Atlanta Thoughts
I spent the day in Atlanta for the Rivals Camp Series stop here. While the area might not be quite as ripe with Ohio State targets as in previous years, there were still a few prospects worth checking on.
Class of 2019 four-star Marietta wide receiver Ramel Keyton recently narrowed his list to six schools and Ohio State made the cut. Keyton has not yet visited Ohio State, which he pretty much must do as an unofficial visitor to really start talking about this one too much. But I'm told Keyton's interest level in OSU is pretty high at this point. He told me he wants to make an official visit in the fall, but again, watch for the unofficial visit, that has to happen.
Right now Tennessee and Auburn are the two schools with the most buzz when it comes to Keyton's recruitment. Proximity to home seems important here but I think even more so is early playing time. The Tennessee roster is kind of a mess right now and the Vols are really hard-selling early playing time to wide receivers like Keyton.
On Ohio State's end, I believe there are some guys ahead of Keyton right now as well so while there is interest from both parties, this is probably something that wouldn't pick up too much steam until at least the summer months.
Also at Marietta now is 2020 offensive tackle Jake Wray. Jake had a bit of a tough sophomore season as he was only healthy for a couple of games. He was back at it today and won his first couple of 1-on-1 reps. Jake certainly has the physical tools, he is a big, broad kid with good feet and I think this will be a big season for him as he is now healthy (knock on wood) and will face some tremendous competition playing in the Greater Atlanta area.
Jake sort of downplays following his brother to Ohio State. He of course wants to make the best decision for himself which is not always the same decision your friends or family makes, but it is hard for me to envision Jake not ending up at Ohio State so long as the Buckeyes recruit him hard.
Buckeyes doing well with 2020 D-Line prospects
A couple of the Midwest's best in the 2020 class were back on campus for Saturday's spring game in Cincinnati (Ohio) Princeton defensive lineman Darrion Henry and Carmel (Ind.) defensive tackle Cole Brevard. Ohio State has made very, very few firm recruiting decisions about the 2020 class at this point, but these two are going to be two of the region's best in that class.
For Henry, this was his third unofficial visit to Ohio State since the middle of February when he was offered by the Buckeyes. He once again enjoyed his time on campus.
"It was very fun to be in that type of surrounding," Henry told me this weekend. "I liked how the guys got after it."
Henry also told me that most of the visit was just for further "relationship building" with the coaches and that he is starting to feel very comfortable with the staff and the general vibe around the program.
So many of these early offers are virtually meaningless, but the Buckeyes seem to be prioritizing Henry just as much as they are fellow Cincinnatian Paris Johnson Jr. so this is definitely a legit guy. Once again with Henry, I think the big question is does he play inside or outside at the next level. Right now, if forced to guess, I'd say he grows into an interior guy but there is no question he can play and play at a high level.
Ohio State is clearly in the driver's seat right now for Henry. I'm not sure who is really going to be able to challenge them here if they keep their foot on the gas.
As for Brevard, this was his second unofficial visit to Ohio State. Brevard's situation with being an out-of-state guy is a little more fluid but there is no question that the early interest in Ohio State is very high.
"The visit was nice but chaotic," Brevard told me. "Since it was the spring game they had current player families, recruits for other (OSU sports teams), and football recruits in the house. We toured the facilities and had a brief presentation on academic support. It was amazing sitting down with coach Meyer again. I look forward to future visits."
While Brevard's recruitment isn't as easy to handicap at this point, his future position is less of a mystery. He's a tackle. The Buckeyes have made a good early impression here and certainly appear like they will be a factor.
More on the official visitors
There is a front page update on Rivals100 wide receiver Garrett Wilson that went up early this afternoon. In talking with Garrett and talking to other people who were on campus this weekend and involved in the visit, I would be very, very surprised if Garrett did not announce for Ohio State shortly after his Texas visit.
Ohio State was able to continue the momentum that it built on the previous unofficial visit this weekend per both Garrett and other sources and now the Buckeyes are in absolutely tremendous shape to land the four-star prospect.
Garrett's visit to Texas is still on and I do expect him to take it. Tom Herman is a wonderful recruiter and can be very convincing but I think the combination of familiarity with the Columbus area, having family up here still, the relationship with Matt Baldwin, and the belief that Ohio State will develop him perhaps better than Texas has been able to prove on the field to this point, are all factors that have pushed this thing towards the Buckeyes in a big way over the past two months or so.
Spent my afternoon in transit so still working on linking up with Harry Miller, but did speak with a few contacts today. The general sentiment hasn't changed much. There is optimism that Miller is leaning toward Ohio State over Stanford. There is skepticism from folks on the ground here in Georgia that the UGA's and Clemson's of the world have a real chance. People down this way believe it is very much an OSU/Stanford battle.
The consensus, even among objective sources with no skin in the game on this one, believe Ohio State leads. Now the confidence levels range from "gun to my head it's OSU" to "OSU leads, I would be surprised if he didn't end up there" so there is a little bit of trepidation from a couple sources I spoke with, but I haven't talked to anyone yet who would go against Ohio State being the pick if it were made today.
That said, academics are a HUGE deal here. Absolutely huge. This kid is not just giving lip service on that stuff. He wants to take a serious major, either engineering or pre-Med and Ohio State will have to oblige on that and let the proper coursework for a challenging major like those two majors take priority.
My take on that is that Ohio State is willing to oblige. In fact, I think it is in OSU's best interests to get a kid like that and let him put that type of focus on academics as it would be a great way to silence the "skeptics" of their Real Life Wednesday's program.
The Stanford angle is always interesting. Kids don't find out if they are officially admitted to Stanford until late in the process as those of you who followed our coverage of Solomon Thomas know.
But I don't think that is going to be a major factor with Miller in terms of the timing of his decision. I think, even if this goes sideways for Ohio State, that he'll decide before his senior season. The thing with Miller is, even by Stanford's standards, he is probably a no-brainer on getting through admissions.
He's likely going to be valedictorian of his class. He is a better student than he is a football player and he is a hell of a football player. I can't claim to have seen the transcript, I only know what I've been told by several sources and that is that he is an absolute slam dunk to be admitted to Stanford and thus will not truly need to wait until January as some prospects have to. It should be a pretty open and shut case there, from everything I've been told.
So it is still Ohio State number one and Stanford number two if you ask me and I'm growing more confident that UGA, Clemson, and Notre Dame are in deep trouble on this one. Really a two-horse race at this point.
News and notes
- 2020 Ramsey (NJ) Don Bosco Prep running back Jalen Berger did not make it to Columbus this weekend and instead took a visit to Boston College. But Berger plans to reschedule that unofficial visit for this coming weekend.
- Rivals250 safety Jaylen McCollough also did not make it in this weekend as he stayed in Georgia and took the ACT. McCollough told me he plans to reschedule, which again is important. The guys Ohio State pulls out of places like Georgia and Texas virtually always take the early unofficial visit first.
I spent the day in Atlanta for the Rivals Camp Series stop here. While the area might not be quite as ripe with Ohio State targets as in previous years, there were still a few prospects worth checking on.
Class of 2019 four-star Marietta wide receiver Ramel Keyton recently narrowed his list to six schools and Ohio State made the cut. Keyton has not yet visited Ohio State, which he pretty much must do as an unofficial visitor to really start talking about this one too much. But I'm told Keyton's interest level in OSU is pretty high at this point. He told me he wants to make an official visit in the fall, but again, watch for the unofficial visit, that has to happen.
Right now Tennessee and Auburn are the two schools with the most buzz when it comes to Keyton's recruitment. Proximity to home seems important here but I think even more so is early playing time. The Tennessee roster is kind of a mess right now and the Vols are really hard-selling early playing time to wide receivers like Keyton.
On Ohio State's end, I believe there are some guys ahead of Keyton right now as well so while there is interest from both parties, this is probably something that wouldn't pick up too much steam until at least the summer months.
Also at Marietta now is 2020 offensive tackle Jake Wray. Jake had a bit of a tough sophomore season as he was only healthy for a couple of games. He was back at it today and won his first couple of 1-on-1 reps. Jake certainly has the physical tools, he is a big, broad kid with good feet and I think this will be a big season for him as he is now healthy (knock on wood) and will face some tremendous competition playing in the Greater Atlanta area.
Jake sort of downplays following his brother to Ohio State. He of course wants to make the best decision for himself which is not always the same decision your friends or family makes, but it is hard for me to envision Jake not ending up at Ohio State so long as the Buckeyes recruit him hard.
Buckeyes doing well with 2020 D-Line prospects
A couple of the Midwest's best in the 2020 class were back on campus for Saturday's spring game in Cincinnati (Ohio) Princeton defensive lineman Darrion Henry and Carmel (Ind.) defensive tackle Cole Brevard. Ohio State has made very, very few firm recruiting decisions about the 2020 class at this point, but these two are going to be two of the region's best in that class.
For Henry, this was his third unofficial visit to Ohio State since the middle of February when he was offered by the Buckeyes. He once again enjoyed his time on campus.
"It was very fun to be in that type of surrounding," Henry told me this weekend. "I liked how the guys got after it."
Henry also told me that most of the visit was just for further "relationship building" with the coaches and that he is starting to feel very comfortable with the staff and the general vibe around the program.
So many of these early offers are virtually meaningless, but the Buckeyes seem to be prioritizing Henry just as much as they are fellow Cincinnatian Paris Johnson Jr. so this is definitely a legit guy. Once again with Henry, I think the big question is does he play inside or outside at the next level. Right now, if forced to guess, I'd say he grows into an interior guy but there is no question he can play and play at a high level.
Ohio State is clearly in the driver's seat right now for Henry. I'm not sure who is really going to be able to challenge them here if they keep their foot on the gas.
As for Brevard, this was his second unofficial visit to Ohio State. Brevard's situation with being an out-of-state guy is a little more fluid but there is no question that the early interest in Ohio State is very high.
"The visit was nice but chaotic," Brevard told me. "Since it was the spring game they had current player families, recruits for other (OSU sports teams), and football recruits in the house. We toured the facilities and had a brief presentation on academic support. It was amazing sitting down with coach Meyer again. I look forward to future visits."
While Brevard's recruitment isn't as easy to handicap at this point, his future position is less of a mystery. He's a tackle. The Buckeyes have made a good early impression here and certainly appear like they will be a factor.
More on the official visitors
There is a front page update on Rivals100 wide receiver Garrett Wilson that went up early this afternoon. In talking with Garrett and talking to other people who were on campus this weekend and involved in the visit, I would be very, very surprised if Garrett did not announce for Ohio State shortly after his Texas visit.
Ohio State was able to continue the momentum that it built on the previous unofficial visit this weekend per both Garrett and other sources and now the Buckeyes are in absolutely tremendous shape to land the four-star prospect.
Garrett's visit to Texas is still on and I do expect him to take it. Tom Herman is a wonderful recruiter and can be very convincing but I think the combination of familiarity with the Columbus area, having family up here still, the relationship with Matt Baldwin, and the belief that Ohio State will develop him perhaps better than Texas has been able to prove on the field to this point, are all factors that have pushed this thing towards the Buckeyes in a big way over the past two months or so.
Spent my afternoon in transit so still working on linking up with Harry Miller, but did speak with a few contacts today. The general sentiment hasn't changed much. There is optimism that Miller is leaning toward Ohio State over Stanford. There is skepticism from folks on the ground here in Georgia that the UGA's and Clemson's of the world have a real chance. People down this way believe it is very much an OSU/Stanford battle.
The consensus, even among objective sources with no skin in the game on this one, believe Ohio State leads. Now the confidence levels range from "gun to my head it's OSU" to "OSU leads, I would be surprised if he didn't end up there" so there is a little bit of trepidation from a couple sources I spoke with, but I haven't talked to anyone yet who would go against Ohio State being the pick if it were made today.
That said, academics are a HUGE deal here. Absolutely huge. This kid is not just giving lip service on that stuff. He wants to take a serious major, either engineering or pre-Med and Ohio State will have to oblige on that and let the proper coursework for a challenging major like those two majors take priority.
My take on that is that Ohio State is willing to oblige. In fact, I think it is in OSU's best interests to get a kid like that and let him put that type of focus on academics as it would be a great way to silence the "skeptics" of their Real Life Wednesday's program.
The Stanford angle is always interesting. Kids don't find out if they are officially admitted to Stanford until late in the process as those of you who followed our coverage of Solomon Thomas know.
But I don't think that is going to be a major factor with Miller in terms of the timing of his decision. I think, even if this goes sideways for Ohio State, that he'll decide before his senior season. The thing with Miller is, even by Stanford's standards, he is probably a no-brainer on getting through admissions.
He's likely going to be valedictorian of his class. He is a better student than he is a football player and he is a hell of a football player. I can't claim to have seen the transcript, I only know what I've been told by several sources and that is that he is an absolute slam dunk to be admitted to Stanford and thus will not truly need to wait until January as some prospects have to. It should be a pretty open and shut case there, from everything I've been told.
So it is still Ohio State number one and Stanford number two if you ask me and I'm growing more confident that UGA, Clemson, and Notre Dame are in deep trouble on this one. Really a two-horse race at this point.
News and notes
- 2020 Ramsey (NJ) Don Bosco Prep running back Jalen Berger did not make it to Columbus this weekend and instead took a visit to Boston College. But Berger plans to reschedule that unofficial visit for this coming weekend.
- Rivals250 safety Jaylen McCollough also did not make it in this weekend as he stayed in Georgia and took the ACT. McCollough told me he plans to reschedule, which again is important. The guys Ohio State pulls out of places like Georgia and Texas virtually always take the early unofficial visit first.
