The Hurry-Up: Dead Period Could Extend Through May 31, Ohio State Jumps on Board Early for 2023 RB Tre Wisner

By Zack Carpenter on February 11, 2021 at 6:30 pm
Ryan Day
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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.

Dead period likely to extend

Well that was fun while it lasted.

On Thursday afternoon, Rivals' Josh Helmholdt reported that the NCAA Football Oversight Committee has recommended for the recruiting dead period to be extended again:

This time, the extension would be through May 31, the committee recommended:

Recommendation to Extend the Temporary Recruiting Dead Period. The Football Oversight Committee recommends that the NCAA Division I Council extend the temporary recruiting dead period through May 31 due to ongoing uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic and concern regarding in-person interaction among prospective student-athletes, institutional staff and student-athletes The Football Oversight Committee requests that the Division I Council extend the dead period at its February meeting to provide adequate notice to the membership regarding permissible recruiting activities for the remainder of the spring 2021 academic term. The Football Oversight Committee will engage in further discussions regarding the recruiting calendar at upcoming meetings.

After an agonizingly long dead period that will have lasted a whole year, it appeared the end was finally in sight. There had been hope – real, tangible hope – that the dead period was going to come to an end on April 15 with a quiet period going into effect from April 16-June 30:

That would allow for recruits to go on visits to schools and have face-to-face interactions during the spring and not have to make mostly blind decisions.

So much for that. Probably.

None of this is official, and there has been a concerted push for an end to the dead period. The oversight committee itself does not have the power to extend the dead period, only the NCAA Division I Council does.

However, the oversight committee did recommend the most recent extension of the dead period from Jan. 1, 2021 – April 15, 2021, so we are not in the most optimistic of mindsets that this recommendation will not follow the same path.

In recent weeks, Eleven Warriors had spoken with several recruits who have been excited about the NCAA closing in on the end of the dead period and for visits to facilities and in-person conversations with college coaches to pick up again.

“I’ve been talking to coaches, and they’ve been saying it would probably be a quiet period,” 2022 priority running back target Damari Alston said last week. “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.”

The weekend of April 16-17 was a big target date for many Buckeye recruits, as Ohio State is "hoping" for the 2021 spring game to be held on April 17.

Five-star defensive end J.T. Tuimoloau, the nation's No. 3 overall player in the 2021 class, is the target the Buckeyes have been wanting to get on campus the most. He is holding out a decision until “at least” April with the intention to take his visits in the spring before making a commitment.

Buckeyes offer Wisner

Tre Wisner had himself a big Wednesday.

First, the 2023 running back picked up offers from Florida State, North Texas and UTSA. Then, in the evening, Ohio State came calling with an offer, and he added his fifth offer on Thursday from USC.

"This offer really opened my eyes and showed me that God makes all things work out for people who work,” Wisner told Eleven Warriors. “I like the way they operate. This is a school where they make dogs and not only great players but great men. I like how Coach (Tony) Alford coaches his team and the structure he has.”

The relationship between Wisner and Alford is just starting to grow, and the Buckeyes' running backs coach has not yet dished out any specific player comparisons for who Wisner's game resembles.

However, “he told me after watching my film that I am the type of player that could do big things at OSU. They told me how my film shows a player that fits in their program and that if I stayed humble and in my books things could be really great for me.”

As far as Wisner's skill set goes, the 5-foot-11, 180-pound sophomore out of Connally High School says that he is the type of player “that not only can stay in the backfield, but I can do whatever will put my team in a position to win at the end of the day.”

He has been impressed with how Ohio State utilizes its running backs in Ryan Day's system, and the Buckeyes appear to be a group that will be in high standing in Wisner's eyes going forward.

Cracking top 11 list for DT

It's just a top-11 list, but Ohio State is in the mix for four-star defensive tackle Dominick James out of IMG (Florida) Academy.

Nick James, as the nation's No. 179 overall player and No. 12 defensive tackle in the 2022 class goes by, has the Buckeyes up against schools such as Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, Penn State and USC.

James said this summer that he was hoping to visit Columbus at some point in 2020, but that visit has not yet happened. He is continuing to build a relationship with Larry Johnson until then.

“I liked Coach Johnson’s honesty on things I can fix,” James told Eleven Warriors in May shortly after his offer was announced. “He likes my get off and hustle to the ball.”

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