Buckeye Blogger NetworkThis week you will all have the ability to see a number of our incoming frosh in different all-star games. When everyone gets excited about hats, you know it’s a good time…
Under Armour Game
The first game of the week will be the Under Armour Game. This game is really starting to take over as being the premier all-star game, obviously the ESPN television spot helps. The game takes place Wednesday @ 7 PM Eastern.
The Buckeyes have 3 current commits in this game and 4 guys on the watch list. On the commit list are Florida OLB/DE Ryan Shazier, Dayton Huber Heights Wayne star QB Braxton Miller, and Canton McKinley DE Steve Miller.
Others to watch are AVSM CB Doran Grant, Florida WR Jujuan Story, Florida CB Jabari Gorman, and Maryland ATH Darius Jennings
Two Alabama commits might peek your interest as well being the two Ohio boys playing in the game LB Trey Depriest and OL Ryan Kelly (will not play due to injury in his last high school game).
Back in the mix.
If you follow Ohio State recruiting even a little bit, I am sure you are aware that several high profile recruits were making official visits to Columbus this past weekend.
Virginia linebacker Curtis Grant, Pennsylvania linebacker Ejuan Price, California JUCO defensive back Byron Moore, Ohio defensive back Doran Grant, Maryland athlete Darius Jennings, and Georgia long snapper Bryce Haynes were all in town for their official tour of Ohio State.
The Buckeyes will be looking to fill the final spots in the 2011 class primarily from this pool of talent, so it was an important weekend for the good guys.
One thing to note before proceeding is that all but one of the visiting players are from out of state. Also worth noting is that all of the prospects are waiting until relatively late in the process before making their decision.
Ohio State’s history with late-deciding out-of-state recruits should be taken into account before getting too excited about any of the players. Duane Long has a nice summary explaining why Tressel’s recruiting style is the main culprit for his yearly last minute misses.
Good or bad, that’s just the way it is.
That being said, there was plenty of positive news following the big recruiting weekend.
Read on for the details. Read More
Doran Grant (middle) appears to be Ohio State's top target in Ohio. Glenville players? not so much.
Unfortunately, as the title indicates, this update is full of more apparent bad news on the Glenville recruiting front.
Last week, I mentioned that Ohio State’s interest in Akise Teague is likely due to uncertainty about Shane Wynn‘s status with the Buckeyes.
I also speculated that the recent offer to JUCO defensive line prospect Tank Carradine may have been the death knell for Andre Sturdivant‘s chances at being a Buckeye.
The initial optimism about Carradine’s interest in Ohio State may have been exaggerated, but the implications in regard to Sturdivant remain the same.
If that weren’t enough, the most recent Buckeye recruiting buzz is of an impending offer to Illinois lineman Chris Bryant (teammates with 2012 line prospect Jordan Diamond, who is receiving early interest from Ohio State).
It doesn’t take much imagination to see that Bryant’s listed measurables (6’5″ 330 lbs.) are almost identical to Glenville’s Aundrey Walker. Read More
This week we take a look back at last week’s action, and a preview to the coming weeks games, with particular emphasis on future Buckeyes.
Week Two Recaps- winners highlighted
I was wrong on the game of the week, but I did get a chance to take a look at some future buckeyes on STO. Once again Glenville loses a playoff game that they were favored in. Kyle Kalis looked great for St. Eds. big time early pickup for us in the 2012 class. Future All-Big 10. May want to think about even higher than like that maybe future all-American here. Glenville prospects didn’t show that well. Jones looked lost at time at QB, Wynn looked tough, but can he take a pounding in college? Walker, has the size, will be a project here. De’Van Bogard looks very good though, and I think could see a Signing day offer for the 2012 class.
Kenny Hayes keeps Whitmer playing.
This was the game of the week. A 2OT Thriller, which saw Braxton Miller running the game winner in on a QB Sneak. He went 14-23 for 223 yds 2tds, and had 80 yds on the ground for 2 more tds. Michael Bennett saw his high school career come to an end. Read More
Kyle Kalis (Photo via the Plain Dealer)
Joe also contributed to this post.
With the excitement of fall camp and the start of the season, recruiting has been on the back burner for weeks.
Since my last update, Ohio State received the commitment of local Columbus running back Warren Ball and Cleveland offensive lineman Kyle Kalis, the second and third commitments in the 2012 class.
With those two commitments and the recent addition of several new in-state offers (one of which was Kalis), the 2012 class is starting to gain some momentum.
As far as the 2011 class is concerned, outside of Doran Grant, Aundrey Walker, and Shane Wynn eventually becoming Buckeyes, everything else is up in the air.
The area of most confusion in 2011 is at linebacker. Ohio State clearly would like to take at least one linebacker in the class… the problem is figuring out who that will be.
Join me after the jump for a look at how the 2011 class might wind down and an early look at the extremely talented 2012 class. Read More
Here's hoping we wrap this class up soon, Tressel has more important things to focus on for a few months.
Trey DePriest is going to Alabama. Anyone that followed the recruitment probably isn’t surprised by the result. Despite some late optimism from Ohio State’s corner, DePriest just didn’t seem to have his heart in Ohio.
Jim Tressel has a certain recruiting style. Whether we like it or not and for good or bad, he isn’t going to change how he approaches recruiting. This means that anytime a kid doesn’t immediately fall in love with what Tressel and Ohio State have to offer, the chances are that the more aggressive and flashier approaches of some other coaches and programs will almost always win out.
We saw it last year with Henderson and we see it this year with DePriest, who really liked all of the attention that Alabama’s staff heaped upon him. I wish him the best of luck at Alabama, and really hope that he doesn’t fall victim to the SECs favorite recruiting practice of oversigning.
The good news is that in recruiting, when one door closes another always opens. Read More
It’s time for a quick look at the rest of the 2011 class.
Things have been relatively quiet since the Tanner commitment. That was until recently when Shane Wynn dropped a mini-bomb by announcing that he and Cardale Jones would like to go to the same school together.
While this certainly is an interesting turn of events, I look at it as typical Glenville posturing to either 1.) put pressure on Ohio State to offer Cardale, or 2.) to give other schools across the country incentive to offer Jones to increase his options if the Ohio State offer never comes.
Either way, I don’t think it affects Ohio State in any significant way.
If Ohio State feels that Cardale has earned an offer (at this point it seems likely that an offer is entirely dependent on his classroom work) he will receive one, regardless of any potential package deal with Wynn.
The bottom line is that there are four Glenville guys to keep an eye on for the rest of the 2011 class: OL Aundrey Walker, WR Shane Wynn, LB/DL Andre Sturdivant, and QB Cardale Jones. It would be a mild surprise if all four ended up at Ohio State, it would be shocking if none did. Read More
The top safety in Ohio... yeah, we'll take him.
Capping off an eventful week of recruiting for the Buckeyes, Columbus Eastmoor safety Ronald Tanner has chosen Ohio State as his college destination.
Tanner’s commitment to the Buckeyes is not exactly a surprise, but it is still nice to make it official.
He chose Ohio State over the likes of Northwestern, Stanford, Yale, Vanderbilt and Duke, highlighting that Ronald excels in the classroom as well as on the football field.
Tanner also had offers from pretty much the entire Big Ten, as well as Arizona State, Boston College, West Virginia, and Pitt.
Tanner is ranked the #7 safety in the country by scout.com.
Between Tanner and Vannett, Ohio State has had twice as many top 20 (at their position) commits in the last three days than Michigan has had in their entire 2011 class. Keep up the great work Rodriguez, we love you!
Scouting Ohio brings the highlights and Tanner’s full offer list as usual.
Tanner’s commitment gives Ohio State 17 total for the class of 2011. With a class size projected to be around 22 or 23 players, this thing is wrapping up quickly. Read More
