustipher. When I first saw him warming up, he looked like an offensive lineman to me and I was skeptical he would have the requisite quickness and explosiveness to play on defense. Sure enough, he showed that despite his size he can really fire off the ball and he has outstanding feet, even showing off a nice spin move at one point. At times I thought he tried to do a little too much in 1-on-1's, instead of just working to get up field, but this is a guy that any D-Line coach is going to want to get his hands on to work with.
Again, no more Isaiah Wilson on the board and while he was never a guy that we seriously discussed here, 2017 WR Tarik Black has moved on as well. The Buckeyes clearly putting the focus on Grimes, Lindsey, DPJ and a couple of others at this point so don't look for anything further between Black and OSU.
Is Kaindoh a done deal?
You could see it coming the last few weeks and on Saturday afternoon it became official as five-star defensive end Josh Kaindoh committed to Maryland over Ohio State, Notre Dame, Penn State, and others.
Though he now plays his prep football at IMG Academy in Florida, Kaindoh's decision was to stay home as the Baltimore native rolled with the Terps. The first question that always has to be asked in today's landscape is, just how solid is this commitment?
Certainly Maryland has had trouble holding on to high profile commits in recent years, even ones from its own back yard. But new head coach DJ Durkin is definitely riding the first-year coach bump that just about all programs get.
This one feels a little different to me, however. After talking to some people with knowledge of Kaindoh's decision making process, this doesn't appear to be a kid getting caught up in the hype of a new coach or even in trying to start a movement of keeping the DMV talent home. This appeared to very much be a personal choice based on his experience of spending time away from home already.
"He has been getting home sick lately being down at IMG," one source close to Kaindoh told me over the weekend. "I think that was a big reason for the decision to commit to Maryland and also the timing of that decision."
Now I certainly expect Ohio State to continue to recruit Kaindoh and luckily for the Buckeyes, they won't have to work all that hard to do it or risk overwhelming the kid, because they have two commits down there at IMG with him in Marcus Williamson and Isaiah Pryor that can do a lot of the heavy lifting on that front.
So we'll see what happens. I think Kaindoh staying at IMG is a bit of a double-edged sword for the Buckeyes. Yes, they have some guys down there that will work on him, but if he continues to feel home sick, that is not exactly going to help OSU in its effort to convince him to play 6-7 hours away from home. Perhaps in the mean time he will fight through some of that and be more open to looking around and taking some trips in the fall, but for now, this could prove to be a tough flip for the Buckeyes.
That might not be the news everyone was hoping for, but that's what I've got on that one right now. Certainly Dematha product Chase Young is a prospect that Ohio State would love to land and has always coveted as one of the truly elite targets on that side of the ball. But he becomes even more important now as there may only be one defensive end in this class and he's the guy they view as 1 and 1a with Kaindoh.
California quick hitters
So there has been a lot of talk about Tyjon Lindsey and Nebraska recently and I received some questions about that situation this week so I wanted to further address it here.
Lindsey has not committed to Nebraska. Not publicly obviously but not silently either. That being said, Nebraska may now be a bigger threat to Ohio State than Texas A&M. I'm told it's unlikely that Lindsey will end up at TAMU, with or without Tate Martell.
I'm also told that Lindsey isn't quite as closely linked to Martell as some have thought and that was shown pretty clearly by him leaving Bishop Gorman and heading back home to California.
My best source on this (and it's not an OSU source, it's an unbiased California based source), is still saying Ohio State for Tyjon with Nebraska running second and I absolutely trust him. I know that Ohio State felt very good coming out of Lindsey's visit several weeks ago and there is an awareness on their end that Nebraska is making a push, but things still seem pretty solid here for the Buckeyes.
A lot is being made of Lindsey being part of this California crew along with Keyshawn Johnson Jr. that is heading to Nebraska. While he knows those guys and is friendly with them, I'm told it's not to the point where they are going to sway him. There are others close to him that he listens to much more than those guys.
Speaking of Martell (I know Las Vegas is in Nevada not California) not too much new there, but I was told that Cal has actually made a bit of a push recently and that they were in a group along with Ohio State that has a legit chance of flipping him from TAMU. I am definitely taking The Field over OSU right now but I think this one will have a million twists and turns between now and Signing Day.
Finally, things are fairly quiet on the Darnay Holmes front. Ohio State is going to fight that fight until Signing Day and should get a Friday Night Lights visit, regardless of whether or not Holmes has commited somewhere by then.
One thing I've been told to watch here, however, is the admissions process with Stanford. Clearly Stanford is the team to beat for Holmes if all things are equal but Stanford's board of admissions can be fickle and can be slow. We saw that play out with Solomon Thomas where he didn't know his fate with admissions at Stanford until the winter, just a few weeks before Signing Day.
I don't pretend to know what kind of grades Darnay Holmes gets and I don't like to comment on academics too much because of that but I do know he definitely hasn't been admitted by Stanford yet and there are certainly questions about whether or not he will be able to get in.
Nebraska, UCLA, USC, Ohio State, and many others would be the beneficiares there if Stanford doesn't let him in or drags its feet to the point where he decides to go elsewhere. I'm told there are people close to Holmes that aren't wild about the idea of him at UCLA as well so there are a lot of moving parts to watch on that one. Regardless of what he does this summer as far as a potential commitment, this is another one that I think will go the distance, and yes, I've got The Field firmly over OSU at this point as well.
A lot of talk over the weekend about how the success Ohio State had in this 2016 draft could help with recruiting moving forward. Because of that, I was really curious to see what the reaction would be among the prospects that I was going to speak with at yesterday's New Jersey Rivals Camp.
I thought the best way to get a feel for that would be to NOT ask specifically about the draft, at least not in the first handful of questions. It's one thing to bring the draft results up to a kid and then have him say nice things about it. It's another thing to have that be at the forefront of a kid's mind and have him bring it up when talking about Ohio State.
The latter is what happened in the vast majority of the cases on Saturday. Guys like D'Andre Swift and Tyler Friday both immediately pointed to this weekend's draft as something that jumped off the page to them when it comes to Ohio State. Both did it without me asking about it, as did several other kids that I either interviewed or chatted with.
Now in terms of the long term impact of this on the recruiting trail and turning the hype of the draft into tangible results, I think you have to look at this from two different angles. First with the 2017 kids and second with the underclassmen.
With the 2017 kids, a lot of those opinions have been formed on schools and a lot of the relationships have been developed. So because of that, it is unlikely (though not impossible) that this weekend's draft is going to take Ohio State from being a non-factor for a kid to landing him just based on draft results.
Where it can, and should, help is with maybe breaking some ties on some of the 2017 guys. Most kids develop really good relationships with a handful of schools, not just the school that they ultimately pick. So when some of these guys get down to a top 3 or 5 and have great relationships with all of them, having the belief or trust that the Ohio State staff will do as good, if not better, of a job of developing them into an NFL player could be something that could make the difference.
Now as for the underclassmen, I always felt that the National Championship bump would come in the 2017 and 2018 crops, not the 2016 group. Again, when the Buckeyes won the title, relationships and opinions had mostly been formed. So sometimes the bumps schools get off of certain things can take a year to really make an impact.
The class of 2018 and 2019 prospects are still in the infant stages of building relationships and forming opinions on the schools recruiting them. When they watch the draft and are thinking about the beginning of their own recruiting process and which schools they want to learn more about, having Ohio State hammered down their throat for three days on ESPN couldn't have hurt.
When you get a head start like this with a kid as one of his early schools that he likes and wants to learn more about, it's easier to get that kid to visit and it's much easier to build a relationship with a prospect who is interested in doing the same thing as opposed to trying to chase a kid that doesn't particularly care much about Ohio State.
Simply put, it automatically opens doors as opposed to the coaches having to try to kick those doors down.
A lot of psychology involved here, but I think you could see an even bigger impact on the 2018's and 2019's than the 2017's as the relationships for 2017 are already pretty far advanced and, for Ohio State, the board is pretty well set at many positions.
New Jersey Notes
As you know, I spent my day Saturday in New Jersey at our regional camp stop to see some of the top talent in the Garden State and surrounding areas. A lot of my time was spent watching the linemen, where several Ohio State targets were competing on either the offensive or defensive side of the football. Will just go prospect-by-prospect here.....
2017 DT Dalyn Wade-Perry: Wade-Perry finds himself in the same position that basically every defensive tackle not named Marvin Wilson or Aubrey Solomon finds themself in and that is waiting to see what Ohio State is going to do from a numbers standpoint.
As for DWP's performance, I saw a lot to like. He definitely needs to shed some bad weight, he's about 20-30 pounds heavier than he needs to be. But with that being said, he moves that weight very well. He has great upper body strength and an excellent rip move. He also was among the most competitive kids at the camp, and make no mistake, that matters. Some kids take a loss and drift towards the back of the line, but he was getting as many reps as he could. Loved the energy I saw out of him.
2017 DE Luiji Vilain: As long as chances remain pretty good with Top 100 DE Chase Young, Vilain is probably in that next wave of guys that the Buckeyes like but wouldn't yet take at this stage. I think in a year where they were actively looking to take 2 or 3 defensive ends, this would be a no-brainer
Performance: Vilain has always passed the look test. He's a tall kid with really long arms that is still growing into his frame. I thought he looked stronger on Saturday than in previous evaluations and his highlight came on a rep where he blew right past five-star offensive tackle Isaiah Wilson. Again, in most years I think we'd be talking about this kid more than we are right now, but numbers are tight at defensive end.
2017 RB D'Andre Swift: Swift is defintely a longer shot than Cam Akers to be in this class and is probably even a longer shot than Najee Harris, but he remains on the radar for Ohio State and we'll see if the summer visit he wants to make materializes. Until it does, again, he's a long shot for the class but a supremely talented kid that you keep recruiting.
Performance: Absolute monster. He was embarrassing guys in 1-on-1's yesterday. Because he is so good in space and with his hands and route running, he often times mistakenly gets labeled a scat back. He is definitely not a scat back. He is pushing 210-pounds and is absolutely shredded. It just so happens he can also run great routes and can catch the football like a wide receiver. Special talent in a special year for running backs.
2018 DL Tyler Friday: Friday already has a monster offer list, with the Buckeyes joining that list recently. He has Ohio State as a must visit destination for this summer and with it being so early, we'll know a little more about what the chances are if that materializes.
Performance: Won the D-Line MVP. I would have went with the guy right below, but Friday was certainly very deserving and had a great day. Friday isn't built like most of the defensive ends that Ohio State has recruited recently, he's not super tall, just a hair under 6-foot-3, probably, but boy is he strong. I could actually see him growing into a three-technique, like a stronger Jashon Cornell at the same stage.
2018 DE Micah Parsons: Parsons is from the heart of Penn State country at Central Dauphin High School outside Harrisburg, PA and has already committed to the Nittany Lions. Still, I'm told Ohio State is very interested and that Larry Johnson will be stopping at his school in the next two weeks so we'll see if the Buckeyes are able to get in the game here.
Performance: I mentioned above that Friday wasn't really built like most of the DE's that Ohio State has recruited recently, but Parsons is. He's tall and long and still 30+ pounds away from his playing weight. This is what Jalyn Holmes, Josh Sweat, Terrell Hall, Lorenzo Carter, Chase Young, Sam Hubbard and many of the other major DE targets Ohio State has recruited recently have looked like as high school juniors from a body type stand point. Parsons is a freakishly explosive athlete who is just scratching the surface of what he could be in three years.
2018 DT P.J. Mustipher: Mustipher is a guy that Ohio State has identified very early on and the Buckeyes have done a great job recruiting him so far. I'll have a story on him tomorrow, but he's coming back in June just to spend a day at camp working with Larry Johnson despite already having an offer. That usually bodes pretty well for Ohio State's long term chances. He also kind of scoffed at the notion that he would go to Notre Dame just because his older brother is there and the way he said it and the tone he said it in leads me to believe that he's going to give some other schools, especially Ohio State, a real chance.
Performance: Absolutely loved the physical tools I saw out of Mustipher. When I first saw him warming up, he looked like an offensive lineman to me and I was skeptical he would have the requisite quickness and explosiveness to play on defense. Sure enough, he showed that despite his size he can really fire off the ball and he has outstanding feet, even showing off a nice spin move at one point. At times I thought he tried to do a little too much in 1-on-1's, instead of just working to get up field, but this is a guy that any D-Line coach is going to want to get his hands on to work with.
Again, no more Isaiah Wilson on the board and while he was never a guy that we seriously discussed here, 2017 WR Tarik Black has moved on as well. The Buckeyes clearly putting the focus on Grimes, Lindsey, DPJ and a couple of others at this point so don't look for anything further between Black and OSU.
Is Kaindoh a done deal?
You could see it coming the last few weeks and on Saturday afternoon it became official as five-star defensive end Josh Kaindoh committed to Maryland over Ohio State, Notre Dame, Penn State, and others.
Though he now plays his prep football at IMG Academy in Florida, Kaindoh's decision was to stay home as the Baltimore native rolled with the Terps. The first question that always has to be asked in today's landscape is, just how solid is this commitment?
Certainly Maryland has had trouble holding on to high profile commits in recent years, even ones from its own back yard. But new head coach DJ Durkin is definitely riding the first-year coach bump that just about all programs get.
This one feels a little different to me, however. After talking to some people with knowledge of Kaindoh's decision making process, this doesn't appear to be a kid getting caught up in the hype of a new coach or even in trying to start a movement of keeping the DMV talent home. This appeared to very much be a personal choice based on his experience of spending time away from home already.
"He has been getting home sick lately being down at IMG," one source close to Kaindoh told me over the weekend. "I think that was a big reason for the decision to commit to Maryland and also the timing of that decision."
Now I certainly expect Ohio State to continue to recruit Kaindoh and luckily for the Buckeyes, they won't have to work all that hard to do it or risk overwhelming the kid, because they have two commits down there at IMG with him in Marcus Williamson and Isaiah Pryor that can do a lot of the heavy lifting on that front.
So we'll see what happens. I think Kaindoh staying at IMG is a bit of a double-edged sword for the Buckeyes. Yes, they have some guys down there that will work on him, but if he continues to feel home sick, that is not exactly going to help OSU in its effort to convince him to play 6-7 hours away from home. Perhaps in the mean time he will fight through some of that and be more open to looking around and taking some trips in the fall, but for now, this could prove to be a tough flip for the Buckeyes.
That might not be the news everyone was hoping for, but that's what I've got on that one right now. Certainly Dematha product Chase Young is a prospect that Ohio State would love to land and has always coveted as one of the truly elite targets on that side of the ball. But he becomes even more important now as there may only be one defensive end in this class and he's the guy they view as 1 and 1a with Kaindoh.
California quick hitters
So there has been a lot of talk about Tyjon Lindsey and Nebraska recently and I received some questions about that situation this week so I wanted to further address it here.
Lindsey has not committed to Nebraska. Not publicly obviously but not silently either. That being said, Nebraska may now be a bigger threat to Ohio State than Texas A&M. I'm told it's unlikely that Lindsey will end up at TAMU, with or without Tate Martell.
I'm also told that Lindsey isn't quite as closely linked to Martell as some have thought and that was shown pretty clearly by him leaving Bishop Gorman and heading back home to California.
My best source on this (and it's not an OSU source, it's an unbiased California based source), is still saying Ohio State for Tyjon with Nebraska running second and I absolutely trust him. I know that Ohio State felt very good coming out of Lindsey's visit several weeks ago and there is an awareness on their end that Nebraska is making a push, but things still seem pretty solid here for the Buckeyes.
A lot is being made of Lindsey being part of this California crew along with Keyshawn Johnson Jr. that is heading to Nebraska. While he knows those guys and is friendly with them, I'm told it's not to the point where they are going to sway him. There are others close to him that he listens to much more than those guys.
Speaking of Martell (I know Las Vegas is in Nevada not California) not too much new there, but I was told that Cal has actually made a bit of a push recently and that they were in a group along with Ohio State that has a legit chance of flipping him from TAMU. I am definitely taking The Field over OSU right now but I think this one will have a million twists and turns between now and Signing Day.
Finally, things are fairly quiet on the Darnay Holmes front. Ohio State is going to fight that fight until Signing Day and should get a Friday Night Lights visit, regardless of whether or not Holmes has commited somewhere by then.
One thing I've been told to watch here, however, is the admissions process with Stanford. Clearly Stanford is the team to beat for Holmes if all things are equal but Stanford's board of admissions can be fickle and can be slow. We saw that play out with Solomon Thomas where he didn't know his fate with admissions at Stanford until the winter, just a few weeks before Signing Day.
I don't pretend to know what kind of grades Darnay Holmes gets and I don't like to comment on academics too much because of that but I do know he definitely hasn't been admitted by Stanford yet and there are certainly questions about whether or not he will be able to get in.
Nebraska, UCLA, USC, Ohio State, and many others would be the beneficiares there if Stanford doesn't let him in or drags its feet to the point where he decides to go elsewhere. I'm told there are people close to Holmes that aren't wild about the idea of him at UCLA as well so there are a lot of moving parts to watch on that one. Regardless of what he does this summer as far as a potential commitment, this is another one that I think will go the distance, and yes, I've got The Field firmly over OSU at this point as well.
