The Hurry Up: Wallace Looking Around, Hayes Commits to the Irish, 2017 Tackle Has Buckeyes on Top and More

By Jeremy Birmingham on December 10, 2015 at 7:45 pm
Donnie Corley at Friday Night Lights in July.
Donnie Corley Jr.
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The Hurry Up is your nightcap of Ohio State recruiting news, catching you up on the day’s events with an ear on the ground for what’s next.

WALLACE UPDATE

A few days ago we had the news that Dwayne Haskins Jr., a Maryland commitment, would be taking an official visit to Ohio State this weekend. That news was understandably followed up by questions about what exactly is going on with Tristen Wallace, the remarkable athlete from DeSoto, Texas, who committed to Ohio State in March.

What I know is that Wallace has, in no way, been pushed out of the Buckeyes' recruiting class, but it does appear that–at the least–he's exploring some other options at this point. Tim Beck visited Wallace last week in Texas and the Buckeyes have remained in contact with him. While he's still committed to the Buckeyes publicly, tweets like the one he made yesterday are not helping the notion that he's going to end up a part of the 2016 signing day haul for Urban Meyer. 

Wallace is expected to make visits to both Oregon and UCLA this weekend, a weekend that will see almost two-thirds of the Buckeyes' recruiting class on campus in Columbus for their official visits, so Wallace's absence is as notable as Haskins' own absence from Maryland this weekend.

I am not confident (yet) Haskins ends up a Buckeye, but I think the writing is on the proverbial wall that Wallace won't either.

AUBREY SOLOMON HAS BUCKEYES ON TOP

In February I first mentioned the name Aubrey Solomon, a four-star 2017 defensive tackle from Lee County High School (Leesburg, Georgia) who would start to become a hot recruiting property. Over the summer, Solomon's offer totals shot up, adding Florida State and Georgia among others. 

In mid-September I mentioned the Buckeyes had been talking with Solomon and that an offer would be coming his way soon, and it did, although it had not been reported by the 6-foot-3, 305-pounder until recently. 

On Tuesday night, Solomon tweeted out his Top 10 schools and the Buckeyes appeared in a pretty good position.

"I try to talk to Ohio State and Larry Johnson Sr. at least once a week," Solomon told 11W. "I'm looking to visit soon, between January and February."

The country's 8th-ranked defensive tackle in 2017 finished his junior year with 60 tackles, including 12 for a loss and registered six sacks.

CORLEY VISITING OHIO STATE THIS WEEKEND

Urban Meyer, Zach Smith and Kerry Coombs were in Detroit last night with a singular purpose: to get Donnie Corley to visit Ohio State in an official capacity this weekend before he makes a final decision on where he'll attend college.

Achievement Unlocked: Corley will visit Columbus this weekend, his first return trip since Friday Night Lights.

Ohio State was, at one time, the clear frontrunner for Corley but a Michigan State surge in the spring and summer led most to believe that he was all but a done deal for the Spartans. He was expected to commit at Nike's The Opening in July, a decision which he postponed in order to check out a few other schools like Notre Dame, Tennessee and Michigan. Since the start of his senior season, Corley has focused more on winning a state championship at Detroit's Martin Luther King and multiple player of the year awards, including Mr. Football today.

Corley again delayed a scheduled decision again this week in order to head to New York, where he and the other finalists for the US Army Player of the Year award were honored, and that brings us to today.

There is an odd aura around Corley's recruitment, it's as though everyone knows where he's going to go, but the decision itself has been pushed back so many times that some believe he's looking for reasons to not choose Michigan State. I don't know if I personally subscribe to that theory, but the Buckeyes are going to get their last chance to land the four-star wide receiver this weekend. Game on.

ODEN AND THE BUCKEYES

When the Buckeyes' renewed search for a quarterback began in earnest about two weeks ago, one of the first names that popped up on radar was that of Louisville commitment Tylin Oden.

Wednesday night, Oden was visited by Ohio State quarterbacks' coach Tim Beck, who stopped by Columbia, Tennessee's Spring Hill High School for basketball practice prior to heading to Oden's house to meet with his family.

There's not a lot of information coming out of the meeting, although Oden did tell me that Beck was very pleased with the three varieties of chicken (barbecue, baked and fried), mac and cheese, green beans and corn. 

There is, at present, no plans for Oden to visit Ohio State and with the dead period starting next Monday, I imagine that this particular recruitment will be put on the shelf as the Buckeyes wait to see what happens with the aforementioned Dwayne Haskins. Oden will visit Louisville this weekend as the Cardinals attempt to solidify his pledge.

HAYES GOES IRISH

As expected, Ann Arbor four-star linebacker Daelin Hayes, who went from no-chance to suddenly almost a Buckeye in a matter of weeks, committed to Notre Dame Thursday in a ceremony at his school.

Hayes, the country's ninth-ranked linebacker, was a former USC commitment who re-opened his recruitment after Steve Sarkisian's departure.

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