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.
Buckeyes in five-star CB’s final five
Michigan still holds all five Crystal Ball predictions for homegrown talent Will Johnson, a five-star cornerback from nearby Grosse Pointe South High School, but the Buckeyes remain in the running for the nation's No. 8 overall player, No. 4 CB and No. 1 player in Michigan's 2022 class.
Johnson released his final five this afternoon, with Michigan, Ohio State, Arizona State, Oklahoma and USC as the group of programs the 6-foot-3, 190-pounder is still considering.
FIN5L... pic.twitter.com/9N9AjF8EOc
— Wl Jhno (@Willj1228) November 23, 2020
It's not much of a surprise to see any of those programs listed – even Arizona State – as those are the same group of teams that Johnson told Eleven Warriors this summer that were making the best run at him, with one Big Ten program omitted from his final list.
“The schools I talk to the most are Ohio State, Michigan, Arizona State, USC, Oklahoma and Penn State, and there’s one or two I’m probably leaving out,” Johnson said in July. “But those are the schools I talk to pretty much every week or a couple times a week.”
Johnson is one of the players who was rumored to be potentially committing to Ohio State at some point soon during the 2022 commits' Twitter barrage in October, but things have slowed since then. That's not a surprise, considering the advice his father, former Michigan defensive back Deon Johnson, gave him about the recruiting process long ago.
“Just take it slow and don’t rush anything,” the younger Johnson said of his dad's advice. “Just try to build a relationship with all the coaches. Because you never know where somebody’s gonna be, at the end of the day. Coach (Kerry) Coombs left to the NFL and got Damon Webb picked up. So you never know what coach you’ll have. Just keep a good relationship with everybody because you never know where (the coaches) will end up. Because if I’m at one school and they’re in the NFL one day and they drafted me, because I had a good relationship with them, that’d be good.”
Ohio State could land another five-star soon
And speaking of five-star prospects whom the Buckeye commits have been pushing for, there is a very good chance we are going to see a major boom in the near future in the 2022 class.
On Sunday night, C.J. Hicks, Dasan McCullough, Bennett Christian and even Tegra Tshabola took to Twitter to hint at a potential commitment.
Imma remind yall were breaking the internet.
— CJ Hicks (@imcjhicks) November 23, 2020
WHOS READY FOR ANOTHER BOOM!!!
— Dasan Mccullough (@Dasan2022) November 23, 2020
You know something big is coming when Tegra posts!!! https://t.co/mhoZXddyC9
— Bennett Christian (@BennettC87) November 23, 2020
I've been told the man of the hour is five-star receiver Caleb Burton, and it's likely that the No. 15 overall player and No. 2 receiver will be committing to Ohio State sooner than later. Would make sense following the momentum the Buckeyes have following the commitment of fellow Texan and fellow five-star in quarterback Quinn Ewers.
For what it's worth, all six Crystal Ball predictions have Burton pegged to pick Ohio State with high confidence levels, and that includes two CB picks in the past 24 hours.
Misses now hurting 2020 Buckeyes
In the 2019 recruiting cycle, Ohio State signed only two defensive backs in safeties Ronnie Hickman and Bryson Shaw, electing not to bring in any cornerback prospects in the class.
In 2020, the Buckeyes had a commitment from top-55 slot cornerback Clark Phillips III right up until the early signing period when he flipped to Utah.
Although it still kept cornerback prospects Ryan Watts, Lejond Cavazos and Cam Martinez in the fold in 2020, right now Ohio State is hurting from the lack of corners in the 2019 class and from the loss of Phillips to the Pac-12. I got destroyed for my analysis of how impactful it was when Phillips flipped, and to be fair, I was pretty dramatic in terms of it crushing the Buckeyes long term in recruiting defensive backs. And the minute they brought back Kerry Coombs, they went from fine to fantastic in terms of recruiting corners.
Where the analysis of the loss of Phillips proved accurate was in the short term, though, as he could probably help this 2020 defense right now by providing depth at one of the team's biggest weaknesses – slot corner.
Reinforcements are on the way in the form of the nation's best defensive backs haul in the 2021 class, but the Buckeyes are left thin right now.
Header photo: Will Johnson (left) and his father, former Michigan defensive back Deon Johnson
