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.
Gosnell announces decision tonight
Ohio State’s 2022 class is still in search of accomplishing its “break the internet” goal by landing a rash of high-profile commitments. That includes five-stars Quinn Ewers, Domani Jackson, Caleb Burton and Will Johnson.
One of the Buckeyes’ priority prospects flying under the radar in the cycle, however, is four-star North Carolina tight end Benji Gosnell.
The nation’s 11th-ranked player at his position and a top-275 overall player, Gosnell would be a great get for the Buckeyes, and he is set to announce his decision at 8 p.m. ET tonight on Instagram Live (@benjigosnell6 is his Instagram handle).
Gosnell is down to Ohio State, Florida and North Carolina as his final three, and I believe that's the order of his favorites right now, despite the face he's never visited Columbus or Gainesville.
In August and September, I had put in my own prediction with the Eleven Warriors staff for him to land with the Buckeyes and had a confidence level of 8 in that pick. But when Kyle Pitts began tearing it up for the Gators and tight ends coach Tim Brewster – with whom Gosnell has a great relationship – my confidence level started going down to about a 6 with Ohio State still sidelined.
Gosnell, however, was holding off from making any decisions until he saw how Kevin Wilson and Ryan Day would utilize the tight ends (more specifically, Jeremy Ruckert) in the passing game and the offense as a whole. After Week 1’s Nebraska game, I think Gosnell began seeing more of how he would be utilized if he came to Columbus, and after Week 2’s Penn State game, I believe Ohio State sealed the deal with Gosnell.
We will find out later tonight when he announces, but my money is on the Buckeyes and I've been as confident as I can be on that all week.
Wilson shares views on Buckeyes’ TE recruiting
Gosnell previously told us that the success Wilson has had in his previous stops and his track record of developing tight ends was at the forefront of why the Buckeyes were high on his list over the past six-plus months as they recruited him. (They offered in June but had been communicating with him since April.)
“He’s taught guys like Rashod Berry, now with the New England Patriots, Ruckert is probably gonna be one of the best tight ends in the country, Luke Farrell on the Mackey Award watch list,” Gosnell told Eleven Warriors in August. “(Wilson’s) success speaks for itself and the culture they have at Ohio State, man, it’s unlike any other. Coach Day’s a great person. He’s a fighter as a coach, he’s a leader as a coach. It’s a top program, and I love everything about Ohio State.”
Wilson was asked during a Tuesday press conference about recruiting tight ends to the Buckeyes when they have not been known for using their players at the position as threats in the passing game over the years. Perhaps not entirely coincidentally, he referenced some of the same things that Gosnell told us about Wilson (and the Buckeyes’) reputation for putting players into the NFL.
“Every senior that’s played here is in the NFL,” Wilson said. “Rashod’s active right now with the Patriots, Marcus Baugh has been playing significantly for the Redskins. Prior to that, my background showed that we’ve got tight ends in the NFL.”
Wilson also discusses some of those same things that Gosnell saw from Saturday night’s game in terms of tight ends seeing a lot of action.
“They had 117 snaps of offensive play the other night, which is pretty good,” Wilson said. “We were playing stacked quite a bit. That being said, every time Jeremy flexes in the slot, you take a good player like Jaxon (Smith-Njigba) or Garrett (Wilson) or Chris Olave or somebody off the field. Sometimes with depth, you’ve gotta rotate around, but we have taken a lot of pride in how that group has developed.
“I think that the best thing is when you put the tape on and look at our tight ends compared to other tight ends, you see guys that actually block people and put their face on people. They’re really good at the point of attack, they’re really good back side (of the play), they’re excellent in pass protection. The other day, a couple balls went our way, and we got six catches. Actually had one drop, Jeremy needed to be a little bit cleaner on another route or we’d have another catch. I was happy, personally, for them. I’m proud of them, this is a good group.”
Recently, Wilson says that he was on a Zoom call with a couple of recruits and showed them tape from an Ohio State practice three weeks ago. The film featured 39 tight-end specific clips, showing those recruits “blocking fundamentals, perimeter fundamentals, pass pro, one-on-one routes and the plays we threw to the tight end. I said, ‘Look, this is 39 plays specifically training you.’ And I think it was very influential in some of these kids in how we develop the player, and Coach (Mickey) Marotti is the best as anyone developing those players, too, which helps a ton.”
