The Hurry Up: Ohio State Offers Texas Defensive Tackle Lloyd Murray Jr. While Several Signees, Top Targets Are Named to All-State Teams

By Andrew Lind on December 27, 2017 at 6:50 pm
Lloyd Murray Jr.
Lloyd Murray Jr.
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The Hurry Up is your nightly dose of updates from the Ohio State football recruiting trail, keeping tabs on the latest from commits and targets from around the country.

FRACKING FOR OIL

It's hard to believe Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett's time at Ohio State will come to an end on Friday following the Cotton Bowl against USC. I mean, it feels like just yesterday he was thrust into the starting role after Braxton Miller suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in preseason camp.

Thirty-three school records later and counting, it's clear the city of Wichita Falls, Texas, has treated the Buckeyes well. So why not go back in search of another future star?

The staff did just that on Tuesday night when it offered Hirschi — Rider's crosstown rival — three-star defensive tackle Lloyd Murray Jr.

The 6-foot-2, 310-pound Murray is considered the 53rd-best defensive tackle and No. 858 prospect overall in the Class of 2019, but with nearly two dozen offers from programs such as Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, LSU, Notre Dame, Texas A&M, USC, Virginia Tech and Wisconsin, he looks to be in line for a ratings update sooner rather than later.

Murray was actually committed to the Seminoles for a few months this spring, but felt he made a decision on his future too early. I don't anticipate he'll go far from home when he makes his final choice, but an official visit to Columbus is likely since Murray has hoped for an offer from the Buckeyes for a while now.

THE RUNNERS-UP

Not only have Ohio State and USC spent the last month preparing the Cotton Bowl, both programs were among the finalists for Fairfield five-star offensive tackle Jackson Carman. And though he surprised many by choosing Clemson one week ago, it's become increasingly clear both the Buckeyes and Trojans are one of the few programs in the country that have national appeal and can land prospects from outside their traditional recruiting hotbeds seemingly every cycle.

“We’re going to do that year in and year out,” offensive coordinator Tee Martin said during his media availability on Wednesday. “We feel like we can go anywhere in the country and sign players with our brand. Not only our brand, but No. 15 school in the country from an academic standpoint, city of Los Angeles, the tradition, the NFL pipeline and the coaches that you’re going to get now and the winning program with the opportunity to win a national championship.

“You can sell that anywhere, and we’ve had great success [outside the state],” he continued. “We only leave California for players that we think are first-round picks. And whether it’s Leonard Williams, whether it’s Nelson Agholor, we’ve been pretty head-on with that, not only just recently but in the history of our school, and we felt like [Carman] was one of those players. And regardless, it wasn’t a shot at Ohio State. They come in California and recruit players, too. So there are brands that go national, and we just felt like we had a shot to get him.”

Martin was also asked about in-state recruiting, as USC obviously plays in one of the country's most talent-rich states, which led to a rather interesting response.

"We haven't lost a player we wanted out of our state," Martin said.

In the last two years alone, which spans Martin's tenure at the Trojans' offensive coordinator, the program has watched as Ohio State five-star offensive guard Wyatt Davis, UCLA five-star defensive end Jaelen Phillips, Alabama five-star running back Najee Harris, Florida State five-star safety Jaiden Woodbey and UCLA five-star cornerback Darnay Holmes all chose to play their college ball elsewhere despite holding an offer from USC.

Based on that, I find it hard to believe the Trojans truly didn't want some of the soon-to-be biggest stars in college football.

IN GOOD HANDS

Ohio State three-star quarterback signee Matthew Baldwin suffered a knee injury in the state semifinals two weekends ago, but attempted to play through the pain as Lake Travis went for its seventh state title on Saturday. He went down on the first play of the game, and watched from the sidelines in street clothes and a brace as the Cavaliers fell to Allen and four-star quarterback target Grant Tisdale, 35-33.

Though his mother told Eleven Warriors the injury wasn't as serious as initially feared — “a sprained meniscus," team doctors told her — Baldwin still hasn't had a full evaluation of his knee. It appears that'll be done by the Buckeyes' medical staff next week when he arrives on campus.

“They said they want to take care of it,” Baldwin told Cleveland.com's Bill Landis. “If it did require surgery, they want to do the surgery.”

Baldwin is an early enrollee and will begin classes on Jan. 8. He's had a lot on his plate these last few weeks in order to make that happen, too, including practice, finals and CBEs (credit by exams).

BEST OF THE BEST

Though Ohio State five-star defensive tackle signee Taron Vincent and four-star linebacker signee Teradja Mitchell were among the five finalists, USA TODAY Sports last week named uncommitted five-star linebacker Solomon Tuliaupupu* the American Family Insurance All-USA Defensive Player of the Year.

Clemson five-star quarterback signee Trevor Lawrence, meanwhile, was named the pulbications offensive player of the year, which is chosen by sports columnist Jim Halley in consultation with various high school coaches and recruiting analysts.

The newspaper also announced its all-state football teams on Wednesday morning, which included a number of Ohio State commits and several top targets.

They are as follows:

  • Five-star defensive tackle signee Taron Vincent – first-team all-Florida
  • Four-star defensive tackle signee Tommy Togiai – first-team all-Idaho*
  • Four-star wide receiver signee Cameron Brown – first-team all-Missouri
  • Five-star tight end signee Jeremy Ruckert – first-team all-New York*
  • Four-star offensive lineman Matthew Jones – first-team all-New York
  • Four-star wide receiver signee L'Christian “Blue” Smith – first-team all-Ohio
  • Four-star linebacker signee Dallas Gant – first-team all-Ohio
  • Four-star defensive end target Tyreke Smith – first-team all-Ohio*
  • Four-star offensive guard target Zeke Correll – first-team all-Ohio
  • Four-star defensive end target Noah Potter – first-team all-Ohio
  • Four-star defensive end target Zach Harrison – first-team all-Ohio
  • Four-star linebacker target Cade Stover – first-team all-Ohio
  • Four-star safety signee Josh Proctor – first-team all-Oklahoma
  • Three-star safety signee Marcus Hooker – first-team all-Pennsylvania
  • Four-star offensive tackle signee Max Wray – first-team all-Tennessee
  • Four-star linebacker signee Teradja Mitchell – first-team all-Virginia*
  • Four-star linebacker signee K'Vaughan Pope – first-team all-Virginia
  • Four-star offensive tackle commit Doug Nester - first-team all-West Virginia

*Named state's offensive or defensive player of the year, as well.

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