Urban Meyer and his staff have made it well-known they want to heavily recruit and maintain the top prospects in the state of Ohio. What the Buckeyes’ coaches are also doing, though, is building their brand around the country at some of the nation’s other top high school programs outside of the state.
One of those schools lies in the state directly to the north of Ohio. Cass Tech High School in Detroit has produced Ohio State players in the last two recruiting classes. There was four-star cornerback Damon Webb in 2014 and last year the Buckeyes landed one of the top running backs in the country in four-star prospect Mike Weber.
In the 2016 class, the Buckeyes were high on Michael Onwenu — a two-way lineman who recently earned an invitation to The Opening while attending Sunday’s regional camp in Columbus — but Onwenu committed to Michigan on Tuesday night. In the 2017 class, however, Ohio State has a strong interest in five-star wide receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones.
Peoples-Jones put on quite the performance while he was at Sunday’s regional camp. He earned SPARQ MVP honors after producing the camp’s highest rating in the testing.
Because of that, among other things, it’s no surprise the Buckeyes have Peoples-Jones high on their list for 2017 and the recent success they’ve had pulling guys from Cass Tech certainly doesn’t hurt their chances.
“It’s real big knowing that I can go to an environment where I already know people, already seen how they can develop, the former players,” Peoples-Jones said following the camp. “It’s just real exciting to have people somewhere where you wanna go.”
Peoples-Jones is listed at 6-foot-2 and 183 pounds by 247Sports. He currently has 14 scholarship offers and said he’s considering every school that has currently offered him, but also noted he remembers Ohio State was the very first school to offer him.
He’s visited Columbus on a handful of occasions and has developed strong relationships with Ohio State’s cornerbacks coach Kerry Coombs — the Buckeyes’ lead recruiter in the Detroit area — as well as wide receivers coach Zach Smith.
“Definitely good,” Peoples-Jones said when asked about his relationship with the Ohio State coaches recruiting him. “Coach Coombs, our relationship has been there since Day 1 and me and Coach Smith’s relationship is definitely building.”
Peoples-Jones still has two years of high school football remaining so he’s not in any rush to make a decision. But, as of right now, Ohio State is near the top of Peoples-Jones’ list.
He could very well be the next big-name recruit to join the Cass Tech-to-Columbus pipeline.
“(Ohio State) has great tradition of producing receivers and college prospects. I’m definitely looking into it,” Peoples-Jones said. “(A decision) could come tomorrow or it could come the day before Signing Day. Just whenever I feel most comfortable.”
