There is more going on right now than just Southern Swing so I wanted to use part of tonight's Skull Session to get caught up on a few situations that have seen some relatively new developments in the past week or so.
Kradel has a decision date
Butler (Pa.) offensive lineman Jake Kradel set his announcement date for June 10th and has a top seven, but this is really a two-horse race at this point between Pitt and Ohio State with 'maybe' Maryland with an outside chance running in third place.
I have Ohio State as the leader heading into the final month here. The Buckeyes could at some point be facing a numbers crunch with interior linemen and at some point some tough decisions could be made but when the offer to Kradel went out several weeks ago, it was made with the intention of taking him. I believe that to still be the case.
I am expecting Kradel to visit Ohio State once more before his announcement next month and that should cement things one way or another for the Buckeyes.
A little more on Brown
The Buckeyes will likely sign at least five offensive linemen in this class, one that they are hoping will be in that group is Bradenton (Fla.) IMG Academy product Verdis Brown. I spoke with the Chicago transplant this week and he is a pretty quiet/soft spoken kid, but he is an absolute man on the football field. He was one of the best prospects to camp with the Buckeyes last summer, in my opinion, and Ohio State offered him on the spot based on that performance.
Brown released his top 10 this past week which included Ohio State, he has previously told me that they are right at the top and has reiterated that, without ranking his list, the Buckeyes are still in as good of shape as anyone.
"My contact level with Ohio State is very high," Brown told me. "I talk to coach Stud all the time."
Asked if he would visit Ohio State again this summer, Brown said 'yeah, definitely'.
From what I can gather, Brown is one of the top guys on the board along the offensive line and probably a guy that would get a spot held for him the whole way.
Empire State quick hitters
The state of New York's top two prospects in the 2018 class are tight end Jeremy Ruckert out of Lindenhurst and two-way lineman Matthew Jones out of Brooklyn Erasmus Hall and the Buckeyes are still in a good position to sign both from what I am hearing.
Ruckert came out with his top four which included Ohio State, Notre Dame, Michigan, and Wisconsin and the Buckeyes are still the presumed favorite. I've heard the Michigan and Notre Dame smoke with Ruckert and I put a little bit of stock into it with Notre Dame as I know he was very impressed on his last visit to South Bend.
I think Michigan is appealing to him as well, but I think the Wolverines are probably running third at this point. Michigan is trending in the right direction right now with Texas standout Mustapha Muhammad, however, so it wouldn't be a surprise to see the two rivals split the battle at tight end this cycle.
I still expect Ruckert to decide this summer and while he hasn't visited in a little bit, the confidence levels remain pretty high to land the four-star prospect. It will certainly be interesting to watch what he does these next couple of months on the visit front, a return visit to Ohio State over the summer would be pretty telling in my opinion. Ultimately, I go back to the relationship he has with Urban Meyer, even mentioning in Adam Friedman's update today that he will use the advice Meyer gave him when making a decision, as well as the relationship he has built with some of the 2018 commits.
He and Emory Jones are speaking pretty regularly and he has been around a lot of the guys on his visits to Columbus. I just think Ohio State wins the comfort and relationships battle here which is even bigger than usual with distance to home being no factor in this one.
As for Jones, there are some other schools involved, but this has really turned into an Ohio State vs. Penn State battle and I still have the Buckeyes with the edge. Jones is being recruited as an offensive lineman and has admitted to me in the past that he thinks that he is probably best suited long term to play on that side of the football.
He has told me pretty consistently that he plans to take his five official visits, so he's taking his time with this. His high school coaches have done a really good job of helping him out and getting him to some of his top schools on unofficial visits, but you can never fault a kid who maybe doesn't have the means to make a lot of visits to take those free trips he gets towards the end of the process.
Second leg of Swing begins
We have made it to Houston to start the second leg of Southern Swing on Monday morning. If everything goes smoothly we will have three stops on Monday and will be talking to four of the nation's 50 best class of 2018 prospects. The Houston leg of the trip will be a big one as the Buckeyes are quite active down here right now.
This is the turning point of the trip as everything moving forward will be moving us back North towards Columbus, but there are still plenty of key targets we're going to be speaking with over the next five days so keep it locked in here.
Kradel has a decision date
Butler (Pa.) offensive lineman Jake Kradel set his announcement date for June 10th and has a top seven, but this is really a two-horse race at this point between Pitt and Ohio State with 'maybe' Maryland with an outside chance running in third place.
I have Ohio State as the leader heading into the final month here. The Buckeyes could at some point be facing a numbers crunch with interior linemen and at some point some tough decisions could be made but when the offer to Kradel went out several weeks ago, it was made with the intention of taking him. I believe that to still be the case.
I am expecting Kradel to visit Ohio State once more before his announcement next month and that should cement things one way or another for the Buckeyes.
A little more on Brown
The Buckeyes will likely sign at least five offensive linemen in this class, one that they are hoping will be in that group is Bradenton (Fla.) IMG Academy product Verdis Brown. I spoke with the Chicago transplant this week and he is a pretty quiet/soft spoken kid, but he is an absolute man on the football field. He was one of the best prospects to camp with the Buckeyes last summer, in my opinion, and Ohio State offered him on the spot based on that performance.
Brown released his top 10 this past week which included Ohio State, he has previously told me that they are right at the top and has reiterated that, without ranking his list, the Buckeyes are still in as good of shape as anyone.
"My contact level with Ohio State is very high," Brown told me. "I talk to coach Stud all the time."
Asked if he would visit Ohio State again this summer, Brown said 'yeah, definitely'.
From what I can gather, Brown is one of the top guys on the board along the offensive line and probably a guy that would get a spot held for him the whole way.
Empire State quick hitters
The state of New York's top two prospects in the 2018 class are tight end Jeremy Ruckert out of Lindenhurst and two-way lineman Matthew Jones out of Brooklyn Erasmus Hall and the Buckeyes are still in a good position to sign both from what I am hearing.
Ruckert came out with his top four which included Ohio State, Notre Dame, Michigan, and Wisconsin and the Buckeyes are still the presumed favorite. I've heard the Michigan and Notre Dame smoke with Ruckert and I put a little bit of stock into it with Notre Dame as I know he was very impressed on his last visit to South Bend.
I think Michigan is appealing to him as well, but I think the Wolverines are probably running third at this point. Michigan is trending in the right direction right now with Texas standout Mustapha Muhammad, however, so it wouldn't be a surprise to see the two rivals split the battle at tight end this cycle.
I still expect Ruckert to decide this summer and while he hasn't visited in a little bit, the confidence levels remain pretty high to land the four-star prospect. It will certainly be interesting to watch what he does these next couple of months on the visit front, a return visit to Ohio State over the summer would be pretty telling in my opinion. Ultimately, I go back to the relationship he has with Urban Meyer, even mentioning in Adam Friedman's update today that he will use the advice Meyer gave him when making a decision, as well as the relationship he has built with some of the 2018 commits.
He and Emory Jones are speaking pretty regularly and he has been around a lot of the guys on his visits to Columbus. I just think Ohio State wins the comfort and relationships battle here which is even bigger than usual with distance to home being no factor in this one.
As for Jones, there are some other schools involved, but this has really turned into an Ohio State vs. Penn State battle and I still have the Buckeyes with the edge. Jones is being recruited as an offensive lineman and has admitted to me in the past that he thinks that he is probably best suited long term to play on that side of the football.
He has told me pretty consistently that he plans to take his five official visits, so he's taking his time with this. His high school coaches have done a really good job of helping him out and getting him to some of his top schools on unofficial visits, but you can never fault a kid who maybe doesn't have the means to make a lot of visits to take those free trips he gets towards the end of the process.
Second leg of Swing begins
We have made it to Houston to start the second leg of Southern Swing on Monday morning. If everything goes smoothly we will have three stops on Monday and will be talking to four of the nation's 50 best class of 2018 prospects. The Houston leg of the trip will be a big one as the Buckeyes are quite active down here right now.
This is the turning point of the trip as everything moving forward will be moving us back North towards Columbus, but there are still plenty of key targets we're going to be speaking with over the next five days so keep it locked in here.
