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.
AN HONEST CONVERSATION
On Wednesday, Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Schiano talked about the difficulties of balancing Cotton Bowl preparation and college football's first Early Signing Period.
“It was harder than it’s ever been, and I’ve been doing this for 30 years,” he said. “The period leading up to this bowl game has been the hardest to juggle everything, but you can’t sacrifice [preparation for the game] and you can’t sacrifice recruiting, so you choose not to sleep, I guess. You had to really be as efficient as you've ever been at your preparation in both area. It was a group of guys that went really hard, and we're going on adrenaline right now. When when this game's over, I'm sure everyone's going to need to take a little nap.”
The process is far from perfect, and it will undoubtedly take several recruiting cycles to iron out the kinks. This spring, college football's various legislative committees — which includes the American Football Coaches Association, the NCAA Division I Council and the Collegiate Commissioners Association — will meet several times in an attempt to do just that.
Schiano, meanwhile, offered his own take on how to improve the recruiting process, and he has the prospect's best interest in mind.
“I'm probably a little out there,” he said, “but I think if you offer a kid, he can accept it right then. That'll change the recruiting process [for the good]. How do some teams offer 400 kids when you only have 25 scholarships to give. If it's binding, you offer him and he takes it, it's done. That doesn't play into the traditional signing date and those things, but that's what will change things the most. There wouldn't be a lot of the shenanigans that go on now.”
The Buckeyes are on the low end of the spectrum when it comes to handing out offers, with only roughly 175 reported during the 2018 recruiting cycle — for comparison's sake, Louisville led all Power 5 schools with more than 400 reported offers. But with that said, the current state of affairs involves quite a bit of conversation between coaches and prospects about whether their offer is committable the moment it is extended or if they are one of the many who have to see how the process plays out.
“The problem is people aren't honest with that,” Schiano said. “I think what Urban [Meyer] does a very good job with and what our program is about is straight down the middle. We're going to tell you exactly where we stand and where you stand with us. That's not all over the place, though, I can promise you that. That's one of the things I don't think is a positive in college football recruiting.”
THE BEGINNING STAGES
Before heading down to Dallas, Ohio State invited Cleveland St. Ignatius inside linebacker Tommy Eichenberg to campus for one of the Buckeyes' bowl practices earlier this month.
Great visit to Ohio State the other week. Thanks to @markpantoni and @OSUCoachMeyer for having me! pic.twitter.com/2aJz3FeqYH
— Tommy Eichenberg (@tommyike41) December 26, 2017
“The experience was surreal,” Eichenberg told Eleven Warriors.
The 6-foot-3, 225-pound Eichenberg is not yet ranked by any major recruiting sites and his only offers at the moment are from Kent State and Toledo, but it's clear he'll be among the top-rated inside linebackers in Ohio for the Class of 2019 by this time next year. Playing for one of the state's premier programs will only help him garner attention.
Eichenberg's older brother, Liam, is currently an offensive tackle at Notre Dame, and has seen a considerable amount of playing time as he made the two-deep this fall. He held an offer from the Buckeyes, but picked the Fighting Irish in April 2015.
“I always used to go one visits with my brother when schools were recruiting him, and now I'm going through the same experience he did,” the younger Eichenberg said. “It's awesome. When I saw him go through the process, I wanted to do the same exacty thing he did. I learned how much I really wanted to play football in college by watching him go through the process.”
While on campus, Eichenberg spent time with head coach Urban Meyer and linebackers coach Billy Davis. It was his first time meeting either.
“They were very impressed with my film and told me they were very interested in me,” Eichenberg said. “Personally, I'd say my physicality [impresses them].”
Like so many other Ohioans, Eichenberg would love to land an offer. For now, though, he's just focused on building a relationship with the staff and getting back to campus as many times as possible.
“I've been a fan of them since [I was] a little kid, so it would be awesome if that happened,” he said.
