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.
Michalski decommits from Louisville
Zen Michalski has been one of the Midwest’s fastest-rising 2021 prospects. Perhaps even the fastest-rising, as the 6-foot-6, 280-pound three-star offensive tackle has seen his stock soar over the past month.
But he will now be playing out the rest of his senior season without Louisville in his future.
Michalski decommitted from the Cardinals on Monday night, he announced via his Twitter account.
PLEASE RESPECT MY DECISION pic.twitter.com/wkNtlDmwQP
— Zenuae Michalski (@ZenuaeM) September 29, 2020
The Floyd Central (Indiana) product committed to Louisville on April 25, about a month and a half into the COVID-19-induced recruiting dead period. Because he was unable to visit anywhere, and because he saw recruiting classes filling up all over the country, he decided to pull the trigger on the Cardinals’ offer and secure his spot.
However, once his senior season hit, he was able to put more film out for college coaches to see, and that paved the way for offers from Ohio State, Florida State and Penn State (an offer that came on Sunday) after he got six games under his belt this fall.
“It was the right spot at the time,” Michalski told Eleven Warriors, detailing some reasons for decommitting from the Cardinals. “But now, with different options, seeing everything else and seeing what everyone else has to offer, I just feel like I fit a little bit better somewhere else.
“(Louisville) just wasn’t my fit anymore. It felt a little rushed, just because of COVID and everything, and so many spots were filling up so fast.”
Now that he has put the Cardinals in the rearview mirror, Michalski says his next steps will likely be a trimmed list of schools – most likely a final three list – and then he wants to “just keep up with recruiting and practice and try to make a decision soon.”
It’s possible that decision could come within the week, but no matter when it is announced, this recruitment certainly seems to be trending Ohio State’s way. I like the Buckeyes’ chances of adding the country’s 48th-ranked offensive tackle as their third offensive lineman of the class.
Henderson to visit in October, Buckeye Bash date set
All the way back on July 1, we reported that Ohio State’s five-star running back commit TreVeyon Henderson was looking into making a trip to Columbus to see campus for the first time.
On Monday, Henderson confirmed with Eleven Warriors that he will be making a trip to Ohio State on Oct. 23-25, which was first reported by Bucknuts’ Bill Kurelic on Sunday night, to see the campus and the city of Columbus.
“I just got my plane ticket today,” Henderson told us. “I’m gonna be coming up by myself.”
perfecting my craft.. #BIA pic.twitter.com/78wwQkNiwe
— TreVeyon Henderson (@TreVeyonH4) September 22, 2020
Henderson might be flying from Virginia to Ohio by himself, but he won’t be alone in making his visit. The running back says his future backfield teammate, Evan Pryor, is set to make the visit as well, in addition to most of the other commits, as the Buckeye Bash is now set for Oct. 24.
As of now, the plan is for all of the commits in the class to visit – though there will surely be some stragglers who are unable to make the trip – and watch Ohio State’s season opener against Nebraska from somewhere on or near campus.
“We’re mainly just gonna go around campus and things like that, and Jack’s (Sawyer) got some other stuff planned,” Henderson said. “It’s gonna be an exciting time because he’s got a lot of stuff planned. He’s basically gonna be our guide and tell us where to go.
“We’re definitely gonna try to find somewhere to watch that game because you can’t get in. We’re gonna have to find somewhere that’s live that we can watch the game at.”
On Saturday, they plan to check out campus, restaurants and elsewhere to get another look at campus or, for players like Henderson, get their first look at campus.
“Just finally getting to see all the guys in person and getting together and bonding more. Visiting campus, finally getting to see what the campus is like and what the city is like,” Henderson said of what he’s most looking forward to on the visit.
As of now, there are no Ohio State 2021 or 2022 targets who we can confirm are coming, though it’s looking unlikely that Emeka Egbuka – who did not visit the Sooner Summit, either – or Tristan Leigh – whose trending to LSU is nearing lock status – will be making the visit. Egbuka told 247Sports’ Brandon Huffman recently that he doesn’t feel like he needs to make a third visit to Ohio State before making a college decision, but Egubka is still interested in making a visit for that Oct. 23-25 weekend.
Header photo credit: Jody Demling/247Sports
