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.
Hicks details decision to commit
In October, a then-15-year-old C.J. Hicks was impressive when he detailed how much he thrives on competition.
“I’ve just gotta continue to prove myself because the teams I play against, they always put me on their best player,” Hicks said at the time. “I’ve just gotta continue to improve myself. That’s really all it is. Since I blew up over the summer, everybody wants to see what I can do.
“I like it, though. There’s pressure, and pressure makes diamonds.”
Hicks continued to have that exact same mindset when approaching his recruiting process each time we talked with him, as he had to steadily remain patient about not being one of the Ohio sophomores to receive a coveted offer from the Buckeyes (Tegra Tshabola and Gabe Powers were the only in-state sophomores to hold offers for several months).
And 23 days ago, Hicks finally got the call from Al Washington that Ohio State was all-in on bringing him into the program with an official offer. Today, the four-star athlete officially reciprocated, telling Ohio State he’s all-in on being a Buckeye.
“It’s amazing. It felt super long, too,” Hicks told Eleven Warriors. “It’s been a blessing. Last year, at this time, I didn’t have any offers. And now I have 27, so I’m very thankful for everything that I have. I’m blessed to have the 27. [Hicks received his 28th total offer, from Tennessee, about 30 minutes before announcing his Ohio State commitment.]
“When I was little, I told a reporter this on the news last week, I thought that when you got to high school – once your high school career was over – that you got to pick whatever college you got to go to. When I got older, I figured out that that wasn’t the case. It’s a blessing for me because I do get to pick what school I get to go to, and I’m going to a great program in Ohio State.”
“(My mom and I) really didn’t have a long talk, for real. She told me that whenever I decided where to go to school, she was gonna support me no matter how far or close it is.”– Ohio State commit C.J. Hicks
The decision became public on Friday afternoon, but the Buckeye coaches have known all week that Hicks was in the fold. Hicks gave Washington a phone call on Monday, and the linebackers coach was ecstatic.
“I told Coach Washington, and he was very excited. He was fired up,” Hicks said. “He had a helmet next to him, and he said, ‘I’m gonna hand it to you when you get here.’ It’s gonna have No. 1 on it, or whatever number I choose. He was fired up, and Coach (Ryan) Day was really happy I’m on the board. I called him (Wednesday), and he answered the phone and said, ‘What’s up, Buckeye?’ Coach (Kevin) Wilson, too, he was very excited as well.”
And why did Hicks decide now was the time to end his recruitment? It’s a pretty simple answer.
“Just the culture there,” Hicks said. “My mom and I talked, and I feel that’s the program that will be the best to help me become a man. It’s the best school that can help me become the man that I wanna be and help me football-wise as well.
“(My mom and I) really didn’t have a long talk, for real. She told me that whenever I decided where to go to school, she was gonna support me no matter how far or close it is. And I just told her that I wanted to commit to Ohio State. I surprised her and showed her this edit I had done, and she was really happy. I told her Sunday. We made a little edit for me, and I showed my mom and she was really excited for me.”
His mother, Tiffane Hardin, was going to be 100 percent on board with the decision as long as there was no hesitation from Hicks, and now she won’t have to travel too far to visit him on game days – or, really, any other day.
“She was excited and happy because, for one, it’s close,” Hicks said. “It’s only an hour- and 30-minute drive. For one, she’s excited to be able to come up and see me any weekend. And she knows I’m gonna be going to a great program because we had a (virtual) visit where they showed us all the academic stuff, and it checked off every box.”
“I'm already recruiting for us”
One of Hicks’ closest friends, Jaylen Johnson, who he played against back during their Pop Warner football days in the Dayton and Cincinnati areas, is another in-state talent who has mainly been recruited by Washington as an outside linebacker/safety hybrid – though it’s looking more likely, at this point in their careers, that they will be used more at outside linebacker.
Both Johnson and Devonta Smith, another player in the Dayton/Cincinnati area committed to the Buckeyes who has developed a friendship with Hicks, are excited to have another future Buckeye on board.
“Devonta was super happy, and Jaylen said he was about to cry,” Hicks said. “We can’t wait to get there.”
YESSSSIR IVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS ONE I love you boy https://t.co/Nx3kIVH5bR
— Jaylen.Johnson (@JaylenJohnson21) May 1, 2020
Yessir family https://t.co/mk8oa80wWP
— Devonta Smith (@Prince_Tay_) May 1, 2020
Hicks has also connected with the Buckeyes’ first pair of 2022 commits, Jyaire Brown and Tshabola, and the three of them are working on building the class. It’s looking like that trio will be in charge of doing some recruiting themselves.
“Oh, yeah. I’m already doing that now. I’m already recruiting for us,” Hicks said. “Me and Jyaire were talking. Our goal is to have more commits than the 2021 class, so hopefully we’ll be able to do that. That class is big.”
And like the 2021 class has done with its well-known Twitter group chat that features more than two dozen commits and targets, Hicks says that “we might start (a group chat) the more commits that we get. I might start a little group chat with recruits that I’m recruiting and with recruits that Jyaire’s recruiting. We’ll see.”
Buckeyes dish offers for more OL
Ohio State is on a light offer spree to 2022 offensive linemen over the past couple of days.
After offering Virginia’s Zach Rice on Wednesday and Texas’ Cameron Williams on Thursday, making them the seventh and eighth sophomore offensive linemen offered, Greg Studrawa and Kennedy Cook were back at it again on Friday morning as DJ Moore and Joey Tanona announced that the Buckeyes have come calling.
After an amazing conversation Im BEYOND BLESSED to say I have received an offer to THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY!!!!!!! @CoachCookOL @OhioStateFB @AllenTrieu @SWiltfong247 @Bryan_Ault @zwelklin260 @SidelineSwami1 @SniderFB pic.twitter.com/hagGlg5cPd
— DJ Moore (@demonmoore1) May 1, 2020
Blessed to say that I have received an offer from The Ohio State University! Thank you @CoachCookOL @CoachStudOL @OSUCoachKDub @ryandaytime pic.twitter.com/5sYq0Zoh19
— Joey Tanona (@JoeyTanona) May 1, 2020
Both Moore and Tanona hail from Indiana high schools.
Moore, a 6-foot-4, 295-pounder out of R. Nelson Snider High School in Fort Wayne, is the No. 10-ranked offensive guard in the country and the No. 6-ranked prospect in Indiana’s 2022 class.
Tanona is a 6-foot-5, 280-pound sophomore from Zionsville. He is ranked as the 16th-best offensive tackle in America and No. 150 overall. He is the Hoosier State’s second-ranked overall player in the class.
