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.
Brown “a great leader,” visit not likely until summer
As Ohio State’s pursuit of signing two running backs in the 2021 class continues, so too does us touching base with some of the best the upcoming cycle has to offer at the position.
Our latest whom we have an update on is Parkview (Ga.) High School four-star prospect Cody Brown, a 6-foot, 210-pound junior ranked No. 121 overall, No. 9 at RB and No. 10 in Georgia.
Brown is not one of the names you may hear about often, and he’s not someone we’ve discussed at length here. He may not be Ohio State’s No. 1 target at the position, with guys like Donovan Edwards, Evan Pryor and TreVeyon Henderson laying claim to that crown, but he’s absolutely a player to track over the next several weeks. Brown is a bruiser and would be a tremendous get for the Buckeyes.
“Cody is one of their top RB's and would love to get him,” Parkview head coach Eric Godfree told Eleven Warriors, adding that Ohio State has told Godfree and Brown of the program’s intention to sign two running backs. That isn’t expected to sway Brown’s decision.
“He's an incredible person,” Godfree said of Brown. "He's a great leader for us on and off the field. He serves at our local park. Very well-rounded kid. And, of course, he's a great RB with size and speed.”
Brown speaks with the Ohio State coaching staff “almost once a day when allowed,” Godfree says. “They communicate with Cody very often. They visited a few times over the open period.”
Tony Alford is, of course, the Buckeye coach who communicates with Brown the most, but both Al Washington and Kerry Coombs visited in January, as each does extensive work recruiting in Georgia.
“Those guys always do a great job when they come through here,” Godfree said. “It was my first time meeting Kerry, and I really enjoyed it. He's done it all with high school, college and pro. I've met Al before, and he's one of my favorites too.”
Ohio State, Auburn, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU and Penn State are among the 15 offers that Brown has right now, and he has done a good job of building relationships with coaches from each program.
“Cody does a great job communicating with people and building relationships so really, he has a good relationship with them all,” Godfree said. “He does know the Ohio State coaches well.”
Brown, who rushed for 1,676 yards and 21 touchdowns on 214 carries in 12 games last season, is also a track star at Parkview, excelling in sprints, shot put and discus – an impressive blend of events that epitomize what he brings to the table on the football field. Last year, Brown clocked times of 11.68 in the 100 meters and 24.34 in the 200 meters. This spring, he has marks of 42 feet, 10.5 inches in the shot put and 143 feet, 5 inches in the discus.
At 6-foot, 210 pounds, Cody Brown blends size and speed as one of the running backs in the 2021 class (Cory Fravel, 247Sports).
With track season in full bloom right now, though, Brown has been busy, and Godfree expects Brown to visit Ohio State but believes that visit will not happen until the summer. That would be Brown’s first visit since coming to Columbus in November.
The Buckeyes’ running back recruiting will most likely not be wrapped up until at least midway through the summer, though, so Brown should have some time to check out campus, even if Ohio State has at least one running back committed depending on Evan Pryor’s decision.
Other top RBs
Here are some of the other main running backs whom the Buckeyes are focused in on the most in the 2021 class (not in order):
- Donovan Edwards: 5-foot-11, 190-pounder out of West Bloomfield (Mich.) who recently moved up the national rankings into the No. 3 slot at RB and No. 33 slot overall. Edwards has received three Crystal Ball predictions to Ohio State over the past two days from the analysts at 247Sports. That includes Steve Wiltfong (50-for-51) and Allen Trieu (25-for-25), who have had an outstanding hit rate on predictions in the 2021 class.
- Evan Pryor: 5-foot-10, 190-pound star from William Amos Hough (N.C.) who will be making a visit to Ohio State in March for a spring practice session, which will be the latest visit for Pryor to a school that sits high atop his list. He visited North Carolina and Georgia during the January contact period, and he narrowed his list to a top six of those three programs, plus USC, Oklahoma and Penn State shortly after. Pryor is expected to make a commitment in the next month or so, and it’s most likely coming down to Ohio State, North Carolina and Georgia. His decision would be the first major domino to fall in the 2021 RB cycle.
- TreVeyon Henderson: 5-foot-11, 195-pound junior from Hopewell (Va.) High School who is about to have one of the busiest recruitments in the nation after being boosted from an overall ranking in the 100s, all the way up to the No. 27 overall slot and No. 1 running back slot while getting a five-star composite ranking (and then getting moved down to the No. 2 RB ranking literally as we wrote this next sentence). Henderson is putting together his list of programs he will visit, and that will likely include Ohio State, but a who’s-who list will be looking to land a visit as well, including Clemson, Oklahoma, Texas, Penn State and Michigan. He has nearly 40 offers, and more will be coming.
- Corey Kiner: 5-foot-10, 205-pound star from Roger Bacon (Ohio) High School who has Michigan, Ohio State, Cincinnati, Louisville, Purdue and Pitt as the top six programs currently recruiting him the hardest. Ohio State is expected to receive a visit from Kiner this spring, though Michigan and running backs coach Jay Harbaugh have emerged as the likeliest destination with the most momentum as of now.
- Brandon Campbell: 5-foot-10, 190-pound back from Lamar Consolidated (Texas) High School whom we touched on Monday night, as the Buckeyes “love his athleticism, explosiveness and vision. His home run ability,” says head coach Rick LaFavers. Alford has compared Campbell to J.K. Dobbins, another former Texas high school star, and Campbell seems to fit the perfect mold of what an outstanding complementary back in a two-back recruiting class looks like.
- Lovasea Carroll: 6-foot-1, 190-pound blazing speedster from the IMG (Fla.) Academy and native of Georgia who now clocks a 4.35 time in the 40 and has the Buckeyes as one of five finalists alongside Georgia, Auburn, Florida and South Carolina, which he decommitted from in September. Though Carroll seems destined to join the SEC, he says he plans on visiting Ohio State in the spring before making his commitment on Aug. 6.
- Camar Wheaton: 5-foot-11, 190-pound back from Lakeview Centennial (Texas) High School who’s the one who re-took the lead over Henderson for the billing as the 2021 class’ No. 1-ranked RB. Wheaton, ranked No. 10 overall, has Oklahoma and LSU recruiting him strongly, and Lincoln Riley’s program has the momentum right now.
