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.
CAM AKERS AND THE BUCKEYES STILL SMOLDERING
Next weekend, Ohio State is expected to host the country's top running back, Alabama commitment Najee Harris, who will visit Columbus for the first time. The 6-foot-2, 220-pound Harris won't be the first nationally-ranked tailback with Crimson Tide ties to visit the Buckeyes. Former Bama pledge Cam Akers, the third-ranked player at the position, has made the long trek from Clinton, Mississippi, to Ohio State twice since last July.
Since his decommitment, Akers has been all over the southeastern US, checking out schools and the football programs therein, hoping to find the "right" place for him, including Tennessee, where he visited last week and is expected to return to for their spring game on April 16.
According to people close to Akers, things have tightened up near the top of his list and it seems that right now two teams–Tennessee and Ohio State–are the ones to pay the most attention to.
"Things have been really good there," one source said of Akers and the Buckeyes. "But it's hard to get a kid from the South to go anywhere outside of the South, even a place like Ohio State. It seems like he wants to leave the state, so that helps."
One thing that could work against the Buckeyes in this pursuit is the depth chart. Ohio State's Mike Weber will be a redshirt sophomore when Akers arrives for next season, Antonio Williams is an early-enrollee who can compete for playing time this season and four-stars J.K. Dobbins and Todd Sibley are committed for 2017. At Tennessee, running backs Jalen Hurd and Alvin Kamara are both potential NFL early-entrants and Akers could see the path of least resistance with playing time in Knoxville.
Tony Alford has brought the Buckeyes to the table with Akers, but it could be a challenge to keep Ohio State in the mix as the spring and summer roll around.
PHIL JURKOVEC AND THE BUCKEYES
Recently, the country's top-ranked 2018 dual-threat quarterback, Gibsonia, Pennsylvania's Phil Jurkovec, made a two-day visit to Ohio State, where he and his father spent time with Tim Beck, Urban Meyer and the Buckeyes. The 6-foot-5, 190-pounder from Pine-Richland High School is a name that is going to be a national commodity soon–he added an offer from Alabama last week–and Meyer's Buckeyes made a good impression on the family.
"They do everything first class," Jim Jurkovec, the father of the junior-to-be shared with Eleven Warriors. "It's a top-notch organization, staff, and support staff. They are a competitive group."
With 13 offers and growing, Jurkovec's decision isn't going to be an easy one. Education, playing time, how the offense is arranged, comfort and relationships; it's all going to be considered. Notre Dame and Pittsburgh have been the two teams most discussed, but there's no hurry to make a choice between a number of great–but vastly different–options.
"The different colleges that are recruiting him have very distinct differences in each facet," Jurkovec said. "They are all very different schools that maybe fits in their own way. There's a lot to go over and time to do it."
LINDSEY TIMELINE?
Though he's not doing anymore interviews about his recruitment, at least for the time being, there's always time and reason to talk about five-star California wide receiver Tyjon Lindsey.
Now two weeks out from his first trip to Ohio State, Lindsey's recruitment is going to get a bit harder to follow because, as he narrows in on a decision, it's likely that more and more misinformation gets spread around.
Lindsey, the country's 21st-ranked 2017 prospect, recently released a Top 10 list of schools that included a handful of programs that seemed like a surprise, and it seems that way because it was a surprise. Ohio State, USC, Texas A&M and Oregon are the primary players have been for a while but schools like Alabama, Auburn, Notre Dame and Tennessee ending up on the list at least means they've got a shot if they can get him on campus.
The Buckeyes have a shot at a potentially epic wide receiver haul in this recruiting class, and Lindsey's a key component of that effort. He's the perfect slot receiver for Urban Meyer's offense and is flexible enough to use out of the backfield as well to exploit matchup advantages. For Ohio State, the sooner a commitment happens the better coming off of the March trip.
"Everything on his visit was really good," the source said. "Look for it to happen this summer."
SENIOR SKIP…YEAR
It's hard to be too upset when an high school athlete and his family make a decision that they feel is in their best interest, especially as it pertains to a college choice. Still, we don't always appreciate what we don't understand and the world of college football recruiting has gotten bigger and more wild and overall just kind of "ew" sometimes.
Take, if you will, the latest example of "Is This Where We're Headed?:"
#SpursUp pic.twitter.com/3peTZBvSv6
— Jake Bentley (@JakeBentley19) April 6, 2016
That's former 2017, now 2016, South Carolina commitment Jake Bentley, announcing that he's skipping his senior year of high school to take a shot at Will Muschamp's wide-open quarterback derby. His father, Bobby Bentley, is the running backs' coach for the Gamecocks, so at the least he'll have family around while he's skipping out of town.
Bentley isn't the first player to make this drastic move, but it's not something that has happened enough to numb me to the news. In 2003, Southern Cal's John David Booty left Shreveport (La.) Evangel Christian and headed to the glitz and glamour of Trojan Town, where he played in five games as a true freshman behind Matt Leinart.
At South Carolina, Bentley will head into a situation that most quarterbacks would be fond of. Former Ohio State target Lorenzo Nunez injured his knee and will miss all of spring practice, freshman Brandon McIlwain enrolled early but has no college experience and Perry Orth, who played a lot of minutes last year, was hardly lights out.
Regardless of how this plays out for Bentley, it's impossible to deny that this is a bold strategy, Cotton. Like players not signing letters of intent and the recruiting calendar moving way up across the country, it's another sign of how big the business of college football has become.
Thoughts?
