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Are Tony Alford and Michigan About To Pull A Top Running Back Prospect Out Of Ohio? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to Buck Guyes tomorrow morning for Tuesday, April thirtieth. I'm your host,
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  tom Or the Akron game in one hundred and twenty three days, the
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  game against Michigan in two hundred and fourteen days. We're heading into what is
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  typically one of the slower times in the college football calendar, but there are
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  still plenty of stuff going on on the recruiting front. We're gonna be talking
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  about that. Their buddy Mark ghiflerfuckehuddle dot com. He just spent part of
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  the weekend up at the under Armour camp up in Canton and got to talk
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  to a bunch of really really top Midwestern prospects. And there's some recruiting news
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  and perhaps some recruiting drama happening involving Ohio State. And they're old friends up
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  in ann Arbor, and specifically their old friend Tony Alfred's we're gonna be talking
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  about that today. Mark. I know people look at titles of these shows
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  and sometimes and think, oh, it's just being clickbaity whatever. So I'm
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  just going to read the title of this show to you in the form of
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  a question, and you can answer yes or no. Mark, are Tony
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  Alfred and Michigan about to pull a top running back prospect out of Ohio.
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  Yes they are. I really believe they are. Cleveland Heights running back Marquise
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  Davis has a few officials set up for June Michigan, Tennessee, Kentucky.
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  I think Florida it's going to be a Michigan Kentucky battle. And I think
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  Michigan's out in front right now, and I think it's gonna take a lot
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  to overcome that for other schools. But I guess the real news there is
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  Marquise told me that Ohio State's out, and so Ohio State obviously has prioritized
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  bo Jackson in state as well, and they've also prioritized Jordan Davison now State.
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  So I think we're gonna see a lot of focus turned to some other
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  targets. And yeah, it sounds like completely out of the running now for
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  Marquise Davis. Based on his relationship with Tony Alford. He told me that
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  was really the only guy at Ohio State he was talking to, so that's,
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  you know, that's kind of a deal breaker there, And did not
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  have a relationship with Carlos Lachlan going back to his time at Oregon, So
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  pretty clean split here, I think, all right. And you know,
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  Carlos Laughlin did have a very good relationship with Jordan Davison. I want to
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  get to him in a little bit. But you also got a chance to
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  see Bo Jackson in person and talk to Bo Jackson over the weekend in addition
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  to talking to Marquise Davis. What did you hear from Bo Jackson? Is
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  the Ohio State still in the running there? Where do things stand with him
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  in terms of the twenty twenty five running back recruiting clause? Yeah, I've
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  had Bo in my you know, unofficial mock class here for a really long
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  time. He's still there for me. I think he's going to sign with
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  Ohio State ultimately and possibly commit there this summer. I think he's going to
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  get this thing over with, probably before his senior season kicks off. He's
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  got officials coming up in June as well. He told me this week he's
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  going to announce those. So he hasn't released those, doesn't want those out.
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  What I would say is, I think I feel very strongly Ohio State's
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  going to have one of those. I feel very strongly that Alabama's going to
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  have one of those. Alabama has actually pushed quite a bit since Kaitlin de
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  Borr took over for Nick Saban, and I think that's maybe the one school
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  that's trying to shake things up here for Ohio State. But I still really
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  like where Ohio State's at. I grew up an Ohio State fan. I
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  think Marki's Davis being out of the picture helps to an extent. I was
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  never convinced that those two were gonna end up at the same school, and
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  it just feels like they were always going to get Jackson, and then they
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  were probably not going to get Davis. But that now that we know they're
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  not getting Davis, I think things become a little more bit more simple with
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  Jackson. So I had a great visit there the spring, you know,
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  met with all the coaches, has a great relationship with Ryan Day, which
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  has helped, and also had a previous relationship with Carlos Laughlin which has helped
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  as well. So everything's moving in a good direction there. Now you put
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  this information on the huddle board presented by Jeffrey by Steakautis at bucke huddle dot
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  com, which is our members only born. Then we'll get to that later.
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  But you put that on the on the board over the weekend and I
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  saw some people say, well, Davis is Michigan and Kentucky. Jackson is
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  Ohio stated in Alabama. So is that a function of how those guys are
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  perceived that one is Alabama's the competitor and the other Kentucky's the competitor or is
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  that just you know, comfort in relationships like we talk about in terms of
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  recruiting all the time. Well, I think a lot of it is relationships.
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  I mean, there's no question Marquise Davis has a good relationship with Tony
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  Alfred at Michigan. There's no question Marquise Davis has a good relationship with the
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  coaches, with the coaching staff of Kentucky. And you know, Vince Morrow's
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  kind of their ace Ohio recruiter, and they've done some good things with Ohio
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  running backs over the years. So I think there's a natural fit there.
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  But I do think that obviously, I think bo Jackson's got the bigger national
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  offer list. I think he's got more national options, But I do think
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  a lot of it is though, going back to reallylationships, the Marque States
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  has all right, So now let's look at the rest of the twenty twenty
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  five recruiting class at running back, those were two guys who are obviously Ohi
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  State was in on a bunch of guys nationally locally, and it was kind
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  of okay, they can't take six guys in this class. So when is
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  this list going to get narrowed down? What is the target number for Ohio
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  State at running back for the twenty twenty five cycle. Are they're looking for
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  two? Were they looking for three? And do you know who is still
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  left as a real viable option there? And you know, can they get
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  to whatever their target is number is without having to kind of reach for someone?
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  Yeah? I think I think two is the reasonable number right now.
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  Is there a scenario where they would take three? I think Ohio State would
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  entertain it. I think that becomes a issue though, of Okay, you
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  get your first two guys that you really like. Are we risking pushing one
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  of those two away to you know, Bojacks or you know, even if
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  it's Jordan Davis, And are you going to risk pushing a talent like that
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  out of the class to take a third guy? And it wouldn't it just
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  be a little better maybe to go portal this off this upcoming off seasons,
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  next offseason, and maybe add a veteran guy to the room to space things
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  out a little bit better. So I think the number is probably going to
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  be two. And again I think they would love it to be Bo Jackson
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  and Jordan Davison, And right now I have them firmly in the lead for
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  Jackson, and I think they're actually in a pre that there's still in a
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  pretty good spot with Davis. And I got a little spooped there when when
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  Tony Alfred left, but they were able to replace Alfred with a guy that
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  Davison basically had a similar relationship with, and that visit went really well.
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  He made it. It got a little it was a little rocky there for
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  a few weeks, but he made the visit, he stayed for a couple
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  of days, everything went well. I think they can still get him.
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  So I think that's kind of the focus right now. I mean they've offered
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  some other guys. I think those are more contingency plans at the moment,
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  and I still think this is a Bo Jackson Jordan Davison focus here until one
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  of them seems to be slipping away and that isn't the case yet. I
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  did want to ask you about those Tony Alfred leaves Carlos Lachlin comes in kind
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  of dynamics, because it does feel like that has been really the big overarching
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  storyline for this recruiting class, especially in this one position group. How much
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  did the Tony Alfred departure really set them back? Now that we've had a
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  little bit of time to look back and sort of reflect on, you know,
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  did it really swing momentum with certain guys that he left, And how
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  much did Carlos Lachlin coming in maybe swing some of that momentum back or has
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  it not had that much of an impact? Yeah, I mean so,
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  I think it clearly had an impact on Marquise Davis, a negative impact for
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  Ohio State on Marquise Davis. But and I think in the immediate aftermath of
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  what happened, I think initially Jordan Davison kind of got spooked, freaked out
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  a little bit, But as soon as it was made clear that Lachlan was
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  going to be the guy that got Jordan Davison right back in the So it's
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  been a little bit of a roller coaster. But at the end of the
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  day. If you look back six months ago, I said, I thought
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  Jordan Davison and Bo Jackson would be the two running backs in the class.
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  And here we are six months later, after everything that's happened, and I
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  still think Jordan Davison and Bo Jackson could be the running backs of the class.
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  So in the long term, long game sense, it really hasn't disrupted
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  things from where I sit, but it did have. So there was a
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  bit of a roller coaster, bumpy ride to get to where we are.
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  Well, there will certainly be more ups and downs on the recruiting roller coaster
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  between now and signing Day in December. We'll be following all of those for
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  you at bucket huddle dot com. And Mark was up, as I mentioned,
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  at that Ohio under Armor camp over the weekend and got a ton of
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  great content. That is all sitting right now on the huddle board presented by
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  Jeff Ruby Steakhouse. The piece of that that is the running back recruiting piece.
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  That is just a small portion of what he got for you over the
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  weekend. We always say, we give you, you know, some stuff
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  on these shows, but you got to go to the board. You got
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  to go to the site to get the full information. Well, good news
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  that if you've thought, I wonder what they really do have, I wonder
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  how much more they do have? Let me just tell you good stuff on
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  a top one hundred defender for twenty twenty five, an elite cornerback in twenty
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  twenty six, a current commit who has made a big leap since he first
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  committed to Ohio State, much much more. That's all just part of March's
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  reporting just from this weekend on the Hudle Board, presented by Jeff Ruby steahouse
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  All at bucke huddle dot com. If you want to give it a try,
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  you want to try up becoming member. Great news our spring annual subscription
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  sale going on right now, but forty percent off for membership and annual membership
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  sixty nine ninety nine. That's a pretty nice deal. We hope we can
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  see you there, and we've got great a bunch of great content from Tony
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  and Kevin, got the Southern Swing coming up, their big annual recruiting trip
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  across the South, and be talking to a ton of the nation's very best
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  football players. That's only at Buckeye Huddle dot com. We hope to see
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  you there. That'll do it for today. Thank you guys all for joining
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  us, have a great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow