WESTERVILLE, Ohio — One of the last players to leave the field Saturday afternoon following The Opening’s regional camp at Westerville North High School was five-star wide receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones. He posed for photos and did multiple interviews with a number of different media outlets.
That’s just the way it goes sometimes when you’re one of the most sought-after recruits in the country, though. Everybody wants a shot to have a conversation in an attempt to find out the latest on what, right now, seems like an unpredictable recruitment.
As expected, Peoples-Jones didn’t say a whole lot relating to his recruitment; he’s pretty wide-open at this point. What he did do, though, was prove why he has a scholarship offer from nearly every major college program on the country and he did that on the field before he did all of those interviews and posed for a ton of photos.
In what was considered by many to be one of the strongest regional camps of the season, Peoples-Jones was one of the standouts. He earned an invitation to The Opening for the second-straight year and made his case that his current ranking as the nation’s No. 1 wide receiver was not by accident.
DPJ (@dpeoplesjones) showing why he's a WR. Backflipping for back to back @TheOpening invites! #GetOpen pic.twitter.com/PzV9u63afx
— B/R The Future (@BR_TheFuture) May 7, 2016
Peoples-Jones released a list of his top-10 schools back in January, one that included the likes of Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Alabama, Notre Dame and more. He said Saturday his plan is to trim that list down to five schools, but there’s still no timetable for when that cut will be made.
“Just whenever I feel most comfortable I’ll probably come out with a top-five at some point just so I can focus on those five,” he said. “I don’t really know when that’s going to come, but it’s probably going to come with the more visits I take. As soon as I get as comfortable as I want to be then I’ll make a top-five and I’ll go from there, take my officials and ultimately make my decision.”
The Buckeyes remain, in many eyes, one of the top contenders to land Peoples-Jones though there seem to be about five other schools who think they’re in the same boat. Peoples-Jones has a strong relationship with Ohio State cornerbacks coach Kerry Coombs — the Buckeyes’ main recruiter in the state of Michigan — dating back to when Peoples-Jones was a freshman in high school and Ohio State was recruiting the likes of Damon Webb, Mike Weber and Josh Alabi out of Cass Technical High School in Detroit.
In fact, Peoples-Jones recalled the exact date the Buckeyes offered him a scholarship.
“May 16, 2014,” he said. “[Coombs] has definitely been around for a long time.”
Webb, Weber and Alabi all wound up heading south to Columbus as the Buckeyes continue to build that pipeline from Cass Tech to Ohio State. Both Webb and Weber were top-100 players coming out of high school in 2014 and 2015 and the potential addition of Peoples-Jones would give the Buckeyes three top-100 players in the last four years from the Detroit powerhouse.
“Mikey and Webb, they’ve been through this process before,” Peoples-Jones said. “They’re not necessarily recruiting me to Ohio State, but they’re just telling me what to look for and what to stay out of.
“They’re not going to lie to me, they’re going to keep it real with me. I knew them before they went to Ohio State when they were going through their recruiting processes so they’re going to keep it real with me.”
The Buckeyes are awfully tight on scholarship numbers for the 2017 class and that’s no secret. But there is still a chance Ohio State’s wide receiver haul could be one for the ages should it land all of its top targets. The Buckeyes are in solid position with five-stars Trevon Grimes (No. 4 in 247Sports’ composite) and Tyjon Lindsey (No. 5).
Peoples-Jones is rated as the nation’s No. 1 wide receiver and even though Ohio State maybe isn’t is the same position with him as it is with Grimes and Lindsey, there’s no question he remains as one of the Buckeyes’ top targets at the position. There are no concrete plans at this point, but Peoples-Jones said he intends to make a return trip to Ohio State at some point again this summer.
There is still no timeframe for a decision as the top-five schools release seems to be the next order of business, and there’s still no timetable for that, either.
It’s likely going to be a long wait for one of the nation’s top players.
“Really just whenever I feel most comfortable. There’s not a timetable or anything like that,” Peoples-Jones said. “Just when I feel the most comfort that’s when I’ll make my decision.”
