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Ohio State Recruiting Insider: Buckeyes Land 4 Commitments In Huge Weekend · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Monday for first time, your host Tom Moore.
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The Akron game in one hundred and fifty two days the game against Michigan
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in two hundred and forty three days. It was quite a busy weekend in
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the world of Ohio State football. Tony, Kevin, and Mark and I
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were all at the student appreciation practice on Saturday. Had a ton of interesting
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information come out of that. We shared a bunch of that with our members
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at Buckeye Huddle dot com on the huddle Board presented by Jeff Ruby Steakhouse.
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We had a bunch of postgame podcasts, put out some highlight videos, all
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that good stuff. You can fight all that stuff at YouTube dot com slash
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Buckeye Huddle. But that is not where the action stopped this weekend for the
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Buckeyes. Ohio State landed one, two, three, four, Yes,
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four commitments this weekend for the class to twenty twenty five. It is April
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first. No, this is not a prank. Four commitments this weekend for
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the Buckeyes. Safety s of Sean Stewart, wide receiver Disease Jones, defensive
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line lineman London Merritt, and linebacker Tarvos Alfred all committed to the Buckeyes over
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the weekend. Today we're gonna get a little bit of a bonus show because
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you're gonna have two separate episodes of the Skull Session Recruiting Podcast breaking down the
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impact of the commitment of the defensive lineman London Merritt and linebacker Tarvo's out for
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Alfred. This is a couple pieces, a couple shows with some really good
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in depth information and rather than try and reinvent the wheel, just gotta let
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you hear hear it straight from the horse's mouth. So this is again the
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Skull Session Recruiting Podcast. If you enjoy these two shows, and this is
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gonna be two shows back to back here for you, a little bit of
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an extended dual volume album, if you will. If you enjoy these these
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shows, make sure you subscribe that Skull Session Recruiting Podcast wherever you find buck
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guys. Tomorrow morning, Hello everyone, Welcome to the Skull Session Recruiting Podcast,
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brought to you by Bucky Huddle dot Com. I'm Mark Givler here with
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Kevin noon Commitment edition of the Skull Session Podcast. Today. I think we
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expected we might be doing a few of these over the next week or two,
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and sure enough, before the weekend even really gets started, the buck
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Eyes have landed top one hundred defensive end London Merit out of IMG Academy.
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Originally from Atlanta, Georgia. This was a guy that Kevin and I have
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talked about numerous times over the past couple of years. We've seen him at
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camps, We've been down to his high school in Atlanta a couple of times.
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You know, he's been a kind of a staple of Southern Swing And
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again we'll continue to be here in the next few weeks when we get into
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that, but a huge commitment for Ohio State to kick off what we're expecting
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to be a really massive recruiting weekend for the bluck Eyes and again top one
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hundred defensive end London Merit in the fold. Kevin, I think we we
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felt this was coming, but maybe not until June. And here we are
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at like the end of March and he's he just said, yeah, I'm
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just gonna go for it. Yeah, he kind of tipped people off a
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little bit earlier today he did post out there, I think it's time or
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something along those lines. Half in emojis. I mean, but you never
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know, it might be time for a ham sandwich, don't don't you know
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the Twitter Twitter sleuths think that they have it all figured out, but it
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doesn't always work that way. But with London Merit, I was like,
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well, this could happen. And then I got sidetracked and I was doing
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some laundry and everything else, and then I saw the commitment edit happened.
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I'm like, well, we best get to recording. But this is you
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know, this is huge news. I think that people see a big recruiting
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weekend and their level of keeping scores how many commits come directly out of the
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weekend, And that's not always how things work out, especially still relatively early
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in the cycle, but London Merit ends really before the weekend starts, per
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se, and now he is going to be able to be another recruiter.
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And I know I've said this on other shows that your commitment may not be
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stronger at any point than the moment you commit. So you're going to have
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a very motivated guy on campus trying to work other guys. So this,
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you know, this I think is a big deal. No doubt this was
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planned on London's part to get the weekend going and to kind of get this
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huge weekend off to a great start. Tarbo's Alfred's announcing tomorrow Saturday. You
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know, so this could be a big weekend and this could be again we
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talked about on the podcast. We had to run about an hour earlier than
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we anticipated because we needed to get it out there once Merrit committed. But
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we talked about this earlier today about just the momentum building and how we could
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see this kind of leading to another positive run of commitments. And so here
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we are just a couple hours later talking about London Merrit. You know,
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defensive end has been a kind of a much maligned position of recruiting for Ohio
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State fans the last couple of years. You know, three years ago came
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down to the wire. They got their guys, but it came down to
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the very end. Two years ago they didn't. This past year, they
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didn't hit their number. They got EDGWARC Houston, but were unable to kind
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of seal a deal on a few other guys. So here's an early one.
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And you know, it's funny. I think we talked about this.
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I don't know if I forget it was with you or I was on the
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morning show with Tom, but we talked about that this might be a little
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less stressful this year in terms of, you know, getting all the way
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to November December being oh boy, I hope we go three for three on
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defensive ends down the stretch because if not, we're, you know, we're
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totally screwed here. And you know, I kind of mentioned that this could
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be a little bit less stressful this year. There's some guys, you know,
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justin Hill's another guy who's out there who who is expecting to announce in
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July at some point. This could be a little less stressful down the stretch
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this year where they get a couple of these guys early and then you can
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chase those other guys late if you want to, but you're not so dependent
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on having to land them or land all of them. So for me,
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this is a big one just in terms of like letting everyone kind of relax.
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I mean, the fans, of course can relac you are never going
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to relax, but like the coaches can like sit there and be like,
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okay, we got one, Like we don't have to like push all our
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eggs in two baskets in December. I just think this is good timing.
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Yeah, it is important to at least get most of the way to your
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account early if possible, especially as Ohio state and missing your number for a
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couple of years, and there's only one school can land a kid and being
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you know, finishing second place doesn't mean anything. Oh, it's you know,
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it's a good narrative, and we gave it our best shot and unfortunately
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we didn't land the kid. Well to help a lot better when you do
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land the kid, and they did land the kid, and you know,
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he's, you know, super talented kid. And I think that when you
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look at him and Zahir mathis so far and and some of the other names
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that you know could be joining them, that you know, this may be
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the hall that they finally had been had been waiting for. And you know,
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I may have said this in the show that we recorded earlier today,
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that this is a kind of commitment that if it happened in December, people
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would be over the moon. People are going to be over the moon right
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now, and we'll forget about it into three weeks or something and we'll move
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on to the next fire to tend to Yeah, now it's gonna be where's
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that offensive tackle. It's gonna be it'll be all offensive lineman from here on
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out. But this is a tremendous start getting getting madive the merits at the
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same you know, in the same cycle as I'm pretty sure the cat just
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obliterated our living room. So that's great. So yeah, it's just going
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to be a lot less stressful down the stretch for Ohio State. And uh,
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I think again, getting two guys of this caliber this early is uh
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just it puts them in a just a different dimension than what they've had to
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be in the last three or four years with defensive line recruiting. All right,
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let's let's get to the film. Merritt. He's so he's a little
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bit what you would call, I guess traditionally undersized, about six two and
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a half. But boy, if we're gonna see the jack position he is
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tailor made for. He is super, super explosive, very strong. He's
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about two hundred thirty five two undred and forty five pounds and in that range
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already. He's just a very strong at the point of attack. He's able
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to you know, shed blocks at that size and I'll throw out a name
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that you know, I think most people will be familiar, pretty familiar with
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it. I'm not gonna go too far back in the time machine reminds me
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of Jonathan Cooper. Both high motor guys, not six five six six,
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Both very strong against the run, despite you know, being quote unquote a
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little bit undersized. Just explosive fleetes that can run. They can do a
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little bit of coverage, They can drop him in his zones if you need
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to. And you know, Jonathan Cooper's coming off an eight and a half
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sax season with the Denver Broncos, So I think that would be a pretty
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nice comparison if London Merrit turns out to be an NFL guy who gets eight
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and a half sacks in a season. But again, I love this pickup
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and I love his attitude, his work ethic, his compete level. You
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know, he goes to IMG to challenge himself to get him make himself even
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better, you know, going against those big linemen they have every year,
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and just a guy who's always working at his game. And like we've seen
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him already. We've seen him line up on the edge, we've seen him
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line up inside, we've seen him line up as a stand up edge.
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We should him line up as a linebacker just in this first couple, like
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you know, sixty to eighty seconds of this film. So this is just
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to me, a perfect compliment to what they've already got with Zahir Mathis,
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who's more maybe the bigger, more traditional defensive end at sixty five sixty six.
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Yeah, And I think that people get concerned when and he did transfer
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to IMG just because again, you know not we we talked about so much
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of this on a show earlier today that IMG is not necessarily a school that
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favors one college or another college. I mean, it feeds a lot of
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different places. But you you get this guy who is going to be testing
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himself, is going to be able to go against you know, his his
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practices are going to be incredible there at IMG, with what he's going to
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be able to do, and now that he's committed, he will have the
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chance really to kind of pick Larry's brain and do some of those things that
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you can do as a committed prospect. I mean, obviously there are limitations
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as to what you can do, but he is a fit for what,
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you know, what I think Larry wants and certainly what I think Jim Knowles
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sees this defense being and that's you know, that's what's important there. So
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this is, you know, just cannot be overstated as to you know,
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how important this is for for a multitude of reasons, but first and foremost
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because merit is just that good. Yeah, And this is kind of the
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perfect you kind of alluded to it there. This is kind of the perfect
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marriage of you know, we talk about guys that like Larry Johnson recruits like
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the pure defensive lineman. We've talked about guys who maybe James Laerniitis or Jim
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Knowles are more involved in, like a Justin Hill who's kind of a hybrid.
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And this is a guy that I think everyone kind of came together on
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and was excited about and knew that he was going to be a priority for
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them. And so there's no like there's been so much weird talk about,
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you know, are all the defensive coaches agreement on scheme and this and that
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this was a guy that was it was unanimous that this was a priority target
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for them. He's been a priority target for them for gosh over a year
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now. And again, great academic kid, as well, just you know,
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you don't survive at Wood, were at academy for three years, don't
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have your your grades in order. It's a great academic high school. And
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so it's it's really great all around get for Ohio State. And again,
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just what a way to kick off the weekend. You have Tagans and Claire
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in for help with the offense. London Merit's now gonna get in there with
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some of these defensive guys. You have some defensive linemen on campus. They
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got a lot of defensive backs on campus, which we talked about in our
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in our weekend preview. So just a great start to what could be a
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great recruiting weekend for the buck Eyes, you know, Kevin, anything to
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add here, No, I mean I think that this is a great start.
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And as I had said earlier, a lot of people only keep score
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with how many commits are landed, you know, within seventy two hours of
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the recruiting weekend, and that's kind of an unfair way of handling it.
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But having you know, having one in pocket, already feeling really good about
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where tj Alford stands, I mean, even though that's in a little bit
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of a different situation. He is not you know, somebody who is on
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a visit right now. But to come out of this and just be saying,
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okay, Ohio State should be sitting at two once Alfred makes his decision,
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and we'll let him make his decision though we you know, kind of
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feel good about Ohio State's chances. Then if Ohio State gets to three or
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four, I mean, if you sit there and you get somebody else who
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moves, if Ohio State goes full court press on Bo Jackson or somebody like
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that, I mean, this really turns into a you know, into an
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amazing weekend and going to be one of those points that we're going to look
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back at this class and circle on the calendar and say, this is really
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where a lot of Ohio States you know, class started to come together,
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not you know, not looking past the seven guys that were already in the
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class prior to the move made by London Merriage. Yep. So we'll continue
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to stay on top of things throughout the weekend. Will we have another one
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of these tomorrow? Will we have a special kindent edition tomorrow? We shall
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see. You'll have to wait and see and tune in and find out.
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But great start at the weekend for Ohio State. Again. If you're not
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subscribe to the channel, please do so at YouTube dot com slash Buckeye Huddle,
14:11
or if you're more of a listener and not a watcher, you can
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go whether it's Spotify or iTunes wherever. Give us a five star rating so
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the other Ohio State fans can find us would appreciate that. But thanks everyone
14:20
for watching and listening, and we'll see you all over on the huddle board
14:24
as we discussed this further. Hello everyone, welcome to the Skull Session recruiting
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podcast brought to a Buckeye Huddle dot Com. I am Mark Givler, got
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Kevin Noon here with me today Commitment Edition. It's a commitment podcast. Ohio
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State has landed Top one hundred linebacker Tarvos tj Alferd out of Vero Beach,
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Florida, longtime priority target for James lord Nitis and the defensive staff. We
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knew this was coming because he set the date, and you know, we
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were kind of on top of this. So this isn't a this isn't an
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emergency surprise, but I think everyone was hoping this would be happening today.
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Everyone's watching and listening. I'm sure was was keeping an eye on things today
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to make sure this this went through for the bluck Eyes, but it did.
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Alford is a buck Eye, So another quality linebacker in the class,
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really big defensive target. This is a guy they've prioritized for a very long
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time. Kevin. Yeah, one Alfred leaves the program and Ohio State gets
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the commitment of another Alford. No no relation, but you know out of
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Vero Beach, which is the Atlantic side of the state of Florida six two
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two ten is you know what he's listed at in the database. Those things
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never really get updated, but you know, this is a kid that James
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Laurnidis really did a number with And when James Laurnidis was kind of in that
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interim role, when Ohio State hadn't decided the direction it was going to go,
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it was very important for Ohio State to keep that continuity there to land
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to Alfred. He had just you know, he had all the main offers
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out there. And when you look at Ohio State's linebacker recruiting, it's not
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that Ohio State hasn't been able to go out and get some guys, but
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some of the guys that have gotten are learning the position, and that's you
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know, that's not going to be the case with with with TJ. TJ
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is a linebacker. That is what he's done. And I think it's so
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important for Ohio State moving forward to be able to have some of these guys
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because we'll, you know, we will see what ends up becoming of Garrett
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Stover or somebody like that. But when you look at when you look at
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t J. Alfred, he is he is the type of linebacker that you
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want to have. I mean, you know, he doesn't he's not a
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three position linebacker. He's not going to be your MIC by any any stretch
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of my opinion, But you know, I think he's he's a guy that
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can run and run and run and run. Yeah. I think he fits
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in in a couple of ways. Obviously, he fits well with Eli Lee,
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who is who is going to be a MIC, but he also fits
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well with kind of the modern defense. He's an he's a three down linebacker.
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He's not a guy you have to take off the field in past situations.
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So this this fills this is just a nice fit. And as you'll
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see he as we run the Tav's an excellent blitzer. He can shoot gaps,
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but his his greatest asset is his athleticism and his ability to fly to
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the football. So you can see him dropping in the cover getting great depth,
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but then he's also athletic enough to come up and lay a big hit
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on a quarterback there. And just again his ability to play out in space
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to tackle in space. That that is such as a skill is in such
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high demand right now across across the sport of football, and he absolutely brings
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that to the table. We've seen him at a couple of camp settings over
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the years and have always been super impressed with him in those settings. And
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then you throw on the tape and you see that, Yeah, not only
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can he kind of run around at the camp setting, but he's also a
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very physical player, plays with really good instincts and plays fast. So I
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think it's a tremendous pick up. This was a guy who's basically at the
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top of their linebacker board over the past year. So anytime you can get
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a player who is at the top of your wish list at a certain position,
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it's huge. It's another in in the state of Florida. They're you
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know, they're doing so well in Florida. Lately. This is another guy
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that can kind of help them as they move forward and try and land that
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next wave. And ironically now he's teammates with Champ Smith, one of their
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top twenty twenty six offensive line targets, So now maybe he'll get to work
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on that because Champ Smith's a guy who's already be up to a high State
18:29
multiple times and has multiple visits set to Ohio State here the rest of the
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the rest of the calendar year. So that's a guy I think they have
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a chance at. And now you've got offered in there kind of pounding the
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table for the Buckeye So there is a there's a lot to be excited about,
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I think with this commitment. Yeah, and something for the people who
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are watching along on YouTube over at Buckeye Huddle our YouTube dot com slash Buckeye
18:51
Huddles. This is his sophomore tape. This isn't even his junior tape.
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His junior tape isn't on Huddle. So we're you know, we're looking at
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a year ago, and you know, for somebody already to have some of
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these instincts, I mean, yes, the game has to slow down a
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little bit for you to be able to put yourself in the right position.
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But additionally, you know, talent is talent, and you know this kid
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has got plenty of talent, and it does put Ohio State in a good
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position. With Champ Smith. I think this is you know, this is
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an important get and he does match up very well with Eli Lee, the
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in state linebacker from you know, for for Ohio State in this class,
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because I think linebacker is going to be an important position in terms of recruiting.
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When you know, you you you look at where things are. I
19:34
mean, obviously, coming out of this past season, they lose Tommy and
19:37
they lose Steel. Cody's getting toward the end of his line, I mean
19:41
blink, and all of a sudden you realize that CJ. Hicks has been
19:45
in Columbus for more than a minute. I mean, you've got to keep
19:48
replenishing the numbers. And while Ohio State did go out and get a couple
19:52
of linebackers, you know, Peyton Pierce most recently in the in the previous
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class, I think that TJ. Alford is u you know, this is
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a big get. This is this you know, there are times where it's
20:03
like Ohio State gets somebody it's like, yeah, you know, that's pretty
20:04
cool. But this one, this is one that if Ohio State lands this
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guy in December right before National Signing Day, multiple you know, every website
20:15
is running multiple stories on it. Everything else. Sometimes timing just may diminish
20:21
how pivotal and important a commitment is. Yeah, I mean this again,
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top of the board guy, that they are on the precipice here, I
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think of going on a run. I know it's been a little quiet maybe
20:38
the last what two months ish, but they're on the precipice of another big
20:44
run here as we head into the the middle of the spring and into the
20:48
June official visits. So this is a really nice way to maybe kickstart another
20:52
run of recruiting success for the Buck Eyes. Again, I look at their
20:57
linebacker room. It's inexperienced, but it's old. Cody Simon's a senior.
21:04
Sonny Styles is a junior. Believe it or not, he's only like nineteen
21:07
years old still, but he's a junior. C J. Hicks is a
21:11
junior. Gay Powers as a junior third year player, Like this is not
21:15
a young linebacker room, and so this is an important position group for the
21:21
Buck guys in this class. Is it as important as maybe you know,
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defensive end you know, probably not, but it's it's one of the more
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important positions in this class is kind of a theme on defenses that are about
21:33
to turn. A lot of this defense over is is kind of replenishing all
21:36
the position groups. But so now the question is kind of Okay, how
21:41
many would they take? My answer is for if it's the right for could
21:52
it end up being three? I think that's very possible. They're going to
21:56
take some swings nationally here, you know, a guy like Elijah Barnes.
22:02
They're going to continue to recruit Elijah Melendez just coming to Miami. Uh,
22:07
there's a couple of guys out in Modern or out in California. They're Manfriamo
22:11
and no Sir Wyatt, who's kind of a hybrid. So they're going to
22:15
take some big swings. But I think they would push this to four if
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they knew they could get a couple of these other guys to go with the
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two they already have. Yeah, it comes down to obviously comes down to
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numbers, and you probably have four coaches that think that they're going to get
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one more player than they probably actually are. Only that they're actually going to
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get and it becomes a lot of pounding on the table and look, I've
22:41
got this need and everything else. But to your point, it is an
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old linebacker room. And yeah, they do have some a couple of young
22:45
guys in there from the last couple of classes, but the vast majority of
22:49
the room are elder statesmen. So I think it's going to be incombat upon
22:53
James Lorinidis and Jim Knowles to a lesser extent, even if Jim Knowles ends
22:59
up being a bit of an arb or ultimately reporting to Ryan Day as the
23:02
head coach of you know where where this needs to go. But I don't
23:07
see all how to say going to four just to fill count, and I
23:11
don't think anybody is insinuating that. I think that they've got to get to
23:15
three. If you want to hit your number, you've got to get to
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three. I think if it's the right four, you go to four.
23:21
And if they get to four, that means they've done something right, because
23:26
that means some of these you know, some of these hacks that they're out
23:27
there taking swinging, swinging away, they're they're going to connect and put a
23:32
couple of them over the fence. If they're going to get to that to
23:33
get to that number, yeah, I think again, like if me,
23:38
sir, why and Elijah Barnes called up and said, hey, we're coming.
23:41
I only I don't think they're kicking the second guy out, Like whoever's
23:45
you know, second of those two. I don't think that's happening. So,
23:48
but yes, it's it could be a challenge, uh, to get
23:52
to that number. Right, So I think three is the kind of quota
23:56
number that they're looking at, and then it's a matter of you know can
24:00
and you get a fourth guy. I don't consider Justin Hill a linebacker.
24:03
I know he's being recruited by Laureniis and he's being recruited for like the jack
24:06
position. I consider him like an edge. He's not really in my calculus
24:08
here. So if anyone's watching this, what about Justin Hill? I think
24:14
they're getting Justin Hill. I just I view him as more of a pass
24:17
rushing either a defensive end or a kind of stand up outside linebacker than a
24:21
than a traditional linebacker. So yeah, it's it's a great start to this
24:29
defensive class right now. You know they've got these all these guys in the
24:33
secondary. Now they've got a couple of good linebackers. Kevin, it's going
24:38
to come back to this again. You know, I'm sure someone's going to
24:41
comment on it. I bet someone's in fact already commented on this before I've
24:47
even said this in the video already, and some's go, yeah, get
24:51
back to me. When it's a defensive lineman or a defensive end may not
24:56
be too far away either. Look, you know things are trending in a
24:59
great direction justin Hill, London, Merritt, Mary and Die. There's there's
25:03
a lot of options there a defensive line for the Black Eyes. And you
25:07
know, maybe how important could could Alford be? And you know he's a
25:11
he's a pretty active guy on Twitter, he he I know he talks to
25:15
a lot of recruits. Maybe he starts, you know, working some of
25:18
these defensive linemen because that there's a there's a very much a symbiotic relationship there
25:23
with defensive line and linebackers. You know, they're they're cleaning up behind you
25:29
if you're a defensive lineman, if you're a linebacker, you want to you
25:32
want to clean, you want clean lanes. So you know, maybe maybe
25:36
Alfred can can start pitching it on that front too. He's a pretty pretty
25:41
uh well liked guy around uh the icy recruiting circle, so I think this
25:45
will be a nice pickup for them on that front too. Yeah, the
25:48
goalposts have moved because it used to be well, Ohio State's recruiting class is
25:52
only built on the sum of the wide receivers. That's where all the numbers
25:56
are. That's where all the points, all the stars come from. It's
25:59
what's the well. Now Ohio State is way ahead of the game on the
26:03
defensive side of the ball. But yes, people are going to be like,
26:06
I care about the trenches, I care about edge. They missed their
26:08
number badly two years and you're valid. That's valid. I mean, I'm
26:11
not going to hate against valid point. They have missed their numbers. That
26:15
is a fact. That is not opinion, that is not conjecture. That
26:18
is fact. So you know, I think I think that Targo's Alford will
26:23
be important because it's another voice in Florida amongst a lot of the kids down
26:29
there. So you have that going. I mean Ohio State. Obviously he
26:32
does well with South Florid Express kids that kind of operate kind of on their
26:34
own time. And everything else. I don't know if Alford is necessarily going
26:38
to go in and change anything. And when you're looking at seven on your
26:42
you know it's offense, offense, offense. I know that you have to
26:45
play on both sides of the ball, but that's more it's more of an
26:48
offensive endeavor. But uh yeah, I do think he'll be able to step
26:52
in and be a recruiter. Now, does this mean that he's going to
26:56
unseat Devin Sanchez's parents of being recruiter. There's no no there. There's not
27:02
an offer that doesn't go out where I don't see one or both say hey,
27:04
you know the choice to make. But I think that target was offered.
27:07
Will do a great job of being an ambassador for Ohio State in a
27:12
lot of regards. And you know, we know what we see on Twitter
27:15
or what we might see on Instagram, but we don't we're not privy to
27:21
the text message threads. And we've done this long enough to know not.
27:25
I mean, there's more than one of you know, there's probably a defensive
27:29
one and offensive one, a full one. You know, people who have
27:32
been connected. So you got to figure he's going to do a good job
27:36
of getting in the ear of a lot of people, and the and the
27:40
reality is is if a kid from Vero Beach, Florida is willing to pass
27:45
up all these SEC schools and everything else that's regional to go to Ohio State,
27:51
and he is, you know, this high four star somebody who can
27:53
maybe even climb higher with a strong senior season. If I'm a player who's
27:59
considering a state, I'm gonna at least ask him why did you pick Ohio
28:03
State? And then I'm gonna reflect upon it, so, you know,
28:06
maybe maybe I'm putting too much thought into it. But these these kids are
28:10
getting more and more savvy with every cycle, and you know, they're using
28:12
every bit of information they can get. And yes, shout out to the
28:18
Sanchez family. I'm sure they're watching this, so we'll say hello. They
28:23
keep track of this stuff better than I do. I think some days.
28:26
Uh it's it's uh, it's a really good start again. They've got this
28:30
core. That's what they've lacked I think the last few cycles is getting that
28:34
core of defensive guys in the class early to kind of help you, uh,
28:40
you know, finish things out. It's all well and good to have,
28:41
like Tavian Saint Claire out there as a quarterback. But you know,
28:45
ultimately, if you're a defensive lineman, if you're a linebacker, if you're
28:48
a defensive back, you're you're gonna be going against him in practice. You're
28:53
not going to be playing alongside him. So it's nice to have a core
28:56
on defense that can kind of carry the weight. So it's not just all
29:00
on on like someone like Tavi in Saint Clair or you know, uh trying
29:03
to recruit defensive guys too. So I think so this will be uh,
29:07
this will be good. Look, Florida State, Miami, Florida, they're
29:11
not going to give up. Like Florida was the school early that could have
29:15
caused some problems here for Ohio State, They've obviously had their share of issues
29:22
on the field, to the point that I think this kind of became a
29:29
very heavy Ohio State lean fairly early in the process. So keep an eye
29:34
on Florida just maybe how things go there in the fall. Certainly, Florida
29:40
State's going to try and continue to sell you know, what they're building there,
29:45
and so I don't suspect that all the Florida schools are going to lay
29:51
down their arms, but I feel good about this one sticking. I he's
29:56
just he's been up so many times, He's so close, James Laurnidis,
30:00
he's just really kind of fallen in love with your high state program, and
30:06
this one feels this one feels pretty solid to me. And like you mentioned
30:10
to me a few weeks, agoys, if I go to Ohio State,
30:11
I would I would want James lorn Ice to be there. And you know
30:15
since since those you know that those comments were made right around the time Lauraiitis
30:18
was was announced as full time linebackers coach. So he sticks with his decision
30:25
date and visits a week before and then commits. I mean, this has
30:30
the this you know, you never want to say one hundred percent because we
30:33
know how this stuff goes. But doesn't this feel like maybe a more solid
30:37
one than maybe most early Florida commitments. It does, But I think we
30:41
felt pretty solid about Jeving Boggs too, And then he decommits out of Coco
30:45
a little further north up by the of I ninety five, let's split that
30:49
one out. But uh, you know, I have not gotten the impression
30:53
that that TJ is going to be somebody that is going to have an I
31:00
looking elsewhere, but you know you will have to go through visits. I
31:03
mean these players are going to they see, they see movement all the time.
31:07
He's going to he can't get up to Columbus every week, and you
31:11
can't ask him to come up to Columbus every week. So do you know
31:12
where your commits are? Well, you're going to have to ride through this.
31:17
And we know this. I mean whether or not you're from Vero Beach
31:19
or from from Vangelia, Ohio, you've got to recruit somebody every single day
31:25
because if you're not, somebody else is. So no, he does not
31:30
strike me as somebody who is. Just this is a placeholder to see.
31:33
You know, if Florida doesn't get any better than well, at least I've
31:37
got Ohio State. I think Ohio State certainly at this point, they just
31:41
committed to Ohio State. There's his commitments is never going to be any stronger
31:44
than it is right this minute. But no, I don't I don't see
31:48
this one going away. All right, So great news for Ohio State.
31:53
Big time linebacker TJ Alford, Vero Beach, Florida guy. We've talked about
31:57
a lot on the site over the last year and a half has committed to
32:01
a high estate. He's it's it's uh, it's in the in the bag,
32:07
big big pickup on the defensive side of the ball. We will have
32:10
more massive recruiting weekend here this weekend, so we're gonna have all sorts of
32:15
updates on bucke huddle dot com U throughout the weekend and into the week monster
32:20
list of visitors I would argue it's it's gonna be a better visitor Listan than
32:23
the Spring I mean, I would say it's definitely a better list than the
32:25
Spring game, even though the Spring games I have some good players too,
32:28
So this is kind of their big weekend. So stay locked in on bucke
32:30
huddle dot com. We'll we'll throw out a few small updates here on on
32:35
YouTube as well, but as always, always get our our good stuff at
32:38
bucke huddle dot com, so I'll be sure to check us out there subscribe
32:43
to the channel if you're not already. But I appreciate everyone watching and listening,
32:46
and we'll talk to you again soon.