The Hurry Up: Ohio State's Big Weekend, The Opening Hits New Jersey, SEC Recruiting Issues

By Jeremy Birmingham on May 1, 2016 at 7:45 pm
Urban Meyer at the NFL Draft
68 Comments

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.

RECRUITS REACTION TO BIG NFL DRAFT WEEKEND

You may have heard that Ohio State had a pretty decent weekend.

No school was as well represented in the NFL Draft as the Buckeyes, who saw 12 of their 15 draft eligible players selected in the seven-round draft and the other three players quickly snatched up via free agency.

As you can imagine, a weekend that big – with that kind of national exposure – certainly didn't go unnoticed by the many recruits Ohio State is chasing throughout the country.

Trevon Grimes, one of the longer-recruited players in the 2017 class, was excited for Joey Bosa, the brother of his teammate and soon-to-be Buckeye Nick Bosa.

He was quick to notice a trend developing for the Buckeyes.

Grimes was not the only star in Florida's 2017 class that caught notice of the big weekend. IMG's Kellen Mond was on high-alert.

Reaction from recruits all over the country was similar as you'd expect. Ohio State's coaching staff sells their program to players and their families by underlining a very simple philosophy: come to Ohio State, work hard, buy in to the program and you'll get a chance to be an NFL player. 

The results are speaking for themselves.

BUCKEYES CAMPING AT ST. THOMAS AQUINAS?

Speaking of Grimes, it appears that – with the NCAA's satellite camp reversal – he and his St. Thomas Aquinas (Fort Lauderdale) teammates will be spending some face-to-face time with the Buckeyes this summer. If things pan out the way they're being reported though, that afternoon may be a touch awkward.

Last summer, Urban Meyer and the Buckeyes held a camp at FAU in Boca Raton and it was a great opportunity to strengthen their bonds players like Bosa, Grimes, Ben Victor and others.

If Michigan shows up the same day at St. Thomas, which I can imagine will be avoided at any cost if possible, I'd recommend sticking close to Twitter that day for all the bizarreness you can handle.

Outside of Fort Lauderdale, the Buckeyes's camp at Lawrenceville, Georgia's Central Gwinnett High School on June 16 is back on.

If you're a reader in the south and have a high school age child that wants to participate, registration for that camp begins Monday. You can sign up here.

THE OPENING HITS NEW JERSEY

Next weekend Nike's The Opening will make the first of two Midwest stops – here in Columbus – but this weekend the country's elite recruiting combine was at the home of the New York Jets in Florham, New Jersey. 

In all, six different prospects, all skill position players, earned an invitation to The Opening, which will take place in Oregon this July 7-10.

A.J. Dillon, a Michigan commitment, was one of the stars of the day. None of Ohio State's 13 commitments participated in this regional, but it seems that things have started to heat up with the Buckeyes and Philadelphia's D'Andre Swift, who told Rivals.com analyst Marc Givler following the event he was working to set up a visit to Columbus this summer.

Swift is one of my personal favorite tailbacks in the 2017 class on tape. He's a five-star prospect according to 247Sports.com.

I'll try and run Swift down myself this evening and get a full update to you all tomorrow.

Myself, Tim Shoemaker and Eric Seger will all be at the event next weekend in Columbus. Tim and I will also head to Chicago the following weekend for the regional in the Windy City.

ROBERTSTON'S RECRUITMENT FINALLY COMES TO AN END...RIGHT?

In case you missed it, five-star 2016 prospect Demetris Robertson, who had not chosen a school yet for this coming fall, decided Sunday where he'll be attending college. 

Robertson's case, as we've discussed before, is an interesting one.

He was reportedly waiting to make an announcement because he was working to gain admission into Stanford, who had long been his favorite. Not only did he skip on signing day, but he's chosen to eschew a national letter of intent all together, instead opting to sign only financial agreements with his top schools. That move allows him to still potentially end up elsewhere if the mood were to strike him, and reports indicated he'd likely continue conversations with Georgia, a natural fit for the Savannah product, citing that "anything" is possible in his recruitment. 

THE SEC AND THE TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD WEEKEND 

The bad news for the SEC started last week on Thursday, hours before the start of the NFL Draft, with the aforementioned satellite camp decision.

Moments before the start of the draft, Alabama leaked out the news that one of their premier recruiters, defensive line coach Bo Davis, would be resigning – effective immediately – from his post on the coaching staff amid concerns (read: getting caught) about recruiting violations. 

Then Ohio State owned the first round of the NFL Draft. In fact, were it not for the absolute circus surrounding Laremy Tunsil, no one would have talked about anything but Ohio State on Thursday night. Instead, more allegations about cheating at Ole Miss have emerged and they'll certainly be getting a knock on their doors from some fine folks with their local branch of the NCAA.

On Saturday, new Cleveland Browns' receiver Ricardo Louis, who spent his college career at Auburn, used his draft platform as a launching pad for some damning words about the Tigers and how they failed him as a player.

From SECCountry.com: 

"They (the Browns) understand that I was in a scheme at Auburn that didn’t require me to run very many routes, very diverse or complex routes and the fact that I was not developed as receiver at the time."

Ohio State and others are working nonstop to promote the idea that being "developed here" is the key to big NFL dollars, as this new series of video illustrates.

Draft weekend can be one of the biggest influences in recruiting success and that kind of statement from a player leaving your program can leave a mark.

68 Comments

Sherrone Moore Impressed By Ohio State Defense and Wide Receivers, Says “All Bets Are Off” in The Game and Hopes Will Johnson and Colston Loveland Can Play

Sherrone Moore

Five Things to Know About Michigan As Buckeyes Try to Secure Big Ten Title Bid, Catharsis

Sherrone Moore
View 68 Comments