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.
Recruiting dead period extended
It will be a full calendar year, at least, until recruits will be able to visit schools in an official or unofficial capacity.
On Wednesday night, the NCAA extended the recruiting dead period once again, as expected, pushing the new dead period all the way until April 15, 2021.
DI Council extends recruiting dead period for all sports through April 15: https://t.co/znkRinZ2CQ pic.twitter.com/36C4JP5cip
— Inside the NCAA (@InsidetheNCAA) November 18, 2020
The NCAA initially instilled a "temporary recruiting dead period" on April 15, 2020, and after many month-long extensions, extended it until January 1, 2021 before tonight's additional push back.
As we said last week, this is just another major curveball – even if it's not completely unexpected – for the Buckeyes and all other programs to overcome and for recruits to have to combat as the inability to make in-person connections and get an in-person look at what a program offers are another tough blow for players in the 2021 and 2022 classes.
Ohio State offers another 2022 WR
Five-star Texas receiver Caleb Burton is still the Buckeyes’ prime target in the 2022 class at the position, and three-star Arizona commit Kyion Grayes recently joined a list of targets who have been offered by Brian Hartline and Co. that includes Luther Burden, C.J. Williams, Kaleb Brown and Armani Winfield.
Add another to that growing list.
Four-star Georgia prospect Kojo Antwi, the nation’s No. 191 overall player, No. 23 receiver and No. 18 prospect in the Peach State, announced that Hartline, Ryan Day and the Buckeyes had come calling with an offer.
Thankful to receive an offer from THE Ohio state University!! pic.twitter.com/XogmIyueUZ
— Kojo Antwi (@Kojo_Antwi2) November 18, 2020
Antwi, a 6-foot-1, 185-pound junior out of Lambert High School in Suwanee – the same city that houses Ohio State cornerback commit Jordan Hancock and Clemson linebacker commit Barrett Carter at North Gwinnett High School – and he already held offers from Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Oregon, Penn State, Texas, USC and Wisconsin.
His offer from the Buckeyes is another that has him pumped up and looking forward to his future options.
“This offer is exciting,” Antwi told Eleven Warriors. “They are one of the best teams in the country. They produce a lot of NFL players, and it is a great academic school.”
Hartline is obviously known for being able to point toward his track record of developing blue-chip prospects into pros, and that reputation is growing by the day, especially as Chris Olave, Garrett Wilson and the current crop of four- and five-star freshmen continue to grow. Looking from afar, that’s one of the reasons the Buckeyes’ offer has Antwi excited.
“Coach Hartline said he would coach the heck outta me,” Antwi said. “He said he’s all about getting his guys to the next level.”
This is just the next step in a growing relationship between Antwi and Hartline, as the two are likely to communicate much further in the near future as he is now firmly on Ohio State’s radar.
“They said I was an explosive player,” Antwi said. “They said they were pumped up about my film. (Harline) said he was gonna recruit me hard because he thinks I would thrive there.”
Hall makes big leap in rankings
Throughout his senior season, Ohio State 2021 defensive tackle commit Mike Hall thoroughly impressed us here at Eleven Warriors as he dominated his competition up at Streetsboro High School in the Cleveland area.
We certainly were not alone in that category of those who have liked what they saw. On Wednesday, in the latest rankings release of the Top247 ratings, the folks at the recruiting network bumped the 6-foot-3, 290-pounder up into the No. 36 overall spot on their rankings.
In the composite rankings, that now makes Hall the No. 44 overall player and No. 4 defensive tackle in America's 2021 cycle and the No. 2 player in Ohio.
Also making a big leap were Marvin Harrison Jr., who jumped 32 spots in the Top247 rankings and is now No. 104 overall in the composite (up from No. 115) and Zen Michalski, who was boosted more than 125 spots from No. 336 to No. 209 in the Top247 rankings which puts him at No. 544 overall in the composite.
