As recently as a month or two ago, there were rumblings that Woodward Academy (Georgia) four-star running back Damari Alston was close to making a decision.
And if he was set on coming to a decision soon, the prevailing thought was that Ohio State was going to be the pick.
No such decision has come to the forefront, however, and I can confidently say that no commitment will be coming in the next couple of months. At least as long as the NCAA follows through with its likely decision to end the dead period and open a quiet period on April 16. That quiet period will allow athletes to take visits to schools and get to speak with coaches on campus, and that’s a major factor in just about every recruit’s recruitment.
That is no different with Alston, who told Eleven Warriors this week that with an actual end to the dead period in sight, it changes how he views things. There’s less pressure to make a decision until he’s able to take visits. He’s able to afford more patience with a quiet period on the horizon.
“I’ve been talking to coaches, and they’ve been saying it would probably be a quiet period,” Alston said. “That kids can go visit the schools but coaches can’t come out of the state to see us. So the one thing I wanna do is visit the schools and sit down with certain coaches and talk to them. That’s a big thing for me, just seeing the school as a whole I feel like it gives me a better feel for where home is.”
Alston says he is concretely set on not making any type of decision until after he can make visits. And speaking of visits, Alston told us in December that he was hoping to get to Ohio State at some point this winter or spring. It looks like that could be happening on the weekend of April 16-18, which would be both the first weekend of the quiet period and the weekend Ohio State is currently planning to hold its spring game. That’s not set in stone, Alston says, but the hope is that he will be able to come up to Columbus that weekend.
“We’re just planning it. We haven’t talked a lot about it yet, but my dad will probably be with me trying to get up there when things open up if there’s nothing going on,” Alston said. “But if something does go on where we can’t make it, I’ll definitely be up there as soon as possible in the month of April. So that’s something I’m really looking forward to. Ohio State is one of the schools I wanna get up to first so I’m gonna make it happen.
“Between them and there’s a couple schools that I would like to see. It’s not really about who’s gonna be first, but there’s a couple schools like Ohio State, Penn State, Florida, Bama, Georgia Tech. Schools like that. But Georgia Tech is one of the schools in my backyard that I can always get over to.”
Speaking of local schools, one of the offers Alston had been hoping to get by now was from the local Bulldogs, but thus far Georgia has not come calling with an offer.
“I don’t know why they haven’t offered yet. I mean, that’s their fault. Missing out on an in-state talent,” Alston said.
Me too https://t.co/TnuEjD0Sfq
— DA (@DamariAlston) February 4, 2021
Georgia’s loss would potentially be Ohio State’s gain, as the No. 272 overall player, No. 27 running back and No. 28 player in the Peach State continues to get a consistent recruiting push. That push is coming from both Tony Alford and some of the commits in the Buckeyes’ 2022 class, including C.J. Hicks, Dasan McCullough and Bennett Christian.
“We’ve got a pretty strong group chat. All of our relationships are good with each other. They’re all cool people,” Alston said. “They’re all some people I would love to be around. In my recruitment, they all love telling me what’s going on with Ohio State, and they send me pictures and videos from when they visited and things like that.
“They’re just good people, and I’m real cool with them. (The commits) really want me. They’ve been on me for months now.”
What Alston has appreciated about Ohio State’s group of commits is that they are not making him feel pressured into making a decision. They are getting on him about becoming a Buckeye but not in any sort of antagonizing way.
And that’s just the way the four-star Georgian would have it as he continues to wait things out.
“I’m just taking it one day at a time and being patient,” Alston said. “I was thinking about dropping a top eight, but then (more offers came up). So I might just wait a little bit longer and take my time, talking with the coaches that I really have strong relationships with. I don’t really have a timeline set out right now, but once things open up in April I can actually have a better understanding of where I wanna go.”
