Wrapping up Southern Swing
Southern Swing came to an end on Friday evening (unless you count flying to Chicago for the Rivals Camp part of Southern Swing) as we took in the Houston (Texas) St. Pius X spring scrimmage before making our way back North.
The end of our trip was spent in Texas checking on Buckeye targets in both Austin and Houston. I gave my thoughts on our stop at Lake Travis for Garrett Wilson and Hudson Card in our mid-week Skull Session, but there's another emerging target from the greater Austin area. That is of course Bowie wide receiver Elijah Higgins.
At last update, Ohio State was pleasantly surprised to get an unofficial visit from the four-star prospect. The momentum has seemingly carried over beyond the visit. In talking to Higgins, it wasn't difficult to get the sense that Ohio State leads right now. The Buckeyes put together an eye-opening visit in April and check the boxes for Higgins both athletically and academically. The coaching staff has also turned up the heat there recently and Higgins is starting to feel like more of a priority to the staff. I would have it 1. Ohio State 2. Stanford and 3. Texas as we sit today.
Higgins' relationship with Garrett Wilson is also helping things here and the idea of joining forces, as they do on the 7-on-7 circuit certainly seems appealing to Higgins. There are a lot of like-minded individuals and targets in this class with guys like Wilson, Steele Chambers, possibly Harry Miller, guys who are very driven on and off the field and I think that environment really appeals to Elijah.
All of that said, Ohio State is not going to be able to take or to land all of the receivers they are in on right now. At some point, something is going to have to give. This is a position where right now it is one commitment at a time. After each commitment at this position, the entire situation is going to have to be re-assessed. But Higgins is yet another excellent talent that the Buckeyes have a great chance to land as things stand today.
While things are picking up with Higgins, things look to be going in the opposite direction with Houston Pius X product Jalen Curry. Curry was talking about an official to Ohio State in April, a visit that the Buckeyes weren't going to make happen so early and without a prior unofficial scheduled. Now Curry tells me that communication has steadily dropped off with Ohio State since that point. The two parties are still in contact at times, but not nearly as much as they were in the beginning of the spring.
Curry hasn't eliminated Ohio State from contention, and Ohio State hasn't totally eliminated Curry, but certainly things aren't looking great right now for this to be a match. The four-star receiver did tell me that he is hopeful that could change down the road though.
"It's still like a dream school of mine so if things picked back up, I'd definitely look into Ohio State and would make a visit," Curry told me on Friday.
Moving on to the ever-evolving quarterback recruiting situation. After meeting with Grant Gunnell on Friday and bending the ear of several others during the week, my conclusion is still very much that Ohio State is the preferred destination for Gunnell.
It is not a secret that Ohio State has struggled to find a match at quarterback in this class. From just flat out not liking certain targets very much, to liking others but not being able to gain a ton of traction (Bo Nix, Graham Mertz) to liking some other guys but not loving them enough to make them THE guy (Duggan), it has been a very interesting ride so far.
Once the other targets, including some Plan B's and Plan C's fell to the wayside, the red sea seemed to part and lead right to Gunnell. Then the Dwan Mathis offer came and then, more importantly in my opinion, the Graham Mertz visit happened.
As we've chronicled before, Mertz is a guy that we've been told for a very long time is someone that is thought of very highly inside the WHAC. The Buckeyes have struggled a bit to gain traction there, however. The Wisconsin commit stayed solid for a while and even before the visit, it was thought Notre Dame had the best chance to flip the four-star prospect from the Badgers in the event of him wavering.
But the Rivals Camp Series event in Columbus brought Mertz just a stone's throw away from Ohio State. Whether or not the proximity of the camp to OSU made him cave to Ohio State's wishes to visit or the camp was used as sort of a front to make the visit with the least amount of backlash, that depends on who you believe. But nonetheless, a player that Ohio State had been trying to get up on campus for months, finally made it up two weeks ago.
Since that point, the Buckeyes have not stopped their pursuit of Gunnell by any means, but it's once again back to a place where there doesn't seem to be as much urgency. It is once again starting to feel like Ohio State is content in letting this play out a bit longer and not putting all of the eggs in one basket.
They would certainly take Mertz if he tried to flip and I do believe they'd take Gunnell if he tried to commit as well. But is the push being made as hard as it needs to be made to entice Gunnell to pull the trigger? That is certainly a question that I have right now.
Even Garrett Wilson offered up that Mertz and Gunnell are the two quarterbacks he's working on right now which is interesting in that I think it sheds some light on the confidence levels with Mertz. I don't think you can say that confidence is super high on Mertz, but if the visit two weeks ago was completely fruitless, I think Ohio State would have moved on. For whatever reason, there seems to be a sense that things are still alive there with Mertz and that they'll just recruit both of these guys, along with Dwan Mathis, and see what happens.
Will a lack of commitment to just one guy hurt them with all three? That is yet to be seen. I think they risk the most with Gunnell in this scenario as he is an uncommitted prospect and is probably going to want to go somewhere that makes him 'The Man' in terms of how that school is recruiting the quarterback position in the 2019 class. The other two certainly have to understand Ohio State's situation in that they are committed to other programs and Ohio State can't simply stop recruiting other QB targets to focus on them.
Buckle up, this has been pretty unpredictable the whole way. Maybe it will simply end with a Gunnell commitment in the next month, that is certainly where things looked to be headed just two weeks ago and still very possible given the current landscape. But we should probably also prepare for the unexpected as the unexpected has been the norm in this 2019 QB search.
Cross him off the list?
Spring can be a volatile time in the recruiting world. Players generally have more time to focus on the recruiting process than at other points on the calendar, which means more communication with coaches and more visits, now both unofficial and official.
As we've seen Ohio State make up some ground on a few targets, such as the aforementioned Elijah Higgins, the Buckeyes have lost ground on four-star Hyattsville (Md.) Dematha Catholic safety Nick Cross in recent weeks. I've spoken with a few people over the past week who believe that things have done such a 180 here that Ohio State is close to being out of it at this juncture.
What happened?
Apparently a change of heart on what is important to Cross, which has now shifted to not wanting to play in cold weather. Ohio State is not alone here; both Notre Dame and Penn State are reeling on this one as well. Alabama, Florida, Florida State, Auburn are surging. All warm weather climates and those schools are looking to get official visits (Florida already has).
This one has taken quite a turn over the past month or so. Nick's recruitment has kind of been a roller coaster anyway so you can't completely rule out things shifting back in the other direction, but right now the Buckeyes, and the rest of the northern schools that had been in on Cross, are on the ropes big time.
Closing thoughts on Brandon Smith
As of 6:15 PM eastern time this evening, everything is set for Rivals100 LB/DE Brandon Smith to announce his college decision tomorrow. I checked in with his father this evening just to make sure everything was still on track.
Again, not great news here for Ohio State who I believe was hoping to delay this and was hoping this would go into the fall as was Smith's initial plan. I expect Penn State to be the choice tomorrow. Without any further evidence, this was good timing for Penn State, but with the flurry of commitments the Nittany Lions are receiving right now and with a virtual PSU lock in Tyler Rudolph also announcing his choice, the writing is very much on the wall here.
Certainly Smith is a top of the board type of guy at the linebacker position. This could help things with Apopka (Fla.) Wekiva standout Rian Davis, who is a prospect that I know Ohio State likes but one that is kind of on the bubble right now with linebacker not being a huge priority in this class for the Buckeyes in terms of needing to sign a big number, and just the general landscape at defensive end where Davis is also getting a look.
Smith to Penn State would also continue to keep that door open for the Ohio camp offer. Choose your favorite; Tommy Eichenberg, Luke Fulton, Jestin Jacobs, Jamir Thomas, it is a deep year in Ohio at linebacker, and the Buckeyes continue to keep in communication with these guys.
Barnett still in play?
Much of the recent Ohio State vs. Michigan State recruiting buzz has been centered around four-star Spartan quarterback commit Dwan Mathis. But the Buckeyes are still looking to poach four-star athlete/defensive back Julian Barnett from Sparty as well. Barnett competed today at the Rivals Camp Series event in Chicago and tells me he is still keeping up with the Buckeyes.
"I've been talking to coach (Taver) Johnson here and there," Barnett told me.
While that isn't much to write home about, Barnett's next sentence was a bit more interesting.
"Just this last week I was talking to coach Meyer," Barnett continued. "He said they're still going to be recruiting me and stuff like that."
Barnett was able to make it over to Ohio State a couple of weeks ago following The Opening Regional in Ohio.
"It was pretty much the same old, same old," Barnett said of the visit as he's been to Columbus many times. "They're going to keep recruiting me and they told me that they'd love to see me in the Scarlet and Grey."
Barnett told me he isn't sure right now what he'll do in terms of taking official visits to other schools. My guess is that he will end up taking some visits and that Ohio State would be near the top of that list of other schools that could potentially get one. It would also not surprise me to see Barnett pop up on some of the same visits that teammate and Ohio State O-line target Devontae Dobbs takes.
Probably a long way to go here, but with things fading with Cross and not in the greatest of positions with Daxton Hill, this is another name to keep in mind as things move forward in defensive back recruiting.
Southern Swing came to an end on Friday evening (unless you count flying to Chicago for the Rivals Camp part of Southern Swing) as we took in the Houston (Texas) St. Pius X spring scrimmage before making our way back North.
The end of our trip was spent in Texas checking on Buckeye targets in both Austin and Houston. I gave my thoughts on our stop at Lake Travis for Garrett Wilson and Hudson Card in our mid-week Skull Session, but there's another emerging target from the greater Austin area. That is of course Bowie wide receiver Elijah Higgins.
At last update, Ohio State was pleasantly surprised to get an unofficial visit from the four-star prospect. The momentum has seemingly carried over beyond the visit. In talking to Higgins, it wasn't difficult to get the sense that Ohio State leads right now. The Buckeyes put together an eye-opening visit in April and check the boxes for Higgins both athletically and academically. The coaching staff has also turned up the heat there recently and Higgins is starting to feel like more of a priority to the staff. I would have it 1. Ohio State 2. Stanford and 3. Texas as we sit today.
Higgins' relationship with Garrett Wilson is also helping things here and the idea of joining forces, as they do on the 7-on-7 circuit certainly seems appealing to Higgins. There are a lot of like-minded individuals and targets in this class with guys like Wilson, Steele Chambers, possibly Harry Miller, guys who are very driven on and off the field and I think that environment really appeals to Elijah.
All of that said, Ohio State is not going to be able to take or to land all of the receivers they are in on right now. At some point, something is going to have to give. This is a position where right now it is one commitment at a time. After each commitment at this position, the entire situation is going to have to be re-assessed. But Higgins is yet another excellent talent that the Buckeyes have a great chance to land as things stand today.
While things are picking up with Higgins, things look to be going in the opposite direction with Houston Pius X product Jalen Curry. Curry was talking about an official to Ohio State in April, a visit that the Buckeyes weren't going to make happen so early and without a prior unofficial scheduled. Now Curry tells me that communication has steadily dropped off with Ohio State since that point. The two parties are still in contact at times, but not nearly as much as they were in the beginning of the spring.
Curry hasn't eliminated Ohio State from contention, and Ohio State hasn't totally eliminated Curry, but certainly things aren't looking great right now for this to be a match. The four-star receiver did tell me that he is hopeful that could change down the road though.
"It's still like a dream school of mine so if things picked back up, I'd definitely look into Ohio State and would make a visit," Curry told me on Friday.
Moving on to the ever-evolving quarterback recruiting situation. After meeting with Grant Gunnell on Friday and bending the ear of several others during the week, my conclusion is still very much that Ohio State is the preferred destination for Gunnell.
It is not a secret that Ohio State has struggled to find a match at quarterback in this class. From just flat out not liking certain targets very much, to liking others but not being able to gain a ton of traction (Bo Nix, Graham Mertz) to liking some other guys but not loving them enough to make them THE guy (Duggan), it has been a very interesting ride so far.
Once the other targets, including some Plan B's and Plan C's fell to the wayside, the red sea seemed to part and lead right to Gunnell. Then the Dwan Mathis offer came and then, more importantly in my opinion, the Graham Mertz visit happened.
As we've chronicled before, Mertz is a guy that we've been told for a very long time is someone that is thought of very highly inside the WHAC. The Buckeyes have struggled a bit to gain traction there, however. The Wisconsin commit stayed solid for a while and even before the visit, it was thought Notre Dame had the best chance to flip the four-star prospect from the Badgers in the event of him wavering.
But the Rivals Camp Series event in Columbus brought Mertz just a stone's throw away from Ohio State. Whether or not the proximity of the camp to OSU made him cave to Ohio State's wishes to visit or the camp was used as sort of a front to make the visit with the least amount of backlash, that depends on who you believe. But nonetheless, a player that Ohio State had been trying to get up on campus for months, finally made it up two weeks ago.
Since that point, the Buckeyes have not stopped their pursuit of Gunnell by any means, but it's once again back to a place where there doesn't seem to be as much urgency. It is once again starting to feel like Ohio State is content in letting this play out a bit longer and not putting all of the eggs in one basket.
They would certainly take Mertz if he tried to flip and I do believe they'd take Gunnell if he tried to commit as well. But is the push being made as hard as it needs to be made to entice Gunnell to pull the trigger? That is certainly a question that I have right now.
Even Garrett Wilson offered up that Mertz and Gunnell are the two quarterbacks he's working on right now which is interesting in that I think it sheds some light on the confidence levels with Mertz. I don't think you can say that confidence is super high on Mertz, but if the visit two weeks ago was completely fruitless, I think Ohio State would have moved on. For whatever reason, there seems to be a sense that things are still alive there with Mertz and that they'll just recruit both of these guys, along with Dwan Mathis, and see what happens.
Will a lack of commitment to just one guy hurt them with all three? That is yet to be seen. I think they risk the most with Gunnell in this scenario as he is an uncommitted prospect and is probably going to want to go somewhere that makes him 'The Man' in terms of how that school is recruiting the quarterback position in the 2019 class. The other two certainly have to understand Ohio State's situation in that they are committed to other programs and Ohio State can't simply stop recruiting other QB targets to focus on them.
Buckle up, this has been pretty unpredictable the whole way. Maybe it will simply end with a Gunnell commitment in the next month, that is certainly where things looked to be headed just two weeks ago and still very possible given the current landscape. But we should probably also prepare for the unexpected as the unexpected has been the norm in this 2019 QB search.
Cross him off the list?
Spring can be a volatile time in the recruiting world. Players generally have more time to focus on the recruiting process than at other points on the calendar, which means more communication with coaches and more visits, now both unofficial and official.
As we've seen Ohio State make up some ground on a few targets, such as the aforementioned Elijah Higgins, the Buckeyes have lost ground on four-star Hyattsville (Md.) Dematha Catholic safety Nick Cross in recent weeks. I've spoken with a few people over the past week who believe that things have done such a 180 here that Ohio State is close to being out of it at this juncture.
What happened?
Apparently a change of heart on what is important to Cross, which has now shifted to not wanting to play in cold weather. Ohio State is not alone here; both Notre Dame and Penn State are reeling on this one as well. Alabama, Florida, Florida State, Auburn are surging. All warm weather climates and those schools are looking to get official visits (Florida already has).
This one has taken quite a turn over the past month or so. Nick's recruitment has kind of been a roller coaster anyway so you can't completely rule out things shifting back in the other direction, but right now the Buckeyes, and the rest of the northern schools that had been in on Cross, are on the ropes big time.
Closing thoughts on Brandon Smith
As of 6:15 PM eastern time this evening, everything is set for Rivals100 LB/DE Brandon Smith to announce his college decision tomorrow. I checked in with his father this evening just to make sure everything was still on track.
Again, not great news here for Ohio State who I believe was hoping to delay this and was hoping this would go into the fall as was Smith's initial plan. I expect Penn State to be the choice tomorrow. Without any further evidence, this was good timing for Penn State, but with the flurry of commitments the Nittany Lions are receiving right now and with a virtual PSU lock in Tyler Rudolph also announcing his choice, the writing is very much on the wall here.
Certainly Smith is a top of the board type of guy at the linebacker position. This could help things with Apopka (Fla.) Wekiva standout Rian Davis, who is a prospect that I know Ohio State likes but one that is kind of on the bubble right now with linebacker not being a huge priority in this class for the Buckeyes in terms of needing to sign a big number, and just the general landscape at defensive end where Davis is also getting a look.
Smith to Penn State would also continue to keep that door open for the Ohio camp offer. Choose your favorite; Tommy Eichenberg, Luke Fulton, Jestin Jacobs, Jamir Thomas, it is a deep year in Ohio at linebacker, and the Buckeyes continue to keep in communication with these guys.
Barnett still in play?
Much of the recent Ohio State vs. Michigan State recruiting buzz has been centered around four-star Spartan quarterback commit Dwan Mathis. But the Buckeyes are still looking to poach four-star athlete/defensive back Julian Barnett from Sparty as well. Barnett competed today at the Rivals Camp Series event in Chicago and tells me he is still keeping up with the Buckeyes.
"I've been talking to coach (Taver) Johnson here and there," Barnett told me.
While that isn't much to write home about, Barnett's next sentence was a bit more interesting.
"Just this last week I was talking to coach Meyer," Barnett continued. "He said they're still going to be recruiting me and stuff like that."
Barnett was able to make it over to Ohio State a couple of weeks ago following The Opening Regional in Ohio.
"It was pretty much the same old, same old," Barnett said of the visit as he's been to Columbus many times. "They're going to keep recruiting me and they told me that they'd love to see me in the Scarlet and Grey."
Barnett told me he isn't sure right now what he'll do in terms of taking official visits to other schools. My guess is that he will end up taking some visits and that Ohio State would be near the top of that list of other schools that could potentially get one. It would also not surprise me to see Barnett pop up on some of the same visits that teammate and Ohio State O-line target Devontae Dobbs takes.
Probably a long way to go here, but with things fading with Cross and not in the greatest of positions with Daxton Hill, this is another name to keep in mind as things move forward in defensive back recruiting.
