The Hurry Up is your nightcap of Ohio State recruiting news, catching you up on the day’s events with an ear on the ground for what’s next.
BUCKEYES MAKE THE LIST FOR DARNAY HOLMES
Last summer at Friday Night Lights in Columbus, there was one player who stole the show: Calabasas, California, cornerback Darnay Holmes.
Following the event last July, one Buckeyes' staffer said that Holmes may have been the "best cornerback we've ever had in camp," and he's quietly been a major priority for Ohio State since. Zach Smith was in California two weeks ago recruiting Holmes and his teammate at Calabasas, Keyshawn Johnson Jr., and that work seems to be putting the Buckeyes in a good position.
Holmes, the country's top-ranked cornerback and a consensus five-star prospect in 2017, released his Top 7 schools, and Ohio State made the cut.
Just want to thank God for blessing my mind & body. Proway & the 6 raised me righthttps://t.co/kwBDjPBXCq?ssr=true pic.twitter.com/cfCTbT1Mty
— Darnay Holmes (@DarnayHolmes) February 7, 2016
Geographically, the Buckeyes are certainly at a disadvantage with Holmes but they do have some help out west from Johnson, the cousin of future NFL'er Michael Thomas. Expect to see the 5-foot-11, 180-pounder back at Ohio State this summer.
MICHIGAN'S BEST YEAR OF TALENT EVER? BUCKEYES WILL BE IN THE MIX
A decade go, the state of Michigan was not a place you'd go to find a bunch of Division I football talent, but in recent years, it's become a regular stopping point for a handful of the country's premier programs, including Ohio State.
As good as the talent coming out of The Mitten has been in the last few years, 2017 is shaping up to be maybe the best ever in Michigan and if early returns are an indicator, you can expect Kerry Coombs and the Buckeyes to be right there through it all.
A recent breakdown of Michigan's 10 best 2017 prospects from USA Today helps shed some light on just how far Ohio State's brand has come inside their rivals' borders. Which of the Top 10 are the Buckeyes involved with? Let's look at the 247Sports.com composite Top 10 for a better look.
- Donovan Peoples-Jones • Wide Receiver • Detroit Cass Tech
- Ambry Thomas • Defensive Back • Detroit Martin Luther King Jr.
- Corey Malone-Hatcher • Defensive Lineman • St. Joseph
- Jaylen Kelly-Powell • Defensive Back • Detroit Cass Tech
- Hunter Rison • Wide Receiver • Ann Arbor Skyline
- Allen Stritzinger • Defensive Back • Warren De La Salle
- Antjuan Simmons • Linebacker • Ann Arbor Pioneer
While those seven prospects have varying degrees of interest in Ohio State and subsequently a varying degree of potential success for the Buckeyes, they've made themselves a key player in Michigan.
Peoples-Jones, the state's top player, is going to be a long-distance race, and while Ohio State isn't feeling great about their position right now, that may not be a bad thing. The country's second-ranked wide receiver was expected to visit for the Buckeyes' junior day two weekends ago but did not make the trip.
Malone-Hatcher was offered by Ohio State after his freshman year and his relationship with Larry Johnson. is a good one, but the Wolverines will be hard to beat there, as they will be for Stritzinger, a four-star defensive back from traditional feeder school De La Salle.
The Buckeyes best chances right now are with Kelly-Powell and Simmons, each of whom have been to campus multiple times in recent months, though neither is a sure thing.
Regardless, as Kerry Coombs said last week, Ohio State will continue to make Michigan a priority and they will have success there. That's a good thing as the talent coming out of the state continues to grow exponentially.
RIEPING WHAT THEY SOW?
During their big Junior Day last Sunday, the Buckeyes' coaching staff made one scholarship offer to an Ohio prospect who arrived without one: Cincinnati Colerain 2017 defensive back Amir Riep. The timing of the offer–especially considering a potential numbers-crunch in 2017 combined with Ohio State's lofty-positioning with a host of national names–was interesting to some, but it really shouldn't be.
If you examine Riep and recent defensive back signees closely, it's easy to see why this offer came when it did. He's big (6-foot-tall, 180-pounds), he's got really good tape and he's a player that if the Buckeyes waited too much longer to offer, they risked losing, perhaps to Michigan State, who offered in October.
As an Ohio kid with a Buckeyes' offer, you should expect a decision from Riep before summer. This past weekend he visited Kentucky, who has done well in Cincinnati recently, but Kerry Coombs' relationships at Colerain are a potential difference-maker in his choice, and it'd be a shock to see him choose someone other than Ohio State at this point. He's blown up in recent weeks, adding Duke, Virginia, Penn State to Tennessee, Michigan State and others to his offer list.
With ten commitments already in for 2017, Ohio State is going to be very careful in offering anyone in the state and will not do so until thorough evaluation has been completed. If they offered Riep at this juncture, it's because they feel he can make a difference if he decides on the Buckeyes.
