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 another DeMatha Catholic defensive player
Ohio State coaches have been all over the road this week to focus almost exclusively on locking down the 2020 class, doing some last-minute relationship-building before the early signing period next week – and focusing on a few 2021 guys here and there.
That’s apparently not stopping them from taking a peek into the distant future in the 2022 class. The sophomore class has steadily seen a patient growth in the number of Ohio State offers being dished out, and you can expect to start really seeing a rise in offers in the winter and spring.
On Tuesday night, the Buckeyes' 2022 offer sheet increased to a total of 20 with outside linebacker Jaishawn Barham of DeMatha (Md.) Catholic announcing he had received an early offer from the scarlet and gray.
Blessed To Receive An Offer From THE Ohio State University #Gobuckeyes pic.twitter.com/Ytqhs2kBpF
— JB (@JaishawnBarham) December 11, 2019
Barham is a 6-foot-3, 230-pound monster of a linebacker already, and it’s scary to think he’s got two years to grow. He can explode off the edge to blitz, contain a run with his lateral movements and aggressively chase down a ball carrier. He has great instincts in terms of play recognition, has a good feel for filling gaps, doesn’t overextend himself and already has exceptional ball skills in pass coverage that will only improve over the next two seasons.
Every single one of his plays in his sophomore season highlight film are marked with a “Level Up” tag on Hudl. Ohio State would certainly be leveling up with Barham if he chooses the Buckeyes. He’ll likely end up receiving 35 to 40 offers, and the other powerhouse programs around the country will eventually get in on him, so the Buckeyes are getting their foot in the door now.
He’s preliminarily rated as a five-star prospect, ranked the No. 39 overall player in the country, No. 2 outside linebacker and No. 3 recruit in Maryland in the 2022 class (all per 247Sports’ own metrics, as composite rankings have not yet come out for sophomores). He most likely will end up as DeMatha Caholic’s latest high-end four-star or five-star prospect as his career advances.
More on Maryland prospects
There’s a player on Ohio State’s roster from DeMatha Catholic who seems to be having a moderately successful season. It’s been piquing defensive prospects’ interest nationally, but in his home state, Chase Young’s success is really making an impact.
The Heisman finalist signed with the Buckeyes as one of the gems of a star-studded 2017 class that has made its mark on Ohio State history.
The Buckeyes offered three combined players from DeMatha Catholic in the 2018 and 2019 classes (Austin Fontaine, Nick Cross and DeMarcco Hellams; Fontaine and Cross went to Maryland and Hellams went to Alabama) and followed that up with offers to running back MarShawn Lloyd (South Carolina commit) and defensive end Coziah Izzard (Penn State commit) in 2020.
They have gone 0-for-5 on those guys, even though Lloyd was a Buckeye lean at one point in his career, but it’s possible Young’s explosive season could end up changing that tune.
Greg Penn III is another top-of-the-line DeMatha linebacker worth keeping an eye on. Penn, who shares a linebacking unit with Barham, announced an offer from the Buckeyes on May 15 and placed them in his final top 10 on Sept. 22. He has a strong relationship with Al Washington (stop us if you’ve heard that before), who would love to bring the No. 5 inside linebacker and top-10 Maryland prospect into the fold.
Maryland has steadily been an area of focus for Ohio State recruiting. Larry Johnson has worked his reputation on the East Coast over the last handful of years, and Washington has followed suit. It looks like the state could be an increasingly bigger focus area, especially with the success Young has had.
Everybody Has Their Own Story , But You Wouldnt Believe Mine ... #TOP10 pic.twitter.com/MB01t7HOe3
— Greg Penn III (@3golivee_) September 23, 2019
Barham is the first Maryland player in the 2022 class to receive an offer from Ohio State, and there are nine from the state the 2021 class with offers. The key three (hey, I like that rhyme) to continue monitoring closely are Penn, Demeioun Robinson and Marcus Bradley.
Robinson and Bradley are teammates at Quince Orchard, and Bradley is a former DeMatha player. Robinson would be a class gem, and Bradley would be a developmental piece who could grow into a sturdy player along the defensive line.
Bradley visited Ohio State twice in a three-week span in November and has Ohio State and Virginia as his top two options.
Stellato gets ratings bump
We told you about the 2020 class’ most underrated prospect Cameron Martinez and his jump from three stars to four stars on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, another underrated player got a deserved boost.
Three-star 2021 receiver Troy Stellato was bumped to a four-star prospect on Rivals, which should help increase his 247Sports Composite ranking.
Beyond blessed to have earned my 4thbeen working so hard to get to this point still so much work to be done @rivalsmike @GibbonsFootball pic.twitter.com/gzvf0IoDhl
— Troy Stellato (@troystellato) December 11, 2019
He will end up as a four-star player down the road but right now is still the most underrated recruit on Ohio State’s 2021 target list, right up there with safety/bullet Jaylen Johnson.
Schiano adding numbers
Greg Schiano officially began his second helping as Rutgers head coach just eight days ago, but he’s already averaging more than one commit for every two days he’s been on the job.
That included nabbing two commitments in the 2020 class on Wednesday, as three-star cornerback Malachi Melton and three-star athlete Robert Longerbeam announced their commitments to Rutgers.
COMMITTED... Thanking God for every blessing he has given me. I will be representing my home state! #ChopNation @RUCoachFran @GregSchiano pic.twitter.com/7BYUu50In7
— Malachi "Max" Melton (@melton_max) December 11, 2019
#ChopNation IM HOMEEEE!!!@RUCoachFran @GregSchiano @CoachNunz @RFootball pic.twitter.com/CXaJIv7gzT
— #7golive (@RobLongerbeam7) December 11, 2019
That brings Schiano’s total to five commitments he’s landed since taking the job, all coming within the past four days. All five are three-star prospects, and you can scoff if you want at that (I've been known to downplay three-star recruits, myself, as many of you know). But it’s pretty noteworthy considering the Scarlet Knights had just seven committed prospects in the 2020 class, and that number is now up to 12. It looks like Schiano knows what he’s doing and exactly who he wanted.
He reportedly brought a giant binder to his Nov. 5 meeting with Rutgers brass, one that was filled with information on how he would get a jump on the 2020 recruiting class with his highest personal targets and players he was monitoring in the transfer portal.
Looks like that binder is paying off for the former Ohio State defensive coordinator.
Podcast debut
I made my Real Pod Wednesdays debut this week, hopping on with Eleven Warriors beat writers Dan Hope and Colin Hass-Hill to discuss some early signing period stuff. Check it out here. The recruiting stuff starts at about the 51:30 mark.
I rambled and bumbled, but that’s OK. There was a lot to talk about in a short amount of time. Go check it out and make sure to leave a five-star rating and tell us how good-looking we are and how intelligent we sound.
