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.
Williams makes first visit, door closed on Leigh?
Out of all the commits making their way to the Buckeye Bash this weekend, TreVeyon Henderson’s visit was by far the biggest, as the five-star Virginia running back had never before been to Columbus.
It was important to get him on campus to solidify his decision. We will have a more in-depth story on his visit coming tomorrow morning at Eleven Warriors.
Henderson was not the only one making his first trip to Columbus, however, as fellow Virginian, defensive tackle commit Tyleik Williams, was also seeing the campus in person for the first time. (Denzel Burke was also supposed to visit for the first time, but Henderson tells us Burke did not make the trip).
Williams, though, was on hand to see Ohio State for the first time and get to know his fellow 2021 commits in person for the first time. It went very smoothly, his fellow Old Dominion native says.
“He loved it, I can tell,” Henderson said. “He loved being around us. He fit in very well. Everybody fit in very well. He loved being around the guys.”
As for the non-committed players, by far the biggest visitor this weekend was Derrick Davis Jr. But before Davis’ late flip from a planned visit to Georgia to a visit for the Buckeye Bash, the biggest visitor was expected to be five-star Virginia offensive tackle Tristan Leigh.
Instead, Leigh was unable to visit this weekend, as we reported on Saturday, as his mom felt unwell the morning of the trip, and his dad was unable to take Leigh and his younger brother Aidan Leigh, who was also set to make the visit.
Leigh and his family being unable to visit this weekend probably tells us where his recruitment is likely to wind up, since this was going to be a critical visit for Leigh to get around the other guys to see if this was a group he could see himself being college teammates with. Instead, LSU and Oklahoma continue to stand above the Buckeyes here.
There is also this additional factor that we were told: Leigh’s communication with the 2021 commits had been pretty much nonexistent in terms of this weekend's planned visit. Leigh told at least one commit earlier this week that he was unsure whether or not he was going, even after multiple reports had come out (including ours) that he was set for a visit. He didn’t offer up much communication with them this week, so they didn’t know if he was coming until very late in the week.
If there was no communication with the commits during a commit-led recruiting weekend in which hanging out with the commits was a priority, it’s hard to believe that the Buckeyes remain heavily in the mix.
2022 commits working on a splash
While Friday and Saturday’s recruiting focus was squarely on the 2021 class and the Buckeye Bash, on Sunday the 2022 group stole the spotlight with a Twitter barrage of its own.
As you’ve almost certainly seen by now, 2022 commits C.J. Hicks, Dasan McCullough and Bennett Christian took a page out of the 2021 group’s steak emoji book by hitting Twitter with a series of tweets:
We goin break the internet just watch...
— CJ Hicks (@imcjhicks) October 25, 2020
We got something really big coming...
— Dasan Mccullough (@Dasan2022) October 25, 2020
Something HUGE on the way.
— Bennett Christian (@BennettC87) October 25, 2020
It’s not nearly on the same level as the steak emoji, but it’s still a united front to cook up … something.
There is speculation that it could have something to do with Iowa safety Xavier Nwankpa, Pennsylvania running back Nicholas Singleton or even Texas quarterback commit Quinn Ewers. But at this point, that’s all it is – speculation.
They on to something
— Xavier X Nwankpa (@xaviernwankpa01) October 25, 2020
While the commits played coy and would not divulge much information, we were told that it could involve “multiple commits” coming “within the next month.”
Whether there are firm legs on those statements remains to be seen, though with top peer recruiters Hicks and McCullough leading the charge, it wouldn’t come as too much of a surprise.
Henderson to Under Armour game
TreVeyon Henderson has flipped his commitment – from the All-American Bowl to the Under Armour All-America Game.
I want to thank the All American Bowl for the great opportunity, theyve shown me nothing but love! Due to them cancelling their game, Ive decided to commit to the UA All American Game!!!! @DemetricDWarren #WEWILL pic.twitter.com/R5taLP4Adq
— TreVeyon Henderson (@TreVeyonH4) October 25, 2020
After the All-American Bowl was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we had to assume that the next time Henderson would be donning pads for in-game action was going to be at Ohio State in the fall of 2021. If the Under Armour game gets played, it looks like he'll have one more go-round.
Now we'll wait to see if this becomes a trend for the other 10 Buckeyes who are currently committed to the All-American Bowl.
JTT beasts again
Five-star target J.T. Tuimoloau has the skillset, physicality and versatility to become either a star defensive end or defensive tackle in college. If he wanted to be a star tight end, he could probably do that too, and that gained further legitimacy with this terrific catch over the weekend:
#Covid7s Elimination (10/25/2020@JT_tuimoloau at it again!
— Northwest Ballers (@NWBallers1) October 26, 2020
The #1 DT in USA (and #1 overall) is NOT supposed to be doing @obj #SCTop10 stuff like this.... unless he should also be the #1 TE. Defenses need two DB's at a time ripping both arms. pic.twitter.com/kbXfgVMjJd
Ohio State should probably recruit him, in my opinion.
