Good morning, bipolar fans of Ohio State football recruiting.
Urban Meyer landed three players in four days for his 2014 class – defensive end Jalyn Holmes, quarterback Stephen Collier and wide receiver/pivot Terry McLaurin – and all of a sudden, things are right again in the Buckeye recruiting universe (I kid, but you're nodding if you were in – or witnessed – the sky-is-falling camp earlier in the month).
Collier and McLaurin are both rated as three-star prospects, which caused some consternation among fans, but if you take a minute to watch highlights from either player, you'll see something special.
This reminds some of the recruitment of Ezekiel Elliott, now a freshman running back with the Buckeyes. Elliott was a three-star prospect until Ohio State offered and he then proceeded to blow up the camp circuit. He left high school as a consensus four-star prospect and is expected to do electric things for the Buckeyes.
Expect a similar surge for Collier, headed to Oregon as an Elite 11 finalist, and McLaurin in the coming months.
Beyond their skills on the gridiron, the three all seem to be quality young men off the field. All have great grades, with Collier rocking a 4.2 and an offer to Harvard. The fathers of Collier and McLaurin are clergy, and Holmes' dad, Jermaine, a lifelong Florida State fan, only wants what's best for his son:
"I'm a huge FSU fan and Jalyn is a huge FSU fan since he was little," he said. "We always talked about him going there since he was yay high. So when he told me about what Ohio State was doing and what Florida State wasn't doing it was kind of a bittersweet moment."
Holmes' mother, Tasha, is all about the education:
"It's wonderful that he's going somewhere not just for football but to get a quality education," said Holmes' mother, Tasha Holmes. "That's the most important thing."
The good news: The three new commits pushed Ohio State's class up to No. 5 in Scout's index, up seven spots to No. 7 in the 247Sports' team rankings, and up to No. 10 from 19 on Rivals' team rankings.
The better news: Urban Meyer still has Friday Night Lights (7/26) to wow prospects and then seven more months to close, which is what God put him on this planet to do.
THE BUCKENING. Speaking of the camp circuit, the verbals from Holmes and McLaurin give the Buckeyes nine commits in action at Nike's prestigious The Opening camp in Beaverton. The rest of the Big Ten will be sending eight participants.
[Insane theory about Michigan commits getting passed over because they're going to an Adidas school goes here.] [Laughter goes here.]
To put the nine-man contingent into perspective, Florida has five commits headed to The Opening, Notre Dame has four, and Alabama, Georgia, Miami and Texas A&M all have three.
Cornerback Damon Webb, linebackers Dante Booker and Kyle Berger, offensive lineman Kyle Trout, athlete Parris Campbell, and defensive lineman Dylan Thompson will join Holmes and McLaurin in Oregon.
ESPNU will provide select live coverage of the event, including the SPARQ Rating National Championship on Monday, July 1, 7-on-7 pool play on Tuesday, July 2 and then the linemen challenge finals and 7-on-7 semifinal and championship games on the 3rd.
McLaurin, in particular, should shine during the SPARQ portion, series of tests that current freshman linebacker Mike Mitchell destroyed last year.
Full rosters and telecast times for The Opening can be found here.
B1GG1E & PAC. There's a 4 p.m. teleconference today with the Big Ten's Jim Delany, the Pac-12's Larry Scott and representatives from the Kraft Fight Hunger and Holiday Bowls. Expected to be announced are new tie-ins between the Big Ten and the Pac-12, effectively creating a Rose Bowl Lite and Rose Bowl Ultra Lite.
This is not quite the grand plan of B1G and Pac-12 schools meeting in several non-conference football games each season along with several Olympic sport tie-ins, but it's always nice to play our friends on the Best Coast (and really, who needs a good excuse to leave the Rust Belt for California in the dead of winter?).
The league is selling the new bowl lineup, which will also include the Pinstripe Bowl in New York along with rumored tie-ins with the Music City Bowl in Nashville and a to-be-named bowl in Detroit as diversification for fans weary of trekking to Florida. In reality, it's a small part that and a big part moving away from tie-ins with SEC opponents in their own backyards that often saw Big Ten teams bumped into better bowls – and the underdog status that comes with that.
HOLLYWOOD TANK? The NBA draft is Thursday and the latest mock draft from the experts at DraftExpress has Ohio Sate's Deshaun Thomas going to the Lakers with the 18th pick in the second round.
Thomas has slipped slightly in the forecast – as have a few other Big Ten players, most notably Indiana's Victor Odipo, now projected to go 5th and Michigan's Trey Burke, now projected to go to New Orleans with the 6th pick – but oh, man, wouldn't Thomas as a Laker be interesting? I can see it now, Thomas freezes Kobe Bryant out for an entire 4th quarter and is traded 12 hours later.
DraftExpress has Kentucky's Nerlens Noel going No. 1 to the Cavs. Other Big Ten projected first-rounders: Cody Zeller going No. 11 to the Sixers and Tim Hardaway Jr. going No. 20 to the Bulls.
TREY TIMES TWO. I believe this is freshman linebacker Trey Johnson telling the world what number he'll wear for the Buckeyes.
#6
— Trey Johnson (@THEtreyjohnson) June 21, 2013
He tweeted it out moments after the LeBron James won his second NBA championship, so it may have been an abstract homage to Michael Jordan and his six rings, but I doubt it. No. 6 is, in fact, open on the defense, vacated by current New York Giant Etienne Sabino.
We're still awaiting word on jersey numbers for four freshmen. If Ohio State could just get around to updating the team roster page, we'd have them all.
BLUE LIGHT BENCH PRESSING. Noted quarterback guru George Whitfield Jr. is on a tour of major football programs, sharing photos of their facilities along the way. Last week, he stopped at Michigan and—wait, why do the Wolverines lift in the basement of an Ann Arbor Kmart?
There are high schools in Texas with better facilities than this (just ask anyone from Texas). Maybe this explains it.
ETC. Oregon embraces change... The BBC, bearing bad news in style... Sometimes, I regret not covering boxing... Greece wins Supermoon 2013... You guys are taking things too far.
