Welcome to The Hurry Up, which runs Sunday through Thursday, serving as your last stop for recruiting news and notes nightly. We'll recap the day as it happened and preview the days ahead while keeping our ear to the ground on the Ohio State recruiting scene.
Gonna keep this short and sweet tonight guys, get to the meat and let you all prepare for the Super Bowl... Go Hawks.
ARNETTE VISIT FINISHED, ARE THE BUCKEYES THE TEAM TO BEAT?
One of two official visitors on campus this weekend, Fort Lauderdale's Damon Arnette, returned home today; his visit concluded. As we said early last week, Arnette was a player that the Buckeyes were going to turn up the "heat" on as they caught wind the pending flip of Carlton Davis to Auburn. Urban Meyer visited Arnette at home on Thursday, and the three-star cornerback began his visit in Columbus on Friday.
After talking about the trip with a couple different people, I've added my "crystal ball" for Arnette and have predicted he picks Ohio State on Wednesday morning.
As you can see, the "ball" is still slanted towards South Carolina, where Arnette has been committed since July, but it appears things are moving in a positive direction for the Buckeyes. One South Florida source clued me in a bit on the trip and the rumors around St. Thomas Aquinas today are that Arnette becomes a Buckeye.
Anything can happen in two days, but for now it appears positive.
LET'S TALK GUSTIN
Porter Gustin is still on campus at Ohio State and will not leave Columbus until tomorrow, but I was able to reach out to a few sources and have some (what I consider) interesting insights.
"(The visit) seems to be going well," a source close to Ohio State shared. "It seems like the family has been 'won over' but I'm less sure on (Gustin) himself."
Gustin is at Ohio State with his father and grandfather, and the source shared things were going very well with them. The most important and interesting portion of his information? Urban Meyer — usually the "closer" during a recruitment and a visit — seems to have taken this one on himself.
"I think they like it here," he continued. "Urban has pretty much taken this one on personally. It's unlike anything I've ever seen."
Gustin is scheduled to return home to Utah tomorrow and a decision is scheduled for Tuesday. Can Urban Meyer's involvement help the Buckeyes snag the country's 41st-ranked player?
WEBER, WEIRD AND WHATEVER
Last week, I posted my personal feelings on the recruitment of Mike Weber and the battle between Ohio State and Michigan for his services. Over the last few days, analysts from all over the region have begun posting their thoughts, tea-leave readings and more about Weber and well...everyone is still guessing. Reputable people from Michigan insist that he's going to end up flipping to the Wolverines on Wednesday morning, which would be nothing short of a slap in the face of Ohio State and Kerry Coombs, who's recruited him and developed an incredibly tight relationship with him over the last year. Knowing what I know of Weber personally and what I know of his relationship with Coombs, I struggle to see that transpiring.
Weber — at least not to anyone's knowledge — did not visit Michigan this weekend. Rumors that Harbaugh made his way back to Cass Tech for a basketball game on Friday helped fuel some more discussion that conversations are on-going between the two parties but as usual Weber is saying nothing publicly. What he's saying to the people at Ohio State is "don't worry" but clearly there's going to be worry until the letter of intent comes through the fax. We're not likely to know how this one ends until Wednesday morning, but our source at the WHAC summed it up thusly.
"He keeps telling us we're good, and he didn't visit there, I don't know," the source said. "I mean, I've seen enough at this point to be able to convince myself he's going to either spot."
We're all guessing folks, only Weber knows what Weber is thinking.
