Spent a lot of time yesterday digging into the Antwuan Jackson situation and I took the following main points out of talking to people both on the OSU side of things and in the Jackson camp.
- Antwuan, as of late last night is still going back and forth on whether or not he's going to make an announcement on Friday. Even those close to him don't know for sure what he's going to do so we're all in just a wait-and-see mode right now and I don't know if that is going to change. I would personally think that if he planned to set a date/time and inform everyone of said date and time that we would have done that by now so we truly have to just wait and see what happens, if anything, on Friday.
- Regardless of what happens, or doesn't happen, on Friday. He is definitely taking at least a few official visits. So if he commits to Ohio State tomorrow, I wouldn't go too crazy on the victory dance just yet, he's going to make OV's, likely not all of them, but at least a few of them. I'd expect Auburn and Ohio State for sure, possibly Georgia, possibly South Carolina. Then you have the distance factor of would he take a free trip to a place like USC? All possibilities, but it sounds like maybe only a few (as in approximately three) officials as opposed to all five.
- He was definitely initially planning to announce LAST Friday. Ohio State was expecting it and was hopeful it was going to go down then. Since that time, Antwuan has been pretty quiet when it comes to talking to people, even the college coaches. In these situations, even the most grounded and calm college coaches turn into super fans and start getting extremely nervous and trying to read into every little thing. When the announcement didn't go through on Friday, I sensed some nervousness from the OSU side of things but there has been nothing from my OSU people since that would indicate that they believe they are out. There is also nothing that I've heard that would indicate he's definitely going to Auburn either as to my knowledge he has kind of cut out both sides recently.
- Finally, I was on the phone late last night with someone in Jackson's camp. It was an entirely off-the-record conversation but after about 10 minutes of talking I finally said, 'OK, gun to your head right now, if he commits on Friday, where does he go'. After a brief pause they said 'my first reaction when you say that is to say Ohio State'.
Playing to their audience? Perhaps, but certainly this isn't dead for OSU at this time, still very much alive.
I will say this though, nobody truly 'knows' where this kid is going. A lot of speculation and a lot of reading of tea leaves but even people in his camp don't know for sure what he's going to do. Not going to change from what I said over the weekend which was I favored OSU if a decision was made quickly given how they felt coming out of Friday Night Lights. If I'm wrong so be it, and again, this won't be over if announces on Friday anyway, OV's are coming.
So that is the latest, will update as necessary.
- Antwuan, as of late last night is still going back and forth on whether or not he's going to make an announcement on Friday. Even those close to him don't know for sure what he's going to do so we're all in just a wait-and-see mode right now and I don't know if that is going to change. I would personally think that if he planned to set a date/time and inform everyone of said date and time that we would have done that by now so we truly have to just wait and see what happens, if anything, on Friday.
- Regardless of what happens, or doesn't happen, on Friday. He is definitely taking at least a few official visits. So if he commits to Ohio State tomorrow, I wouldn't go too crazy on the victory dance just yet, he's going to make OV's, likely not all of them, but at least a few of them. I'd expect Auburn and Ohio State for sure, possibly Georgia, possibly South Carolina. Then you have the distance factor of would he take a free trip to a place like USC? All possibilities, but it sounds like maybe only a few (as in approximately three) officials as opposed to all five.
- He was definitely initially planning to announce LAST Friday. Ohio State was expecting it and was hopeful it was going to go down then. Since that time, Antwuan has been pretty quiet when it comes to talking to people, even the college coaches. In these situations, even the most grounded and calm college coaches turn into super fans and start getting extremely nervous and trying to read into every little thing. When the announcement didn't go through on Friday, I sensed some nervousness from the OSU side of things but there has been nothing from my OSU people since that would indicate that they believe they are out. There is also nothing that I've heard that would indicate he's definitely going to Auburn either as to my knowledge he has kind of cut out both sides recently.
- Finally, I was on the phone late last night with someone in Jackson's camp. It was an entirely off-the-record conversation but after about 10 minutes of talking I finally said, 'OK, gun to your head right now, if he commits on Friday, where does he go'. After a brief pause they said 'my first reaction when you say that is to say Ohio State'.
Playing to their audience? Perhaps, but certainly this isn't dead for OSU at this time, still very much alive.
I will say this though, nobody truly 'knows' where this kid is going. A lot of speculation and a lot of reading of tea leaves but even people in his camp don't know for sure what he's going to do. Not going to change from what I said over the weekend which was I favored OSU if a decision was made quickly given how they felt coming out of Friday Night Lights. If I'm wrong so be it, and again, this won't be over if announces on Friday anyway, OV's are coming.
So that is the latest, will update as necessary.
