Category: Buckeyes Wire

Cameron Martinez says he still plans to sign with Ohio State … for now

The Detroit Free Press caught up with Ohio State’s only early signing period holdout. He says he still plans on signing with the Buckeyes.

It’s the last remaining fish the Ohio State football staff hopes to catch for the 2020 recruiting class. Cameron Martinez, a four-star athlete out of Muskegon, Michigan had verbally committed to the Buckeyes on July 4. But he decided not to sign during the early signing period in December because of the departure of Jeff Hafley, with whom he had built trust and a relationship with.

And so it remains. Will Martinez still sign with Ohio State on February 5, or will his gaze elsewhere while he figured things out result in either Northwestern or Notre Dame landing his services?

Well, the Detroit Free Press tried to shed some light on where Martinez is leaning at the moment, and if you’re a Buckeye fan, there does appear to be some good news, at least for now.

When speaking with the Free Press, the 5-11, 183 pounder seemed to still be planning on signing with Ohio State.

“Right now it’s Ohio State, at the moment,” Martinez told the Free Press. “I plan on signing with Ohio State… “If I didn’t want to go there,” he said. “I would have decommitted back then.”

So there you have it, but with a bit of a caveat. The only recruit to not sign with the Buckeyes in December has still been listening to other schools and keeping an open mind.

“I have been hearing schools out,” Martinez said. “I’ve told some schools no. I’m still in contact with some schools. Notre Dame talks about setting up a visit, but I haven’t made a decision yet.”

If you’re reading the Buckeye leaves on this one, one could easily surmise that Martinez still wants to wear the scarlet and gray, but was taken a little aback by the Hafley news and wants to see who comes in to take his place. Now that a familiar name is back with the past development history and NFL pedigree that Kerry Coombs possesses, one would think it would only bolster Ohio State’s chances at sealing the deal for a versatile player the Buckeyes so desperately want — and need.

In fact, Coombs is already on the recruiting trail as we speak and it would be a major surprise if he hasn’t already reached out to Martinez.

It might seem a little mixed, but I’d say to be patient on this one, and Cameron Martinez will more than likely be a Buckeye when it all goes down on February 5.

 

WATCH: Ohio State receiver K.J. Hill destroy defensive backs in Senior Bowl practice

Ohio State wide-receiver KJ Hill is channeling his inner Terry McLaurin and trying to improve his draft stock at this year’s Senior Bowl.

History could be repeating itself. Last season, former Ohio State receiver Terry McLaurin showed out at Senior Bowl practices and improved his draft stock greatly. It’s why guys take part in these sorts of things. It resulted in the Washington Redskins taking a chance on him and he didn’t disappoint, becoming one of the top rookie receivers in the league.

Now, it appears another Buckeye pass-catcher is making similar waves. There have been a couple of pass-patterns shared to Twitter that shows K.J. Hill’s route-running and moves that made opposing defensive backs look awfully foolish during 1:1 drills this week.

First, here’s Hill putting a DB in the washing machine and spins him around with counter moves.

There’s also video of Hill running a sharp pattern then changing directions to blow past the DB — leaving him on the ground.

Lastly, watch as Hill runs a perfect timing route, cuts to the outside and works back to the ball, giving the DB no shot.

Just like McLaurin last year, we might want to keep an eye on Hill and his continued performance during this Senior Bowl event. Then watch as his draft status begins to improve.

How about those Ohio State wide-receivers?

 

New Ohio State defensive coordinator Kerry Coombs met with players Tuesday

New Ohio State defensive coordinator Kerry Coombs met with some of the Buckeye players on Tuesday. He’s hitting the ground running.

Newly minted Ohio State defensive coordinator Kerry Coombs is officially back on campus, and he’s apparenlty hitting the ground running.

According to a Tweet he shared to his own Twitter profile, Coombs got to meet at least some of the Ohio State football players on Tuesday and get in touch with some old friends to re-establish relationships he had prior to leaving the program for two years.

He also is apparently ready to go out on the recruiting trail Wednesday to begin selling the virtues of the Ohio State program to potential recruits. You have to believe one of those guys he’ll be in touch with his four-star athlete Cameron Martinez who has been keeping his options open since Jeff Hafley left the program.

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again. There’s not a guy around that exudes more energy for something he believes in than what you’ll get from Kerry Coombs. He’s on a mission already and ready to sell the program.

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Ohio State football to kick off 2021 season on Thursday night against Minnesota

The Ohio State football team will be banking tradition and beginning its season on a Thursday night at Minnesota in 2021.

We’ve already seen Ohio State begin a season on a Thursday night a couple of years ago at Indiana, and we’ve also witnessed a Friday night game vs. Northwestern this past year. Now, it appears as though the Buckeyes are headed back to a Thursday night to open up the 2021 campaign on the road against Minnesota.

The schedule already had the Gophers hosting Ohio State for the season opener, but the game was moved up by two days to fall in line with Minnesota’s desire to continue its opening games on Thursday night. The change from September 4th to the 2nd was first noticed by FBSSchedules.com when looking at Minnesota’s athletic website, and later confirmed by an Ohio State spokesman.

The Thursday night game is sure to ruffle a lot of traditionalists entrenched in Buckeye Nation, while others will like the weekday affair that has the Buckeyes as the feature of a weekday night, with the following Saturday off to do other things.

Queue up the wedding planning for Saturday, September 4.

 

Ohio State punter Drue Chrisman sets bottle-flipping record, raises money for Australian bush fires

Ohio State punter Drue Chrisman set a bottle-flipping record and raised money to battle Australian bush fires at the same time.

He can flip the playing field in a football game, and we’ll go out on a limb and say there’s not a better bottle-flipping punter in the country. Yeah, we know, it’s a pretty strong limb that’s not likely to be proven wrong.

Truth be known, Chrisman’s bottle-flipping skills are well-chronicled. He’s shared and produced many fun videos of his fast-twitch talent of flipping all sorts of bottles in all sorts of scenarios. We have no idea how many takes some of those were done with, but they are still impressive.

He has now decided to use that talent to help others. Chrisman spent 24 hours live-streaming his attempt at a new world-record in bottle-flipping, all while collecting donations to support World Wildlife Fund’s Australia bushfire relief efforts.

The details are sketchy on how many bottle-flips were counted, but it appears to be by far a world record. And, in even better news, his Chrisman’s efforts resulted in over $14,000 in donations to support a great cause.

Well done Drue. Thanks for being a great human being and ambassador for The Ohio State University. One has to wonder if he’s still asleep? What we do know is that Chrisman wouldn’t have to look far for a drink to wash down any approved sleeping agents.

Ohio State dance team wins national championship in D1A Jazz

The Ohio State dance team took home the national championship in the Jazz D1A competition.

We focus an awful lot on Ohio State football around these parts, and for good reason. However, anytime an athletic team in any sport wins a national championship, it is a noteworthy event.

Consider then that the Ohio State dance team just took home a national championship in the Jazz category at the Universal Dance Association’s National Championship. To do so, it unseated defending champion Minnesota with an explosive finals performance after entering the final with a slight lead over the Gophers.

The Spirit squad also finished as the runner-up in the Pom category it won the national title for last season. The Ohio State cheer squad also came home with a No. 4 finish in what was a highly competitive field.

Congrats to another strong show by the spirit program at Ohio State.

Twitter reacts to Ohio State hire of Kerry Coombs

Kerry Coombs is returning to Ohio State with the title of defensive coordinator. Twitter was ablaze with reaction.

He’s back.

We’d like to ask Kerry Coombs how many Red Bulls and coffee he’s downed since we last saw him in Columbus, but the count might be too high to keep up with.

In case you’ve been out all day doing whatever it is you were doing on this day of remembrance for the exceptional life of Martin Luther King, Jr., we’re here to inform you that Ohio State has officially welcomed back former Ohio State defensive backs coach Kerry Coombs. He will be given the defensive coordinator tag and still have responsibilities over the defensive backs.

And that is a great thing. Coombs is a great evaluator and developer of talent, but more than anything, the guy has all kinds of energy that he injects into any job and situation he’s involved with.

The news moved swiftly when the potential of Coombs return to Columbus broke, and much of it came by way of Twitter. We’ve picked out some of the best Twitter reactions for your reading pleasure.

Welcome back Kerry!

 

Ohio State baseball ranked No. 24 in preseason Baseball America Poll

The Ohio State baseball team checks in at No. 24 in Baseball America’s preseason top 25 college baseball poll.

You might still be scraping windshields and slipping on ice, but baseball will be here before you know it. In fact, with the Ohio State baseball team making annual stops in warmer locations to get a jump on the season, the Buckeyes will begin the season in just a little over three weeks’ time.

So yeah, it’s approaching fast. So much so that Baseball America has come out with its preseason college baseball rankings, and Ohio State has made it just inside the top 25 and No. 24.

As usual, there’s not too much respect for the Big Ten. Michigan is the only other conference team ranked — albeit pretty high at No. 8.

In case you are planning on making the trip south to get out of late winter/early spring’s chill, you can plan ahead and know that the Buckeyes are set to take part in the annual Snowbird Baseball Classic from February 14-16 in Port Charlotte, FL.

Ohio State officially names Kerry Coombs defensive coordinator

Ohio State has made it official with a release naming Kerry Coombs its new defensive coordinator Monday.

There’s already reports out there, but now it is official. Ohio State has named former assistant Kerry Coombs its defensive coordinator per a release from the university Monday. The Cincinnati area high school coaching legend worked under Urban Meyer as the defensive backs coach for five years. He then left to join Mike Vrabel on his staff with the Tennessee Titans of the NFL for two years.

Now, he is back with a promotion along with much fanfare and anticipation. He spent time developing the NFL types Bradley Roby, Eli Apple, Marshon Lattimore, Gareon Conley, and Denzel Ward. In fact, every single defensive back that played for Coombs ended up in the NFL.

“Kerry Coombs is the coach I was really hoping we could hire and bring back to Ohio State,” Day said in the release. “He is an excellent coach and he has had two outstanding seasons in the NFL on Mike Vrabel’s staff with the Tennessee Titans. I’ve spent a season on staff with Kerry and I really like his coaching and knowledge of the game, but I also like that he knows Ohio State and he knows how to recruit to Ohio State. He’s recruited some of the players currently on the team and he coached a handful of Buckeye defensive backs who went on to become first-round NFL draft picks.”

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This is big, welcome news for Ohio State and will no doubt check a lot of the boxes that needed attention when Jeff Hafley left to take the opportunity to be the next head coach of Boston College.

 

Contact/Follow us @BuckeyesWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Ohio State news, notes and opinion.

We have a forum and message board now. Get in on the conversation about Ohio State athletics by joining the Buckeyes Wire Forum.

Ohio State basketball falls out of the AP Top 25 Poll

For the first time this season, the Ohio State basketball team has fallen outside of the AP Top 25.

For the first time this season, the Ohio State basketball team is no longer in the Associate Press Top 25 College Basketball Poll.

What a fall it has been. The team sprinted out to a 9-0 record that included wins over Cincinnati and Villanova at home, and North Carolina on the road. It also stood at 11-1 just a few games later that included a win on a neutral court over the Kentucky Wildcats.

The Buckeyes were just one day away from being the No. 1 team in the country before it fell to West Virginia on December 29. It got as high as No. 2 overall after the win over Kentucky.

Now, less than three weeks and four more losses later and the Buckeyes are simply in the “other teams receiving votes” category, and it is clear that it’s time to reset expectations.

Baylor is the new No. 1 in the country, followed by Gonzaga, Kansas, San Diego State, and Florida State to round out the top five. Here is a complete look at the top 25.

Ohio State is next in action on Thursday against Minnesota at home. It needs a win in the worst way.