As you guys are well aware, Rivals250 four-star tight end Luke Farrell out of Perry is pretty much the last big target left on the board for the Buckeyes in the state of Ohio in 2016 and the last domino at tight end as well. He's one of the few guys left who has a sure spot in this class waiting for them and we're going to see a resolution on whether or not he'll be taking that spot soon.
The last time we spoke at length on Luke's recent activity was following the Notre Dame visit he took in June. The Fighting Irish offered later in the process than most of the other schools in Luke's final group (Notre Dame, Ohio State, Sparty, Boston College, Penn State) and quite a few people, myself included, felt that the Irish were a little too late to the table to get Farrell. Farrell took that visit to Notre Dame, and it went well and he said all the right things coming out of it about academics and football opportunities.
Michigan State was the last visit he took prior to Notre Dame and he sat down with the coaches and academic people in East Lansing while he was up that way for a 7v7 tournament with his high school teammates. I'm told things went very well and Michigan State left a good impression on Farrell.
While I think these two schools are and have been Ohio State's biggest competition for Farrell, I don't feel that either one did enough to move ahead of the Buckeyes in this recruitment. Michigan State and Notre are both strong academic programs and have achieved on the field success and have done a good job in this recruitment, much in the same way that Penn State and Boston College have.
I spoke with Luke tonight and he's got a pretty good idea of how things are going to play out the rest of the way here. He is all done taking unofficial visits at this point and he says there is only one more potential trip on the docket. That would be to Columbus on July 24th for Friday Night Lights and he says the decision should be coming shortly after that, before or around the first week of August. Perry's two-a-days start on August 1 and he'd like to have things over with before then. He has a 7v7 scheduled for the same day with his high school team at Kent State, but as long as he can work out making it to Columbus logistically, he's planning on being there.
The Buckeyes have a pretty high hit rate on recruitments where an Ohio kid takes his final visit of the process to Ohio State and plans to make a decision shortly following the trip, and the trend won't be bucked here. The opportunity to play football in his home state around friends and family, join his brother at Ohio State, compete at a winning program that could send him to the NFL, and receive an education at a top 20 kinesiology/physical therapy program should be too much for Farrell to pass up and I am fully expecting him to be an Ohio State Buckeye.
When I spoke to Luke's coach around 6 weeks ago, he explained Luke's five-step process to evaluating the schools he was deciding between. They were, in order of importance:
Education and physical therapy programs: where the Buckeyes are ranked nationally ahead of every other program left in Luke's final group to consider and are actually building an expansion to the department on campus as we speak, hoping to propel them ahead of where they're at now.
Second was his comfort level with the coaching staff at each school, and Luke had been visiting Ohio State every couple months and meeting with coaches consistently, whereas his time spent at Michigan State, Notre Dame, Boston College, and Penn State was limited in comparison. Some of this was due to geography, some was to the length each school recruited him, but it happened nonetheless.
The third and fourth were slightly more superficial than the first two and were how practices and competition went at the school and what campus life was like at each place. Luke was able to see spring practice at Ohio State and the Buckeyes made every effort to bring him in the tight end room and see coach Tim Hinton work in person. He also has a brother at Ohio State (a junior IIRC) who is able to explain and show campus life to him on a regular basis.
The fifth and final question was schematic fit and the chance of him redshirting. Right now, Ohio State's tight end roster consists of Nick Vannett, (gone before Farrell arrives) Marcus Baugh, (one career reception entering his third year on campus) and Rashod Berry, who was yet to play a down, may be redshirting, and may not end up at tight end. While I'm high on Baugh and Ohio State has Jake Hausmann committed at tight end as well, there's a very clear path to playing time for Luke at Ohio State. It's not to say that other schools haven't presented that path, because they have, but it's available in Columbus.
Luke's on track to be the valedictorian of his graduating class and was always going to be very business-like, methodical, thorough, and careful making his choice of a university, and he's done that. He's taken his due diligence and visited or at least heavily evaluated every program he was seriously considering (Michigan and Alabama were the sixth and seventh schools after the ones previously discussed) and every sign that I'm able to read is pointing towards Columbus as this road winds down.
The last time we spoke at length on Luke's recent activity was following the Notre Dame visit he took in June. The Fighting Irish offered later in the process than most of the other schools in Luke's final group (Notre Dame, Ohio State, Sparty, Boston College, Penn State) and quite a few people, myself included, felt that the Irish were a little too late to the table to get Farrell. Farrell took that visit to Notre Dame, and it went well and he said all the right things coming out of it about academics and football opportunities.
Michigan State was the last visit he took prior to Notre Dame and he sat down with the coaches and academic people in East Lansing while he was up that way for a 7v7 tournament with his high school teammates. I'm told things went very well and Michigan State left a good impression on Farrell.
While I think these two schools are and have been Ohio State's biggest competition for Farrell, I don't feel that either one did enough to move ahead of the Buckeyes in this recruitment. Michigan State and Notre are both strong academic programs and have achieved on the field success and have done a good job in this recruitment, much in the same way that Penn State and Boston College have.
I spoke with Luke tonight and he's got a pretty good idea of how things are going to play out the rest of the way here. He is all done taking unofficial visits at this point and he says there is only one more potential trip on the docket. That would be to Columbus on July 24th for Friday Night Lights and he says the decision should be coming shortly after that, before or around the first week of August. Perry's two-a-days start on August 1 and he'd like to have things over with before then. He has a 7v7 scheduled for the same day with his high school team at Kent State, but as long as he can work out making it to Columbus logistically, he's planning on being there.
The Buckeyes have a pretty high hit rate on recruitments where an Ohio kid takes his final visit of the process to Ohio State and plans to make a decision shortly following the trip, and the trend won't be bucked here. The opportunity to play football in his home state around friends and family, join his brother at Ohio State, compete at a winning program that could send him to the NFL, and receive an education at a top 20 kinesiology/physical therapy program should be too much for Farrell to pass up and I am fully expecting him to be an Ohio State Buckeye.
When I spoke to Luke's coach around 6 weeks ago, he explained Luke's five-step process to evaluating the schools he was deciding between. They were, in order of importance:
Education and physical therapy programs: where the Buckeyes are ranked nationally ahead of every other program left in Luke's final group to consider and are actually building an expansion to the department on campus as we speak, hoping to propel them ahead of where they're at now.
Second was his comfort level with the coaching staff at each school, and Luke had been visiting Ohio State every couple months and meeting with coaches consistently, whereas his time spent at Michigan State, Notre Dame, Boston College, and Penn State was limited in comparison. Some of this was due to geography, some was to the length each school recruited him, but it happened nonetheless.
The third and fourth were slightly more superficial than the first two and were how practices and competition went at the school and what campus life was like at each place. Luke was able to see spring practice at Ohio State and the Buckeyes made every effort to bring him in the tight end room and see coach Tim Hinton work in person. He also has a brother at Ohio State (a junior IIRC) who is able to explain and show campus life to him on a regular basis.
The fifth and final question was schematic fit and the chance of him redshirting. Right now, Ohio State's tight end roster consists of Nick Vannett, (gone before Farrell arrives) Marcus Baugh, (one career reception entering his third year on campus) and Rashod Berry, who was yet to play a down, may be redshirting, and may not end up at tight end. While I'm high on Baugh and Ohio State has Jake Hausmann committed at tight end as well, there's a very clear path to playing time for Luke at Ohio State. It's not to say that other schools haven't presented that path, because they have, but it's available in Columbus.
Luke's on track to be the valedictorian of his graduating class and was always going to be very business-like, methodical, thorough, and careful making his choice of a university, and he's done that. He's taken his due diligence and visited or at least heavily evaluated every program he was seriously considering (Michigan and Alabama were the sixth and seventh schools after the ones previously discussed) and every sign that I'm able to read is pointing towards Columbus as this road winds down.
