Welcome to The Hurry-Up, which runs Sunday through Thursday, serving as your last stop for recruiting news and notes nightly. We'll recap the day as it happened and preview the days ahead while keeping our ear to the ground on the Ohio State recruiting scene.
FOUR NEW BUCKEYES ON CAMPUS SOON
With Winter Break here, four future Buckeyes are preparing for the next step in their lives: enrolling early at Ohio State. I turned to a source familiar with the recruits to try and get an idea of how each will impact the program come January.
Nick Conner: "Conner is a guy that I know Coach Mick is going to love having in the program," the source said. "He's a hard-working kid and we hope the chip on his shoulder that he showed last summer is there still. He's had a leg issue that we'll be paying attention to when he gets here but I think he'll surprise people with his athletic ability when he's healthy."
Jashon Cornell: "If there's one guy of these four that will be helped the most by getting here early, it's Cornell," he said. "He's kind of been all over the place. People love his game, people hate his competition, people think he's got the frame to be inside, but has the quickness to be on the edge. Jashon getting on campus, getting his butt kicked in the weight room and adjusting to college is going to be huge. Defensive line depth as it is, there's a good chance he's going to be asked to play some next year if he proves up to it."
Jamel Dean: "It's weird how little Jamel has been talked about, by fans or 'analysts' or anyone," the source said. "A 6-foot-2, 200 pound cornerback that runs sub-4.40 and somehow, because he committed early I guess, no one seems to realize how talented is. He's rare physically. Not many — if any — high school kids bounce back from a torn ACL in six months. As long as he gets comfortable living up here, gets in the flow of college? Expect him to contribute on special teams at least next year."
(Good story here about Dean's graduation from www.floridatoday.com)
Grant Schmidt: "Grant is going to surprise some people, I bet," the source said of the South Dakota offensive lineman. "He's the type who is going to embrace the grind, he wants to get his butt kicked, like I've told you before. Not many teenagers understand that you need the challenges to get better and he wants it that way. I think he's a Mick (Marotti) and Ed (Warinner) special. Maybe not next year, maybe not in two years, but I won't be surprised when he's All Big-Ten down the road."
SAN ANTONIO WILL HAVE BUCKEYE FLAVOR
If you ask me there's really one high school All-American game that is worth watching, and that's the US Army All-American Game in San Antonio, which takes place Saturday, January 3rd, 2015. While there have been a number of big moments in the game's history, it has always had a bit of a Buckeye feel to it. Great performances from Ted Ginn, Jr. and Chris "Beanie" Wells all the way back to Maurice Clarett in 2002. Ohio State has always been well-represented in the Alamodome.
Next weekend will be much of the same. The Buckeyes will have seven verbal commitments on hand in San Antonio.
- Jerome Baker
- Matthew Burrell
- Torrance Gibson
- Justin Hilliard
- Dre'Mont Jones
- Liam McCullough
- Mike Weber
Canada Prep standout Neville Gallimore, the first ever Canadian to be chosen for this game, is one of a handful of players slated to make their college choice that day. Could the large contingent of future Buckeyes grow by one that afternoon?
BERRY SHOWS OFF HIS HOPS AND ATHLETIC ABILITY
With the holiday week and a recruiting dead-period in full effect, please forgive the sparseness of this week's Hurry Ups. That said, dead period or not, any time you get a glimpse of freakish athleticism on full display, you ought to appreciate it. Even if Rashod Berry never picks up a basketball during his Buckeye career, he cuts quite an imposing figure on the hardwood.
At 6-foot-5 and almost 240 pounds, Berry shows off his insane athleticism in this clip from one game last week. There's enough in here that it could be confused for a season highlight, and if it's any indicator of what Lorain's opponents will face this winter, they're in for a bit of trouble.
BIG MOVE FOR NORWOOD
Normally it's a safe bet to trust the 247Sports.com composite rankings, which takes the average of a recruit's rankings across the major recruiting networks to give a "true" ranking. If the recent move of Josh Norwood on 247Sports' own rankings means anything, you can expect that the final rankings of 2015 will be very kind to Buckeye commit Josh Norwood.
Today, Norwood was bumped to the 17th spot in Georgia's state rankings and moved all the way up to No. 199 nationally by 247. He still sits at No. 789 nationally, but other networks have not adjusted their final rankings yet.
