Latest / Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning / Is Ohio State In Good Shape To Land A 5-Star Corner?
Transcript
- 0:00Welcome to a special bonus episode of Buckeyes tomorrow morning. You don't get a
- 0:04date, you don't get a countdown, You'll get that on the official episode
- 0:08for today. This one is one of those yeah, man, there's too
- 0:11much stuff going on this week episodes where we do seven shows a week and
- 0:15sometimes there is just too much to talk about. This is one of those
- 0:18weeks with the Buckeyes heading up to Madison. Also a little bit of stuff
- 0:22going on in the Michigan world you may be aware of. Today though,
- 0:27we got to talk recruiting because we have not had Mark Givler from Buckey Hoddle
- 0:31on in a little while, and man, oman, was it a busy
- 0:33recruiting weekend last weekend with Penn State in town. Got to talk about some
- 0:37five star visitors, the guys who may be potentially joining Ohio State's class at
- 0:42some point, some in state visitors of note who we've seen enough times that
- 0:47it's like feels like there's probably a little bit of smoke there as well.
- 0:50So we're gonna talk about all that stuff with Mark today. Mark, we
- 0:53got to start what is the rule in recruiting? You got to start with
- 0:55the five star all right, We're going to start with the five star Devin
- 0:59Sanchez, our cornerback out of Texas. He is someone who we have seen
- 1:03in Ohio State camps before, I believe, but he was also there last
- 1:06weekend for the Penn State game. Obviously someone in Ohio State would love to
- 1:10add to their twenty twenty five recruiting class. What have you heard on Devin
- 1:14Sanchez? Yeah, home run visit. Had a chance to talk briefly with
- 1:19some people there and hopefully have more a fuller update to read on the website
- 1:23here in the next day or two. But killed the visit. This was
- 1:29a visit they've you know, they've been up here a few times already,
- 1:30the family has, and with Devon and coming in, it felt like kind
- 1:36of Ohio State was maybe starting to emerge ahead of A and M in Alabama.
- 1:41And I think those are the top three right now, and I think
- 1:44they've enhanced that to the point where I think they're definitely in the driver's seat.
- 1:49Look, he's been up three or four times now, he's made multiple
- 1:53visits. He said all the right things. I don't think this could have
- 1:57timed better for Ohio State, and that you have Denzel Burke out and so
- 2:02Jermaine Matthews goes out there as a true freshman and has a great game,
- 2:07and now they get to go back. And they've been telling Devin this already
- 2:08because it's true. They're playing young guys in the secondary, like, if
- 2:13you're ready to go, they're gonna play you. You know, we've seen
- 2:15Malie Hart for get a start this year and play. We've seen Jermaine Matthews
- 2:19now play a bunch. So they're selling this idea that like, look,
- 2:23we'll play the young guys if they're ready. They're going to turn over a
- 2:27lot of the secondary. By the time Devin gets on campus, he's got
- 2:31a great relationship with Tim Walton. Everyone's comfortable with the school, the campus,
- 2:37the coaches. I think Ohio State is in a very very strong position
- 2:40right now. I think it's gonna take a lot for them to lose this
- 2:43one. Now. I think they're going to get Devin Sanchez at some point.
- 2:46Yeah, it feels like last year there was a little bit of a
- 2:50wait and see with some of the defensive recruits that you know, they loaded
- 2:53up the offensive side of the class very early, and the defensive side of
- 2:55the class was sort of a you know, wait and see, you get
- 2:58the new system, you get the new core ordinator, all that kind of
- 3:00stuff, some new position coaches. Still it's somewhat the case this year as
- 3:05well, but it feels like you're seeing more and more of that proof of
- 3:07concept with the Jim Noles defense and Tim Walton and Perry Elliano working on the
- 3:12back end and all of that stuff. So I might see some of this,
- 3:15might see business pick up a little bit on the defensive side of the
- 3:17recruiting class. Another guy on the defensive side of the recruiting class who could
- 3:22be part of that business picking up is Amarus Williams twenty twenty four defensive lineman.
- 3:25He is committed to Florida right now. He is out of North Carolina,
- 3:29but he is the kind of committed to Florida, where he also visited
- 3:30Ohio State last weekend. So what is the likelihood looking for a flip there
- 3:36for the muck geys. I predicted before the weekend on how my preview that
- 3:39I thought they would ultimately flip of Mars Williams. I still think they're going
- 3:44to I think the VISI went very well. Again, They're going to turn
- 3:49over a lot of this defensive line probably after this season, and they're able
- 3:53to really tell people like, hey, there's real opportunities here to play early
- 3:57along the defensive line, and you know, we'll see how things go with
- 4:00Florida the next couple of weeks. But that's been on shaky ground for a
- 4:04while. Things have moved very quickly with Ohio State since they offered him at
- 4:09the beginning of October. I know, Larry Johnson has made a big impression,
- 4:12and you know it's not a geography battle. He's from North Carolina,
- 4:16so you know, we're talking very similar distances at this point. Nothing,
- 4:21you know, not a Florida kid they're trying to pull away from the in
- 4:25state school He may take another visitor to in the next couple of weeks,
- 4:30but I think Ohio State's probably the betting favorite right now. And I would
- 4:32still say that if I had to guess right now. He's got up in
- 4:35the class. All right. Now, let's move on to a Florida kid
- 4:39from Florida that they are trying to pull away from the in state schools.
- 4:42That is Elijah Melendez, twenty twenty five linebacker out of Kissing Me Floria.
- 4:46Kissimme, kissimme. I think Florida Osciola High School. Yeah, lots of
- 4:50fun names to say down there. Twenty twenty five linebacker has a Florida offer,
- 4:55has a Florida State offer as a Miami offer, also has an Alabama
- 5:00for Michigan offer. You know, you look at the offer list that he
- 5:02is a four star prospect, and the offer list looks every bit like a
- 5:05high level four star prospect. He was someone who you had intel on our
- 5:11board over the weekend. It feels like, of all of these, this
- 5:15one might be one where Ohio States feeling maybe the best of the guys we're
- 5:18talking about so far, Is that right? I think you feel pretty good
- 5:21about Sanchez right now. But yeah, Melendez I think is a guy that
- 5:25they do feel very good about right now. I talked to Elijah at length
- 5:31Saturday, not too long after the game, and just incredibly enthusiastic about his
- 5:39visit. Here's the thing I think is going to help Ohio State. So
- 5:44he was born in Indiana, So he grew up a little bit in Indiana.
- 5:47I think spent like his first ten eleven years in Indiana, spent like
- 5:51a little bit of time in Colorado and then eventually made his way to Orlando.
- 5:58I think like freshman year of high school. So this is not your
- 6:02classic Florida kid, So that's going to help them. He's got ties to
- 6:09the Midwest, he's been around. I don't think there's anything that's specifically going
- 6:13to keep him in the state of Florida. Loves Ohio State. One of
- 6:18the fastest rising junior linebackers in the country right now. I know he's like
- 6:23a composite four star, but there are there are some of the more updated
- 6:26rankings. The sites of updated the rankings. I have him around like fiftieth
- 6:30in the country, so I think there's one where I think, I forget
- 6:33which site, someone's got him like a high three, which I think is
- 6:36kind of bringing his composite down. Right now, this is a kid who's
- 6:40kind of shooting up. Obviously, he's got all the big offers. So
- 6:43this is a kid that Ohio State would take right now and be absolutely thrilled
- 6:47about. He's definitely one of the priority guys. And he told me,
- 6:49you know, his best relationship right now is with James Laura. Iidis that's
- 6:53his best coaching relationship right now. So and again, that's another position where
- 7:00the numbers. If you're a twenty twenty five kid, they're going to lose
- 7:02all their top linebackers in the next year or two. There's opportunity there,
- 7:08you know. You know, it looks like rvel Reese is probably going to
- 7:11be a defensive end. I mean, there's a big numbers gap there at
- 7:15the linebacker positions, so they're able to sell these guys. They're going to
- 7:16take at least three and twenty five, and he they would love it if
- 7:21he was one of them. Just looking at the list of twenty twenty five
- 7:27linebackers, and yes, Melendez is twenty first overall and the two four to
- 7:30seven composite two four to seven is the one that has him low. They
- 7:32have him as a thirty first linebacker. It'd have a little bit of an
- 7:36existential crisis when I saw that the guy ranked two spots ahead of from Londez
- 7:40in the linebacker list for twenty five is Anthony Saka out of Saint Joseph's Prep
- 7:45in Philadelphia. That's, of course the high school that produced Kyle McCord and
- 7:50Marvin Harrison. But I'm going to wager that Anthony Saka is probably the son
- 7:55of former Penn State quarterback Tony Saco or related in some way. Am I
- 7:58guessing correctly? There? Do you know nephew? And he was on campus
- 8:01on Saturday? Oh okay, okay, So while we're talking about him,
- 8:07Look, I think the smart money is going to be on him going to
- 8:11Penn State. But it does feel like Ohio State might be the one school
- 8:16that's like trying to screw that up for them. We'll see. I'm going
- 8:24to have to kind of see it to believe it on the ped on not
- 8:26going to Penn State. But yeah, they got him on campus on Saturday.
- 8:30All right. I will allow a nephew every time there's a son of
- 8:33and I remember that guy playing college football who's already playing college football himself.
- 8:37I just get a little bit older. It is. It is rough anyway.
- 8:41So something else I did want to talk about three guys who we've seen
- 8:46a lot of this fall and recruiting a lot of times we talk about watch
- 8:50what they do, not what they say. And these are three guys who
- 8:54are in state offensive line prospects we have seen a lot of this fall.
- 8:58Carter Max Riley, Sam Greer. You know, I know Carter Lowe I
- 9:03believed missit to Michigan a few weeks ago. But these are guys who we
- 9:07have. I think Carter Low we've seen at least three times this fall,
- 9:09maybe more, and Riley and Greer are probably about the same. When you
- 9:15see guys making that many visits, that feels like they're at least thinking significantly,
- 9:22leaning maybe towards a certain a certain endpoint of their process. What are
- 9:28you hearing about those three guys because those are three big time in state offensive
- 9:31linemen who would be real strong building blocks for future Ohio state classes. Yeah,
- 9:37I think the big thing right now because Greer and Riley are twenty six
- 9:41is and I do think, ohigh seat, it's in a great shape for
- 9:46both of those guys, But they are twenty sixes. So you just kind
- 9:48of have to see, like, Okay, how long are they going to
- 9:50go with the process, so they at least maybe take the spring and go
- 9:54on some more on officials and things like that. The guy coming out of
- 9:58the way weekend that I think they continually made a lot of progress with is
- 10:03Carter low and this is an Ohio State Michigan battle. I don't see him
- 10:07going anywhere else. I know, like Alabama's gotten involved, Like I know,
- 10:11there's some really big programs nationally that are getting involved with Carter. But
- 10:15this, to me has always been an Ohio State Michigan battle. I've always
- 10:18felt like maybe it was Ohio State, you know, let's call it sixty
- 10:20forty, even though I hate the percentage his game, let's you know,
- 10:24but I always felt like it was a high state slight advantage ultimately went out.
- 10:26I think it's much more than that now. I think they've really moved
- 10:30the needle for Carter Low here this fall, and I would be very surprised
- 10:35at this point if they don't end up landing him. And quite frankly,
- 10:39I think when you start looking at, like, Okay, who could be
- 10:41next? I think someone like Carter Low or an Eli Lee, the twenty
- 10:46five linebacker out of Hobe And who we've seen at Ohio State a million times,
- 10:48who just got his offer a few weeks ago. I think that would
- 10:52be a good starting point if you're looking to handicap who might be next.
- 10:56Yeah, I saw a picture of Eli Lee on his Twitter account with him
- 11:00standing out to Andy katzen Weyer on the sideline. It reminded me of the
- 11:03Paris Johnson Orlando Pace picture from a few years ago when Paris was a recruit,
- 11:07and it was like, oh boy, that is inviting all sorts of
- 11:09irresponsible comparisons. So we'll steer clear of those, but have definitely been keeping
- 11:13an eye on all of this stuff. Mark has been very busy talking to
- 11:16a lot of these That was a big deal for Eli. I talked to
- 11:20him about that. I'll have a story we'll you can read about that on
- 11:22the website. That was a big deal for him. Meeting Andy Katsenware.
- 11:24Yeah, that was Andy Katzmore. I have a picture of Andy Katzmore which
- 11:28I didn't throw in our gallery because it's slightly out of focus, but it's
- 11:31sort of the Andy Katzenmore glare. And even at what he's probably in his
- 11:35mid to late forties now, he is my age still was Andy Katsumore still
- 11:39looks pretty intimidating in person. So yeah, it's I'm sure that was.
- 11:43That is a big name in Ohio state football history, so yeah, not
- 11:46surprising. That was an exciting exciting thing for Eli. Mark has been very
- 11:50busy talking to a bunch of these guys covering a bunch of these visits,
- 11:52tracking you know what potential commitments are on the horizon and much more. You
- 11:58can find all that information on our huddleboard at bucke huddle dot com a lot
- 12:01of it. Mark Well also publish, publish a lot of articles and that
- 12:03kind of stuff. You can find that at the front page a bucket huddle
- 12:05dot com and of course on our YouTube channel, YouTube dot com, slash
- 12:09Buckey Huddle and then the Eve Mark does the skull Session podcast if you prefer
- 12:13to listen to podcasts like we are making this as easy as possible for you.
- 12:16Wherever you want to find the content, it is there Buckeye huddle dot
- 12:18com, wherever your podcast platform with choices, YouTube dot com, Slash bucket
- 12:22huddle, find it all there. That is true for our team coverage as
- 12:26well, Tony, Kevin and I covering the Buckeyes as they get ready ready
- 12:28to head up to Madison to play the Badgers this weekend, and of course
- 12:33Ross Fulton on our x's and o's coverage along with ours the rest of our
- 12:37ex'es and o's and scheme team. They do lots of stuff on our huddle
- 12:39board a bucke huddle dot com. So you want to learn, you want
- 12:41to talk talk football with some of our some of our smart football friends.
- 12:46You can do that on our huddle board if you remember at Buckey huddle dot
- 12:48com. That will do it for today. We will be back I guess
- 12:50a little later on today with a whole another episode. Lucky you, what
- 12:54a busy week. We will talk to you a little later on