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.
WALKER VISITS RUTGERS AGAIN
Ohio State's top-ranked 2016 commitment, running back Kareem Walker, made the hour drive to Rutgers on Friday night and visited the Scarlet Knights for their spring football game. Walker visited Rutgers about two weeks ago, and this trip was another opportunity for the home-town team to try and make a good impression on the future star. According to Walker, the visit went, well, fine.
"Yeah, it was cool," Walker told Eleven Warriors about the trip. "I hung out with Rashan Gary some."
If there's concerns from Buckeye fans about the possibility of Rutgers stealing Walker away, put them away. He's doing what he should do, exploring all options – and he will visit other schools down the road – but he's comfortably a Buckeye. On Saturday, he took to Twitter to try and garner a bit of support for 2017 commitment Bruce Judson, who recently tore his hamstring.
Buckeye nation @4way_lilbruce holding it down for the 2017 commits. Give my guy a follow
— AlightyReem (@_KareemWalker) April 25, 2015
Hours later, Walker posted the latest Ohio State recruiting artwork.
Just gotta be patient I know my time coming. pic.twitter.com/2cnl7GRk0r
— AlightyReem (@_KareemWalker) April 26, 2015
Sunday, Walker participated in The Opening Regionals in New York, where he earned an invitation to Nike's premier camp in July.
Congrats to #TheOpening Finals 2015 invitee, DePaul Catholic (NJ) RB Kareem Walker (@_KareemWalker). #GOTOPEN pic.twitter.com/0gmfigTwLe
— The Opening (@TheOpening) April 26, 2015
Stay calm, Buckeye fans. Kareem Walker isn't going anywhere.
BIG WEEKEND FOR MICHIGAN STATE
The Michigan State 2016 recruiting class got a pretty big shot in the arm this week, starting on Wednesday night with the verbal commitment of Ohio's top-ranked quarterback, Messiah deWeaver. On Friday night, the Spartans added Washington, D.C. athlete Abdul Adams and Saturday's spring game brought them two more commitments, both from Ohio: linebacker Joe Bachie and four-star wide receiver Justin Layne. Sunday, another Ohioan joined the fray for Mark Dantonio's Spartans: Cincinnati St. Xavier tight end Noah Davis committed to Michigan State as well.
Layne, the Cleveland Benedictine star, is the only player in the group who holds a Buckeye offer, but he has not been a priority for the Buckeyes as they chase Austin Mack, Donnie Corley and other wide receivers who are higher on their list. Most believed that Layne was all but a done deal for the Buckeyes, but he wanted more attention and at this point was not going to get it from Ohio State, despite being an Ohio native.
The commitment from Layne gives Michigan State a formidable duo at wide receiver – he joins Cameron Chambers, who also held a Buckeye offer – and they remain a top player for Corley as well.
TERRELL HALL WORKING HARD TO BECOME NATION'S BEST
The Washington Post had a nice story on Ohio State defensive end commitment Terrell Hall on Friday. The gist? Hall is still a very wanted man by a number of the country's best football programs.
“I had told (Ohio State) at junior day (January 25th) that I wanted to commit, but I didn’t want to make it public yet,” Hall told The Washington Post. “But it got to the point where I needed to slow my recruitment down some so that schools would lean back and all the media would slow down, so I made my decision public.”
After making a public decision, things haven't slowed entirely. Hall told The Post he may take some visits in the future.
“Things have slowed down as far as from schools that I probably wouldn’t be able to check out or weren’t very high (on) my list,” Hall said. “But there’s still a good number of schools coming after me and I’m looking forward to checking them out in the future.”
Maryland, Penn State and others are coming hard at the Buckeye commitment, but he's still thinking and feeling Ohio State in the right place for him and he wants Ohio State fans to know how hard he's working.
DE Terrell Hall is at #DCNFTC with a shoutout to Ohio state fans https://t.co/fUepwmFBds
— Tom VanHaaren (@TomVH) April 19, 2015
Hall is close friends and workout partners with new Michigan State commit Abdul Adams as well.
You can see the hard work is paying off.
WHAT'S UP WITH FERNS
Ok, let's talk Brendan Ferns for what is likely to be the last time before he commits. Not because he's making a decision today or necessarily anytime soon, but because after speaking with his father late in the week, he's asked that all "media" take a step back and give his family some space to figure out what happens "next" in his recruitment without concern for updating everyone on each and every breath his son takes.
Ohio State (Luke Fickell) visited Ferns on Thursday morning, and the Buckeyes went into that meeting hoping to gain a greater understanding of where they stand with the state's top linebacker. Ohio State has one commitment at the linebacker spot, and they'd like Ferns to be second and – likely – final addition to the linebacker position for 2016.
According to people I talk with, the Buckeyes are still cautiously optimistic that Ferns ends up picking Ohio State. From my discussions with his father in the last week and beyond, I've always gotten the impression that the family is absolutely comfortable with Brendan choosing Ohio State if that's what he wants to do. His brother at West Virginia doesn't impact anything the family wants him to do, but Brendan is going to have make a choice for him, and it's not as simple as most fans would want to believe. It's not a matter of "I am from Ohio, I'm a Buckeye fan, I'm a Buckeye." This is a 17-year-old kid making a life decision, and it is his choice to make; period.
The next time we talk about Brendan Ferns it will be a gray box or a gray cloud.
FELDER RE-OPENS RECRUITMENT
In case you missed it Friday afternoon, the Buckeyes are likely closing in on commitment number 13 for the 2016 class, and likely by Thursday or Friday of this coming week. Baltimore's Kareem Felder re-opened his recruitment, officially decommitting from Virginia Tech after visits to Ohio State and Clemson.
Felder has told me that a decision is likely to come by the end of this week and that he's "100-percent got a school in mind" and the Buckeyes are confident that they're in the driver's seat.
Felder is a three-star cornerback, but is regarded very highly by Ohio State, higher than most other "bigger" names on the national recruiting lists.
