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.
DERRIUS MULLINS HEARING FROM BUCKEYES
One of the stars of Monday's Best of the Midwest combine in Indianapolis was Columbus St. Frances de Sales defensive tackle Derrius Mullins. Mullins earned the distinction of being named one of the two defensive line MVPs, sharing the award with Youngstown's Jeff Marx and he's earned rave reviews for the growth in his game over the last year.
"He is marketedly bigger but not fat at all and very powerful," Scout.com analyst Bill Greene told Eleven Warriors. "His size was very different but he was so powerful. He flat dominated people which was what we wanted to see."
For his part, Mullins said he's glad his hard work is paying off.
"I've really been working on using my hands more," Mullins told 11W when asked where he thinks he's made the biggest improvement to his own game. "That and working on leverage."
Ohio State has not offered Mullins, but the 6-foot-5, 310 pound Columbus-native says that he's been in touch with the Buckeyes recently.
"Luke Fickell came to see me about a month ago," he said. "He just wanted to say hi. I think they'll offer but it won't be soon."
Mullins fits the profile of a player that, in most years, the Buckeyes would like to see at a summer camp, to give them the chance to work with him up-close-and-personal as they mull over a potential offer. He says that right now that's not in his plans.
"I decided to not attend any college camps this year," Mullins said. "I'm going to the Rivals and (Nike's) The Opening camps."
Ranked as the country's 42nd-best defensive tackle, Mullins has offers from 11 schools, including Wisconsin, Pitt, West Virginia and Indiana. He's recently named the Hoosiers as his favorite school and told us that he's considering a commitment sometime soon.
"I plan on being committed by the summer," he added. "I"m visiting Pitt on the 28th and West Virginia on the 13th of March."
DORIAN ROBINSON-THOMPSON TALKS ABOUT UPCOMING VISIT
Last April, we introduced you to 2018 quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson, who is the backup quarterback at Las Vegas' Bishop Gorman to 2017 five-star Tate Martell. He told us then that he was very interested in the Buckeyes, with one of the reasons being that he's got a lot of family in Columbus.
"My mom's side of the family is all living in Columbus, I go there to visit my uncle like once a year," Thompson said last year. "They've always been 'my school.' Plus, with their success and the offense. Everything Ohio State runs, I run right now at Bishop Gorman just about. The whole spread concept I've been running my whole life. That's part of the reason they're No. 1 right now."
The 6-foot-2, 200-pounder says he's finally ready to make a visit to see the Buckeyes.
"I'm going to be there on March 24," Robinson-Thompson said. "Just me and my family. (Tim) Beck really wanted us to visit. I had wanted to take a visit up to Ohio State and he had came to visit my school I think last month and it went on from there."
The recruitment of Robinson-Thompson may be a bit unique, at least in today's world. While he plays at a school with some serious cachet and national attention, he's not the guy and won't be until his senior year, which puts him a bit "behind" the majority of players in his class as far as exposure goes. He's just trying to make the best of the situation.
"It's not that hard to me honestly, with the Bishop Gorman name and my size. People will notice me," Robinson-Thompson, who has scholarship offers from UNLV and Colorado State, said. "It's just up to me to put out my best effort and the attention will come."
In the meantime, he says he's just going to keep working.
"I've been trying to gain weight and work on technical stuff for camps and spring ball. I feel like I've grown a lot since the last time I've had pads on," he added. "I just need to be a little bit more polished up on my throwing technique."
UNIQUE LOOK AT RECRUITING MEETING
New Miami head coach Mark Richt has his work cut out for him in Coral Gables after years of Hurricane-intensity mediocrity from the "U's" once-proud football program.
Part of the efforts to "renew the U" will be to reinvigorate a fanbase that has shown less-than-a lot of support in the last few years. Miami's lack of crowd support has been a running joke around the country and in an an effort to involve Hurricane fans, Richt's program is trying to open up a bit and they need to.
One thing that the former staff did well, was to provide an insight into the daily grind of coaching, especially this video from last May. If you want an idea of what a major college football program's recruiting meetings look like, this video is a pretty cool thing to see.
I'm not sure how the new staff came to the conclusion that they should "offer" an eighth-grade quarterback, but I guess we'll have to see if that video comes out down the road.
NEW 2017 RUNNING BACK OFFER
The Buckeyes will get a March visit from one 2017 Texas running back in Eno Benjamin, but today they offered another.
Extremely blessed to say ive received an offer from THE ohio state buckeyes! pic.twitter.com/ryRmfVMCKQ
— Jk dobbins (@Jkdobbins22) February 17, 2016
That is JK Dobbins, a 5-foot-10, 200-pounder from La Grange ranked as the country's 55th-best overall prospect in 2017 and the 4th-ranked running back.
Ohio State joins an already impressive scholarship list for Dobbins that includes Stanford, Oklahoma, Texas, Baylor, Notre Dame, Houston and others.
