The Hurry-Up: Kyion Grayes to Visit Ohio State This Month, Proposal for Signee Limits, Buckeyes Pick Up Another PWO

By Zack Carpenter on February 2, 2021 at 6:30 pm
Kyion Grayes
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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.

Grayes to visit this month

Chandler (Arizona) four-star receiver Kyion Grayes told Eleven Warriors two weeks ago that he knows where his heart is at in his college commitment but that he was remaining patient with his decision. He also told us back in mid-December that he was planning on trying to take a visit to Ohio State sometime in February before he ultimately came to that decision.

“I wanna visit in February or something or whenever they open up, and that’s when I’ll know for sure,” Grayes said. “But if that’s not possible, then that’s not possible and I’ll do it another time. Even if I just get to go up to the city and walk around, it’ll be the experience I need.”

Now, Grayes has a date set for his first-ever visit to Ohio State, as he confirmed with Eleven Warriors that he will be visiting on the weekend of Feb. 26-27, which was first reported by Buckeye Scoop's Mick Walker.

Grayes says the exact itinerary for the weekend trip is not yet known, but some of the potential plans are to head up and down High Street to see the restaurants and shops there, hit campus to check out the digs and, of course, take a look at the athletics facilities and The Shoe.

Grayes, the No. 312 overall player and No. 46 receiver in the nation, decommitted from Arizona in mid-December, and there was an immediate swell of momentum for him to eventually commit to the Buckeyes. I still love for them to eventually land the state of Arizona's No. 3 prospect in the 2022 class, and we will see if that last weekend in February is what gets the deal done.

Perhaps there will be some 2022 Ohio State commits who are able to join Grayes on the trip (in a similar fashion to the 2021 signees meeting Raesjon Davis on his recent trip to Columbus).

If so, that could help extend a relationship further between Grayes and the current members of Ohio State's 2022 cycle.

“I feel like it’s pretty good. We talk on a daily basis,” Grayes told us previously of his relationships with the Buckeyes' 2022 commits. “I’m in a group chat with all of them. They’re not even rushing me. They’re like, ‘whenever you’re ready, you’re in.’ So it just feels great. That’s one thing I like about them.”

NCAA may adjust signee limits

Changes could be coming in the future to the 25-man class limit in college football.

Sports Illustrated's Ross Dellenger reported on Tuesday that the NCAA is looking at three different proposals to adjust the limit on programs signing only 25 players to a class.

Dellenger writes: In fact, as the 2021 National Signing Day approaches on Wednesday, college football recruiting stands, like the sport itself, at a seminal moment. This may be the last class of signees before a cascade of legislative changes forever alters recruiting:

“Next year, in theory, we have 50 freshmen on the roster and 85 spots,” says Troy Dannen, Tulane’s athletic director and a member of the Football Oversight Committee. “There is going to be a huge issue in 2022–23 and beyond if the 25 cap doesn’t change.”

Three proposals exist to adjust the 25-signee limit, says (Shane) Lyons, but it’s unlikely that one will be adopted for this cycle. One proposal allows coaches to replace each player lost to the NFL, the transfer portal or for medical reasons, granting an unlimited number of signee spots in a one-for-one approach. Another similar proposal caps the number of replaceable signees at 10. A third proposal turns the one-year signee limit into a two-year limit, granting coaches 50 signees to be used over a two-year stretch.

Lyons and others are concerned that replacing departures with additional signee spots will “repeat history.” The 25-man limit was implemented to disincentivize the trend of coaches cutting or pushing out scholarship players in an effort to oversign high school players or transfers.

Jon Steinbrecher, commissioner of the MAC, says the 25-man limit needs a “hard look” because of the concern, from a host of college athletic administrators and coaches, that teams will not consistently fill all 85 of their scholarship spots given the transfer movement. A transfer is leaving a scholarship spot empty at his former school and is using one of the precious 25 signee spots at his new school.

So, perhaps in the near future, we will see more classes like Ohio State's unusually small class in 2019 when the Buckeyes only signed 17 players.

Buckeyes pick up another PWO

Last week, Ohio State picked up a preferred walk-on in running back/cornerback Cayden Saunders out of Northville (Michigan) High School.

On Tuesday, the Buckeyes landed another preferred walk-on, this time in the form of long-snapper Mason Arnold.

Arnold is a 6-foot-2, 240-pounder out of Carrollwood Day High School in Tampa, Florida. He also had interest from Texas and Kansas.

Michigan offers Allar

Michigan has officially entered the race for one of the top quarterbacks in the Midwest, extending an offer to Medina (Ohio) three-star prospect Drew Allar.

Allar, a 6-foot-5, 210-pounder, is ranked No. 513 overall and No. 24 at pro-style quarterback. Though Ohio State is set with its five-star quarterback commit Quinn Ewers, perhaps Ryan Day and Co. will look further into extending an offer to Allar to bring him in as a second quarterback in the class.

Though Allar is ranked low, Colin was impressed with the in-state quarterback this fall when he watched him square off against Elyria:

Allar, as of now, is the state's second-ranked 2022 quarterback, and he has made a strong case to earn the No. 1 spot in the games I've seen. The 6-foot-5, 210-pounder is in his first full season as a starter at the head of an offense that passes nearly every down, and he already has four scholarship offers, including one from Pittsburgh. I'd be surprised if he doesn't add more Power Five offers in the near future. Not having an offseason to show out at college camps likely hurt his rise as a recruit, but he's making up for it now.

Allar has an uphill battle to earn an Ohio State offer, considering Ryan Day has done nothing but land top-end quarterback prospects since Gene Smith hired him. Don't rule him out, though, as Day and Corey Dennis look for their 2022 signal-caller.

Header photo: Kyion Grayes – Andrew Ivins/247Sports

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