Any time Colby Davies flips on his TV to watch an Ohio State game, he sees Emeka Egbuka.
In Davies’ eyes, Egbuka’s already wearing the No. 2 in scarlet and gray. That’s what he’s reminded of every time he watches Chris Olave, one of the Buckeyes’ star receivers who wears the same number Egbuka does at Washington’s Steilacoom High School.
Davies is the Sentinels’ head coach who has had the fun of designing offenses to use Egbuka in creative ways as he rose into the nation’s No. 1-ranked receiver over the past two years. Davies, who spoke with Eleven Warriors earlier this week to preview Egbuka’s decision, was effusive in his praise for the senior’s all-around game and what the five-star prospect is going to bring to the Buckeyes as their latest commit in a stacked 2021 recruiting class.
The No. 9 overall player in the cycle, Egbuka has been told by Brian Hartline that he can be used in multiple spots but that the likeliest destination is for him to work in the slot like Garrett Wilson has been doing during a breakout sophomore campaign. But Davies sees a more apt comparison between Egbuka and another West Coast product.
“Honestly, I think he’s got more Olave in him than Garrett Wilson, just some of the physical traits and some of the things that he does well as far as ball skills and high-pointing and his catch game,” Davies said. “And when I watch Ohio State games, you see Olave in No. 2, and that’s what Mek wears.”
And in sticking with the comparisons, Hartline at one point told Egbuka that his game and skillset was reminiscent of Terry McLaurin, with Hartline saying the Buckeyes could use Egbuka in a similar fashion.
Those conversations were had early on in the recruiting process, one that started all the way back in the winter of Egbuka’s sophomore year. And when we look at why Egbuka finally chose for Columbus to be the final stop in his recruitment, you don’t have to look further than the reigning national recruiter of the year as the No. 1 reason why.
“It was huge,” Davies said of Egbuka and Hartline’s relationship. “I think they’re very like-minded in their approach and their competitiveness, and I think that Mek will feed off Coach Hart’s fire and competitiveness. I believe Coach Hart’s gonna push him every day to be the best he can possibly be and not accept anything less than excellence. That’s what Mek wants. He doesn’t wanna come to practice and just have everyone treat him like he’s the guy and that he doesn’t need to be coached.
“He wants to be pushed every day, and if you can’t help him get better as a coach he really doesn’t wanna deal with you. He wants to go somewhere where he’s gonna be pushed and coached, and he wants to learn. I think it’s definitely gonna be a perfect match with those two.”
But we can’t act as if a strong relationship with Hartline is the only reason for Egbuka’s decision. Relationships are far and away the most important factor in a recruitment. But a blueprint for development and a concrete avenue to success goes hand-in-hand.
“They get guys isolated, receivers isolated, to win in one-on-ones on shorter breaking routes, on vertical breaking routes, on deep shots, and I think that (Emeka) can do all of that and he can win consistently.”– Colby Davies, Emeka Egbuka's high school head coach
Ever since Ryan Day took over as the full-time offensive coordinator in 2018, the Buckeyes’ offense has been building toward becoming what Day has created today as the program’s CEO – an offensive skill player’s dream.
Day’s Sunday-style concepts and schemes have already helped land the Buckeyes the most talented quarterback in program history (see: Fields, Justin), back-to-back five-star quarterback commits in the 2021 and 2022 class (the latter being Quinn Ewers, who this week became the No. 1-ranked all-time recruit in Ohio State history) and one of the best two-year stretches of offensive talent the Buckeyes have ever accumulated out of the high school ranks.
That proved massive in getting Egbuka to the Big Ten.
“Especially since Coach Day has taken over, they don’t put their players in bad situations,” Davies said. “They call concepts and they call plays that have a high percentage of being successful. They don’t call plays versus bad looks. They do that really consistently. There’s some routes that they run in that offense that they need receivers to win and take advantage in one-on-one situations, and I think Mek does that very, very well. They get guys isolated, receivers isolated, to win in one-on-ones on shorter breaking routes, on vertical breaking routes, on deep shots, and I think that Mek can do all of that and he can win consistently.
“He’s also a guy that’s playing in the slot, he’s gonna be able to take advantage of some of those defenders that are trying to cover him, whether it’s an overhang defender or inside ‘backer or a safety. I mean, good luck. And Mek’s really, really smart so I think he’s gonna operate really, really well in the slot in Ohio State’s offense. It’s a great offense as a fan and coach watching. You admire a lot of the things they do, and you just know with a talented receiver like Mek, he’s gonna do a good job.”
But wouldn’t Egbuka have had just as good of a shot at having success in a quarterback- and receiver-friendly offense like Oklahoma’s? Well, yeah, almost certainly. Egbuka is that special and Lincoln Riley’s system has proven to be a dynamic one for skill position players as well.
That’s one reason why Egbuka was considering the Sooners so heavily and why he took his recruitment into the 11th hour before committing five days before the beginning of the early signing period. It’s one reason why he took a visit to Norman last weekend when Oklahoma defeated Baylor with Egbuka in the stands.
Egbuka, as Davies says, “has a great deal of admiration and respect for what Oklahoma does offensively,” and that’s why he found himself comparing the two high-powered offenses. But there were enough differences to where Egbuka was able to see which schemes fit his own vision for his college career better between the two.
“I would say Ohio State takes more shots than (Oklahoma does) downfield,” Davies said. “At least with this year’s personnel groups for both teams, I think Oklahoma tries to move the ball downfield more using the horizontal concepts and try to work this thing laterally with misdirection and try to fool defenders with play-action stuff. It’s just a little different, and I know Mek knows that.
“When he went to the Oklahoma game, he noticed that Oklahoma didn’t take many shots downfield. But he also knows that when they had CeeDee Lamb, they were taking shots downfield so he knows that they were maybe catering to the skillsets that they have. But I think that the deep shots, the vertical stuff, the double-move concepts that Ohio State incorporates is really intriguing to Mek.”
And now, backed strongly by that relationship with Hartline and the pull of Day’s offense, the Buckeyes have landed perhaps the best of the bunch in a four-year stretch of receiver recruiting that has brought a ridiculous embarrassment of riches and potential first-round talent to Columbus.
Ohio State has four top-100 receivers in the 2020 class (including two five-stars and another borderline five-star) and two more top-100 receivers in Egbuka’s own class. Some programs tried to use that as a recruiting tool against the Buckeyes, but it ironically wound up working in their favor.
“One of the things that factored into Mek’s decision for his commitment that was a huge deal is Mek never takes the easy way out,” Davies said. “He wants to be challenged, and he wants things to be difficult. And he knows with Coach Hart he’s gonna get pushed every day. He’s gonna be coached hard to be as good as he can possibly be. He knows the receiver room’s stacked. He didn’t wanna go into a position where he can just walk in and take a spot or something like that. He knows that he’s gotta go in and earn reps. He’s just that type of competitor. He wants to be pushed every day to be the best that he can possibly be. He doesn’t want anything easy.
“He wants the challenge. He embraces it. Mek is so intrinsically motivated to be the best. And so, there were coaches in the recruiting process that told him the (Ohio State) room is crowded and gave him the option of coming to a place where he could no doubt play right away and have easier competition. That didn’t interest him at all. That’s not what he wants. Now he wants to go to a place where people think it’s gonna be difficult and where he can come out of it and show that he is the best player, that he is the best receiver. It’s just a quiet confidence that he has about him. And he also knows that if he can’t do it, he’s gonna go guns blazing trying to be the best in that room, and he’s gonna keep working every day until he is.”
Season postponed till March, Im still coming for my records pic.twitter.com/E4Ot5TjHLh
— Emeka Egbuka (@emeka_egbuka) July 23, 2020
Now, the real decision and the real work will have to be made. There’s the relief that the recruiting process is officially going to be put to bed on Wednesday when Egbuka signs, but the decision will quickly have to be made on whether or not he wants to enroll early and hit campus in January.
When Washington pushed high school football back to the spring, Egbuka’s plan was to stick around at Steilacoom to get a shot at breaking school and state receiving records and to get another crack at winning the Sentinels’ first-ever state championship in football after a runner-up finish in 2019.
But now, with the state in limbo regarding whether or not it will even hold a high school football in the spring, a tough decision is on the table.
Egbuka has the physical skillset and a next-level understanding of the game – with the capacity to quickly grasp the playbook and nuances of being a Big Ten receiver – to come in and compete for playing time as a true freshman and perhaps even start. In order to get a real shot at that, though, he would probably need spring ball. If he waits until June, the odds get stacked higher against him.
There are a number of family factors and other aspects that go into Egbuka’s decision, and he will have to come to that choice quickly.
Whether in January or June, though, the one surefire fact is that at 5:07 p.m. Pacific time on Friday night, the Buckeyes picked up one of the nation’s best and most versatile talents.
And then, once Egbuka officially sent out his commitment video on Twitter and Instagram, it was off to practice at Steilacoom at 5:30.
No parties. No hoopla. Just getting back to the grind. As if anyone should expect anything else.
Soon enough, Davies and tens of millions more will be able to flip on Fox and see Egbuka do his best Olave impression by screaming down the field for a 50-yard touchdown or breaking off an out route for a ho-hum 15-yard gain up the sidelines.
Maybe Egbuka will even get to wear No. 2.
Header photo: Emeka Egbuka – Brandon Huffman/247Sports
