WESTERVILLE, Ohio — Antjuan Simmons knew he wasn't going to stop hearing from his home-state school, Michigan, when he announced his intentions to play football at its biggest rival.
"It's definitely what I expected and definitely what the Ohio State coaches expected," Simmons told Eleven Warriors Saturday.
Simmons pledged to the Buckeyes March 1, despite the fact his high school sits right in Michigan Stadium's backyard. Wolverine head coach Jim Harbaugh, defensive coordinator Don Brown and linebackers coach Chris Partridge won't rest until he reconsiders his options and takes a long, hard look at staying home.
"They've been real active in recruiting me," Simmons said of Michigan. "Coach Brown, he came by about two or three weeks ago to see me and said he was going to try and come by this week or whenever his schedule can. They've been real active. Coach Harbaugh's been reaching out, Coach Brown, Coach Partridge, all those guys."
But Simmons is solid in his commitment to the Buckeyes, even taking it a step deeper and recruiting other talent from Michigan to Ohio State.
"I talk real heavy to all the Michigan guys, help Coach (Kerry) Coombs out with that," Simmons said.
Coombs is the ringleader in the state of Michigan for Ohio State's recruiting efforts. He's led the way in establishing a pipeline of sorts from Cass Tech High School, where current Buckeyes Damon Webb, Joshua Alabi and Mike Weber hail. Simmons goes to Ann Arbor Pioneer High School, but his situation is the exact same. The pressure is on from those around him to flip back to big blue and stay home to play college football.
“I talk real heavy to all the Michigan guys, help Coach Coombs out with that.”– Antjuan Simmons
"When you are choosing to leave your home state in the rivalry game, you know that you are going to face some consternation from your neighbors and your classmates and your teachers and those kinds of people, so it takes a certain depth of character to be able to do that," Coombs said April 20. "And I think that you think about that. I know we have those conversations prior to that commitment about what they should expect, and so I think that’s well thought out before they do it."
Simmons' high school coach told Eleven Warriors the same thing when he spoke about his star linebacker.
"The relationships, him feeling comfortable, that was his big thing and that’s exactly what Ohio State did," Pioneer head coach Jari Brown said in March. "Not to mention with them, it was his mom, she really felt comfortable with the staff and got to know them really well and I think it was just a natural fit."
Simmons told Eleven Warriors he wouldn't consider his recruitment "completely done" for the simple fact signing day sits nine months away. But as a four-star linebacker with terrific instincts and a quick first step in the mold of Joshua Perry or potentially Darron Lee, Simmons projects as an impact player. Saturday, he showed why. Simmons was a standout performer at the Nike's The Opening regional at Westerville North High School, one of seven players to earn an invitation to the national showcase in Oregon in two months.
"I’ve been working for this since I was a freshman, since I heard about The Opening, watching guys like Mike Weber, Daelin Hayes, all those guys, Donnie Corley competing and watching it on TV," Simmons said. "It’s just a huge blessing for me to get invited."
Simmons felt that way about earning a scholarship offer from Urban Meyer and Ohio State. And he wants to bring more talent with him to Columbus.
"People really sleep on Michigan. We have a lot of talent there," Simmons said. "When these satellite camps get going, it’s going to be a lot of teams coming up there. Sound Mind Sound Body, we have what, the whole SEC coming up to Detroit to watch us all compete. It’s just going to be crazy."
Sound Mind Sound Body comes to Detroit June 9-10 and prospects from everywhere are evaluated by a wide range of college coaches. One of those prospects is likely to be Cincinnati's Amir Riep, a four-star cornerback Simmons said he wanted to speak to Saturday in Columbus but couldn't because the Colerain star did not make the trip.
Riep is considered a likely piece to Ohio State's 2017 class, but holds a slew of offers, among them Michigan State and Michigan.
So yet another top prospect is considering playing for Harbaugh and the Wolverines, but Simmons is doing his best to get him to Columbus. Just add it to his to-do list.
"Just taking it one day at a time," Simmons said. "That's all you can do, really."
