The Hurry Up: Tate Martell, Big Stage for Sound Mind/Sound Body, Another Tight End Offer, Larry Johnson and Tim Beck in Las Vegas

By Jeremy Birmingham on May 5, 2016 at 7:45 pm
Haskell Garrett at Ohio State in April.
Urban Meyer and Haskell Garrett
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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.

MARTELL DECOMMITMENT, OHIO STATE SITUATION

Ok, so last night got weird, right?

Right?!

To recap: five-star 2017 quarterback Tate Martell decommitted from Texas A&M. Then the wide receiver coach in Aggieland had a poorly timed Twitter rant which led to four-star wide receiver Mannie Netherly following Martell's lead, leaving the Ags in the lurch as a result of the less-than-adult display from what was going to be his future position coach. Soon after that, five-star wide receiver Tyjon Lindsey took to Twitter and said he too would be removing A&M from consideration after seeing the reaction to Martell's decision from the TAMU staff.

Bad night, man.

Anyway, as for the Buckeyes – who visited Bishop Gorman Wednesday afternoon – and Martell, things may get very interesting from here. First and foremost with Martell, unlike a guy like Kellen Mond, is that recruiting is likely to be opened all the way up. Mond is taking a few select visits – as he told us Wednesday – but there are just a couple of schools he's taking a good look at before a final decision that could come in the next six weeks. I don't think this is a case of who the Buckeyes "like better" because both Mond and Martell have their pluses and minuses, but one in the hand is worth two in the bush and to get an Elite 11 quarterback in the mix heading into a busy recruiting summer is a big bonus. If Martell wants to be a Buckeye, he may have to let the coaching staff know that definitively much sooner than he may be ready to.

Martell has taken visits, including one to Ohio State, but it's a host of West Coast schools that are perhaps the biggest threat to the Buckeyes. Cal has been a popular name of late after hiring Jake Spavital, who was a key part to his recruitment with A&M. Oregon and USC are also being bantered about, but it's hard to know exactly what those schools are prioritizing at quarterback. The Ducks had a quarterback in their class – Ryan Kelley – but he just decommitted from Oregon so all kinds of proverbial balls are in the air.

ANOTHER DEFENSIVE TACKLE GETTING A LOOK?

While the Buckeyes were in Nevada to see the gaggle of prospects at Bishop Gorman, including commit Haskell Garrett, it appears that Ohio State defensive line coach Larry Johnson was at Arbor View High School checking in on four-star defensive tackle Greg Rogers.

Rogers is a 6-foot-4, 298-pounder and the fifth-ranked tackle in the country. He holds 24 offers, but the Buckeyes are not – at this point – one of them. A visit from Johnson is not just cursory, though it is perhaps a bit exploratory, with the Ohio State just wanting to get a read on what the Las Vegas star is thinking/feeling.

Ohio State has two defensive tackles committed but as they continue to pursue Marvin Wilson, Jay Tufele, Aubrey Solomon, Darnell Ewell and others, it's clear they're interested in picking up a third.

SOUND MIND/SOUND BODY GETTING TONS OF NAMES

Why are satellite camps important? Take a look a just a sampling of the schools that have – in a week – signed up to participate at the Sound Mind/Sound Body camps, the group that used to be headed by Michigan State director of player personnel Curtis Blackwell.

That's just their Detroit camp. They also have camps in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Houston, Atlanta, and Tampa. 

Despite the amount of discussion and controversy around these camps, some of it justified but most of complete buffoonery, it's stuff like this that matters. Kids from all over these huge metropolitan areas are going to go to one camp and get seen by hundreds of college coaches, even if the sheer number of kids makes the event feel a bit out of control.

This is a good thing. 

Ohio State has been a major draw at the camp the last few years and this year's group is likely to put them in contact with a number of big-time prospects from Michigan and the surrounding area. 

BUCKEYES OFFER 2018 TIGHT END

Ohio State continues their tight end offering spree - they offered 2017 Alexander Marshall Wednesday and a pair of 2018 prospects on Tuesday – and offered Pennsylvania's Zack Kuntz last night.

The Camp Hill product is the nation's top-ranked player at his position for 2018. The Buckeyes' offer is his 14th, putting them on a list that includes Notre Dame, Michigan, Penn State, Duke and others.

Kuntz is a big, rangy tight end that – at 6-foot-7 and just 215 pounds – has a lot of room to develop physically, though the raw tools are all in place. He and his family visited Ohio State in November for the Buckeyes' home game against Michigan State.

We've not really seen what an Ed Warinner-led tight end group will do on the field yet, but it's clear that as a recruiter he's looking for field-stretching pass-catchers.

AND FINALLY TONIGHT...BRUCE JUDSON

Former Ohio State pledge Bruce Judson made some news today when he told SECCountry.com that he decommitted because Urban Meyer forgot who he was during a visit last summer. So insulted by Meyer's inability to recognize him, despite he himself claiming they'd met just one time previously, at a satellite camp attended by hundreds of players, Judson decommitted from the Buckeyes.

Should Urban Meyer have known who Bruce Judson was? Yes. Judson visited for Friday Night Lights in the summer of 2014, he visited in November of 2014, he visited in April of 2015 and he visited in July of 2015. I can't personally speak for how many times he met Meyer face-to-face – because the truth is that for a player two years away from signing the head coach isn't usually that involved – but it's still not a great "look" from the Buckeyes' head coach. Meyer had no problem recognizing Richard LeCounte, who was with Judson, from his various visits with Raekwon McMillan, but that's just the way it goes sometimes.

Judson's commitment lasted 10 months, though after the dramatics with the Buckeyes and his former teammate at Cocoa, Jamel Dean, it was obvious to anyone paying attention that Judson wasn't going to be a part of the Ohio State class. I predicted he would end up out of the Buckeyes' group in March – of 2015 – because the writing was on the wall, from both sides. Meyer's "insult" may have just been the final blow to a relationship that was already on life support.

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