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.
Penn no longer considering Ohio State, Goodwine is
When Chase Young was on the come-up as a sophomore, his budding success made several defensive linemen across the country take notice. When he became a national superstar and Heisman finalist during arguably the best defensive season for any player in Buckeyes history, it shined a full-blown spotlight on Ohio State for players from Maryland.
That included National Christian Academy strongside defensive end Monkell Goodwine and DeMatha Catholic (Young's alma mater) inside linebacker Greg Penn III, each of whom had been building relationships with Ohio State coaches ever since their sophomore years – mainly Larry Johnson and Al Washington.
After that time of relationship-building, though, it looks like the Buckeyes have fallen out of the picture for Penn – but not quite on Goodwine.
Both top-200 players (Goodwine is ranked No. 114 overall and No. 9 at SDE; Penn is No. 194 and No. 8 at inside linebacker) recently excluded Ohio State from their list of top schools.
Goodwine put out a top five of Maryland, Alabama, LSU, Texas A&M and Penn State, and Penn put out a top six featuring Texas A&M, Alabama, LSU, Tennessee, South Carolina and Maryland.
Sorry For The Wait ...... My Twitter Is Finally Back In Action .... #Top5 #NationalChristianAcademy @RivalsFriedman @BrianDohn247 @RealChadRicardo pic.twitter.com/Ux52iFazz4
— (@MonkellGoodwine) April 10, 2020
Final 6. pic.twitter.com/TFkVzZAgAI
— Greg Penn III (@3golivee_) April 8, 2020
The coronavirus-induced recruiting cancellations seem to have made an impact on Goodwine not putting Ohio State on that list, as he had told Eleven Warriors in February that he was planning on making an official visit to Columbus in the spring and that he has “a great relationship” with both Johnson and Mark Pantoni.
That said, Goodwine told us on Sunday that Ohio State is not out of the race in his recruitment.
“I haven’t been in much communication with them, but we are back in contact with one another,” Goodwine said. “Coach Johnson is a good coach, and he is very much still interested.”
Goodwine says the Buckeyes' defensive line coach got in touch with him right before he dropped his top-five list.
“They aren't out of the picture,” Goodwine said.
Other than Ohio State not being on either list, the most noteworthy item is that Maryland is a finalist for both defensive standouts.
Terrapins head coach Mike Locksley was hired to put an emphasis on recruiting the state hard, and he's done that thus far. He already flipped five-star 2020 receiver Rakim Jarrett from LSU, and he landed a commitment from one of the Buckeyes' biggest targets in the 2021 class, defensive end/outside linebacker Demeioun Robinson, two weeks ago.
Goodwine told us in February that six programs were recruiting him the hardest, and he didn't mention Locksley's program as one of them. Apparently, the Terrapin staff ramped up their recruiting efforts enough to make an impression on him.
Maryland currently has the No. 10-ranked recruiting class in America. It's not likely that it remains in the top 10, but keeping key in-state talent like Goodwine and Penn at home could keep it closer to the top of the rankings than the middle of the pack. That would be gigantic for a Big Ten program trying to make a name for itself.
Goodwine (No. 5) and Penn (No. 11) are each top-15 prospects in the state. Maryland is a finalist for St. Frances Academy linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson (No. 12) and has momentum for linebacker teammate Aaron Willis (No. 4). The Terrapins are also a finalist for Ohio State defensive tackle target Marcus Bradley (No. 9).
OL/DL relationships
When I was photographing Ohio State's win over Wisconsin in late October, I caught the Buckeyes' celebration in front of the home fans, and that included watching as Branden Bowen and DaVon Hamilton ran to the end zone to sing “Carmen Ohio” while pointing to people in the crowd.
My main man ! #CLASS https://t.co/DyMQqbo02D
— Branden Bowen (@BrandenBowen) October 27, 2019
Until then, I hadn't realized how often offensive linemen and defensive linemen develop good friendships. It seems a bit ironic, as those two position groups go one-on-one in practices and oftentimes get heated as they battle against one another.
But, as it turns out, that type of fighting in the trenches can build up some mutual respect and camaraderie between the players.
Looking into the future, don't be surprised if Mike Hall and Ben Christman end up developing a Bowen-Hamilton type of bond. In fact, that's something the two discussed when Hall and Christman began really building a relationship at the Ohio State-Penn State game in November. As we have discussed ad nauseam, Buckeye commits have been at the forefront of recruiting uncommitted players, and the Hall-Christman duo is representative of that.
“Definitely, we always talk about going one-on-ones and if I was to commit how practices would go,” Hall told Eleven Warriors of his conversations with Christman. “You gotta love the trash talk a little bit. You’ve still gotta have fun with it.
“At the end of the day, we’re still grinding and still battling so you’ve just gotta have fun with it,” Hall added. “You create that bond. There’s a time and a place to play around and a time and place to take it seriously.”
