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.
Jackson, Johnson visit Michigan
Ohio State's Buckeye Bash was a mega recruiting event that helped the 2021 commits strengthen their bonds. Michigan held its own version of the Bash this weekend, as nearly 20 Wolverine recruits and their families – including quarterback J.J. McCarthy, linebacker Junior Colson and receiver Cristian Dixon – converged on Ann Arbor.
The two biggest headliners, though, were a pair of five-star cornerbacks ranked in the top 10 overall in California's Domani Jackson and Michigan's Will Johnson.
Two of #Michigan's top targets in the 2022 class - five-star CB Domani Jackson and five-star CB Will Johnson repping the Maize and Blue pic.twitter.com/sqt9OEsmTl
— Brice Marich (@BriceMarich) November 14, 2020
Jackson is still being Crystal Ball'd to Ohio State, but after this visit, 247Sports' Steve Wiltfong says he wouldn't be surprised to see that prediction get flipped to Michigan (the confidence meter in the Jackson-to-Ohio State pick dropped from a 7 to a 1), and Johnson might soon pick up a Michigan Crystal Ball as well.
Jackson spoke with 247Sports' Brice Marich, saying how much he loved Michigan's program and atmosphere, noting that the Wolverines' loss to Wisconsin did nothing to dampen his view of the program:
“Not really, it doesn’t change how I feel about them,” Jackson said. “I personally think they are in a great position and the wide receivers just made some great catches. I think the defensive backs were probably thinking about it too long and it could affect their play sometimes. I just know it doesn’t impact me.
“As a football aspect with Michigan, they bump and run every play, which I love. I love pressing and they leave you on an island, which I just really love."
Jackson is down to a list of three or four schools that he's keeping to himself, but he still has not set any other dates in which he might visit other programs such as Ohio State.
“No, I’m only doing this one,” Jackson said of any future trips. “It was a dream of mine coming to Michigan since I was a little kid, so I’m going to take it all in. It is my first visit of the year and we will see what happens.”
Jackson also says that his trimmed list will become public sometime in the near future.
Johnson, on the other hand, also spoke briefly about his Michigan visit, telling Wiltfong it was a great experience all around:
"It was a great weekend for me," Johnson said. "I got to see a lot and connect with the commits and get a feel for all the guys. It was good for me and Domani to connect up there and get a feel for Michigan together for sure.
"I'm just gonna say they could have something really special there soon."
Jaylen an underrated recruiter
One of the least-talked about players in the Buckeyes' 2021 class is three-star defensive back/linebacker Jaylen Johnson. That goes for both his exploits on defense and his work as a peer recruiter.
But Johnson, who has been instrumental in Ohio State's recruitment of guys such as Jordan Hancock and Emeka Egbuka, says he should no longer be slept on in the peer recruiting department.
“I’m the best recruiter in the state of Ohio, I can promise you that,” Johnson told Eleven Warriors.
That's some pretty big words, considering Johnson is up against guys such as Jack Sawyer and Ben Christman in 2021 and C.J. Hicks in 2022. But Johnson smiled and didn't back down from his stance.
“There’s no competition with me,” Johnson said.
No matter how it gets done, of course, Johnson just wants to continue building an already terrific recruiting class by working on Egbuka, J.T. Tuimoloau and Tristan Leigh to finish things out.
“Just know that once we get on campus, it’s gonna be a scary sight,” Johnson said.
As for him being underrated as a player, Johnson isn't worried about being less talked about.
“I’ll let my playing do the talking, mainly,” Johnson said. “But, hey, I’m gonna just show what I’ve got in Columbus.”
Buckeyes still pushing for Raesjon
One of the players Johnson didn't mention was four-star linebacker Raesjon Davis of Mater Dei (California) High School.
Though Davis has been committed to LSU since January, he told Eleven Warriors that the Buckeyes are continuing to make a concerted push in recruiting him. He says that he still frequently speaks with Al Washington and he talks with Ryan Day nearly every day. Davis told us months ago that he was trying to make a visit to Ohio State with his family, as he has visited a couple times, but his parents have not.
Davis is still working on making a visit happen, though nothing has been planned as of yet.
Rice breaks down top eight
Five-star Virginia offensive tackle Zach Rice is in the top 10 of Ohio State's biggest targets in the 2022 class, and the Buckeyes found themselves on his list of top-eight schools that he released on Saturday.
Rice spoke with 247Sports' Brian Dohn, breaking down why the Buckeyes made the list in addition to talking about the other seven schools:
Ohio State: "Ohio State is probably going to be the best school in 2022, unless something happens. I've been talking to them for a while. I like (assistant) coach (Kerry) Coombs, coach (Ryan) Day, and (offensive line) coach Stud (Greg Studrawa). They said coach Stud was a different kind of person. Paris Johnson wasn't feeling him until he talked to him in person and he actually showed him some things.
"One thing I appreciate is the whole summer I would wake up at the crack of dawn and they would show me all their players and how they got them ready for the draft."
When Rice spoke with us in the spring, the day after he got his Ohio State offer, he said that the offer was a huge deal for him and his mother.
“Coach Stud offered me, and I was really shocked,” Rice said. “But then my mom – she’s a counselor – she got off the phone with one of the ladies she works with. After she got off the phone, I finally got it on speaker phone (with Coach Stud), and my mom, as he told her he was offering me, her knees buckled. She almost fell. It was crazy.”
Header photo: Will Johnson
