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Scrimmages are underway
High school scrimmages are underway all over the state of Ohio. I was at a very good one on Saturday featuring Dublin Coffman, Pickerington Central, and Centerville. All three programs have prospects of interest for Ohio State and this was about as physical a scrimmage as I have seen in recent years. It was pretty chippy when Central and Coffman were out there together. The teams don't typically play in the regular season as they are on opposite ends of Columbus but they are arguably the two premier programs in the area so there was definitely an added element of competitiveness to that match-up.
But one of my bigger takeaways involved Centerville and class of 2022 quarterback Chase Harrison. Harrison has been on the Ohio State radar for over a year already and the Buckeyes have plenty of time to evaluate before making a decisive move at the quarterback position in 2022. But Harrison is a name that has surfaced several times. He exceeded my expectations on Saturday. Going against two very athletic defenses, Harrison showed beautiful touch on several deep balls and was just extremely accurate in dropping throws into tight windows.
Centerville was really, really bad last year and Harrison was kind of thrown to the wolves so it will be interesting to see how much that young team can improve this fall and how Harrison is able to hold up against pretty strong competition, but he was better than I expected him to be on Saturday. Not a no-brainer at this point for OSU, but certainly one to keep an eye on moving forward. I left Saturday's scrimmage with a much higher opinion of him.
Probably my favorite thing that I saw on Saturday was how physical and competitive Lorenzo Styles Jr. was. Zo has been my guy for two years now, I've always loved his speed and athleticism and just the maturity and humble way he carries himself. But if I had one question about him or one thing I wanted to see, it was that I would like to see the really nice kid off the field play with a little more edge on the field. He played with an edge on Saturday. Was really physical on both sides of the ball and got into a few scrums. I loved it. The edge that you need to play the wide receiver and defensive back positions with is definitely growing on him. He scored a couple of touchdowns on offense and was running free most of the scrimmage.
Lorenzo can absolutely be an outstanding wide receiver, he's absolutely a top 6 or 7 guy in Ohio in a loaded class as a wide receiver, but I think he would have Lattimore/Conley/Ward type of potential on defense because of his size and speed. Wants to be a receiver right now so we'll see how that all plays out over the next few years, but he is undoubtedly one of the most explosive playmakers in the Midwest in 2021. Feeling very, very good here about the pick for OSU that I put in back in March.
Of course Central also has Ohio State defensive line commit Ty Hamilton. Hamilton looks to be in great shape, has really trimmed up. Not sure yet if he's going to be a strong-side end or whether he will have to kick inside but he's moving in the right direction body wise to stay on the outside. Ohio State hasn't really distinguished between strong-side and weak-side ends in recent years but that changes a bit under Greg Mattison so that would help Hamilton in terms of trying to stay outside. I will say this about Ty, he has improved each and every year going back to his freshman year. He is a worker and will be as good as his physical talents allow him to be, he won't cheat himself.
With Mike Drennen being held out of the scrimmage due to injury (precautionary and not serious) a lot of the focus for watching Coffman was on 2021 defensive back A.J. Kirk. I think A.J. is going to be an outside linebacker at the next level, maybe a bullet if he can keep working on his speed. He's very much a downhill type of defensive player. He can really, really strike, just not sure he's a true safety in today's game where coverage is so important now. Love the way he plays the game though.
There are a lot of young up-and-comers at Coffman and Central as well. 2021 Coffman defensive end Hammond Russell IV is an intriguing guy. Definitely has 'the look' and made a few nice plays on Saturday. Will be a work in progress in terms of technique and consistency but definitely a guy to keep an eye on this fall at 6-foot-4, 235-pounds. I also liked Coffman 2021 defensive back/running back Bryon Threats. Threats will be at least a lower to mid-tier Big Ten kid. If he was 5-foot-11 and not 5-foot-9, I think we'd be talking about an OSU/Mich/ND type of kid.
I finally got a chance to see Central 2021 ATH Garner Wallace. Wallace is a good basketball player and has been the backup QB the past couple of years, but is now getting time at both wide receiver and defensive back where he really flashed on Saturday. Wallace is a 6'3, maybe 6'4 athlete that can really run. Going to be a guy that has a chance to blow up this year. There has been buzz around him for a few years in Pickerington but this will be his first chance to really show what he can do. Not sure what position he best projects to yet long term, but he's a high level athlete, going to be fun to see his development.
Princeton media day
Spent Monday in Cincinnati hanging out at Princeton High School. They were doing their team photo stuff and invited the media out to get some interviews as well. I have 1-on-1's with both Paris Johnson and Darrion Henry coming on Tuesday, just need to cut them up.
Paris just reiterated that he is all in with the Buckeyes and will not be doing any further visits this fall. Ryan Day's confidence in himself and the Ohio State program and the way he went about Paris' decision to take visits really played well for the Buckeyes here. Johnson was never made to feel guilty about doing the visits or pressured out of doing them, Day handled all of this perfectly and it led to a realization that Ohio State was still the best place for Paris to be.
The transfer to Princeton will allow Paris to enroll early with the Buckeyes, that was the driving force behind that decision. Johnson carried a 4.0 GPA at St. Xavier but was unable to graduate early. One interesting thing I found out about Paris today is that he is pretty fluent in Mandarin Chinese. He can speak it fairly well, he can read it and he can write it.
Not sure how many people will remember this but we talked about this a little bit when Michael Jordan was being recruited by Ohio State. Big Mike is also fluent in Mandarin and so it was just kind of a deja vu having Paris talk about his interest in the language and culture. For someone who has kept fairly quiet during the recruiting process, I think people are going to really enjoy a more relaxed and engaged Paris Johnson. He's a really good interview.
Looking down the road a bit, Princeton has a class of 2022 wide receiver by the name of Rodney Harris Jr. who the coaches told me could be their next big name guy if he keeps working. Will have an intro story on him as well this week. About 6-foot-2 already and should be a kid who breaks out this fall.
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