The Hurry Up: Pursuing a Prince, More on Mike Weber and Lawrence Cager Talk

RUNNING BACK SITUATION CLOSED?

In case you missed it, just about two hours ago Mike Weber chose the Buckeyes, just about two-and-a-half weeks after re-opening his recruitment. As I began hinting to on Monday, Weber's decision has been made for a few days now, but he wanted to get things in order before publicly announcing his choice. The Buckeyes visited Weber on Monday, which is when he let Urban Meyer, Kerry Coombs and Stan Drayton know of his choice. He will visit Ohio State officially this weekend, and will do so as a commitment.

On Tuesday night, Ohio State visited Damien Harris at home in Kentucky, hoping to make their last effort at the nation's top-ranked running back. While the visit went well, the likelihood is that Harris is now out of the picture for the Buckeyes; Alabama and Kentucky remain the favorites to land him.

Nashville's Ke'Shawn Vaughn, who was scheduled to visit Ohio State this weekend, is now unlikely to do so. The Buckeyes are more than happy with Weber, who they've had right at the top of their list for almost a year now. Don't be surprised if the Buckeyes look to land two top tailbacks in 2016 if the opportunity presents itself. 

SWEAT TO FSU

This morning, in what was a bit of a surprise to me (only me, apparently) Chesapeake, Virginia's five-star defensive end Josh Sweat chose Florida State over his home-state Virginia Tech Hokies, Ohio State and others. Yes, the Seminoles are a recruiting juggernaut, and yes, they're the defending national champions, two wins away from a repeat, but the decision to go to Tallahassee was still a surprise as I see it. Sweat is one of the most quiet, uninterested recruits of the cycle. He's rarely bought into or caught up in hype and by most accounts doesn't even follow college football. The common thought was that Sweat, who I've had described to me as "antisocial" on more than one occasion, would rather be home close to family and friends, especially as he recovers from a serious knee injury that cost him his senior season. 

Today, as he picked the Seminoles, I was in conversation with another recruit who has visited Florida State previously, and he said he understands the appeal that Jimbo Fisher's program has, even if he decides to not attend Florida State himself.

"FSU is enticing, I can easily see why guys go there," the 2015 prospect said."They were my number one for a while. The team there is a great situation."

Naturally, I pressed. What is it that they "do" that makes things so enticing? What's the appeal of traveling in some cases thousands of miles for academic and/or football situations you can find similarly close to home?

"You visit there, you party with pretty girls, they make school easy and beat easy teams," the recruit said under the condition of absolute anonymity. "I love those things (laughing), but I had concerns about the intentions of their coaching staff. 

PRINCE SAMMONS DISCUSSION

Yesterday, the Buckeyes visited Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy and 2016 two-way lineman Prince Sammons. The state's fourth-ranked player in the '16 class, Sammons is heavily predicted to end up in Columbus, but his coach, Eric Taylor, says he's trying to just take things day-by-day right now. Still, whenever the Buckeyes are in your school, it's exciting. 

"The visit was very good," Taylor told Eleven Warriors. "Obviously there is a lot of excitement around the Buckeyes right now across the country. He had a great visit."

Did Prince say anything about the Buckeyes and their recent selection for the inaugural college football playoffs?

"He did," Taylor said. "He was telling coach Coombs how impressed he was with them last week."

When asked about his star player's recruitment, Taylor was to the point: Sammons isn't stressing.

"He is taking things slow, he doesn't get all wound up," his coach added. "They talked about trying to get him for a visit. They also discussed regular communication between him and coach (Larry) Johnson."

MARYLAND TRIPS KEY FOR BUCKEYES 

One of today's more important visits for Buckeye coaches was in Maryland, where Ohio State visited wide receiver Lawrence Cager and cornerback Juwuan Briscoe. 

"The visit was ok," Cager said. "Coach Meyer, Coach Herman and Coach Smith were here. They basically said they've only got like three spots left and I should try and make my decision soon."

Cager, who isn't making his official visit to Alabama until the middle of January, says he's not likely ready to make that sort of choice yet. Will that hurt the Buckeyes' chances of landing him? Time will tell. Right now, I've got Cager projected to land at Alabama and I don't see that changing moving forward.

With Briscoe, however, I remain a bit more optimistic. The Buckeyes have made a big impression on the Thomas Stone (Waldorf, Maryland) defensive back. Though he says he'll take five official visits, I think that the Buckeyes absorbed the biggest threat without a commitment (his visit to Georgia two weekends ago) and remain as the most likely team to land Briscoe.