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Thomas gets his offer
After months of speculation, Cincinnati Princeton four-star linebacker Jaheim Thomas landed his Ohio State offer on Saturday. The question now becomes, can he and will he take it? I believe he can take it, I don't think Ohio State would be able to turn him away at this point and I think there is a decent chance he tries to jump on this sooner rather than later.
This is the offer that Thomas has wanted and while I think Ohio State is going to want to work closely with him this summer at camps to try and determine just where he fits into everything position-wise, I just don't think they would have pulled the trigger this weekend without being prepared to take him. Conversely, while Thomas would have liked this news to come earlier, I don't think he's going to hold it against OSU. So whether we're talking a couple of weeks here or maybe 2-3 months, I think Thomas will be in the class and probably sooner rather than later. I don't expect this to drag into the fall or anything.
As for what this means for Darrion Henry and Paris Johnson Jr., I would caution against thinking that all of a sudden because their buddy got the OSU offer that Henry, and Johnson even more so, are suddenly going to alter the way they are going about things right now. I expect them both, and again probably even more so with Johnson, to continue to check out other schools. It's not ideal for Ohio State to have Johnson out visiting other schools, but they don't hold the leverage here and Johnson is going to continue to play things out, in my opinion, until there is at least some type of data on how things are going under Ryan Day, which is basically a nice way of me saying until Day proves it on the field this fall.
Johnson was back on campus over the weekend, as was his mother, and I continue to feel that despite the anxiety that this is causing the fans and probably the coaches as well, that Johnson would need to be given a strong reason (poor performance on the field this fall) to not choose Ohio State. Henry has certainly been getting a strong push from several SEC schools on his recent visit tour and while I think going around to out-of-state programs and getting the star treatment is probably tempting for him, I just don't see him moving away from Ohio State. The Buckeyes were the heavy favorite heading into this and the people on the ground in Cincinnati still have a "see it to believe it" type of attitude about him not ultimately picking Ohio State.
Massillon notes
The Opening regionals hit Massillon, Ohio on Sunday. While there were some notable cancellations, particularly the Cincinnati trio we just discussed above, it was still a strong camp at several positions.
My two biggest takeaways were on a pair of Ohio State targets that I hadn't really had a good chance to evaluate in person before, both hail from the state of Michigan. First up was Port Huron (MI) Northern standout Braiden McGregor. McGregor was probably the most physically impressive defensive end at the camp and he did an outstanding job in 1-on-1's. He is just built the way you would want a high school defensive end to look at 6-foot-6 with long arms and he was quick off the ball and very flexible and fluid in his movement. He was as good as anyone out there today and it's easy to see why schools like Ohio State and Clemson are starting to turn up the heat.
McGregor keeps a fairly low profile so he hasn't been talked about as much as some other guys, but Ohio State is really working hard on that one and Braiden told me after camp that he plans to visit again in the next week or two. Now Clemson is pushing and Notre Dame and Michigan are very serious factors here as well so this could be a very tough pull for the Buckeyes. Perhaps complicating matters is that he's looking at a decision in the next month or two, likely before an official visit to Ohio State would happen, that is unless the Buckeyes can knock the next unofficial out of the park and get a return official in short order.
The other guy that really impressed me was Cameron Martinez. Cameron was recently pretty high up on our safeties Big Board and has been mostly viewed as a bullet prospect by the Buckeye staff but his Friday visit to Columbus shed some new light there as he also spoke with Brian Hartline. Hartline is apparently fighting for him as well as an H prospect.
Martinez worked out at receiver on Sunday and was pretty dominant. Maliq Carr out of Oak Park won wide receiver MVP at the camp but I thought it could have easily gone to Martinez. He was sharp with his route running, he made several outstanding catches where he had to make last minute adjustments, and he is just one of those guys that makes creating separation look easy. Definitely an eye-opening performance there. Unlike McGregor, I don't think this one is quite as much of a long shot. I think the Buckeyes are very much in the mix for Martinez.
Another interesting note from the camp was that Akron (Ohio) Hoban athlete Dea'Monte Trayanum has added about 15-20 pounds of muscle since his high school football season ended back in the beginning of December. I barely recognized him. He's not just a lot bigger, he looks broader too in the shoulders, just a pretty wild transformation in just a few months.
This news actually makes me want to double down on my stance that I like him better on defense. He won running back MVP earlier in the day and then worked with the defensive backs in the afternoon. Personally I think the new hybrid position would fit him well. Ohio State and Wisconsin are the top two right now and I think his relationship with Ryan Day will ultimately win out. I do not feel the Buckeyes are holding him off at this point, I still think he's trying to figure out what he wants in terms of his future position but he seems more open to the idea of playing defense than he was a year ago at this time. Ohio State is still offering up running back to him.
Will have much more from Sunday's camp as I have more than a dozen interviews in the recorder and will start getting those up on Monday morning.
Next man up
Ohio State had appeared to be losing some ground with Rivals100 offensive tackle Turner Corcoran in recent months and was going to need to regain momentum on an upcoming April visit with the four-star prospect. But that visit will not happen now as Corcoran informed the Buckeyes this past week that he planned to stay closer to home and that upcoming trip to Columbus will no longer happen.
For a class that will still likely be adding two more offensive linemen to the fold and could really use another tackle prospect, this will make for some interesting decisions moving forward as Corcoran was pretty much a top of the board type of guy. There are still plenty of options left, however, and now guys like Louisville (KY) Christian product John Young and Mars (PA) standout Michael Carmody will likely move to the forefront.
Young has been a priority target for the Buckeyes over the past year or so, though he could be a tough pull out of the state with both Louisville and Kentucky being among the leaders and with Young definitely leaning toward staying close to home. Just *how* close to home is the million dollar question. Columbus is just a few hours from Louisville so the geography doesn't discount Ohio State here.
With Carmody, things have started to pick up more recently. My pick has been on Penn State for a little bit now, but there are people pretty close to the four-star tackle that think the Buckeyes have a chance to be a real factor if they pick things up, and they have recently. There is also the Notre Dame Factor. Carmody's brother plays basketball for the Fighting Irish, but they have not offered Michael yet and he didn't offer up Notre Dame to me when I asked him the other day about top schools. But there is definitely a line of thought there that it is simply Michael listing schools that have offered and that Notre Dame would vault into contention if it came through with one.
There is also Penn State commit Grant Toutant who has an Ohio State offer and who the Buckeyes are definitely interested in. Again, it is early, and there is plenty of time to continue to shuffle the board around, but I think these are three guys who are particularly worth watching now to see where things move now that Corcoran has made it known that he won't be heading to Columbus.
