Importing from Detroit
I think one of the most interesting storylines to follow right now when it comes to Ohio State recruiting is the Buckeyes' efforts in Detroit. The last couple of years have probably been the most successful run that Ohio State has had in recruiting the area and in winning head-to-head battles with Michigan, especially at powerhouse and traditional UM pipeline Cass Tech.
I recently had a conversation with a good source on this subject that shared some great insight into Ohio State's recruiting efforts in the state of Michigan, specifically Detroit and Cass Tech.
"At first (Ohio State) didn't know if it would actually pay off," they said. "It was just a way to get Michigan to have to use more time and resources recruiting its own state the way that Michigan has done in Ohio for decades. Nobody knew if it would actually lead to landing any top kids, but sure enough it worked so now (the focus is on) keeping that going."
Obviously any time a major program undergoes a coaching change it generates new excitement on the recruiting trail and Jim Harbaugh has certainly generated a lot of excitement in Ann Arbor. Ohio State has landed three Cass Tech prospects in the last two classes and Michigan is hoping to cut that mini-pipeline off before it really gets going.
When Michigan is having success it's really hard to pull kids out of Detroit, but Harbaugh's ties to Cass Tech go even deeper given his relationship with head coach Thomas Wilcher and my source weighed in on that as well.
"Wilcher is telling (Ohio State) all of the right things right now as far as having his kids keep an open mind about all of their options," they said. "So he is being taken at his word on that but you have to remember his relationship with Harbaugh. They aren't just both Michigan guys, they aren't just former teammates, they shared a backfield together. Harbaugh handed the football to Wilcher on a team that went to the Rose Bowl, they have a very close relationship so we'll just see how things go."
Now while I agreed with everything that the person I spoke with said, I do think Mike Weber is a bit of an X-Factor here in terms of keeping things open in Detroit and at Cass Tech specifically. Weber is kind of Raekwon McMillan-Lite in a way. The way he carries himself, he quietly goes about his business but people look up to him and a lot of those kids at Cass Tech looked up to him. If he gets off to a good start and continues to do well at Ohio State, that would certainly be beneficial to future recruiting efforts at that school.
Will definitely be interesting to follow over the next couple of years, in the very immediate future I have a feeling Michigan will go back to getting most, if not all of, the kids they want at Cass. However there are a lot of moving parts that go into that such as the aforementioned success of Weber (and the other Detroit kids), how quickly Harbaugh can get things going at Michigan, and if Meyer can keep winning at this torrid pace.
Making the cut for Daniels
Ohio State got a surprise visit this past week from Rivals250 defensive tackle Chris Daniels out of powerhouse Euless (Texas) Trinity. While the Buckeyes had been in Daniels' top ten, this isn't a prospect that has been linked very closely with the program to this point but things went well this week and now Daniels is expected to announce a top five by the end of the month.
It was pretty fortunate that Ohio State got this visit quite honestly. There was a wedding in the family back in Michigan (where Daniels is originally from) that allowed for these Midwest visits to take place as Daniels' team is actually in the middle of camp right now and getting that initial unofficial visit always raises the percentages in landing a big name out-of-state kid.
Anyway, I spent some time throughout the week looking into Daniels' situation a bit more closely with his pending announcement of his top five. The schools that were brought up to me the most, other than Ohio State, were Baylor, Michigan, TCU, and Texas A&M so it's a mix of schools from his new stomping grounds as well as his old home.
If I'm trying to hit the five-team parlay on his top five, it would be the above four and the Buckeyes. I have been told that Ohio State "definitely made an impression" on Daniels and have had a few people tell me that they believe the Buckeyes will get an official visit out of Chris. I like The Field over OSU here but if they can get an official visit coming off a very successful unofficial visit, you never know what can happen, it does sound like they have a little bit of momentum here.
Which brings us to an even more pressing situation in defensive tackle recruiting....
Latest on Jackson
I don't have anything totally earth shattering here but I know you guys are itching for status updates on Rivals100 defensive tackle Antwuan Jackson so I am doing what I can to keep everyone up-to-date as we get closer to what I am assuming is going to be a Friday announcement from the four-star prospect.
Both Jackson and his father are quiet individuals by nature and certainly all of the attention that has come their way lately isn't going to change that. They have kept very quiet in recent weeks and I'm told they've kept fairly quiet with college coaches as well in very recent days.
What I have also been told is that when they left Columbus following their last visit the weekend of Friday Night Lights, they gave the OSU coaches reason for optimism. He absolutely did NOT commit to the staff on the visit but, again, I'm told that both he and his father gave the OSU coaching staff reason to feel they had a pretty good chance at ultimately landing his commitment. Jackson's father was VERY impressed with Larry Johnson from what I have gathered.
Now kids tell college coaches what they want to hear all the time but Antwuan hasn't conducted himself as a game player at any point during this process and as I've said before is pretty quiet and reserved so while certainly that information needs to be taken with a grain of salt, I think Antwuan and his father are about as straight forward as they come.
So that is where we stand right now. I imagine because of how tight lipped the Jackson camp is that this one will be tough to handicap over the next few days but for now my pick would be Ohio State if he goes through with this on Friday. Will certainly keep everyone updated throughout the week, especially if I hear anything that would make me waver from that stance.
2016 WR's update
The moving parts involved right now with wide receiver recruiting, especially in the 2016 class are substantial. The Buckeyes are still in the mix for Donnie Corley, Binjimen Victor, and Nate Craig-Myers and the electric Sam Bruce continues to list Ohio State as a possible fall back plan if things go bad at Miami this fall (and they very well could).
It's a lot to digest. With Bruce, if Al Golden gets fired, and his seat is awfully hot right now, that could potentially open things up for him. Ohio State and Florida State are the two schools that I hear the most often in terms of being associated with him if he decommits from Miami but as I've said in the past on here that kid is a diehard South Florida guy so if the Canes would handle a coaching change in the right way I still think they could keep him. If he leaves, I think Florida State might hold an edge against the rest of the field, it's just hard for me to see Sam leaving the state.
The Corley recruitment is simply unpredictable. All I know about Donnie is that I just don't get great vibes with Ohio State. If ever the Buckeyes were going to make the big move for him, I would have thought Friday Night Lights would be it and while everything on the visit was good, there's no reason to believe it was enough to propel OSU into a position of strength. This one has taken so many twists and turns it's not even funny and five official visits should only add to the entertainment, but I just don't see Donnie ending up at Ohio State.
So that brings us to NCM and Victor who may end up being very closely linked when all of the dust settles here.
As we've said for a while now with NCM, don't believe the FSU hype, I've had it on good authority that the Noles aren't as big of a player here as they were portrayed. The depth chart doesn't set up all that well for NCM and there are staffs where he has better relationhips. Under the 'they don't go back' theory, I don't think he'll end up back at Auburn.
Florida and Ohio State have really come to the forefront in terms of relationship building and both have pretty appealing depth charts for when he arrives on campus. Florida may have the ace in the hole as they recently landed a commitment from his brother Jayvaughn Myers. Another thing working against OSU is they never got that summer unofficial visit. While it is certainly possible to get a kid on campus for an official and wow him and land a commitment, the odds do decrease pretty significantly if the OV is the only visit to campus.
Now if NCM doesn't end up at Ohio State, Florida is the school every Ohio State fan should be pulling for. Victor doesn't stirke me as the type to be scared off by the numbers game but NCM would give Florida four receivers in the class which puts Ohio State in a better situation depth chart wise and certainly a better situation right now on-the-field as we find out more about the new regime in Gainesville.
An NCM commitment to Florida, could really tilt things in favor of Ohio State when it comes to Victor and I already have Ohio State as an ever so slight favorite without knowing the NCM verdict.
Despite all of the twists, turns, pump fakes, and surprises with all of these recruitments (all but Bruce have been pretty wild so far) I do think Ohio State will end up with one of their guys out of this group and right now Victor is the one I think is most likely.
I think one of the most interesting storylines to follow right now when it comes to Ohio State recruiting is the Buckeyes' efforts in Detroit. The last couple of years have probably been the most successful run that Ohio State has had in recruiting the area and in winning head-to-head battles with Michigan, especially at powerhouse and traditional UM pipeline Cass Tech.
I recently had a conversation with a good source on this subject that shared some great insight into Ohio State's recruiting efforts in the state of Michigan, specifically Detroit and Cass Tech.
"At first (Ohio State) didn't know if it would actually pay off," they said. "It was just a way to get Michigan to have to use more time and resources recruiting its own state the way that Michigan has done in Ohio for decades. Nobody knew if it would actually lead to landing any top kids, but sure enough it worked so now (the focus is on) keeping that going."
Obviously any time a major program undergoes a coaching change it generates new excitement on the recruiting trail and Jim Harbaugh has certainly generated a lot of excitement in Ann Arbor. Ohio State has landed three Cass Tech prospects in the last two classes and Michigan is hoping to cut that mini-pipeline off before it really gets going.
When Michigan is having success it's really hard to pull kids out of Detroit, but Harbaugh's ties to Cass Tech go even deeper given his relationship with head coach Thomas Wilcher and my source weighed in on that as well.
"Wilcher is telling (Ohio State) all of the right things right now as far as having his kids keep an open mind about all of their options," they said. "So he is being taken at his word on that but you have to remember his relationship with Harbaugh. They aren't just both Michigan guys, they aren't just former teammates, they shared a backfield together. Harbaugh handed the football to Wilcher on a team that went to the Rose Bowl, they have a very close relationship so we'll just see how things go."
Now while I agreed with everything that the person I spoke with said, I do think Mike Weber is a bit of an X-Factor here in terms of keeping things open in Detroit and at Cass Tech specifically. Weber is kind of Raekwon McMillan-Lite in a way. The way he carries himself, he quietly goes about his business but people look up to him and a lot of those kids at Cass Tech looked up to him. If he gets off to a good start and continues to do well at Ohio State, that would certainly be beneficial to future recruiting efforts at that school.
Will definitely be interesting to follow over the next couple of years, in the very immediate future I have a feeling Michigan will go back to getting most, if not all of, the kids they want at Cass. However there are a lot of moving parts that go into that such as the aforementioned success of Weber (and the other Detroit kids), how quickly Harbaugh can get things going at Michigan, and if Meyer can keep winning at this torrid pace.
Making the cut for Daniels
Ohio State got a surprise visit this past week from Rivals250 defensive tackle Chris Daniels out of powerhouse Euless (Texas) Trinity. While the Buckeyes had been in Daniels' top ten, this isn't a prospect that has been linked very closely with the program to this point but things went well this week and now Daniels is expected to announce a top five by the end of the month.
It was pretty fortunate that Ohio State got this visit quite honestly. There was a wedding in the family back in Michigan (where Daniels is originally from) that allowed for these Midwest visits to take place as Daniels' team is actually in the middle of camp right now and getting that initial unofficial visit always raises the percentages in landing a big name out-of-state kid.
Anyway, I spent some time throughout the week looking into Daniels' situation a bit more closely with his pending announcement of his top five. The schools that were brought up to me the most, other than Ohio State, were Baylor, Michigan, TCU, and Texas A&M so it's a mix of schools from his new stomping grounds as well as his old home.
If I'm trying to hit the five-team parlay on his top five, it would be the above four and the Buckeyes. I have been told that Ohio State "definitely made an impression" on Daniels and have had a few people tell me that they believe the Buckeyes will get an official visit out of Chris. I like The Field over OSU here but if they can get an official visit coming off a very successful unofficial visit, you never know what can happen, it does sound like they have a little bit of momentum here.
Which brings us to an even more pressing situation in defensive tackle recruiting....
Latest on Jackson
I don't have anything totally earth shattering here but I know you guys are itching for status updates on Rivals100 defensive tackle Antwuan Jackson so I am doing what I can to keep everyone up-to-date as we get closer to what I am assuming is going to be a Friday announcement from the four-star prospect.
Both Jackson and his father are quiet individuals by nature and certainly all of the attention that has come their way lately isn't going to change that. They have kept very quiet in recent weeks and I'm told they've kept fairly quiet with college coaches as well in very recent days.
What I have also been told is that when they left Columbus following their last visit the weekend of Friday Night Lights, they gave the OSU coaches reason for optimism. He absolutely did NOT commit to the staff on the visit but, again, I'm told that both he and his father gave the OSU coaching staff reason to feel they had a pretty good chance at ultimately landing his commitment. Jackson's father was VERY impressed with Larry Johnson from what I have gathered.
Now kids tell college coaches what they want to hear all the time but Antwuan hasn't conducted himself as a game player at any point during this process and as I've said before is pretty quiet and reserved so while certainly that information needs to be taken with a grain of salt, I think Antwuan and his father are about as straight forward as they come.
So that is where we stand right now. I imagine because of how tight lipped the Jackson camp is that this one will be tough to handicap over the next few days but for now my pick would be Ohio State if he goes through with this on Friday. Will certainly keep everyone updated throughout the week, especially if I hear anything that would make me waver from that stance.
2016 WR's update
The moving parts involved right now with wide receiver recruiting, especially in the 2016 class are substantial. The Buckeyes are still in the mix for Donnie Corley, Binjimen Victor, and Nate Craig-Myers and the electric Sam Bruce continues to list Ohio State as a possible fall back plan if things go bad at Miami this fall (and they very well could).
It's a lot to digest. With Bruce, if Al Golden gets fired, and his seat is awfully hot right now, that could potentially open things up for him. Ohio State and Florida State are the two schools that I hear the most often in terms of being associated with him if he decommits from Miami but as I've said in the past on here that kid is a diehard South Florida guy so if the Canes would handle a coaching change in the right way I still think they could keep him. If he leaves, I think Florida State might hold an edge against the rest of the field, it's just hard for me to see Sam leaving the state.
The Corley recruitment is simply unpredictable. All I know about Donnie is that I just don't get great vibes with Ohio State. If ever the Buckeyes were going to make the big move for him, I would have thought Friday Night Lights would be it and while everything on the visit was good, there's no reason to believe it was enough to propel OSU into a position of strength. This one has taken so many twists and turns it's not even funny and five official visits should only add to the entertainment, but I just don't see Donnie ending up at Ohio State.
So that brings us to NCM and Victor who may end up being very closely linked when all of the dust settles here.
As we've said for a while now with NCM, don't believe the FSU hype, I've had it on good authority that the Noles aren't as big of a player here as they were portrayed. The depth chart doesn't set up all that well for NCM and there are staffs where he has better relationhips. Under the 'they don't go back' theory, I don't think he'll end up back at Auburn.
Florida and Ohio State have really come to the forefront in terms of relationship building and both have pretty appealing depth charts for when he arrives on campus. Florida may have the ace in the hole as they recently landed a commitment from his brother Jayvaughn Myers. Another thing working against OSU is they never got that summer unofficial visit. While it is certainly possible to get a kid on campus for an official and wow him and land a commitment, the odds do decrease pretty significantly if the OV is the only visit to campus.
Now if NCM doesn't end up at Ohio State, Florida is the school every Ohio State fan should be pulling for. Victor doesn't stirke me as the type to be scared off by the numbers game but NCM would give Florida four receivers in the class which puts Ohio State in a better situation depth chart wise and certainly a better situation right now on-the-field as we find out more about the new regime in Gainesville.
An NCM commitment to Florida, could really tilt things in favor of Ohio State when it comes to Victor and I already have Ohio State as an ever so slight favorite without knowing the NCM verdict.
Despite all of the twists, turns, pump fakes, and surprises with all of these recruitments (all but Bruce have been pretty wild so far) I do think Ohio State will end up with one of their guys out of this group and right now Victor is the one I think is most likely.
