Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, New York, is home to former Buckeye Curtis Samuel, but that's not all. The high school is also home to a very strong recruiting pipeline that is being directed toward Urban Meyer and Ohio State.
It hasn't always been that way though. Sure, a brief look through the Notable Alumni - 20th Century section of Erasmus Hall's Wikipedia page will net some names that are fairly recognizable among football fans — Sid Luckman (class of 1935) and Al Davis (class of 1947) — but the 21st Century section is barren except for one name: Curtis Samuel (class of 2013).
With the way the recruiting pipeline from Erasmus Hall has been working, however, that section could be expanding really soon.
The Buckeyes snagged one recruit in each of the 2014 and 2016 class from Erasmus Hall —four-star athlete-turned running back Curtis Samuel and three-star athlete-turned-safety Jahsen Wint — and that pipeline isn't slowing down in the near future.
Earlier this week, four-star guard Matthew Jones committed to play for the Buckeyes (you can read about what that means for the class of 2018 here). Jones is a versatile recruit that committed to Ohio State as an offensive guard but who has shown ability on the line on both sides of the ball. His name will become more familiar to Ohio State fans as his time in Ohio Stadium approaches, but a lesser-known fact is that Jones hails from — you guessed it — Erasmus Hall.
In fact, the four-star lineman is the second-ranked recruit out of New York for 2018. He is one of seven classmates from Erasmus Hall that's been ranked by 247 and one of only four four-star recruits in the entire state. In total, there are only 27 recruits ranked from New York, which means Erasmus Hall makes up more than a quarter of the state's top recruits. Five of those seven recruits (including Jones) have at least three stars to their recruiting name.
As of now, Jones is the only Erasmus Hall recruit from the class of 2018 committed to play for the Bucks, but he isn't the only one with an Ohio State offer.
The fourth-ranked recruit in the state — three-star athlete Aron Cruickshank — is a fellow member of the Erasmus Hall Dutchmen who the Buckeyes have an offer extended to. Cruickshank certainly showed a knack for running the ball in his junior season at E-Hall, the only problem with his Buckeye recruitment right now is that he'll likely be in the same position as Jaelen Gill. And while Cruickshank is a talented top-500 recruit, he may be outmatched by Gill who currently ranks within the top-50.
If everything goes right for the Bucks, there may not be a need for Cruickshank to come to the Scarlet and Gray, but his talent level and recruitment sure shows just how well Danny Landberg, the coach at Erasmus Hall, has been able to funnel his players into college football.
In 2015, Landberg was able to help Deonte Roberts secure a commitment to Rutgers and three Dutchmen from the class of 2017 have committed to play for Stony Brook. While Curtis Samuel and Matthew Jones certainly appear to be the big fish from Erasmus Hall, Landberg's players have made impacts at various levels of FBS and FCS play in recent years.
