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.
FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS
Several Ohio State commits will be featured on national television this fall as part of the GEICO ESPN High School Football Showcase, an 11-week, 18-game schedule that pits some of the nation’s top programs against one another.
Complete details of what's to come in this season's GEICO ESPN High School Football Showcase.
— Who's Next (@WhosNextHS) August 8, 2018
READ: https://t.co/qX03IQQRN5 pic.twitter.com/X3bmIwd92o
Among this year’s slate of games, Scottsdale, Arizona, Chaparral — led by Buckeyes four-star quarterback commit Jack Miller III and four-star running back pledge Darvon Hubbard — will take on Phoenix Pinnacle on Friday, Oct. 19. The Pioneers are quarterbacked by Oklahoma five-star commit Spencer Rattler.
The showcase wraps up with a highly anticipated matchup between top-ranked IMG Academy and No. 10 Hoover, Alabama — which you may recall from MTV’s Two-A-Days fame. Ohio State four-star cornerback commit Lejond Cavazos and the Ascenders are looking to complete their fourth-consecutive undefeated season.
Another notable game on the schedule features a trio of the Buckeyes’ top targets, as Washington D.C. St. John’s College goes up against Good Counsel, Maryland. The No. 5 Cadets are led by five-star linebacker Mekhail Sherman, four-star wide receiver Rakim Jarrett and four-star defensive tackle Tre Williams, all of whom visited Columbus for the first time last month.
In addition to the teams mentioned above, this year’s showcase also includes No. 3 Grayson, Georgia; No. 12 Las Vegas Bishop Gorman; and No. 16 Archer, Georgia. Every game will be televised on ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU.
SOME WELL-DESERVED MOVEMENT
With summer camps and 7-on-7 tournaments in the rearview mirror and actual football right around the corner, a new batch of 247Sports Composite Player Rankings — which combines prospect ratings from 247Sports, ESPN and Rivals — were unveiled earlier this week.
Ohio State holds commitments from 15 prospects, which is good for the eighth-best class in the country and No. 1 in the Big Ten. They hail from 10 different states, which includes three from within the state’s borders; two apiece from Georgia, Indiana and Tennessee; and one from Florida, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, Texas and West Virginia.
You can see where the Buckeyes’ pledges stack up nationally (as well as their movement up or down the rankings) below:
- No. 14 (-2): Texas five-star wide receiver Garrett Wilson
- No. 36 (+1): Georgia four-star center Harry Miller
- No. 65 (--): West Virginia four-star offensive guard Doug Nester
- No. 124 (+6): New Jersey four-star athlete “Rocket” Ronnie Hickman
- No. 137 (+4): Lexington four-star linebacker Cade Stover
- No. 158 (+3): Indiana four-star running back Sampson James
- No. 162 (+9): Florida four-star cornerback Jordan Battle
- No. 197 (-3): Tennessee four-star linebacker Kane Patterson
- No. 240 (+88): Georgia four-star athlete Steele Chambers
- No. 252 (--): Michigan four-star quarterback Dwan Mathis
- No. 290 (-5): Mentor four-star offensive tackle Ryan Jacoby
- No. 325 (-9): Mentor four-star defensive end Noah Potter
- No. 552 (-2): Indiana three-star athlete Craig Young
- No. 613 (+2): Maryland three-star safety Bryson Shaw
- No. 718 (+199): Tennessee three-star tight end Cormontae Hamilton
