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Ohio State Recruiting Insider: Southern Swing Kicks Off · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning. From Monday May six, I'm your host Tom
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Moore. The Akron Game in one hundred and seventeen days, the Gami gets
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Vision in two hundred and eight days. Our big annual Southern Swing at Buckeyehuddle
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dot Com is off and running. Mark Givler and Kevin Noon traveling all across
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the South to meet interview scout some of the top high school football prospects in
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the nation. That trip started last Thursday. It is going to last for
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about two weeks, maybe a little more. There is gonna be a ton
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of content coming for you at bucke huddle dot com from all of those visits
0:38
all along all around the South. Those guys just started on Thursday. They've
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already met with a ton of really top prospects. On today's show, it's
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actually gonna be an episode of the Skull Session recruiting podcast that Mark and Kevin
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released on Sunday evening. This is basically what we were going to talk about
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on the morning show anyway, So figured out we're just gonna record this show
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once this Ye're gona get to hear Mark and Kevin on the Skull Session recruiting
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podcast talking about the start of their trip. If you enjoy this one,
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there is gonna be a lot more content coming from this trip. You can
1:10
make sure you subscribe to the Skull Session Recruiting Podcast. To make sure you
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are also a subscriber at Buckeye Huddle dot com. Remember we're offering that big
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annual subscription sale right now. This is a great time to get all sorts
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of insider content at a deeply discounted rate of just sixty nine to ninety nine
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for the year. Make sure you sign up there and now enjoy this episode
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of the Skull Session Recruiting Podcast. Hello everyone, welcome to the Skull Session
1:34
Recruiting Podcast, brought to you by Buckeye Huddle dot com. I am Mark
1:38
Givler. Kevin Noon is here with me today. It's a casual Sunday edition
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of the Skull Session Recruiting Podcast. We're hanging out here at our hotel in
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Charlotte, or just outside of Charlotte, Saluth, Charlotte, Matthews, North
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Carolina. First couple of days of Southern Swing are in the books, so
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we're going to talk about that. We went to a couple of high schools
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here in North Carolina. We've made a stop in West Virginia on our way
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down. We have a couple more stops here in the Charlotte area on Monday
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before we head to Georgia for our next leg, and that's when it kind
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of really heats up. It always, it's always, as I kind of
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mentioned on the board, our Southern Swing tour, really heats up when we
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get to Georgia. A lot of the first couple of days of our tour
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are just how quickly can we get down to Georgia and if we can find
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some stuff along the way, great, And we actually found a lot of
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good stuff along the way this year, more so than I think than most
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years on our way down. So we'll talk about some of that, what
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we've seen so far, what we've heard so far. We don't usually do
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this, so I hopefully hopefully everyone gives us a break on this. I
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usually get right into things, but we are having an annual subscription sale on
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the website right now. It's over forty percent off right now for an annual
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subscription sixty nine ninety nine normally one twenty four ninety nine. So it's it's
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quite a price break a lot of people have taken advantage of it. We've
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got a lot of new members. If you're already on the site, if
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you're a monthly, you can convert to annual. It'll save you a bunch
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of money. If you're already an annual, we're actually allowing people to tackle
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on twelve more months too. They're already existing annual at the sale price,
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so it's a great deal for everyone. Hopefully we'll get some new We have
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about a million people watched this channel on a month to month basis, so
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hopefully get some of you to come on over and take us up on the
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offer and give us a shot. It's a great time of year to do
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it with our Southern swing. We post a lot of information on the message
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board on our site that we don't give out on the podcast. We kind
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of summarize some things on the podcast, but a lot of the real good
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stuff is safe for our members over the site. So hopefully see you there.
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Link in the description box to the account to sign up for the account
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up grades it will get. It will auto apply. There's no promo code.
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It'll auto apply. It'll say one twenty four ninety nine, but it'll
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remember. Just go buy an annual at the link in the description box.
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We're also go to bucke huddle dot com and it'll say subscribe today on the
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top menu bar you go in there. So now that's out of the way,
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Kevin, let's I guess we can go in chronological order here a little
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bit. We stopped in West Virginia on our way down at Hurricane High School,
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one of the best programs in the state of West Virginia for a top
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one hundred offensive lineman Dern Parks in the twenty twenty sixth class. Doran's been
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to Ohio State twice already. He's gonna be back up in the summer.
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His team is doing the seven on seven thing at Ohio State in June,
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so he's gonna come up with this team and visit Ohio State while that's going
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on. I got I got great vibes from Doran on his interest in Ohio
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State. What did you think? Yeah, I mean, really impressive kid.
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You've got to remember he still has a little bit more time to go.
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He's not. You know, this isn't a last twenty five guy,
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a big, big body, I mean, just really good kid, and
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he grew up liking Ohio State and we understand how that goes. Everybody eventually
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has to get to the business decision point of all of this, and childhood
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fandom kind of you know, has to be set aside. But he talked
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about watching the game and before he even really knew who was who, he's
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like, well, I like the red team, and that's kind of carried
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on since so the red team being the Buckeyes, are in a really good
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position there. I mean there's a lot of proximity. Ohio State has tried
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to reach out into West Virginia in the offensive line sweepstakes before mixed success,
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lack of success. But I think with de Ron Parks, I mean long
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ways to go. So I'm not putting any sort of of magical orb of
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wonderment involved in this. That's I know, patent pending, Mark Gibler,
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But I really like Ohio State's chances. Yeah, I think they're off to
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a great start. You get the childhood fandom thing, you know. The
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one thing he mentioned to us before we went on cameras that Ohio State's actually
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the closest major program to his house. They're actually a little bit closer than
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Morgantown where West Virginia is, so in summer specs, they're kind of the
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local school. It's only two hour drive. Again, he's been up there
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a couple times. He plans to get up there several more June for sure.
6:10
And then he said he you know, he's never been nor an Ohio
6:12
State game as a recruit, so he wants to go do that this fall.
6:17
So we'll be seeing him on campus a few more times. The thing
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I like about him, in addition to just being a really good player,
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is he would fit in well with kind of what they're recruiting right now.
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So you've got the big three in Ohio in twenty six. That's Will Conroy,
6:32
Sam Greer, Max Riley. Conroy's a center, Greer's a tackle.
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Riley could be tackle or guard. He could. He's kind of a Luke
6:42
Montgomery type of body. He can kind of go either direction there, and
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so could Parks. So you've got four players there. I know they don't
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have commitments for many of them yet, but you've got four players there who
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you possibly lead for who are within a two hour radius of your campus,
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who can all play together. You're not eling spots from each other. So
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look, I I'm probably been captain negative on Ohio State offensive line recruiting over
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the years, but I'm gonna say right now that they've got a chance to
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sign their best offensive line class in years in twenty twenty six, maybe since
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the Brew Crew, and quite frankly, I could concoct a scenario that would
7:19
make a better class than the Brow Crew. I think if you go you
7:25
start to pull like a Champ Smith into there from Vero Beach, Florida,
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who you know, his buddy TJ. Alford's committed in twenty five as a
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linebacker and who's basically told me Ohio State leads you get like five guys like
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that, you're not you know, that's not that's not three guys, and
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then you kind of whiff on a couple others. I mean that is a
7:44
full fledged offensive that's five dudes. I mean, that's that's a monster hall.
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So I think they are well positioned. And I say that almost with
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some hesitation, because you know, I don't want to be It's recruiting,
7:58
Yeah, it's it's recruiting. It's offensive line recruiting at Ohio State. But
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I've never been the guy who has been like, oh, this is going
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to be the year they I've always kind of been the guy I got to
8:07
see it to believe it. And I'm starting to believe what I'm seeing and
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hearing from these twenty twenty six guys. So I know that's a year off
8:13
and people are like, what about twenty five, But we'll get to that
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in a minute. But you know, I think they're in great shape there.
8:20
I think there again, I think they lead for the Ohio guys.
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I think they lead for parks. Now, it's not going to just be
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Ohio State. I was told kind of Tennessee, Florida State, a couple
8:28
schools to watch. West Virginia. Obviously it's not going to let him go
8:31
without a fight. But look, they're in good shape so far, and
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we'll just see how that relationship continues to grow here as he gets on campus
8:39
a few more times. Yeah, I mean, then going back to the
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brew crew class, they missed out on a West Virginia aligneman at the last
8:46
second with Josh Jenkins, So I think it really could be a great class.
8:52
A lot of people are very, you know, very lukewarm on Justin
8:56
Fry at this point because these monster classes have not been happening yet. Have
9:01
some patience. I mean, obviously what happens with the class of twenty five
9:05
is going to dictate a lot of what people are thinking there. But twenty
9:09
six looks like it's shaping up to be a tremendous one for Ohio state.
9:13
And it goes back even into like the Trustle years where the state of Ohio
9:18
was producing so many players at key positions like that. And when you have
9:22
that, it's a lot easier to go into Cleveland and recruit alignment Sam Greer
9:28
than it is to go into Cleveland, Tennessee and try and pull somebody away
9:33
from the University of Tennessee or whoever. So things are shaping up well for
9:37
twenty six. But you said it, people also have a lot of focus
9:41
on twenty five. Now they got focused on twenty four because they think that
9:45
they still need to go and look at the portal for offensive line. So
9:48
you know, it's if anybody was one hundred percent, I mean, even
9:52
the great Nick Saban didn't land everybody he wanted to land. It's just it's
9:56
recruiting. It's a soap opera and you you have to stick with because you
10:00
just don't know. Yeah, Fry has yet to kind of make that big
10:03
out of state splash that I think people want to see from an Ohio State
10:07
offensive line coach. What I will say to his credit is under the previous
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offensive line coach, even recruiting Ohio was very hit and miss. Jackson Carmen
10:20
Z Correll, Nick Saymac JD. Du Plaine. There's another kid that went
10:28
to Clemson as well. Oh I can't from northeast Ohio. I'm growing a
10:33
blank on that. Blake Miller. Blake Miller. So in Fry's defense and
10:37
I and I agree with the fan base, he needs to, you know,
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he needs to get out there and make a splash. You know,
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all the other assistants have been able to kind of do that at their positions.
10:48
It's time that Ohio State, which should be able to recruit offensive lineman,
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does that. But there haven't been the embarrassing and state misses. You
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know, he's kind of he's he's handled Ohio and now like the next phase
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of him kind of taking that next step as a recruiter is to go get
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someone doron Parks Champ Smith, David Sanders, let's get into that five star
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offs of tackle. David Sanders very quietly made his way to Columbus this weekend.
11:20
We are down in Charlotte, so we may have some more insight on
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that one here in a couple in the next day or two, so kind
11:26
of stay tuned on that. But I've been there not getting David Sanders guy.
11:33
The last visit went well. I mean, I have to admit the
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last visit went well and I still had Clemson in the lead. Well,
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now he's making a little quiet under the radar visits to Ohio State in May.
11:43
He'll be back in June for an official I believe they're going to be
11:46
his last official Kevin, are you starting to feel this one or are we
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still still preaching caution here? Well, and let's not forget that he also
11:58
was on campus in April. Oh, he goes in April, he goes
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in May, and then he's going to have an official visit in June.
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I posted something on the huddle board earlier on Sunday about I'm not quite ready
12:13
to push all my chips in on this one yet, but I am moving
12:16
out of the Ohio State has just a hat on the table type of situation.
12:20
Obviously, with a lot of other schools, there's much more proximity,
12:24
but it's only a six hour drive from Charlotte proper to Columbus. I've done
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the drive a thousand times. Mark's done the drive a thousand times, having
12:35
family and in laws in the Charlotte area, so it is not the worst
12:39
drive in the world. I think Ohio State is emerging. I would definitely
12:43
have them trending up. I'm not ready. I guess I would probably still
12:50
take the field, but I don't think that there's a single school that I
12:54
would say he's going there. I mean, I felt that it was going
12:56
to be Clemson, and now I'm not so sure. So I'm going to
13:01
take the field against any given school. But in the last twenty four hours,
13:05
I think that my percentages for Ohio States shot there have greatly improved.
13:13
Top when his top five came out, I had Ohio State is like either
13:16
five or like tied for fourth with South Carolina, and I don't think there's
13:22
any question they're better than that. Now now are they one or two?
13:26
We'll see. Clemson remains a very very big factor there. Georgia you always
13:35
have to take seriously, and that's not a far drive from Charlotte to get
13:39
to Athens, so that's gonna be hammered home. I think what Ohio State's
13:41
done, though, is they've done a really good job of sort of debunking
13:48
the distance from home thing to an extent. I mean, it's not any
13:54
it's not any more difficult really to get to Columbus than it is to get
13:58
to Athan's Georgia or Tuscaloose, Alabama. You know, now Columbia, South
14:03
Carolina of course, that's you know, if you want to stay close to
14:07
home, you're gonna go South Carolina. That's that's the one that's kind of
14:09
right down the road. But you know, Clemson of course as well,
14:11
not too far. But I think they've done a good job of saying,
14:15
like, look, you're gonna you know, what's the difference between a five
14:18
hour drive and a six hour drive or a four and a half hour drive
14:20
and a six hour drive. You're gonna be in the car a good chunk
14:22
of the day either way. You know. Cheap flights on American Airlines direct
14:28
from Charlotte to Columbus, you're up and down in an hour, if you
14:31
want to go that route. I mean, I think they've done a good
14:33
job of explaining that to him, because I think David likes a lot of
14:35
things about Ohio State, and I think he likes the depth chart because if
14:39
you're if you're Ohio State, what you're telling David right now from a playing
14:43
time perspective is, if Simmons goes pro after this year, you could actually
14:48
start as a true freshman. If Simmons doesn't go pro after this year,
14:52
you are basically coming in for a year. You're in the two deep,
14:56
you're playing, we're getting you in games, and then you're taking over year
15:00
two, much like a Paris Johnson gott into the starting line of his year
15:03
two. And that is appealing. And it's not one of those like pie
15:07
in the sky things of like, hey, we we recruit all these five
15:11
stars. Here what we're telling you we've done, Like if you look at
15:15
their depth chart right now, it is wide open for any really any offensive
15:18
lineman, but especially a left ackle. Well, and the thing is,
15:20
how about this, how about freshman year he starts at right tackle. You
15:24
kick Josh Fryer inside. I know that Friar's had a couple of years at
15:28
tackled do you necessarily want to slide him inside? But there's gonna be guard
15:33
positions open too, because we're getting to the end of the line with Donovan
15:35
Jackson as well. So you're right on on the depth chart. And I
15:41
think something else that we've not maybe talked about as much as an industry is
15:46
with the dollars that are flowing now for NIL and everything broke kevin Io State.
15:52
People have been telling me for years at Ohio State's broke. They don't
15:54
get NIL. They don't. I've been telling them for years they're wrong.
15:58
Who's right? I don't know, But if hypothetically I want that one guys,
16:02
I'm sorry. I love all of you out there, But if that's
16:06
in the wind column for me, I don't think anyone can be arguing at
16:08
the High she doesn't know what it's doing with an IL at this point.
16:12
If they can find if they can find a couple of dollars to throw David
16:15
Sanders' way in IL, yeah, setups, get under the couch cushions.
16:18
I was going to say, they it's not going to be a matter of
16:22
having to take seventy seven up into Charleston and then going and cutting the corner
16:26
on thirty three and driving through Megs County. You can fly, you can
16:30
you can fly at that point. So I think that sometimes the depth or
16:37
the distance conversation is a little overblown. Now it's not going to be a
16:44
case like Mom is just going to be able to show up out of the
16:47
blue and bring it, you know, a big pot of chicken noodle soup
16:49
and clean laundry and everything else. It's it's a little bit more detailed,
16:53
but it's not exactly around the corner to Athens. It's certainly not around the
16:57
corner to Tuscaloosa. So I think a lot of that is there. We've
17:03
seen guys. I'll use Mason Short as an example. Ohio State was in
17:07
it the first time around with them. Ohio State, I guess technically was
17:11
in it the second time around with them. The one thing that didn't happen
17:14
is Columbus, Ohio did not get any closer to Augusta, Georgia. But
17:18
here in Charlotte. I think that that is still a significantly shorter trip in
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a lot of ways. And I think everybody has their own thing it's like,
17:26
I'm not going anywhere by car if it's more than three hours. But
17:29
I think for anybody who does some real traveling, I think six hours is
17:33
kind of your your limit. And it's just under six hours, I mean,
17:37
unless seventy seven is really bad with traffic. And again I think,
17:41
yeah, like with Mason Short though, he just never came back, like
17:45
he visited the one time and you and I were there. We talked about
17:48
it at the under armer camp last year where you know, we kind of
17:51
asked, you know, hey, you're coming back up for the spring game
17:52
and Mom was like, well that's so far. I was like, well,
17:56
you're not getting him. Crossed him off the list, cross Mason Short
17:59
off the way. But you know, David has has made the effort to
18:03
get up now three times twice in the last month, and you know he'll
18:07
get the free trip in June for the official But you know, I think
18:10
with him, it's I don't think it's so much like oh, I have
18:14
to get in the car, my famili's not get in the car and dry.
18:15
He's very close. He's got younger siblings he's close to, and I
18:19
just think there's some of that so I think you're you're recruiting. If you're
18:22
a highest state, you're almost recruiting the younger siblings. Right, don't you
18:26
want big don't you want big brother to go to Columbus. I think that
18:29
maybe be an angle you have to take at some point. But yeah,
18:33
there are some things that I think Ohio State has been able to successfully,
18:38
whether it's overcome is the right word, or navigate here to make this more
18:45
interesting than it looked like it was going to be a few months ago.
18:48
So we'll see, we will see what happens. But that would obviously be
18:52
I mean, that would be an all timer, I think just about I
18:56
mean in terms of excitement level of the fan base, that would be like
19:00
an all time. And talk about needing it because just the whole, I
19:03
mean, Ohio State needs it, justin Fry needs it because you look at
19:07
I'm just convinced. I mean, if I had young kids, I would
19:11
be like, you need you need to be an offensive line coach when you
19:14
grow up, because apparently offensive line coaches cannot recruit on the whole because they're
19:18
all different birds. Ed Warner his players, his players would have run through
19:23
a brick wall for him, but he was not a great recruiter. He
19:26
was a little odd on the recruiting trail in Ohio State had to cover there.
19:32
Then Ohio State goes in and brings in Greg Studuara, and he was
19:36
an even worse recruiter. And you know, so you just I mean,
19:40
and you can even go prior to to Warner, you can go to Jim
19:45
Bowman and Trussell was doing a lot of let's not forget clear that one.
19:51
There was a there was a recruiting class where Ohio State brought in one offensive
19:55
lineman and his name was Evan Blankenship. And he is a better guitar player
19:57
than offensive lineman and he's he's killing it on the country music scene in Nashville
20:02
right now. So shout out to Evan if you're watching. I'm not talking
20:04
down about you. I'm just speaking speaking real that that was a year that
20:07
was like that was a fireable offense to have a class that looked like that.
20:11
Yeah, so you know this would be this would be something we'll we'll
20:17
see. There's officials coming up in June and there's there's a lot a lot
20:22
to go there. But no matter how positive or negative you are about the
20:29
situation. You have to acknowledge they're in a better position today than they were
20:33
three months ago. Like, it's really not debatable, even for someone like
20:37
me who's been relatively negative about their chances. So we'll see how that goes.
20:42
We'll try and get some more insight on that, hopefully very soon.
20:45
I think, well, we'll see how things go, you know, kind
20:48
kind our eggs before they hatch. But we seem to be in the right
20:52
area for, you know, to maybe hear something. But we are in
20:56
Charlotte, so we may it to Greensboro. That was an interesting stop.
21:03
It wasn't a stop we necessarily knew we were gonna make a few weeks ago,
21:07
but it became one that we felt we had to faison Brandon at Greensborough
21:11
Grimsley High School. Is I think two four seven's got him number one player
21:14
in the country in twenty twenty six. He's pretty much a consensus five star,
21:21
top ten type of player in the class at this point. First of
21:25
all, just physically impress it, like six four to two hundred pounds already,
21:30
I mean, fifteen years old, he should be in twenty seven.
21:33
He's in twenty six, like thirty six touchdowns to three picks last year and
21:37
then another like five hundred some yards and nine touchdowns on the ground. It
21:44
reminds me of Jayden Daniels when I was watching the tape, but I would
21:48
I could even take it a step further. This will be almost unfair,
21:53
but I'm gonna do it. There's like some Vince Young there in terms of
21:57
his size and at letticism and just like physically being a physically imposing, big
22:03
athletic quarterback. There's some Vince Young there like that. He is a special
22:07
talent, great kid, very humble. We hope he stays that way because
22:12
this is about to get very hectic for him here the next year or so,
22:18
and seems to have a genuine curiosity and interest in Ohio state. Chip
22:22
Kelly made his way to check him out at at at Grimsley High School.
22:26
He is every bit of six' four. He comes into the room.
22:29
I'm like, yep, you're taller than me. You're six' four and
22:33
for two hundred pounds, still a little lean, but I mean, you're
22:36
right, he's only he's only fifteen years old. And let's not forget that
22:40
everybody was freaking out when Jared Curtis committed to Uga, which obviously kind of
22:45
changed up the board. Ohio State was sitting in great shape with Jared Curtis's
22:51
coaching. Change happens in terms of Corey Dennis not being retained that throws a
22:55
little bit of chaos into the whole situation. Ohio State has a lot of
22:59
very interesting options for its class of twenty six quarterback, and Beison is somebody
23:04
who I think that really would fit the system that Ohio State wants to run.
23:11
We're talking about a fifteen year old, so he probably doesn't know Chip
23:14
Kelly's whole body of work, but I think that Ohio State can definitely put
23:19
a product on the field this year that will give him a lot a lot
23:23
to think about. There are going to be a lot of suitors for him,
23:29
Tennessee being one of them. I think there's some other schools that definitely
23:32
make a lot of sense but have no fear of. Ohio State is focused
23:37
on a lot of these top quarterbacks, even after missing out on Curtis.
23:41
And one interesting thing that I didn't know until we talked to him is that
23:45
he had come up as a freshman for a spring practice, and so that's
23:51
sometimes very telling the sophomore, junior, senior year visits or kind of the
23:56
schools you're considering the eighth ninth grade visits are the schools you like, and
24:03
so sometimes it doesn't always line up. Sometimes the schools you like don't end
24:07
up being the schools you start you consider for one reason or another. But
24:11
it shows that you don't come up as a like eighth ninth grader to a
24:15
place like Ohio State from North Carolina unless there's something pulling you that you want
24:19
to see what this is all about. So that that was interesting to me
24:22
that he mentioned that definitely was a big C. J. Stroud Marvin Harrison
24:26
watcher. You know, I thought it was interesting. Again we said one
24:32
of his coaches was kind of give him a crash course in chip Kelly and
24:34
his time at Oregon and how he kind of revolutionized some things and they did
24:38
things a little bit differently. So there's a good foundation there, and he
24:42
says he's going to come up in the summer. Him and his family have
24:45
been talking again. Him and his family have been talking to the coaches.
24:48
That's you know, these are these are types of conversations that are are had
24:53
when you are considering a school. It's not just a oh, it's cool
24:57
to have an Ohio state off or on my you know, recruiting profile.
25:02
So you know, we'll see if he makes it up in June, like
25:04
he says, or June or July he said, I think we'll see.
25:07
I tend to think he will. And Greensboro is even a little bit closer,
25:12
I think than Charlotte. It's not it's a little bit off, but
25:15
it's it's a little further east. But but the thing is, you people
25:18
aren't here for a triple a lesson. But you take seventy four in a
25:22
mount area and then you hit seventy seven. So it's not really that dry.
25:26
I think it's really six to one half a dozen of another. So
25:29
it's not it's it's drivable. It's not a horrible, you know, trip
25:33
to make. So we'll see how this goes. Again, we've there's a
25:37
connection there with like with Hendon Hooker and his uncle or something. There's like
25:41
a family connection there. So Tennessee's off to I think a pretty good start,
25:44
but nothing that nothing was indicated to me that like he's leaning anywhere right
25:48
now. It's just kind of a you know, he's fifteen, and he's
25:51
got all the schools that you'd probably want coming after him, So it's gonna
25:55
be a serious battle. But so that was our first quarterback stop of the
25:59
trip. We're going to see multiple I don't want to throw out an exact
26:03
number yet, but we're gonna see several of their twenty twenty six quarterback offers
26:07
here in the next couple of weeks. So if you're interested, if you
26:10
love quarterback recruiting, if you're enamored with quarterback recruiting, Buckeye Huddle dot COM's
26:15
gonna be an interesting place here the next couple of weeks as we get around
26:17
to some some other quarterbacks they're recruiting in twenty six, which is the next
26:21
time they're going to land a quarterback because they have their guy in twenty five.
26:22
So so that was an interesting stop and we kind of we went to
26:30
Weddington here in South Charlotte. Weddington High School. A lot of talent on
26:36
that defense. It's gonna be one of the best defense. It's probably in
26:37
the country next year if you look at all the talent they have at all
26:41
three levels of their defense. But got made to feel old Thomas Davis Junior.
26:45
If you remember Thomas Davis at Georgia with the Carolina Panthers, his son
26:49
tremendous linebacker at Weddington High School. Here, you know, I guess for
26:56
me, the interesting part of those comments because we won't we don't have to
27:00
go down one by one here, We'll just you know, there were three
27:02
guys we spoke to. We spoke to to Thomas Davis Junior, and we
27:06
spoke to the Harris Twins, Aiden and Andrew twenty twenty six prospects. Aidan's
27:10
a big defensive lineman, Andrew's kind of a hybrid, you know, outside
27:14
linebacker, maybe a Jack type of player. The common theme with them is
27:19
they all have Georgia ties. So obviously TJ. Davis, his father played
27:25
there. The other two Thomas Davis Senior, is their uncles or their cousins,
27:30
and they grew up in Georgia, so they grew up Georgia fans.
27:33
But the common theme from all three of them is that I don't think they're
27:36
actually feeling the love from Georgia yet. Now that could change at any moment,
27:41
and still early, but I felt that was one of the interesting takeaways
27:45
from that is because you feel like if Georgia just said tomorrow, like we're
27:48
going to go all in on these three kids, you feel like they would
27:51
they would get them. But they haven't done that for whatever reason. And
27:56
maybe it's just too early for them to do that. But I think it
28:00
leaves the door cracked for other schools. Well. I think that Georgia has
28:03
to almost approach these guys as in state players in some regards because of the
28:08
family ties. And I think there are gonna be times that you you talk
28:12
to somebody who is a legacy of another program and you're like, well,
28:15
that was all well and good. We don't have to go that far back
28:18
on Southern Swing history to talking to Jerome Bettis junior. You know it was.
28:23
It was a great story. Oh, I'm very interested in Ohio State.
28:26
Very kid, very nice kid. But he's going to Notre Dame.
28:32
I don't, you know, I don't I don't know if I necessarily Maybe
28:33
with TJ. Davis, maybe that one is just going to kind of happen.
28:37
But what what does it mean with with with the Harris twins. And
28:41
it's funny because you talk to each of them. We did interviews with all
28:45
three of them, you can catch them all at bucke huddle dot com as
28:47
well as YouTube dot com slash Buckeye Huddle about the potential of all three going
28:52
to the same school, and one player is like, Oh, absolutely,
28:56
that's what's gonna happen. And then we kind of had a little bit more
28:59
of a uh, well, if we all end up at the same school,
29:00
that's great. But I'm going where I'm going, and that's just kind
29:06
of how it's gonna be. But get in, you know, Ohio State
29:10
has to get in. Shoot it shot, get them up on campus a
29:14
couple few times, and and and and and hope for the best at that
29:17
point. And Ohio State has had them up there to check things out.
29:21
I mean, they're obviously in a position to where they can go and and
29:23
and see a lot of other schools. Uh. They they had a chance
29:27
to go see Notre Dame, they had a chance to see Miami, Florida.
29:30
They want to go out and see USC. So I don't think anybody
29:33
is necessarily in a huge hurry. But I think if you're Georgia, there
29:38
is a concern that if you come in too early, then you're you're gonna
29:44
have to You're gonna have to ride. You're gonna have to ride or die
29:45
with your decision at that point. And yeah, and it's gonna be all
29:48
three. It's not just gonna be one. You're gonna have to take all
29:51
three of them. And that's that. I mean, you're not gonna be
29:52
able to burn that bridge. So yeah, it leaves things open, I
29:56
think to me, I think the Harris twins are pretty wide open beyond you
30:00
know, if we take Georgia out of the equation for a minute, I
30:03
think the Harris twins are pretty wide open. I think Ohio State visit went
30:06
very well. I think Aiden really enjoyed Larry Johnson, his time with Larry
30:10
Johnson. I think I think they both liked their trip to Miami with TJ.
30:15
I think obviously TJ liked Ohiast. We had great comments from TJ on
30:18
the ohiost defense about how smart their players were in the film study and then
30:22
also how they were flying around on the field and you know how Caleb downs,
30:26
you know, left you know, the quote unquote kind of goat of
30:30
defensive coaching Nick Saban and needed to find Okay, Saban's gone, what's the
30:34
best place now? And that the fact that Caleb Downs felt that was Ohio
30:38
State kind of resonated with with TJ. Davis. But I also think TJ
30:45
like Notre Dame as well. He seemed to like Notre Dame I think more
30:48
than the than the Harris Twins that seemed to kind of resonate with him a
30:51
little more so. One of them was that it was like snowing when they
30:52
were up there. Yeah, yeah, that was welcome. Welcome to the
30:56
Upper Midwest in April. That's what happens. Yeah, So, you know,
31:00
I I think again, I think with the Harris Twins, there's probably
31:03
a lot to play out there, and I don't I wouldn't even want to
31:06
handicap that one right now. I think with TJ, certainly Georgia if the
31:11
Bulldogs start to really push there, and I think Notre Dame in Ohio State
31:15
or the other two that have have made a good, good early impression.
31:18
But again, these guys, and they have the resources to travel and Thomas
31:22
Davis Senior takes care of those guys and you know, fly, they want
31:26
to fly to l A and c USC and UCLA, They're gonna be able
31:27
to do that, and so they're gonna be They're gonna have the resources to
31:30
visit a lot of different schools, but the one, the one thing I
31:34
wanted to get to real quick though as we kind of wrap this up,
31:37
is I want I kind of forgot to mention this with with the Faison Brandon
31:41
visit and we we this kind of got brought up at the Weddington visit too
31:45
with with TJ. Davis, who knows Chris Henry Junior very well. A
31:48
high state wide receiver commit is uh, you know Chris Henry Junior grew up.
31:52
It did grow up in North Carolina before he moved to Ohio. So
31:57
that would be something I think could be if you can get Faison Brandon up
32:01
on campus and Chris Henry Junior on campus together, you're talking five star quarterback,
32:06
five star receiver in the same class North Carolina ties. It'll be a
32:09
lot in common there. That is a that is if I'm Ohio State,
32:14
I am. I'm calling Uncle Pack right now and I'm saying, hey,
32:16
faithOn Brandon's coming, you know X weekend? Can we can we tap into
32:22
the to the Uncle Pack retirement fund and get Chris out here for that weekend
32:27
because we need to make that we need to make that happen. Yeah,
32:30
there's always so much about you want to have your quarterback to lead your class.
32:32
I mean, I think right now the poster traveler of the twenty six
32:36
class is obviously going to be Chris Henry Jr. Can he turn around and
32:39
bring in the quarterback at that point? I think that would be, you
32:44
know, a very wise move. Mark Pantoni, if you're watching, I'm
32:49
sure though, if we thought of it, you've already thought of it,
32:51
or at least you'll say you thought of it. But yeah, it'll be,
32:54
you know, very interesting to see how all of that fits together.
32:58
But I think also something that I did mention to Faison when we were pre
33:01
interviewing him is just you know, oh and if you ended up in Ohio
33:05
state, you would have a chance to throw to this guy. His name
33:07
is Jeremiah Smith. And that's you know that his eyes lit up. He
33:12
was aware, he was aware of who Jeremiah Smith is. Yeah, so
33:15
we'll see again, we'll see how some of these developments go with the twenty
33:17
six is still still a little early for a lot of those guys. You
33:21
know, a lot of visits to take a lot of things to happen between
33:24
now and then, but really to start to the trip, we're having a
33:28
blast. It's you know, I don't want to give out our plan for
33:32
for multiple reasons, but part of the reason is we don't really know exactly.
33:37
We have a good idea of where this is going to go, and
33:38
I will say, if our plan A comes together south, yeah, its
33:42
head to the South. I could just say that if our Plan A comes
33:45
together on what we want to do on this trip, it is going to
33:47
be the largest, longest, most in depth Southern swing we've ever done,
33:52
and it's going to be uh, there's gonna be some new states we've never
33:58
stopped in for high If we get this all done, it's incredibly ambitious.
34:05
But the puzzle pieces this weekend started to fall pretty well with guys we were
34:09
reaching out to contact trying to set things up. So we're pretty confident that
34:15
Plan A may actually come together here. But stay tuned to bucke Huddle dot
34:17
com for all of our Southern Swing coverage as it continues, and we again
34:22
we'll roll into We'll finish up North Carolina here on Monday, roll into Georgia
34:25
Monday night at some ung godly hour and get rolling in the Deep South on
34:30
Tuesday morning. So I hope everyone enjoyed watching, listening, and again check
34:36
us out at bucke huddle dot com. If you're not subscribed to the channel
34:38
already at Buckeye Huddle or at YouTube dot com slash buckye Huddle, please please
34:42
subscribe to the channel or subscribe on iTunes wherever you get your podcasts. But
34:45
thanks everyone for your support and we will talk to you again soon