From the Road
Pretty boring week on the high school gridiron without any marquee games on either Thursday or Saturday. Went to Olentangy Liberty vs. Westland on Friday night to watch new 2017 Buckeye commit Brendon White. You can read White's thoughts on the game and becoming the newest Ohio State pledge (with video highlights) in the story on the front page.
I've seen White play a few times now and I've seen him impact games as a safety, corner, wide receiver, and return man. He's one of the most versatile guys I think I've covered. He showed a little more burst and top end speed this year than I saw out of him a year ago which makes sense because not only is he more mature physically but he entered Friday's game at full health after playing through a lot of injuries last fall.
Could he play wide receiver at Ohio State? I think that he 'could'. I think he has the requisite athleticism, size, and ball skills to effectively play on the outside but I think he is a more unique talent on defense. He is playing at around 190-pounds right now but he would have no problem getting up 225-230 in OSU's strength and conditioning program and the name of the game in college football right now is speed.
You can find a lot of guys with his speed in the wide receiver room, you get him out there on defense as a strong safety or walkout linebacker and I think you have a more unique player that can really cause problems for offenses. He can run, he can hit, and he can cover in space. Finding guys that can do that at 225-pounds isn't easy. This isn't too much unlike the Darron Lee and Jerome Baker recruitments where maybe those guys could have found a role on offense but their speed makes them better defensive prospects.
Liberty has a couple of other underclassmen prospects of note in junior tight end/defensive end Drew Rosi and sophomore linebacker Edward Warinner. Rosi caught a touchdown in Friday's win and he's a big target and reliable pass-catcher but I'd have him behind the group of Matt Dotson, Trey Pugh, and Charles Reeves in the Ohio tight end pecking order.
Warinner is another guy that is likely not an Ohio State guy but someone will find a place for him. He runs and he hits, teams will make room for guys like that, despite being a bit undersized. Pitt and Toledo are two schools early on that are showing the most interest.
Walker Watch
Five-star Ohio State running back commit Kareem Walker made his scheduled official visit to Michigan over the weekend and with a lot of New Jersey guys on campus with him. From Michigan's standpoint, getting a big (and convincing) win over Northwestern while also re-energizing a stadium that hasn't had a lot to cheer about in a while was probably the perfect setting for the Wolverines in terms of climbing their way back into this recruitment.
While I'm still working to gather more on just where things now stand in Walker's recruitment, I have been told that Michigan folks feel that it went about as well as it could have in terms of the product the Wolverines put on the field, the atmosphere in Ann Arbor on Saturday and the level of comfort they were able to provide Walker with having a lot of familiar faces on campus with him.
This one probably won't be for the faint of heart. I fully expect the official visits to continue over the next two months. Ohio State has probably been as good as any school in the nation of protecting their own commitments from flipping, but as we saw last year with Carlton Davis, nobody is immune from this happening.
We'll work on reaching Walker for comment on where things stand but I think what he does moving forward will be more important. With a few New Jersey guys committed and a few more taking a close look at the school, there will be other opportunities for Walker to visit Michigan if he so chooses. If another visit to Ann Arbor gets setup (would have to be an unofficial) that would be pretty big news and probably a better indicator of which direction things are heading than anything he says in the mean time.
With that said, I have also been told that Ohio State remains optimistic that they will keep him in the fold. Should know more later this week though after Walker has had a chance to digest the visit. Things have a way of becoming more clear after a few days back home and the kids can see if they still have the same great feeling about the place they just visited or if it was just a fun weekend and nothing more.
But again, if you're hoping for Walker to reaffirm to Ohio State this week AND cancel all future visits, you're going to be disappointed. Visits and rumors are going to persist here until Kareem signs, that's just the way this one is going to be. Only question now is whether this is Torrance Gibson and he sticks or Carlton Davis and he doesn't. I tend to believe it plays out more like Gibson, but there's (at least) two months left in this race.
Sark fallout
Unfortunate news in college football this evening (or maybe fortunate since he's now getting treatment) with Steve Sarkisian taking a leave of absence from USC. Whether Sark can return at some point to the USC sidelines is unclear and I'd hate to speculate too much on that at this point given what he's going through in his personal life.
What is clear, is that this will have consequences on the recruiting trail for USC and those consequences have already started to be revealed with the decommitment of five-star linebacker Daelin Hayes.
Kind of beating a dead horse here, but don't look for the Buckeyes to be a factor with Hayes, even now that things are opened up. Ohio State tried and tried hard early on in the process and interest simply was not reciprocated. At this point, I would be very surprised if Hayes didn't end up at Notre Dame, that seems close to a lock at this point given that it was a real possibility even before the Sark news.
Where this news may help Ohio State is with five-star linebacker Mique Juarez who despite a commitment to USC has stated he will be taking his official visits, including one to Columbus at some point.
UCLA has been thought to be the biggest threat to flipping Juarez from USC and the Bruins are also the odds on favorite for Rivals100 safety Brandon Burton. Still, there is some thought out there that Ohio State, if they can get Juarez on campus, would potentially be the biggest threat to the LA schools so eliminating USC (and that certainly hasn't happened yet, but I expect it will) would at least be one less contender for the Buckeyes to worry about.
So while the Buckeyes could indirectly benefit from all of this by possibly eliminating a major contender for these California guys, right now I'd predict that the Bruins stand the most to gain from USC's problems. Southern California kids like to stay in Southern California.
Pretty boring week on the high school gridiron without any marquee games on either Thursday or Saturday. Went to Olentangy Liberty vs. Westland on Friday night to watch new 2017 Buckeye commit Brendon White. You can read White's thoughts on the game and becoming the newest Ohio State pledge (with video highlights) in the story on the front page.
I've seen White play a few times now and I've seen him impact games as a safety, corner, wide receiver, and return man. He's one of the most versatile guys I think I've covered. He showed a little more burst and top end speed this year than I saw out of him a year ago which makes sense because not only is he more mature physically but he entered Friday's game at full health after playing through a lot of injuries last fall.
Could he play wide receiver at Ohio State? I think that he 'could'. I think he has the requisite athleticism, size, and ball skills to effectively play on the outside but I think he is a more unique talent on defense. He is playing at around 190-pounds right now but he would have no problem getting up 225-230 in OSU's strength and conditioning program and the name of the game in college football right now is speed.
You can find a lot of guys with his speed in the wide receiver room, you get him out there on defense as a strong safety or walkout linebacker and I think you have a more unique player that can really cause problems for offenses. He can run, he can hit, and he can cover in space. Finding guys that can do that at 225-pounds isn't easy. This isn't too much unlike the Darron Lee and Jerome Baker recruitments where maybe those guys could have found a role on offense but their speed makes them better defensive prospects.
Liberty has a couple of other underclassmen prospects of note in junior tight end/defensive end Drew Rosi and sophomore linebacker Edward Warinner. Rosi caught a touchdown in Friday's win and he's a big target and reliable pass-catcher but I'd have him behind the group of Matt Dotson, Trey Pugh, and Charles Reeves in the Ohio tight end pecking order.
Warinner is another guy that is likely not an Ohio State guy but someone will find a place for him. He runs and he hits, teams will make room for guys like that, despite being a bit undersized. Pitt and Toledo are two schools early on that are showing the most interest.
Walker Watch
Five-star Ohio State running back commit Kareem Walker made his scheduled official visit to Michigan over the weekend and with a lot of New Jersey guys on campus with him. From Michigan's standpoint, getting a big (and convincing) win over Northwestern while also re-energizing a stadium that hasn't had a lot to cheer about in a while was probably the perfect setting for the Wolverines in terms of climbing their way back into this recruitment.
While I'm still working to gather more on just where things now stand in Walker's recruitment, I have been told that Michigan folks feel that it went about as well as it could have in terms of the product the Wolverines put on the field, the atmosphere in Ann Arbor on Saturday and the level of comfort they were able to provide Walker with having a lot of familiar faces on campus with him.
This one probably won't be for the faint of heart. I fully expect the official visits to continue over the next two months. Ohio State has probably been as good as any school in the nation of protecting their own commitments from flipping, but as we saw last year with Carlton Davis, nobody is immune from this happening.
We'll work on reaching Walker for comment on where things stand but I think what he does moving forward will be more important. With a few New Jersey guys committed and a few more taking a close look at the school, there will be other opportunities for Walker to visit Michigan if he so chooses. If another visit to Ann Arbor gets setup (would have to be an unofficial) that would be pretty big news and probably a better indicator of which direction things are heading than anything he says in the mean time.
With that said, I have also been told that Ohio State remains optimistic that they will keep him in the fold. Should know more later this week though after Walker has had a chance to digest the visit. Things have a way of becoming more clear after a few days back home and the kids can see if they still have the same great feeling about the place they just visited or if it was just a fun weekend and nothing more.
But again, if you're hoping for Walker to reaffirm to Ohio State this week AND cancel all future visits, you're going to be disappointed. Visits and rumors are going to persist here until Kareem signs, that's just the way this one is going to be. Only question now is whether this is Torrance Gibson and he sticks or Carlton Davis and he doesn't. I tend to believe it plays out more like Gibson, but there's (at least) two months left in this race.
Sark fallout
Unfortunate news in college football this evening (or maybe fortunate since he's now getting treatment) with Steve Sarkisian taking a leave of absence from USC. Whether Sark can return at some point to the USC sidelines is unclear and I'd hate to speculate too much on that at this point given what he's going through in his personal life.
What is clear, is that this will have consequences on the recruiting trail for USC and those consequences have already started to be revealed with the decommitment of five-star linebacker Daelin Hayes.
Kind of beating a dead horse here, but don't look for the Buckeyes to be a factor with Hayes, even now that things are opened up. Ohio State tried and tried hard early on in the process and interest simply was not reciprocated. At this point, I would be very surprised if Hayes didn't end up at Notre Dame, that seems close to a lock at this point given that it was a real possibility even before the Sark news.
Where this news may help Ohio State is with five-star linebacker Mique Juarez who despite a commitment to USC has stated he will be taking his official visits, including one to Columbus at some point.
UCLA has been thought to be the biggest threat to flipping Juarez from USC and the Bruins are also the odds on favorite for Rivals100 safety Brandon Burton. Still, there is some thought out there that Ohio State, if they can get Juarez on campus, would potentially be the biggest threat to the LA schools so eliminating USC (and that certainly hasn't happened yet, but I expect it will) would at least be one less contender for the Buckeyes to worry about.
So while the Buckeyes could indirectly benefit from all of this by possibly eliminating a major contender for these California guys, right now I'd predict that the Bruins stand the most to gain from USC's problems. Southern California kids like to stay in Southern California.
