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.
Davis down to three schools, decision time set
Pittsburgh four-star safety Derrick Davis Jr. – the Buckeyes' second-biggest uncommitted target left on defense in the 2021 class – is officially down to three schools, and he has set a decision time of 5 p.m. for his announcement on Saturday, Mike Vukovcan of Pittsburgh Sports Now reported:
Following a weekend visit to LSU, Davis told Pittsburgh Sports Now on Monday that his three finalists are Ohio State, Penn State and LSU, with Pitt and Georgia eliminated.
The four-star safety plans on announcing his final decision this Saturday around 5 p.m. in his hometown of Monroeville.
Penn State has always been viewed as the favorite for Davis because of his relationship with the Nittany Lions coaching staff, especially former Gateway head coach and current PSU assistant head coach and secondary coach Terry Smith.
Davis' trip to Baton Rouge this past weekend – a visit that followed his appearance for Ohio State's Buckeye Bash that had him feeling comfortable and had the commits feeling confident he would wind in Ohio State's class – could factor into his final decision, one that is about as mysterious as any recruit's decision in recent memory.
While at LSU, Davis had the chance to walk around their campus, see where their dorms are located and was able to see their impressive downtown with his family.
In terms of who has the advantage, they all appear to be even but because of how long they’ve been recruiting him, the staffs at Ohio State and Penn State have had the best chance to form relationships with Davis and his family.
Shepard still being mentored by Landers
One of the more interesting relationships being built up in Ohio’s crop of 2022 recruits is the mentorship between a pair of defensive tackles in former Buckeye Robert Landers and Ohio State target Derrick Shepard out of Archbishop Alter High School.
Landers has been helping mentor Shepard since before this summer, but it was during this summer when they started getting after it more in the gym. Recently, they’ve been doing even harder work together as Shepard has been grinding through his junior season.
“They get brutal. They get real brutal,” Shepard told Eleven Warriors of those workouts. “He’s been getting me right for these environments and everything.”
About two weeks ago, Landers and Shepard had a workout together, and they watched Shepard’s film afterward. Shepard’s playing time as a defensive tackle has waned a bit this season as he’s been utilized more as an offensive tackle out of team necessity, but Landers still dissected the first six games of Shepard’s season, and the four-star prospect – ranked No. 175 overall, No. 12 at DT and No. 8 in Ohio – gleaned some valuable pointers.
“On the defensive plays that I was in, I was just learning a lot from him,” Shepard said. “He was just telling me the pros and cons to my game and was teaching me a lot. The cons were that he noticed that I wasn’t playing a lot of defense and was saying that I looked out of place. That doesn’t go to say that I wasn’t making plays – I was making plays, but I think he definitely saw that I haven’t been on defense a lot.
“My stance looked a little off so he was helping me with my stance, helping me get a more firm base because that was a little off. And I wasn’t getting enough power from my hips. We was in there lifting a little bit, and he was having me work a lot on my hip power.”
As for the positives that Landers noted?
“He saw my down-the-line play was good, pushing the ball inside and running down the line, getting to the ball,” Shepard said. “On offense, I was making blocks downfield so he was definitely noticing that.”
Ohio State defensive tackle target Derrick Shepard has been gaining valuable experience at offensive tackle this season.
When we met with Shepard in August, one of the interesting takeaways was when he told us what Kevin Wilson – one of the Buckeyes’ key recruiters in Ohio and whom Shepard has a great relationship with – said to him regarding a potential Ohio State offer.
Essentially, Wilson told Shepard that one avenue to earning an offer was working with Landers not only to improve his skillset at defensive tackle but also to help create a better relationship with Larry Johnson – the point being that Johnson would be able to ask Landers what he thought of Shepard since there was a lot of trust built up between Johnson and Landers after his five years being coached by Johnson.
“I don’t know if he talked to Coach Johnson recently, but when they did talk he said Coach Johnson asked a few things about me and he was giving Coach Johnson the answers he needed,” Shepard said. “I think (things with Coach Johnson) are going good. Me and Coach Wilson are still talking. Me and Coach (Tim) Hinton, Coach (Nick) Sebastian, Coach (Asa) Jackson are still talking, and those are going well.”
When we met with Shepard in the preseason, he said that Johnson was going to be watching his first two games to see how he performed and what he needed to work on.
“He saw those first two games. We watched the whole film start to finish, and he told me what I did good and what I did bad so I was just building on those things he told me,” Shepard said. “It’s still the motor. If he watches these last fewer games, he’ll definitely be able to tell that I’m in better shape than I was in the first two games he watched.”
One potential move that some believe could transpire down the road is for Shepard to wind up moving to the offensive side of the ball in college. He’s been playing offensive tackle all year for the Knights, and it’s possible he winds up getting targeted as a guard by some schools. That hasn’t happened yet, says Shepard, who is still being targeted as a defensive tackle by teams that have offered such as Cincinnati, Florida State, Kentucky, Michigan, Pitt and Purdue.
“I wouldn’t say it won’t happen at all, but that hasn’t really happened yet,” Shepard said. “All of my offers are still for defense, and coaches are still looking at my film and seeing what I can take from my offensive play into my defensive play so I’m still getting recruited as a defensive tackle.
“But it’s definitely helping me a lot (playing offensive tackle) because no matter how much defense I play this year or next year, I’ll be able to take what I learned from offense and translate it into defense because I know what the offensive line is gonna want to do with me each and every play.”
Wilson, Smith-Njigba hot starts catching Texas eyes
It’s next to impossible for Texas recruits (especially offensive ones) to watch the hot start being put together by Garrett Wilson – and the impressive early returns on Jaxon Smith-Njigba – and not take notice.
With huge five-star targets such as quarterback Quinn Ewers and receiver Caleb Burton and four-star receiver Armani Winfield (to name a few) already having thought highly of Ryan Day’s offense and Ohio State’s program in general, seeing Lone Star State players have this early success is certainly serving as just an extra recruiting pitch for the Buckeyes – a pitch that probably has to go unsaid by the coaching staff. The proof is in the pudding, as they say.
