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Princeton trio status update
With Paris Johnson's pending transfer, the Johnson, Darrion Henry, Jaheim Thomas trio now gets moved to the Princeton Trio from the Cincy Trio. There has been some movement there recently that I want to touch on this evening.
To clear up the visit situation, both Paris Johnson and Darrion Henry will make official visits to Ohio State the weekend of June 21st. Jaheim Thomas will not be an official visitor that weekend. That does not mean he won't be on campus, I suspect that he probably will be, but he will not be using his Ohio State official visit that weekend.
One thing to remember is that Friday Night Lights is likely going to be that weekend and official visitors are not permitted to camp while on their visits so I think it's possible that Jaheim works out for the staff that evening. He's certainly going to at some point as the coaches have told him that while his offer is good, they'd like to work with him as much as possible this summer to get the best possible feel on where he best projects at the next level.
Henry made some waves over the weekend tweeting that a decision was coming sooner than expected. While I think a lot of people's instant reaction was to try and equate this to the LSU visit he recently made, I'm not convinced that's the angle that people should be looking at here. I've had Henry in the OSU class since the day we were allowed to start entering picks in the system and still feel that is where he ends up. I think the early official visit, after initially talking about a fall official visit to Ohio State, means we could see him end up with the Buckeyes not long after that official visit toward the end of June. I guess we'll see how it plays out, but I personally did not read the bumped up time frame as something that should concern Ohio State beyond whatever the concern level has been in recent months.
With Paris setting that visit up when he did, that also seems to signify that he would like to put everything to bed here before his senior season starts. Now we'll see if it actually plays out that way, I've cautioned people in the past about thinking that he's just going to lock it up at various times this winter and spring, but this feels a little more "real" in that regard. Don't think he wants anything to distract from his senior season.
At this point, it is LSU and not UGA that would be the dark horse. If a huge surprise is going to happen here, it's going to be the Tigers and not the Dawgs. But I don't think we're going to see a huge surprise here. I think we're going to see Henry go where we've thought he would all along and I think Paris will remain in the class into the fall and beyond, just so long as the wheels don't come off for Ryan Day and company this fall.
Making room for Mookie?
I am keeping this separate from my St. Louis notes in the below segment because I do think this is a significant development here. We have talked about St. Louis (Mo.) Trinity Catholic wide receiver/athlete Teriyon 'Mookie' Cooper in the past, but it has pretty much always been as a fringe prospect. That is changing in a big way.
Cooper made an unofficial visit on Friday to Ohio State. That in itself isn't big news, the Buckeyes entertain non-priority targets all the time on unofficial visits. Mookie absolutely loved the visit. That in itself also isn't big news, non-priority targets enjoy their OSU unofficial visits all the time, doesn't make them priority targets.
But Mookie *is* now a major target for the Buckeyes. Brian Hartline watched him during the Spring Evaluation Period and I'm told the offensive staff absolutely loves him as a big play receiver and potential H guy.
Gee Scott Jr. is going to play on the outside, Julian Fleming (if they get him, of course) is going to play on the outside, Jaxon Smith-Njigba could certainly play in the slot but is also a guy who could play outside. So in short, you have a lot outside guys right now and they're going to take a true H. LV Bunkley-Shelton could potentially be that guy as well, but Cooper has picked up a lot of steam with the Buckeyes in recent weeks.
He's going to make an official visit in the fall for either the Michigan State or Wisconsin game in October, so there is a lot of time to go here, but for all of you who get into the Big Boards and stuff like that that we post and like to make your own mock classes, this is a guy you should all be paying attention to, very real target at this point.
Numbers are going to be interesting at wide receiver. As I've said before, I can see Ohio State taking at least nine receivers total in the 2020 and 2021 classes combined and it's just kind of a matter of which year they want to go with five and which year they want to go with four (though who knows, maybe it ends up being five and five?). It certainly seems right now like 2020 could be a five year. I think on May 31st they'll have three in the fold and I just don't know that they'd turn away a guy like Rosemy, Cooper, or Bunkley-Shelton if two of those three wanted in.
Cooper was really good today at the Rivals Camp Series event in St. Louis. Really strong and explosive kid, not hard to see why he forced his way into the mix at receiver.
St. Louis Notes
Now that we've talked about Cooper, there were a few other prospects of interest at the St. Louis Rivals Camp on Sunday, pretty much all in the 2021 class.
2021 defensive tackle Gabriel Rubio has great size and strength and I loved his attitude. Very enthusiastic kid who took as many reps as he could and led the drills. I want to love him more as a defensive tackle but honestly all I could think about while watching him was how well I think he would do if he flipped over to the offensive line.
He has a tremendous motor but he plays a little high and he is kind of herky-jerky with some of his movements. He absolutely has the size to play offensive tackle and guys who aren't elite athletes and have that type of size would be better served flipping over offense (see Price, Billy). Rubio was good enough at defensive tackle to warrant offers and looks, but I just think he'd be special on the other side of the ball.
I'm making sure that I'm a safe distance away from him as I'm typing this because he'd probably punch me in the mouth for suggesting this, he definitely wants to play along the defensive line.
Got another look today at 2021 linebacker Yanni Karlaftis, younger brother of 2019 Purdue defensive end signee George Karlaftis.
Yanni is a favorite of Greg Mattison's who was recruiting him while he was trying to flip George from the Boilermakers and that relationship has carried over to Ohio State. Karlaftis did visit this spring and I think Ohio State will be a factor in this recruitment though Yanni insists it's way too early for favorites. Definitely keep an eye on Purdue here as the local school that also has his brother, but Yanni says he wants to see how things go for George at Purdue before trying to worry about where they fit into things.
Yanni is still pretty thin, but a legitimate 6-foot-3, so he's going to fill out and he's a very athletic kid. I was a big fan of George's game in high school, but these are two very different players, don't see Yanni growing into a defensive lineman at this point.
There is also 2021 defensive end Travion Ford. Ford has a ton of early offers and hype and I think he's good, but he's small. I'm not sure he's going to be able to play defensive end in college. I don't think he's much more than 6-foot-2 and he's got a long way to go in the weight room to get to a Big Ten type of playing weight at defensive end.
He's more of a stand-up edge rusher/outside linebacker type of player, which may not preclude him from Ohio State as they are talking about utilizing that type of guy in the new defense that Greg Mattison is installing.
Like Karlaftis, it's too early to really handicap everything but Ohio State has Ford's attention so far. I'm not sure how high Travion is going to be on the board though. Jack Sawyer is already in and you have Jahzion Harris out there along with guys like Najee Story and Quintin Somerville, so it's going to be pretty competitive for that last 1-2 defensive end spots in the class. Lots of time for that to play out still.
Will have individual recruiting updates on all of these guys in the next 48 hours.
