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.
Matthews and a Bayou pipeline
New Orleans cornerback Jyaire Brown excitedly picked up his phone this week, some adrenaline pumping through his fingers, as he gave a call to his good friend Jacoby Mathews, a sophomore safety who plays less than an hour away at Ponchatoula (La.) High School.
Brown, who was born in Cincinnati and moved to Louisiana at the age of four, was letting Mathews know that he was ending his recruitment before it ever really began by accepting an Ohio State scholarship offer that wasn’t even a week old yet. Mathews was ecstatic about the news.
“I was really happy for him, and I saw the joy on his face when he called me and told me he was committing and going back home,” Mathews told Eleven Warriors.
For the 6-foot, 185-pound safety, one who plays a level (5A) above Brown (4A) at the Louisiana high school level and who was an offensive standout for Ponchatoula with a team-high 11 touchdowns and 661 yards receiving, it was an a-ha moment.
“Jyaire’s commitment shows me that the coaches must have a real want for the Louisiana area, though they don’t usually land commitments here,” said Mathews, the 12th-ranked safety and 154th-ranked overall player in the class. “I don’t have any ties with Ohio State or the state of Ohio. That doesn’t change anything with my interest in the school, though. Every year they’re bound to make a top-four appearance in the playoffs and just a few years back they were in the championship multiple times, so I know the coaching staff is good and the school program is doing their job keeping players eligible.”
Ohio State does not have a strong presence in the Bayou. As we detailed in analyzing Brown’s commitment, his decision ended a decade-and-a-half drought of players from Louisiana choosing to commit to the Buckeyes. Local ties have a lot to do with Brown committing to Ohio State. But for someone like Mathews, who has no such Ohio connections, it served as a pivotal moment.
Now will come the next steps in Mathews’ recruitment. First, an offer has to be made from Kerry Coombs and/or Matt Barnes. Mathews was scheduled to be on a call with Coombs at the end of this week, and there is optimism that an offer will be around the corner as the two sides begin to truly get to know each other and start creating a relationship.
Congrats family, prada you https://t.co/LhpFCmEpL4
— MONEY Mathews (@Jacoby2Mathews) April 23, 2020
Mathews says he and Brown have long been telling each other they want to play for the same college. We don’t want to make too big of a deal about that, since those types of hopes/goals are discussed all the time between good friends on the recruiting trail and more often than not, it doesn’t unfold that way. Brown will not have to do any sort of selling, though, to Mathews. His presence alone as an Ohio State commit gets the job done there, with Mathews knowing he has someone he trusts embedded with the program.
Even if Mathews – whose 10 offers thus far include Alabama, Florida State, LSU, Texas and Texas A&M – does get an Ohio State offer, there will be no commitment soon after in the same vein as Brown. He plans to be patient in his recruitment and slowly build bonds with coaches from interested programs.
It’s obviously going to take more than one commitment who has strong Ohio ties to start saying that a pipeline is being built in Louisiana. But if Ohio State can become a true player for Mathews, make inroads with other stars in the area and continue building momentum in the Pelican State, then a strong Ohio State presence in the Bayou could become tangible. And that would be a national recruiting storyline.
Eye on Clemons
We could be in the infant stages of a Buckeye Bayou presence, and if that does start to take shape, it will become similar to what we’re seeing in the Pacific Northwest, as Ohio State is creating another possible recruiting storyline in that corner of the country.
The program opened things up there by grabbing its third-ever player from the state of Washington in 2020 (Gee Scott Jr.). Ohio State is a finalist for two five-stars from Washington in the class of 2021 (J.T. Tuimoloau, Emeka Egbuka). And the Buckeyes are keeping a keen, watchful eye on Oregon receiver Darrius Clemons in the 2022 class.
Clemons does not yet have a scholarship offer from the Buckeyes. Since 1999, the inaugural year of the modern recruiting era, Ohio State has never landed a player from Oregon and has only even given an offer to one player from the state, when they offered eventual Penn State commit Michael Johnson Jr. in 2019.
In the case of Johnson – just like in the case of Brown, Scott and seemingly just about every one of Ohio State’s national targets – the Buckeyes had a local hook there. Johnson’s father was a record-breaking quarterback at Akron in the 1980s.
And just like Johnson, there is a local hook with Clemons. The 6-foot-3, 195-pound sophomore – a top-150 national recruit who is ranked as Oregon’s best prospect and America’s 18th-best receiver – lived in Michigan until moving to Oregon at 10 years old. His mother is from Ohio, and he has family in Indiana.
Clemons – who was discovered by Brian Hartline in part due to one of Hartline’s former Dolphins teammates being a Westview assistant coach – has also developed good friendships with fellow 2022 standout C.J. Hicks, the two of them bonding through nightly Madden games, and with Scott, whom Clemons competed against in 7-on-7 tournaments in the area and whom he received a lot of useful advice from about how to handle the recruiting process.
As of Thursday afternoon, communication between Clemons and the Buckeye coaching staff had been nonexistent for a few weeks. But that changed Thursday evening, as Hartline and assistant receivers coach Keenan Bailey hopped on a Zoom call with Clemons, and I’m told it was an insightful conversation.
Clemons and Egbuka are the only two receivers the Buckeyes are recruiting in the Pacific Northwest. As that relationship between Clemons and the two receiver coaches grows, it wouldn’t be surprising if an offer is extended at some point in the next couple months. The camp circuit was going to be big for Clemons, as he was one target whom the staff wanted to get a better in-person evaluation of, and Clemons had long been expected to make his way to Columbus to allow them a better look.
For now, Clemons is weighing offers from Oregon, Minnesota, Michigan, Michigan State and Penn State among the nearly 20 offers he has so far.
Miller offered
The first two portions of tonight’s Hurry-Up are dedicated to players without Ohio State offers thus far. But the Buckeyes did extend an offer on Friday, this one going to three-star in-state offensive tackle Blake Miller of Strongsville High School.
The 6-foot-6, 315-pound sophomore hopped on a Zoom call with Ryan Day, Greg Studrawa and Kennedy Cook on Friday afternoon, and the trio gave the state’s No. 8-ranked sophomore the good news.
“I’ve been a Buckeye fan my whole life so this offer meant so much to me,” Miller told Eleven Warriors. “When I heard the news, I was so excited that a school that I’ve loved and rooted for my entire life would offer me.”
Miller, who has strong family connections to Ohio State, is just the second in-state offensive lineman in the 2022 class to be offered by the Buckeyes, preceded by Thursday night commit Tegra Tshabola, an offensive tackle at Lakota West out of West Chester.
Welcome to the brotherhood
— Tegra Tshabola (@tshabola_tegra) April 24, 2020
Thus far, the Buckeyes have only given offers to four in-state players, as Miller and Tshabola are joined by Marysville’s Gabe Powers and Dayton’s Hicks.
“I’m going to make my decision when I feel I’ve found a school that I fit at,” Miller said. “I don’t really want to rush my decision.”
Though being offered early from the in-state powerhouse does not necessarily mean that Miller will end his recruitment, the Buckeyes just thrust themselves into the catbird seat over 14 other programs that have offered Miller, including Cincinnati, Michigan, Northwestern, Kentucky, Florida, Tennessee and Indiana.
Leary sets commit date
One of the most talented and fleetest-of-foot slot receivers in the nation’s 2021 class has set a commitment date of June 6.
Orlando’s Christian Leary, a lightning-fast and dynamic pass-catcher/return man, is set to make his college choice in six weeks. He would be a terrific addition to Ohio State’s offense as it continues to trend toward using slot receivers instead of H-backs.
COMMITMENT JUNE 6th , love you ma .
— The HOKAGE (@ChristianLeary4) April 24, 2020
The Buckeyes, though, got into the process so late with Leary that it feels like this one would be a long shot for them to beat out teams like Oklahoma, Florida, Alabama and Auburn (especially the former two). He was not offered by Ohio State until March 24.
Though Leary has already established strong relationships with Hartline and Day, both Egbuka and Florida’s Troy Stellato remain likelier targets to join the class.
Speaking of Egbuka, 247Sports’ Steve Wiltfong put in a Crystal Ball on Friday for the nation’s No. 1-ranked receiver to become a Buckeye.
How’s that for a Hurry-Up cliffhanger?
Jacoby Mathews photo courtesy of Billy Embody/247Sports
