Welcome to your daily Buckeye Blitz for Monday, November 28, 2022. I can’t believe this month is almost over; time flies. I’m still nursing some bad feelings from Saturday, but there has been a lot of reaction, both positive and negative.
Anyway, let’s talk about recruiting. If it’s Monday, you know we’re doing the recruiting thing. We had a ton of visitors, it was insane. The number of people was around 30 to 40.
Good news, let’s talk about the highlights. The five-star 2023 safety and current Alabama commit, Caleb Downs, did make it to Columbus on Saturday. He did not go to the Iron Bowl, which is a huge feather in the cap for the Buckeyes. Again, we need a five-star safety, especially after watching Saturday. The kid could probably come in and play tomorrow, in my opinion. Five-star 2023 defensive end Damon Wilson and four-star 2023 defensive end Joshua Mickens also made the visit.
Four-star newly targeted 2023 quarterback Lincoln Kienholz from South Dakota made an official visit, though he has not officially received an offer yet. You have to think that’s coming within days.
Five-star 2024 safety KJ Bolden made it and said he will return, he loved it. From all the intel I have gathered, offensive tackle Samson Okunlola did not make the visit. He was on the fence, but we never got any confirmation either way.
As for decommitments, running back Mark Fletcher from South Florida seems to have made a completely unrelated decision, possibly to stay close to home. He’s probably going to go to Miami or Florida, given the NIL money and kids in Florida likely staying closer to home if they’re going to get six or seven figures.
We also know about quarterback Brock Glenn flipping from Ohio State to FSU. The Buckeyes had told him prior to that flip that they were going to add another quarterback in this 2023 class because they will only have two quarterbacks on the roster in the spring. That’s why they targeted Lincoln Kienholz, who is a Washington commit. He is from South Dakota and set to take an official visit.
The Buckeyes may have to go into the portal for another quarterback because Day likes to have four scholarship quarterbacks in the room.
Let’s talk about other guys, running backs. The three-star from Georgia, Jamarion Wilcox, has requested to visit December 9th and 10th instead of coming for this past weekend. He wanted to get the full recruiting experience and learn what Ohio State has to offer. Georgia and Bama have looked at him in the summer. He is from Cincinnati and originally moved to the Atlanta area in the eighth grade. He is a five-nine 195 pounder and a late bloomer. I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets a star rating bump at some point.
The other running back, Trey Cornist, I believe he’s from Winton Woods, might wait till the February signing day. He’s a bit bigger, similar to Fletcher, around six-one and 215 pounds, so keep him in mind. In terms of wide receivers, there is nothing new to report. Everyone is pretty much locked up, even though you might hear the occasional Message Board rumor about Inniss or Tate, it’s all unfounded. In terms of tight end, this is a concern of mine.
You remember we had the decommitment of Ty Lockwood earlier. Now, Jelani Thurman out of Georgia has visited Auburn five times, he’s friends with some of the players there and I get that, but he’s doing interviews only with Auburn media, not any Ohio State media, so that’s kind of concerning. Ohio State says they’re not worried, but I would be if the kid’s gone to five games. Keep that in mind.
Keon Keeley, the other defensive end, we’ve talked about him Ad nauseam, probably still a Bama lean. I think if he had his way, he would go to Ohio State, but people in his camp are pushing him towards Bama. Matayo Uiagalelei is still Ohio State, USC, and Oregon, maybe a slight edge for the Buckeyes there, again, you don’t get a lot of info. And like we mentioned, Joshua Mickens, the defensive end that was on campus for the game, he is probably going to be a flip from LSU. He’s from Indianapolis and currently committed to LSU, but I think Ryan Day is going to get the spatula out and Coach Jay is going to help him flip that sucker.
In terms of linebackers, Arion Carter out of Tennessee is a Bama lean, Ohio State is not out of this, so don’t count him out yet. He’ll be visiting Bama and Tennessee in December, so keep that in mind. It’d be nice to get him back on campus.
In terms of Garrett Stover commitment last week, I believe, 2024, they got him at safety, he’s probably going to move down to linebacker. He’s like freaking six-two and 210 pounds, so he’s going to do some growing. He’s getting like the Pete Werner comps, probably because he’s white and he’s got the size and speed of Pete Werner.
In terms of linebackers, it looks like Tommy and Steele will probably both return, I guess, I don’t know. So, we’ll see how that linebacker room fills up and what happened with CJ Hicks on Saturday, did he get a serious knee injury? That’s concerning when he banged knees with Xavier Johnson on that kick return.
In terms of corners, we got three committed, no news is good news there, of course. In terms of safeties, we got three committed there, and Hickman is probably leaving, Tanner McCalister is leaving and could Lathan Ransom go, so that safety room could suddenly get very thin very fast, so it opens the door for a five-star Caleb Downs in his 23 class.
That’s about all I got for you today, keep it locked in here, it’ll still be every day, I don’t care when the season ends, I’ll be here. Mondays are always recruiting and I might add another recruiting show during the week because we’ll have less game to talk about. So, keep it locked in, hit the like and subscribe and leave a review, I really appreciate it as always. Go Bucks.