Good morning. We have a lot of recruiting news to unpack, so let's get crackin', shall we?
Saturday and Sunday brought the inaugural Rivals Five Star Challenge to Chicago's Soldier Field and since Rivals is owned by Yahoo!, we got fantastic team names like Team Tumblr and Team Flickr to go along with Team Yahoo! and Team Rivals.
With Ohio State commit Damon Webb and several other targets in action, including linebacker Raekwon McMillan, guard Demetrius Knox and offensive tackle Damian Prince, among others, Ohio State fans had to like what they heard on several fronts.
For starters, Prince, McMillan and Knox all showed up in Ohio State gear.
Knox, a former Texas commit originally from Ohio, had a strong start, stoning Andrew Brown, thought by some to be the best defensive tackle in the land, on three consecutive reps. Brown took the fourth rep, but Knox fought back to take the fifth, leading Rivals national recruiting analyst Mike Farrell to say, "I was slack-jawed. I had never seen Brown get beat like that in a camp, and then I never saw him get that angry."
Knox also took home the "Best Hands" award from the camp:
There are a lot of things to like about Demetrius Knox, but one of his best assets is the length of his arms. His strength, combined with his great reach and good hand-placement, made it extremely difficult for any defensive lineman to beat him. After his initial punch, Knox did an excellent job of resetting his hands and keeping the defensive linemen at bay.
Prince was matched against the nation's top player, defensive end Da'Shawn Hand, and although Hand got the better of him, Prince more than held his own.
Webb made the trip to Chicago hoping to land a coveted fifth star and it looks like he may be on his way. He emerged as the top corner prospect at the event, with Rivals analysts gushing over his cover skills.
For more on the Challenge, see this packed thread in our forum.
BUCKEYE CAMP SEASON IS UPON US. Sunday also marked the first of Ohio State's one-day position camps and our own Mike Young was there to take it in.
Poona Ford, a four-star defensive tackle from Hilton Head Island, S.C., made the trip to Columbus with several of his teammates and told us that he plans to stick around for a week to get a better feel for what Ohio State is all about. "I'll do some tours, maybe," Ford said. "Hopefully I'll talk to coaches."
Ford listed a top five, in no particular order, of Kansas State, Louisville, Ohio State, South Carolina and Tennessee.
Also standing out was Indianapolis Cathedral's Terry McLaurin, the fastest man on the field, and that caught Urban Meyer's eye. "They didn't offer, coach wants to get to know more about me, because he doesn't know much, but he said he loves my speed," McLaurin told us.
You can read up on Mike's full report of camp standouts here.
MATTA DOING WORK. Friday night brought great news to Thad Matta and the Ohio State basketball program as five-star guard D'Angelo Russell committed to the Buckeyes. Russell, from Louisville, but playing for Montverde Academy in Florida, is considered one of the nation's top shooting guards and chose Ohio State over Arizona, Cincinnati, Florida, Indiana, Louisville, North Carolina and other programs.
Russell's pledge is Matta's fourth for his class of 2014, joining Keita Bates-Diop, Jae'Sean Tate and Dave Bell. The class is now the No. 2 class in the country and has room to grow. Russell has pledged to swing five-star center Jahlil Okafor, which, yes, let's make that happen, please.
FOR WHOM THE BID TROLLS. Last month, we told you about Ed Rife of Fine Line Ink's intent to sell the memorabilia cache that led to Tatgate.
On Friday, Rife made good on those plans, listing several items on eBay, including 2008 Big Ten championship rings from Terrelle Pryor and several of the other players involved in the scandal. Since this involved Ohio State – and, OMG, pageviews! – the national press was quick to jump on the story, breathlessly telling us that Pryor's ring had gone for a staggering $18,100.
There was just one problem: the winner of the auctions was a Buckeye fan trolling Ed Rife because, well, we'll let him tell you:
@11w I'm just trolling Edward rife because fuck him twitter.com/dumpsterwhite/…
— adam. (@dumpsterwhite) June 10, 2013
While we'd never advocate violating eBay's terms of use, we can't say we're disappointed to see Rife unable to cash-in on something that brought so many of us such pain. Rife subsequently pulled all of the listings from his account.
NOTHING TO SEE HERE. MOVE ALONG. Six months ago, former North Carolina governor Jim Martin led an independent review of an academic scandal engulfing the Tar Heel football program.
At the time, Martin promised to "go where the evidence takes us" and his report [PDF] ultimately found no scandal, really, insisting that all students – not just student-athletes – benefited from classes in the school's African and Afro-American Studies department. The report concluded there was no relationship between key players in the department and members of the athletic department.
Athletic Director Bubb Cunningham said the report was "very thorough, an exhaustive study," which is fascinating because emails released to the Raleigh News & Observer paint a different picture. The emails, released nearly a year after a public records request, show ties between the African and Afro-American Studies department and the group tasked with tutoring athletes:
Julius Nyang’oro, the former UNC African studies chairman at the heart of an academic fraud scandal, had a cozy relationship with the program that tutored athletes, according to newly released emails.
Members of the academic support staff offered Nyang’oro football tickets and the chance to watch a game from the sidelines. One counselor offered to discuss athletes’ coursework over drinks, and another negotiated with Nyang’oro to schedule a no-show class.
UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Holden Thorp and other officials have said the Academic Support Program for Student Athletes did not collaborate with Nyang’oro or his department manager, Debbie Crowder, to create the classes to help keep athletes eligible to play sports.
Tattoos for trinkets? All over ESPN and the cover of Sports Illustrated. A real life academic scandal? Hush. You'll wake the children.
Of course this is Kenny Guiton's locker (via @jillchristin) WOMANBALL. Saturday marked the 2nd annual Ohio State football women's clinic at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center and Eleven Warriors reader ArTbkward was on hand to take it all in.
Highlights included presentations from the staff and players – which included cornerback Bradley Roby obliging one attendee by showing her his six-pack – to a dance-off featuring the graduate assistants, drills, contests and strength man Mickey Marotti leading participants in "quick cals" and "smokehouse" drills.
ArTbkwar's account is a great read and worth your time.
Fellow reader @jillchristin was kind enough to send in a photo of Kenny Guiton's locker and it was everything you'd want it to be.
CARRY THAT TORCH, HOOSIERS. Indiana, the team Ohio State battled into the final weekend for the regular season B1G crown, is headed to the College World Series.
The Hoosiers swept No. 7 Florida State in Tallahassee – the Seminoles were 35-3 at home this year prior to the series – with 10-9 and 11-6 wins to book their trip to Omaha. It's the first CWS berth in 118 years of baseball for the Hoosiers and they're the first Big Ten team to reach the College World Series since Barry Larkin led Michigan to Omaha in 1984.
And with that, Kenny Powers left Tallahassee for Mexico.
ETC. Three Buckeyes taken in the 2013 MLB draft... Surprise! Good quarterbacks want to play for Bill O'Brien... Lane Kiffin offers an 8th-grader... Tennessee's "Orange Pride" hostesses still have it... Moeller wins its second-straight Division I baseball championship.. 40 years ago, the world watched the LeBron James of thoroughbreds... The University of Minnesota will save us from Skynet... George R. R. Martin gives no damns...
