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Who's Next?
With Ohio State getting a commitment seemingly every couple of days since mid-March, it has now been about 72 hours since the Buckeyes have landed a new prospect. Which begs the question, has Ryan Day lost his touch?
But seriously, with the run that Ohio State is on right now it seems like the next commitment is always right around the corner. At some point, the Buckeyes are going to go a couple of weeks without a commitment as they can't keep landing commitments every few days indefinitely, but there are still some guys worth watching right now.
Class of 2022 Marysville (Ohio) linebacker/defensive end prospect Gabe Powers is someone I expect to be a Buckeye when it is all said and done. It has been indicated to me a few times that Powers hopes to make visits either this summer or fall, but we've seen Tegra Tshabola and C.J. Hicks both move up their timelines to commit early to Ohio State. So it wouldn't totally shock me to see Powers do the same. Either way, this is one of the safer bets out there in terms of the chances of Ohio State ultimately landing a commitment and signature.
I continue to hear that Rivals100 offensive lineman J.C. Latham is torn on a decision time frame. The plan has always been to reconnect with Ohio State, LSU, and probably some others including Alabama. But that was supposed to happen in April, then it got moved to June, and we still don't know if visits will be allowed in June.
If we see some movement here from the NCAA and its member schools on not allowing June visits, I could see Latham deciding to just pull the trigger. Definitely something to watch here in the coming weeks as we see what is decided in terms of visits for the upcoming month of June.
I would put four-star Kentucky offensive lineman Jager Burton in a very similar category to Latham. The hope for him has been to get another round of visits in, but if the timeframe for that to happen continues to get punted further down the road, I could see him speeding up his process as well. I have this as an Ohio State/Kentucky battle at the moment.
Four-star wide receiver Troy Stellato is another guy in a similar boat on wanting to make another round of visits. That might be one that Ohio State needs to see on campus again as if a pick were made today, I could see it being Clemson. I think probably more so than any of these priority targets listed here that Ohio State stands to benefit the most on Stellato if another round of visits is able to be made.
Of course, recruiting is wild and it's extra wild right now with the shutdown and uncertainty of when we'll return to a normal schedule. There is always the potential of a snap decision but many of the remaining targets have been pretty firm with wanting to take officials and decide later in the process.
Which leads me into my next topic...
Commitment concerns?
One thing that I know Ohio State is very aware of right now is that a lot of kids are making decisions that are either:
A. Earlier than expected or
B. Being made without as much information (visits) as would normally be available or
C. Both
Ohio State has benefitted from this shutdown probably more than any school in the country. Part of that is because the coaching staff did a great job in laying an early foundation with a lot of top tier guys and another part of that is because of how quickly they adapted to the changing landscape once the shutdown was announced.
But make no mistake, the work isn't done yet and they know it. There are currently no commits that I would point to as having a strong reason to believe that they are wavering, but I think it is human nature to protect yourself in uncertain times and I think that is the mindset behind a lot of these commitments we're seeing nationally right now, self preservation. It's also human nature that once the uncertainty goes away, to maybe want to re-evaluate the decisions you made when things were uncertain.
So I expect this fall and winter could be a little bit wild on the recruiting front across the nation and I don't just expect all of these big-time kids that are committing to schools left and right to sit on their hands once things open back up. These kids were denied a very critical part of the recruiting calendar and I think we'll see some very interesting developments once the gate is opened back up.
And this isn't necessarily a bad thing for Ohio State. The Buckeyes historically do a pretty good job of holding onto their commitments and I know they operate under the assumption that nobody is truly committed until they sign, so there will be no complacency on OSU's end in the mean time. In fact, it could be yet another situation where Ohio State takes advantage. Maybe they can get a Raesjon Davis or a Jordan Hancock to reconsider? This will work both ways.
But be ready for more chaos, in my opinion, this fall if visits are allowed. I think we've seen an unusual level of early commitments with a lack of visits and I think it's reasonable to expect the opposite side of the coin to rear its head later once everyone gets a little taste of freedom.
Quick portal update
With spring football being cut short to the point where very little evaluation time was had by the Buckeye coaching staff, the landscape has changed a little bit in terms of roster management. One major thing to watch heading into spring football was the transfer movement in the secondary and whether or not the Buckeyes would opt to use the portal to add another body.
At this time, it does not look like that is going to be the case. The Buckeyes kicked the tires on former N.C. State standout Nick McCloud, but sources have informed me that contact has pretty much stopped there in recent weeks. McCloud had been intending to make official visits, but that also may be changing as there is still no clear indication when those visits may be allowed.
Right now it is looking like Notre Dame, Virginia, or Pitt for McCloud as the Buckeyes appear satisfied with the outlook of the secondary heading into this season. Ultimately I guess it depends on how you look at this situation if you want to consider the cancelation of spring practice a positive or negative.
The glass half empty view would be that Ohio State's defensive staff never really got a strong look at some key situations in the secondary (and at linebacker for that matter) and thus the can is now getting kicked down the road to (hopefully) fall camp in terms of better evaluation opportunities and trying to set the depth chart.
The glass half full view is that with Ohio State not being able to realistically make some big decisions at some of those spots, kids that may have otherwise transferred had they not emerged from the spring as starters are now likely going to stick around for fall camp and continue to fight for their spot, giving the Buckeyes a little more depth than maybe they otherwise would have had.
So for now, it looks like adding a grad-transfer defensive back to the mix for this season has been tabled.
