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.
Buckeyes offer No. 3 Virginia prospect
Tristan Leigh, the No. 3-ranked 2021 player in Virginia, added Ohio State to his long list of offers, as the Buckeyes became the 20th program to offer the 6-foot-5, 265-pound four-star offensive tackle out of Robinson Secondary School.
Leigh told Eleven Warriors he spoke with the Buckeyes a little bit last spring, and he says he will be visiting Columbus on Nov. 23 for the Penn State game.
Extremely excited and humbled to receive my 20th D1 offer from Ohio State University!!!#GoBucks @ryandaytime @CoachCookOL @CoachStudOL @OhioStateFB pic.twitter.com/HzixGubnF1
— Tristan Leigh (@Leigh71Tristan) September 24, 2019
Leigh, the nation’s 177th-ranked junior and 24th-rated offensive tackle, became the 24th offensive tackle to get a Buckeyes offer, one that could have come in part due to Riley Mahlman out of Lakeville South (Minn.) committing to Wisconsin.
The Buckeyes already have Ohio’s best offensive lineman and the state’s No. 2-ranked recruit, Ben Christman, committed to the program, and they are looking for a bookend to solidify the line.
Offers are out to fellow four-stars Donovan Jackson, who would be a huge get for the 2021 class as the nation’s No. 35-ranked player, No. 4 player out of Texas and No. 8 offensive tackle in the country, and J.C. Latham, the nation’s 77th-ranked player who is teammates with 2020 commit Lejond Cavazos.
Ohio State would have two sturdy offensive tackles to build its line around if Leigh were to commit, and Leigh would also get the opportunity to be thrust into one of the nation’s elite programs at churning out NFL players — which would help the junior accomplish a high goal.
“I would say I was more excited than surprised [to get the offer],” Leigh said. “It feels great because they are one of the best schools at getting linemen to the next level, and that is my ultimate goal.”
Ohio State to host four-star corner
I’ve talked a lot about how big of a recruiting tool the Georgia-Notre Dame game last weekend because it deserved the postgame hype.
The Buckeyes won’t be able to get up to quite that level of hype next Saturday night in a matchup against Michigan State. But under the lights, the game should still serve up an atmosphere for a laundry list of commits and targets set to converge on Columbus.
That list now includes four-star 2021 cornerback Jakailin Johnson, the No. 1-ranked player in Missouri and the nation’s No. 6-rated corner, who announced he will be visiting Ohio State on Oct. 5.
Back in Columbus the 5th @OhioStateFB
— JK Johnson (@jakailin6) September 24, 2019
The 6-foot, 170-pound St. Louis native, ranked 69th nationally, holds offers from Notre Dame, Florida, Oklahoma, Oregon and Georgia.
Johnson is the third-highest ranked corner on the Buckeyes’ offer list, just in front of fellow four-star Latrell McCutchin, an Alabama commit sitting out his junior season due to a torn ACL.
USC joins Ohio State in adding five-star
Heading into Monday night, the only programs who had signed a five-star prospect were Ohio State (Jack Sawyer), Oklahoma (Brock Vandagriff), Michigan (J.J. McCarthy) and Washington (Sam Huard).
USC made itself No. 5 on that list with a huge commitment of 2021 quarterback Jake Garcia just two days after the Trojans were thought to be left scrambling when 2020 dual-threat quarterback Bryce Young flipped his commitment to Alabama.
COMMITTED #FightOn pic.twitter.com/ThSWvfi6Mk
— Jake Garcia (@JakeGarcia14) September 24, 2019
Young had been committed to USC since July 2018, and it was a blow to the Trojans’ future — for about 48 hours, when Garcia’s announcement softened that hit a little bit.
