Tag: ohio state recruiting

USA TODAY ranks three Ohio State 2020 commitments in its top 25 of the class

USA TODAY has ranked the top 25 high school commitments for the 2020 class, and Ohio State has three players on the list.

By all accounts and measures, the Ohio State football program has signed another recruiting class. According to most recruiting websites, the 2020 recruiting cycle resulted in one of the top five classes in the nation for the Buckeyes.

USA TODAY did their own ranking of the top 25 high school players that signed on the dotted line for this year, and the Buckeyes have three appearing on the list. Wide receiver Julian Fleming checks in at No. 5, offensive lineman Paris Johnson, Jr., is rated No. 10, and quarterback C.J. Stroud appears at No. 19 overall.

That’s a lot of talent at the top, but the Buckeyes can’t boast about having the most players signed on the list. That honor goes to Clemson who has four players among the top 25 according to USA TODAY.

Here’s what Jason Jordan of USA TODAY says about the three top 25 players that signed with Ohio State.

Julian Fleming

Fleming is a matchup nightmare for most corners because of his elite athleticism and speed (4.3). Fleming also boasts a 43-inch vertical leap.

Paris Johnson, Jr.

Johnson has great footwork for his size and anchors down and gets great position on the line. Johnson has great hands and uses his strong upper body to keep defensive linemen at bay.

C.J. Stroud

Rich get richer as Stroud picked Ohio State on Wednesday. Stroud is a skilled passer with the precision to hit tight windows as well deep balls. Stroud’s timing is impeccable, and his reads tend to be the right call.

 

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Four-star athlete Cameron Martinez officially signs with Ohio State

It’s national signing day, and the lone holdout has officially signed. Four-star athlete Cameron Martinez is now officially a Buckeye.

The Ohio State football recruiting class for 2020 is officially complete free of drama. The Buckeyes signed nearly all of their commitments during the early signing period, but had to wait for four-star athlete Cameron Martinez to wait out the replacement hire for his main recruiter and potential position coach Jeff Hafley.

Then, shortly after Ryan Day announced the re-hiring of former Ohio State defensive backs coach Kerry Coombs, it didn’t take too long to convince the 5-11, 185lb. MLive player of the year to re-attest and reaffirm his commitment to the Buckeyes.

But, There was no doubt a little anxiety for some Ohio State fans because of the indecision until the fax machine spit out a signed letter of intent.

Well, consider it official now. Martinez signed on the dotted line mid-morning Wednesday, on this, the traditional signing day. And it’s a big get for the Buckeyes. He is rated as the No. 14 overall athlete and in the class who could factor in at the DB position or as a playmaker on offense.

Right now, with what’s in the cupboard, a role on the back-end of the defense makes the most sense, but we’ll see where his career curve and the needs of the team take him.

That almost assuredly completes this year’s class for Ohio State. One that is a consensus top-five one with a lot of top-end talent. All told, there are 25 total commitments, with three five-star and 13 four-star recruits according to the 247Sports Composite Team Rankings

It’s another fantastic recruiting class by Ohio State. One led, signed, sealed and delivered by Ryan Day.

Ohio State football gets commitment from 2021 four-star defensive tackle

Four-star 2021 defensive tackle Michael Hall Jr. announced his verbal commitment to Ohio State Saturday.

Boom!

Ohio State football got another big-time commitment today for the 2021 class. Four-star defensive tackle Michael Hall Jr, announced his commitment to the Buckeyes on his Twitter account Saturday. He makes the tenth recruitment for what is building to become a sensational class.

Out of Streetboro, Ohio, Hall Jr. is rated as the No. 19 overall defensive tackle in the class, and the ninth rated recruit in the state of Ohio according to 247Sports. He chose OSU over the likes of Florida State, Michigan State, Penn State, and others.

It’s still extremely early, but the commitment from Hall Jr. catapults Ohio State back into the No. 1 spot over No. 2 Clemson in the 247Sports composite team recruiting rankings for 2021.

Ohio State football has four five-star commits in final 247Sports rankings

The final 247Sports recruiting rankings are out and Ohio State will finish with four 5-star recruits when it’s all said and done.

We always knew Ohio State had some top-end talent in its 2020 recruiting class, and now the star-ratings reflect that — at least according to the 247Sports ratings that were just finalized. There are just 32 five-star athletes meaning they are the very top of the top. And in Ohio State’s case, it has four players out of those 32.

The five-stars include the overall No. 4 recruit, wide receiver Julian Fleming, No. 8, offensive tackle Paris Johnson, Jr., Jr, No. 15, another receiver, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, and No. 29, quarterback C.J. Stroud. Both Smith-Njigba and Stroud are newly minted five-star athletes giving OSU a bit of a boost in the quality at the top according to the rankings.

With the change and update, only Clemson has more five-star players than OSU with five. Alabama also has four.

The overall class remains the No. 5 rated class in the composite rankings for 2020, and with Ohio State having already inked almost all of its class during the early signing period, it will not be moving up at all. If anything, it could slide a position or two.

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Either way, the talent in this class is a very, very good one — especially at the top end.

 

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Cameron Martinez confirms that he will sign with Ohio State

Four-star athlete Cameron Martinez announced via Twitter Tuesday that he will sign with Ohio State. It’s a big recruiting win.

There will not be additional drama on the traditional signing day for college football recruits it appears. By now you know Ohio State signed almost every piece of its 2020 recruiting class during the early signing period save for one very, very important piece.

Four-star athlete Cameron Martinez has been a verbal commitment to the Buckeyes since July 4 of 2019, but he decided to wait and see who Ryan Day brought in to replace Jeff Hafley on defense. Wait he did, and now it appears as though the home-run hire/re-hire of Kerry Coombs has sealed the deal.

According to a Tweet Martinez shared to Twitter on Tuesday, he will indeed be signing with Ohio State.

Martinez, out of Muskegon, Michigan is rated as the No. 14 athlete in the 2020 class according to 247Sports.

This is great news for Ohio State, and there’s no doubt Ryan Day and staff are high-fiving behind the scenes. It became a real possibility that OSU would lose MLive’s two-time Michigan player of the year. And the timing would not have been ideal.

OSU already lost out on a highly-touted defensive back commit, Clark Phillips III when he flipped from Ohio State to Utah. Another loss of an athlete that could end up on that side of the ball would put the back-end of the defense in an extremely thin position.

Now, none of that matters because the Buckeyes got their guy. You can think Kerry Coombs and Ryan Day for keeping this one together.

 

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Cade Denhoff, a four-star DE target, has committed to Clemson over Ohio State

The Ohio State Buckeyes were not able to get a visit from four-star SDE Cade Denhoff before he committed to the Clemson Tigers.

This stings.

Four-star defensive end Cade Denhoff, an Ohio State target, is headed to Clemson. Denhoff was also targeted by LSU, Alabama, Penn State, and many other top-tier programs.

Denhoff was the Class of 2021’s seventh-ranked strongside defensive end according to 247Sports. Thankfully for Ohio State, they already have the top-ranked SDE, Jack Sawyer, inbound.

However, at the same time, combining Denhoff and Sawyer could’ve helped Ohio State easily boast the most dominant defensive line in college football. But, that’s now just a pipe dream.

What made Ohio State different than the rest of the bunch was the fact that the interest was mutual.

Denhodd, according to 247 Sports’ Bucknuts, was planning to visit Ohio State in January or February, making his early decision even more saddening for Ohio State faithful.

The Buckeyes have nine players already committed from the Class of 2021. With the No. 2 class in the nation, they’re only trailing Denhoff’s new home, Clemson who has two more four-star recruits.

Notre Dame offers 4-Star LB Mondon from Georgia

On Thursday evening, Notre Dame extended in offer to class of ’21 LB Smael Mondon.

Recruiting never sleeps and the Irish are at it again, this time offering Georgia linebacker Smael Mondon Jr, from Paulding High School Thursday evening. The four star outside linebacker stands six-foot-three and weighs 210 pounds.

The Irish currently do not have any commits at the position in their 2021 class, and if they were to add Mondon it would be a huge coup for Brian Kelly and Clark Lea.

Mondon also plays running back for the Paulding Patriots, and after his junior year, earned region 7AAAAA Athlete/All-Purpose Player of the Year. A linebacker that can run like Mondon is always in high demand and taking one look at his highlight reel he is quite an impressive prospect. Mondon also excels on special teams, lining up for his Patriots on the edge and blocking multiple field goal attempts. Mondon reads and reacts well in the passing game as well, with his speed shining in that area once again.

Mondon has a very impressive offer list, which include Clemson, Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, Oklahoma and many others. He is a national recruit and if the Irish are able to pull him out from the South, it would be a fantastic start for the linebacker position in the ’21 class.

Mondon is the type of difference maker that helps win championships, and if Notre Dame expects to compete and win those kinds of games, getting a commit from Mondon will go a long way helping attain that goal.

Kerry Coombs visits Ohio State target Cameron Martinez

New Ohio State defensive coordinator Kerry Coombs spent time visiting with four-star 2020 target Cameron Martinez Wednesday.

New Ohio State defensive coordinator Kerry Coombs is wasting no time working on priorities. The Buckeyes are looking to keep four-star Michigan athlete Cameron Martinez committed, so that’s where Coombs spent time “planting flags” Wednesday.

You had to believe that paying a visit to the lone holdout from the early signing period would be one of the main things Coombs would jump on right away, and it took him all of two days on the job to get it done. How’s that for letting Martinez know how much he means to the program?

In fact, Martinez seemed to enjoy getting to know the new defensive coordinator and replacement for Jeff Hafley — with whom he developed a great relationship with. The two-time MLive Michigan football player of the year shared the visit on his Twitter feed.

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Martinez recently told the Detroit Free Press that he’s still planning on signing with Ohio State, and this sure looks like a good move towards that. We’ll all find out on February 5 when the traditional signing day comes around.

 

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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.

 

Notre Dame Football Offers ‘22 OLB Jaishawn Barham

Jaishawn Barham of DeMatha Catholic in Maryland announced a scholarship offer.

Early on Monday we learned that Notre Dame had offered a scholarship to 2022 outside linebacker Gabe Powers of Ohio, which we discussed on FIW.

As it turns out, Powers wasn’t the only outside linebacker to receive an offer from Brian Kelly and company on Monday as Jaishawn Barham of DeMatha Catholic in Maryland announced a scholarship offer.

Barham is listed a little thicker than Powers but not quite as tall, coming in at 6-3, 230 pounds per 247Sports.

Notre Dame is the 15th scholarship offer Barham has received as the Irish join Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio State, Penn State, South Carolina, Texas A&M, Virginia, Virginia Tech and a few others to offer.

Barham is the eleventh player Notre Dame has offered a scholarship to in the 2022 recruiting class.