Tag: ohio state recruiting

Ohio State officially flips Clemson 4-star DB Jordan Hancock

Former Clemson 4-star DB commit Jordan Hancock has officially flipped and is now an Ohio State verbal for the 2021 cycle.

After all the speculation and rumors, it is now official. Four-star 2021 defensive back prospect Jordan Hancock out of Suwannee, Georgia was a Clemson commit for almost four months, but he began to waver. He then de-committed from Dabo Swinney and company about a week ago.

Since then, rumors have swirled very loudly that he was on the verge of committing to Ohio State. He had developed some key relationships with other commits in the 2021 cycle and they were not shy about alluding to some big news coming.

That’s just what we got on Sunday, as Hitchcock announced his verbal pledge to the Ohio State program.

It’s a big pickup for Ohio State, and one that ends the rather quiet period in Columbus after the unbelievable run of commitments in March, April, and May.

Hitchcock is rated as the No. 6 cornerback and 77th overall recruit in the 2021 cycle according to the 247Sports Composite Rankings. He should be in the mix to be one of the next big-time talents on the back-end of the defense to come out of Ohio State in the near future.

 

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Ohio State RB commit TreVeyon Henderson has senior high school season canceled

Ohio State five-star running back TreVeyon Henderson has had his senior season of high school football canceled due to COVID-19.

We have another casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic to report. According to a report from Eleven Warriors, one of Ohio State’s crown jewels of the 2021 recruiting class, five-star running back TreVeyon Henderson, has had his senior season canceled in Virginia.

That’s because the Virginia High School League has ruled out football this fall regardless of a vote to continue with other fall sports. Football is not in the plans for any of the proposals that the organization will ponder during a scheduled vote on July 27.

That means Henderson, if he remains enrolled at Hopewell High School, will not participate in football until he does so at Ohio State. That, or he could transfer to a private school somewhere else that does plan to play and suit up there.

According to Henderson’s comments to Eleven Warriors, he is weighing what to do next. Either way, it sounds like he’ll be coming to Columbus as an early enrollee this coming spring.

“I’ll skip spring football and still enroll early,” Henderson said to Eleven Warriors. “It’s a tough decision because I still wanna play football, but at the end of the day, it’s still gonna benefit me. I can start off fresh at OSU and start training. I just want to go ahead and get involved in the program and get a feeling about what Ohio State is all about; get around some of the players and just get comfortable there.”

Now, he just has to decide what comes in the immediate term because playing his last season at Hopewell is off the table.

“If they don’t let us play, I’m not sure if I’ll end up transferring or just end up sitting out a year,” Henderson told Eleven Warriors. “But if not, I’ll probably end up transferring. I’ve just gotta see what’s up with other schools to see if they allow early enrolling.”

Henderson has reportedly been contacted by Florida’s IMG Academy, Baltimore’s St. Frances Academy, and some other private schools. But it remains to be seen whether high school football will be played anywhere in the country when everything shakes out.

If not, he and all the other recruits across this country will be forced to wait until college to suit up again.

Ohio State included in top seven of four-star safety out of Pennsylvania

One of the top safeties in the 2021 cycle, four-star Derrick Davis, Jr. out of Monroeville, PA, has included Ohio State in his top seven.

There’s been a bushel of recruiting news when it comes to prospects still considering Ohio State as of late, most of it for the 2021 cycle. One of the latest involves a four-star prospect out of Monroeville, PA, safety Derrick Davis, Jr.

At six-foot, one-inches, and 194 pounds, Davis is listed as the No. 2 safety and 52nd overall prospect in the class according to the 247Sports Composite Rankings. Naturally, Davis has Ohio State on his list because of the Buckeyes’ recent run of success in churning out top NFL talent on the back end of the defense.

It looks like Davis won’t be announcing until around September or October according to Eleven Warriors, so we’ll just have to continue to keep an eye on where things are headed until then.

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The other schools in Davis’ top seven include USC, Clemson, LSU, Penn State, Pitt, and Georgia. And if you’re interested in which way things are leaning at the moment, the crystal ball predictions according to 247Sports give the Nittany Lions a modest edge at the moment. The pull of going to a program like Ohio State that has such a great track record of development at his position will no doubt be tempting at the least though.

This is another one that we’ll keep an eye on.

 

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Ohio State in top five of four-star 2021 tight end

Four-star 2021 tight end prospect Dametrious Crownover has released his top five schools and Ohio State is listed.

Ohio State has appeared in the top five schools of four-star 2021 tight end Dametrious Crownover. At six-foot, six-inches, out of Grandview, Texas, Crownover is rated as the No. 10 tight end in the class according to the 247Sports Composite Rankings, and would put some salve in the wound from losing out on another four-star tight end, Hudson Wolfe to Tennessee.

At this point, it looks like the team to beat for his services is the home state Texas A&M program, but with OSU appearing in his top five, there’s still time to make an impression. The other schools appearing in the announcement to his Twitter profile are the aforementioned Aggies, plus Texas, Baylor, and Nebraska.

It’s probably a long shot for Ohio State to make a serious move here with no ability to get him on campus with the dead period put in place by the NCAA because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but we’ll still stay on top of where things are headed.

 

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Ohio State might be on the verge of flipping one of the top corners in the 2021 class from Clemson

Ohio State appears to be primed to flip one of 2021’s top corners, four-star Jordan Hancock, after he decommitted from Clemson.

It’s been a while since we’ve had some good news on the recruiting front for the Ohio State football team, but it sure looks like some may be coming soon. According to a report from Anna Hickey of 247Sports, one of OSU’s biggest DB targets has just recommitted from Clemson and looks to have Ohio State in his sights.

Jordan Hancock is rated as the No. 6 rated cornerback and seventy-sixth overall recruit in the 2021 class according to the 247Sports Composite Rankings. He committed to Clemson on March 11, but has stayed in touch with OSU coaches and still has strong ties with many of the Buckeyes’ 2021 commitments.

Additionally, a Crystal Ball prediction on 247Sports from someone that is generally pretty accurate, director of recruiting Steve Wiltfong, has gone towards Ohio State with a nine out of ten confidence level.

And, to add to the momentum building, we’ve seen things like the below Tweets from current OSU running back commit TreVeyon Henderson. Could it be that something big is about to happen?

We stay on top of this as any further information becomes available. A Boom! could be forthcoming soon …

 

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Ohio State makes top ten list for top 2022 cornerback

Ohio State has been included in the top ten released by one of the top 2022 defensive backs out of Mater Dei High School.

It’s no secret Ohio State has been one of — if not the best — at churning out defensive back talent over the last decade or so. Even just this past NFL draft, the Buckeyes had two taken in the first-round with Jeff Okudah and Damon Arnette’s selection on day one.

Because of that, OSU always seems to be in the mix for some of the best back-end high school talent out there, and we have a case of that for another top defensive back in the 2022 class, the 6-foot, 1-inch, 185-pound Domani Jackson.

According to a Twitter video released by the No. 2 rated corner and twelfth overall recruit in the country according to the early rankings by 247Sports own specific metrics, Jackson has his top ten schools in mind, and Ohio State is one of them.

The other schools include, Texas, Alabama, Michigan, Clemson, LSU, Oklahoma, Georgia, USC, and Arizona State.

The video was released on July 4 and has a pretty cool theme of fireworks exploding into each team’s logo. We’ll keep an eye on this one, but there’s obviously a long way to go before the elite prospect out of national powerhouse Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, CA needs to make a decision.

Ohio State QB commit Kyle McCord named one of twelve top performers at Elite 11 Finals

Ohio State 5-star quarterback commit Kyle McCord showed well at the Elite 11 competition, garnering recognition as 1 of 12 top performers.

He may have missed out on being named the Elite 11 MVP, or “Alpha Dog” at the Elite 11 Finals, but Kyle McCord still impressed. He had a slow start on day one, but took home first place in the Pro Day competition on day two to put himself in contention to follow the footsteps of fellow Buckeye quarterbacks C.J. Stroud and Justin Fields by being named MVP of the event.

However, despite outshining some of the quarterbacks ahead of him in the last day of an accuracy competition, it wasn’t meant to be, as McCord finished in seventh place, well behind camp “Alpa Dog” Caleb Williams. Fifty percent of the final rankings go into the performance and fifty percent goes to film and performance from each competitor’s junior year, and that seemed to make a difference.

Still, there’s no doubt that the rising senior high schooler from St. Joseph’s in Philadelphia belonged, and often showed more poise, accuracy, and arm strength than many others in the competition.

Ohio State still has itself one whale of a five-start talent once all the dust settles and McCord joins the quarterback room in the fall of 2021.

Former Ohio State commit Devonta Smith chooses Alabama

After decommitting from Ohio State late last week, three-star DB Davonta Smith has pledged his services to Alabama. That didn’t take long.

The rumors where there, and in the end they were correct. It was less than a week ago when 3-star DB Devonta Smith out of Cincinnati La Salle High School decommited from Ohio State, citing a rationale of doing what was best for him.

In just a few days, he took a step towards that and recommitted, but this time to Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Smith jumped at the chance to commit to Ohio State back on March 14 when he finally received an offer from new defensive coordinator Kerry Coombs. It seemed to be something he was waiting for, but as a couple of more DBs came on board, the rumors began to point towards Smith’s concern for what was becoming a deep pool of defensive backs in the 2021 class.

And now, with an offer from Alabama, Smith chose to go with the Crimson Tide.

Smith is just a three-star recruit right now, but will most likely garner a four-star when all the dust settles as he gets more attention. He is rated as the No. 30 cornerback and 400th overall recruit in the 2021 class according to the 247Sports Composite Rankings.

It’s never good news to hear about a player decommitting and choosing another school, but in this case, once the writing was on the wall, Ohio State didn’t try to hard to re-sell the program to a kid looking elsewhere already. With four highly ranked DBs in the class, the Buckeyes will be just fine.

 

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Ohio State 4-star RB commit Evan Pryor willing to sit out senior year of High School for social change

Ohio State football 2021 4-star running back commit Evan Pryor is willing to sit out his senior year of high school for social change.

There’s taking a stand, and then there’s going all-in.

There’s no denying the climate today is one of moving social justice reform forward, and thankfully so. After the tragic killing of George Floyd while in police custody and the subsequent protests across this country, something feels different this time around and many Ohio State players, coaches, and even current commitments are standing up and getting their voices out there.

But what four-star running back Evan Pryor is proposing is a step further. After a series of racist social media posts and videos at his high school went public, the 2021 class’ No. 2 all-purpose back and 85th overall prospect according to the 247Sports Composite Rankings, is demanding change and threatening to sit out his senior season unless administrators and students at William Amos Hough High School get serious and move things in a positive direction.

“I am a Black student at Hough High School in Cornelius, NC,” said Pryor in the statement shared to Twitter. “Everyday I experience racism from man white students on social media. I demand change in my school. Racism and racial injustice must end.”

It doesn’t appear to be just talk either. Pryor appeared on a live stream show with the Charlotte Observer to discuss where things stand and if he’s serious about sitting out his senior season.

“I believe so,” Pryor said. “If it gets to that point and there’s no change and it only gets worse, I’ll do what I have to do because at some point it has to end. We can’t just let this keep going on around the state. If it gets there — yes — I’ll sit out. Hopefully, in talking with my AD and principal, I don’t think it’ll get to that point. I think we’re taking steps in the right direction.”

We’ll keep an eye on this as things develop, but for now, it appears that his school administrators are behind him, and he is to be commended for taking such a bold stance.

Three-star 2021 DB Devonta Smith decommits from Ohio State

Ohio State football lost one of its prospects for the 2021 class Thursday when three-star DB Devonta Smith announced his decommitment.

Ohio State football has lost one of its pledges for the class of 2021. Three-star defensive back Devonta Smith out of Cincinnati La Salle High School announced his desire to reopen his commitment via his Twitter profile Thursday.

Smith came committed to the Buckeyes largely because the great relationship with OSU defensive coordinator Kerry Coombs. Both have ties to the Cincinnati area, and need, relationship, and mutual interest resulted in a commitment from the No. 30 rated cornerback and 400th overall prospect in the entire class according to the 247Sports Composite Rankings.

The 6-foot, 185-pounder released a statement on Twitter thanking the OSU coaching staff but did not provide a reason for his decision. Those close to the situation believe he is close to flipping to Alabama, but we’ll stay on top of where things go from here.

With rumors circulating, Smith did respond with another message on Twitter to try and “clear the air,” but there’s still no real information to go by.

Ohio State still has the No. 1 rated recruiting class with the news, but the total commitment count drops from 19 players to 18, and the overall points assigned by 247Sports dropped from 301.15 to 298.06.

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