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Ohio State Recruiting Insider: Will 5-Star Visits Turn Into Commitments? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Saturday, March thirtieth, I'm your host,
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  tom Or the Acrid game in one hundred and fifty four days, the game
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  against Michigan in two hundred and forty five days. The student Appreciation practice,
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  which marks the halfway point of the Ohio State spring football schedule, is today.
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  We will be out there. Our whole crew will be out there covering.
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  That is a big day in terms of the spring and kind of a
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  mile post in terms of where guys are in terms of the progression during the
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  spring and all that. It's also a really big recruiting weekend for Ohio State
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  and bringing in Mark Givler offuckehell dot com to talk about a bunch of that
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  recruiting stuff. Mark, I guess let's start before we get to the student
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  appreciation practice and all the visitors for this weekend got to talk about the d
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  commitment of wide receiver Javon Boggs earlier in the week. It was I think
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  a little bit of a surprise. What do you make of that? Was
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  what was behind that decision? Yeah, it was a little bit of surprise
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  because he had been kind of saying all the right things lately and was an
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  early commit and this was kind of the school I think he envisioned himself at
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  you know, the process began. So it was a bit of a surprise
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  to me. You know, at the end of the day, I think
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  he wanted to take visits. Now, why did he want to take visits?
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  I guess that's that's only only he can answer that, you know,
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  was it, you know, partially because of what Ohio State's got going on
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  a receiver recruiting, which I'm sure we're going to dive into here in a
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  minute, but you know, he wanted to take visits. Ohio State doesn't
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  have a strict no visit policy, but they weren't too thrilled about that idea.
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  And I think everyone came out of those conversations, you know, deciding
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  it was just best for him to open up his recruiting process. And I
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  expect Ohio State to probably move on at this point, but you never know.
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  Well, if you had to make a list of positions where Ohio State
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  would be relatively well equipped to bounce back from a decommitment, wide receiver would
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  probably meet right at the top of that list. And would you look at
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  this they had a five star wide receiver coming into visit just this weekend,
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  several wide receivers coming in. But I wanted to how specifically you about Alabama
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  decommit five star wide receiver Jamie French. That's French with two f's at the
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  beginning. I can't wait for him. If he does end up at Ohio
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  State to screw up my spell check forever, that'll be great. But let
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  us know a little bit other than screwing up my spell check. Let everyone
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  know a little bit about Jamie French and where he is in his recruiting process.
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  Yeah. So I think Ohio States in the driver's seat right now,
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  and obviously they were the big beneficiary of him decommitting from Alabama after Nick Saban
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  retired. You know, the question is going to be when would he maybe
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  decide. I think a lot of people are having high expectations this weekend that
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  maybe they could close this up. My answer to that would be probably not.
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  And I would also follow up with if he does, that's not going
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  to exactly cool this thing off for the next eight months. So I think
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  this is a thing where maybe if you're a highest state, I think you
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  almost want this to maybe drag a little bit. I don't know that you
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  want me playing defense the next eight months, but they're in They're in a
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  great spot right now. Brian hartlines his best relationship and obviously is another South
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  Florida Express guy, so we know how how good that program has been to
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  Ohio State in recent years, so I like where things stand. This is
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  another good sign having him back on campus. I do want to throw out
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  there. You know, we'll get into some other guys if don'tet throw out
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  there. He is coming up with Vernell Brown, who is also a South
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  Florida Express guy, who I also believe is trending toward Ohio State right now.
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  So having those guys both up there together will be a great thing,
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  especially as we go through the spring and we hear so many good things about
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  Brandon Ennis and Jeremiah Smith and Carnel Tate. Yeah, I was going to
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  say, the South Florida Express program has been pretty darn good to Ohio State,
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  particularly in the wide receiver room over the last few years. It seems
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  like that could be on the way to becoming a continuing trend somewhere where they
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  have not necessarily had quite the same level of success as they have a wide
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  receiver and that is a pretty high bar, but is at the offensive line
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  position group Justin Fry has had brought in, you know, solid classes,
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  but they've typically been very based on very good Ohio players. But they've not
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  necessarily always been able to bring in that top national guy, that five star
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  tackle that it feels like they're always in on this time of year and then
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  always out on when it comes time to put pen to paper in December.
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  So this year's version of that is offensive tackle David Sanders. He's a number
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  two overall player in the class at North Carolina, number one tackle in the
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  country. He is visiting this weekend as well. I know he's a name
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  we've talked about on this show a bunch of times in the past, and
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  you know, you've always kind of been a little you know, we'll kind
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  of see Getting him back on campus certainly feels like that's a step in the
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  right direction. How many you know, how far do you have to go?
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  How many more steps in the right direction do they have to go before
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  this becomes something that you're really taking seriously, Yeah, this is obviously the
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  first step that would have to happen. I think there's everal more and I
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  suspect he probably will take an official visit to Ohio State this summer. But
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  you know, Ohio State's big problem here is is geography, and I don't
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  know how you solve that. I mean, they have done this in the
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  past. They've kind of overcome some things geographically where you know, like Johnny
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  Dixon was kind of a famous one where he was, you know, staying
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  home. I don't think Mom wanted him to go far from home. Mom
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  wanted him to Miami. You know, Zack Smith at the time was was
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  the primary recruiter, you know, handled that and and then urban Meyer came
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  down and did the end home and they were able to convince Mom. And
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  so there are examples of it happening. But you know, the thing I
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  keep coming back to that people keep telling me is that he's very close with
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  his younger siblings and because of that, is going to probably stay close to
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  home. And that's why you see Clemson in South Carolina and Tennessee and these
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  programs that are you know, a couple hours away at best all throughout his
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  top schools list and Ohio State's kind of an outlier, which I guess shows
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  that. Ohise's doing a great job in one sense, but in another sense
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  I think is going to be very difficult. Yeah, unless they can where's
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  that hyper loop. Maybe they can get the hyper loop fired up between now
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  and now in the signing early signing day, get the Charlotte Charlotte Columbus I
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  don't know, getting another Asella train something like that. But yeah, failing
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  that, we'll see how We'll see how this Goeslan can build a tunnel,
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  yeah, yeah, yeah, went in doubt. Build a tunnel always always
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  a great thing. So we'll see. We'll see how the David Sanders things
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  go. Is obviously getting him back on campus certainly a step in the right
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  direction. Another spot where the Buckeyes would definitely love to have a nice big
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  recruiting class this cycle, defensive line. They got London Merritt on campus this
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  weekend. This one seems like it's probably a little more optimistic than the David
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  Sanders side. Yeah, I'm very optimistic about London Meritt. I've kind of
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  had him as a as a mock class you know, unofficial mock class guy
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  for a long time. Now this is going to be I've lost count of
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  how many times he's been up here six maybe I mean this fifth or sixth
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  time anyway, going to come back in the summer for an official. You
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  know, they're they're recruiting him as hard as any defensive player, and he's
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  he's got that great relationship with Larry Johnson, and I think this is going
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  to be tough for other schools to overcome this one. You know, we
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  talked about David Sanders maybe Ohio State, you know, maybe being on the
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  outside looking into with a lot of those top schools on his list. I
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  think that's kind of the opposite here. I think a lot of those top
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  schools have a lot of ground to make up on Ohio State, and you
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  know, they don't blow these types of visits very often, so I think,
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  you know, I think they're in a great position right now. And
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  you know, the one thing I would say about this weekend is I like
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  how they've set this up. I think historically we look at like Spring game
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  weekend like the big weekend. And I'm not saying springing weekend won't be exciting.
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  It will be. There will be plenty of recruits on campus. But
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  I think they've done a good job here of getting a whole bunch of guys
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  in this weekend before all the hoopla of the spring game, where the coaches
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  have more time, more availability, maybe the players are in a better position
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  to host versus that entire Saturday just being dominated by the spring game. So
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  I like the way this has set up for Ohio State to put forth some
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  really good visits here, all right. And someone who has been known to
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  put forth some pretty good visits over the last year or two is the og
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  Tim Walton cornerbacks coach. He has become the Brian Hartline of the defensive side
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  of the ball in terms of recruiting, and at some point, I mean,
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  the way things are trending right now, Brian Hartline might be the Tim
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  Walton of the offense sooner rather than later. Because he already has the number
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  one corner in the class of twenty twenty five. Devin Sanchez committed number two
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  corner of the class. Nay eam Offered already committed number ten corner in the
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  class. Blake would be admitted now he's got the number four corner in the
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  class, Dorian Brew He's got him on campus this weekend. This is this
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  feels like a bigger visit than you might think because Dorian Brew was an Ohio
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  kid, was at Northmont, moved down to Texas, so it's a chance
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  to get him back, you know, back home to Ohio. How big
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  is this in terms of the where Dorian Brew might ultimately end up and where
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  do you think things are standing and trending with Dorian Brew in the Buckeyes right
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  now? Yeah, so he was supposed to decide earlier this winter, postponed
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  that that almost certainly would have been Ohio State at the time. And I
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  think Texas and Oregon, particularly Texas have really been able to push the last
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  two months. But I still like Ohio State here. I still think they're
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  going to hold off those programs. And getting him back up again is big.
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  I mean, he's been up. I think this will be a second
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  or third time up since he moved to Texas. So he's been He's been
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  doing all the right things on that front, and it is I think it
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  is important. I think you know, they're getting to a point where you're
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  not going to turn away a Dorian Brew by any stretch of the imagination,
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  but you're also getting to a point where there are only so many spots left
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  in this defensive backs class, and so if you're Ohio State, you would
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  certainly like to know who's in and who's out as soon as possible so you
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  can sort of decide on these last few spots. So I think Ohio State
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  is going to really put on the full core press this weekend with Dorian and
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  take advantage of this opportunity to get back in front of him. But I
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  still again, I think Texas has made this a little more interesting than we
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  thought it might be a few months ago. But I still like where Ohio
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  State is. And finally, we talked about Ohio State having number one and
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  number two corners in the class of twenty twenty five already committed. This weekend,
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  they're going to welcome the number one and number three safeties in the class
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  of twenty twenty five. Number one Trey McNutt, number three Fahem Delaine,
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  both guys who have Ohio State at We're near the top of their list,
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  both guys. I mean, how close are do either of them have a
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  decision date that you're aware of. I know Fahim Delaane was maybe talking about
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  one or either of them kind of close to making a decision, and where
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  do you think Ohio State stands with those two guys. My sense is that
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  neither of them are going to be deciding in the in the very short term.
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  These visits can change things. Kids can show up and just be like
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  when I just want to be here and I don't care about this other stuff.
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  But Trey and Fahim have been national recruits. They've been going on visits
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  all over the country. I expect that we'll continue through the summer and then
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  maybe decisions at that point. It would catch me a little bit by surprise
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  if we saw something like this weekend or coming out of the weekend. But
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  again, you never know. With the way these visits go, sometimes kids
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  come in with one mindset and leave with a totally different mindset. But I
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  like where all high states at with both of them. My only as we've
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  sort of watched this class come together, I've I've always felt they've led for
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  all these guys in the secondary. And the question was going to be what
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  happens after the first like five of these guys commit. Does guy number six
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  and seven look around and say, boy, I don't know, that's like
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  that's a pretty crowded room, or you know, I'm the fifth or sixth
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  guy in this class. But this other school, and you know, with
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  getting into NIL, Like I may get more NIL money at this other school
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  because I may be their their star defensive recruit, and here I'm just one
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  of six or seven star defensive recruits. So I think there are some things
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  that could play out that maybe would would cause Ohio State to get upset on
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  one of these. But right now, for all all these guys, I
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  like where they stand. I like whately stay with McNutt, and I like
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  where they stand with Delane. Too many star defensive recruits. These are the
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  problems you hate to have, Mark, you hate to see it. I'm
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  sure Ohio State hates to see it. I'm sure o high of State fans
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  hate to see it right now. Sure there's a lot there hating to see
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  these days with the buck Eyes, with a lot of star players turning for
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  the Classic for the twenty twenty five season, the big additions to the transfer
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  portal, There's been a lot to talk about this spring. There's a lot
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  to talk about on the recruiting trail, and a great place to talk about
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  all of it is at Buckeye Huddle dot com. Mark is very busy on
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  the recruiting front there. Tony Kevin and I have had a very busy spring
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  covering the team. We've got our whole team effects and those gurus. We
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  got our whole a very active and fun community on the huddleboard presented by Buckeye
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  Huddle dot com presented by Jeff Ruby Steakhouse at Buckeye Huddle dot com. We
• 13:26
  would love to see you there as well. That is a great place to
• 13:28
  if you enjoy our shows on YouTube and on podcasts, it is a great
• 13:31
  place to support our work. Become a member there at Buckey Huddle dot com.
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  You also get access to all of that great content, all of that
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  great community, and much more. All at Buckey Huddle dot com. Make
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  sure you check out check out our coverage from Saturday's student appreciation practice at the
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  Winny as well. We will be there. I guess we will do a
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  live show from there if conditions permits and time permits. Should be a lot
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  of stuff to talk about about this year's team, as well as the recruiting
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  front of things that'll be coming up on Saturday at utib dot com, slash
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  Bucke Huddle and Buckeye huddle dot com. That'll do it for today. Thank
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  you guys all for joining us. Have a great day. We'll talk to
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  you tomorrow MHM.