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.
Wilcoxson opens up
When Kamar Wilcoxson was still a sophomore defensive back at Stephenson (Ga.) High School, he received his first Power 5 offer from Florida during the January 2018 contact period, and nearly a year later, he committed to the Gators in November.
Wilcoxson told Eleven Warriors that he felt pressured into committing to Florida that first time by other influencers (the pressure was not coming from any of the Florida coaches), so he decommitted in April of 2019.
Exactly three months later, he recommitted to Florida, but once again, the four-star player – who is ranked the No. 16 athlete, No. 263 overall player in the 2021 class and No. 37 player in the state of Florida – decommitted from the Gators two weeks ago.
In God i trust .. pic.twitter.com/KupyYElJab
— (@KamarWilcoxson4) March 27, 2020
The second time he committed, and the second time he decommitted, Wilcoxson says he was completely alone in his decision-making.
“When I committed this time, that was all me,” Wilcoxson said. “I just wanted to sit back and make sure I was making the best decision for me.”
Last week, the senior-to-be tweeted out a list of his top-eight schools, and that group of programs included Florida. Even after twice decommitting from the Gators and going back and forth, Wilcoxson still says Dan Mullen's program is not necessarily out of the running.
its hard but i make it look easy, a crazy achievement . pic.twitter.com/lP3os9llCO
— (@KamarWilcoxson4) April 9, 2020
“I’m not saying I don’t feel it’s best,” Wilcoxson said when asked if he believes that Florida is not the best place for his future. “But with me getting recruited by all these other programs, I wanted to make sure that that was the best decision for me and my future.”
All these other programs includes Ohio State, which is one of the schools that has Wilcoxson as a player the program is looking at as a top defensive back prospect (Wilcoxson has long been telling us that Kerry Coombs sees him as a cornerback, though he has the ability to play cornerback and safety).
“They have a known prestige when it comes to corners and getting them in the league,” Wilcoxson told Eleven Warriors in February. “Coach Coombs is back as well, and he’s the best.
“They said they were really impressed with me on and off the field. They like my physicality, feet, range and hips. Coach Coombs said he wants me to play CB.”
As a junior at Stephenson, the 6-foot-1, 190-pounder snagged three interceptions, recorded six pass breakups and two forced fumbles, and he made 73 tackles despite missing five games. Wilcoxson transferred to IMG (Fla.) Academy following his junior season at Stephenson.
Johnson “wanted to play in a pro set”
It's a well-known fact that there was a point in time – after Urban Meyer's retirement – that Paris Johnson Jr. was looking around at other schools in order to make sure that Ohio State, Ryan Day and the Buckeyes' new slew of coaches was going to still be the best fit for him and his future.
There were a lot of reasons he eventually chose to stay committed and sign with the program. Chief among them? The Buckeyes' propensity, more than many other programs, to send offensive linemen to the pros and to get those players more pro-ready than most other programs because of their offensive schemes and play calling.
“He had heard that certain linemen from certain schools go to pro football and struggle because they’d never had the verbiage, never had to do certain techniques.” – Willie Anderson on Paris Johnson Jr.
“College football, every team doesn’t require linemen to have full skillsets,” Willie Anderson, a former four-time NFL Pro Bowl offensive tackle, told Eleven Warriors this week. “Some of these guys get to the NFL and when an NFL coach starts talking to guys, certain things are foreign to guys because they don’t know how to do it. That was one big thing Paris wanted. He wanted to play in a pro set that gets guys ready for pro football. A lot of these colleges, guys are in two-point stances the whole damn game. They don’t have that in the NFL much.”
It makes sense that a player, who has made it his lifelong goal to reach the NFL and provide for his mother and his family, would want to ensure that his college program will be able to make him as pro ready as possible.
There are plenty of other programs that do the same – like Georgia and Stanford, the two programs Johnson was also seriously considering – so there are a lot of other reasons that Ohio State became his choice. But Day's offensive system was a big one, and now that offensive linemen have seen how that system can be beneficial for them, it's become another selling point for the program.
“He had heard that certain linemen from certain schools go to pro football and struggle because they’d never had the verbiage, never had to do certain techniques,” Anderson said. “No knock against Baylor, but you go play offensive line there, offensive linemen are not that important because they’re going so fast.
“You take Ohio State and certain teams, quarterbacks are still taking 5-7-step drops. Linemen gotta pass protect for a certain amount of time. They’re still running the football. It’s a shame because NFL line coaches are all mad at the colleges because guys will come out of college not prepared. It’s harder now because after the CBA agreement, guys don’t have as much time to develop young guys. So out of college, you’ve gotta come with NFL skills already because they don’t have time to teach you, and it’s sad. That’s one of the reasons I started my academy – because linemen gotta have skills. It’s more than just being big. You’ve gotta have a skill set.”
