The Hurry-Up: Buckeyes Offer Top Safety Daemon Fagan, TE Luke Hasz and 2022 RB Omarion Hampton, Ohio State in Top Three for Tight End Ty Lockwood

By Zack Carpenter on March 17, 2021 at 6:30 pm
Daemon Fagan
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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.

Buckeyes offer versatile DB Fagan

While Ohio State continues to hold steady in the 2022 class and be as selective as it would like in terms of taking commitments right now, the eyes go toward the even further future for the program.

Once again, Ryan Day and Co. were back at it on Tuesday evening in the 2023 class, extending an offer to Daemon Fagan, a sophomore out of Fort Lauderdale powerhouse American Heritage High School.

One of the best programs in the country, American Heritage has housed some of the top talent in the nation. Ohio State has signed one player out of that high school in the modern recruiting era, Torrance Gibson, who signed in the 2015 class before a suspension led to him never suiting up for Ohio State again.

Back to Fagan!

It’s incredibly early in the process for the young 6-foot-2, 160-pounder, as the Buckeyes became just his 11th total offer, joining Arizona State, Florida State, Georgia, Miami, Oregon, Penn State, Pitt, Syracuse, Texas A&M and West Virginia.

There are a few massive offers on that list, of course, but Ohio State’s offer hit home hard for the Florida Class 5A state champion.

“My reaction was priceless knowing that I worked so hard for all of this and this makes me wanna work harder cause I’m keeping my people proud,” Fagan told Eleven Warriors.

Day, Tony Alford, Kerry Coombs and Matt Barnes are already making strong waves with the young talent early on in the relationship-building stages.

“The coaching staff out there with Ohio State is amazing, and they are great guys who know the game and prepares their athletes very well,” Fagan said. “Our phone call (Tuesday) was about how they love my film and I do everything great. Just got to maintain and play to the fullest potential. They’re great coaches.”

Obviously, as the Buckeyes have been wont to do over the past few cycles, they are pushing for versatile defensive back talent that can be used all over the field. Whether it’s a player listed as a safety who can come down and play as a slot corner or a player who’s playing outside corner in high school but they can move inside or potentially drop back as a deep safety.

That’s exactly the kind of skillset that Fagan offers, though he does say that Ohio State is primarily targeting him at one spot. And when looking at what the program offers and how it uses its safeties/defensive backs, there’s a lot that catches his eye.

“I bring everything a safety and corner can bring to the table,” Fagan said. “I am versatile and an all-around, well-shaped player. Can’t wait to showcase my talent more these next two years.

“Love their offense knowing that they are able to score and the play sheet the OC has does really well. Their safeties play a big role as a post defender, and my ability to read the quarterback and play the post fits very well with the scheme they have. I am being recruited as a safety.”

Positional wise, Fagan says the Ohio State coaching staff hasn’t gone too in-depth and focused in one area he could play, but the initial scouting has them targeting him as the one-high safety in their defensive scheme.

Another 2022 RB offered

We just discussed Ohio State's hierarchy of 2022 running back targets earlier on Wednesday that features a neck-and-neck trio of Nicholas Singleton, Damari Alston and Dallan Hayden (in some order) as being the top trio Tony Alford and Co. are targeting on the trail.

Not sure we can add another name to that top hierarchy of targets, but we now have to keep four-star North Carolina standout Omarion Hampton on our minds after the Buckeyes came calling with an offer on Tuesday night.

Hampton is the No. 135 overall player, No. 11 running back and No. 4 prospect in North Carolina. Standing at 6-foot, 215 pounds, Hampton is a big, physical back who holds offers from Florida, LSU, Miami, Michigan, North Carolina, Penn State and Wisconsin.

I still think that trio above stands out above the rest for the Buckeyes, but the timing of this offer is certainly interesting. We will continue to monitor this latest offer to see if it shakes up the pecking order.

Lockwood has OSU in top three

We wrote about 2023 Tennessee tight end Ty Lockwood a few weeks ago when he became the first player Ohio State offered at the position in the cycle.

An Illinois native, the 6-foot-5, 225-pound Lockwood has offers from 15 programs, including Florida State, LSU and Texas A&M.

It’s the Buckeyes, however, that have caught his attention the most, as he told us he believes “they have a great offense, especially for all the weapons they always have. And I loved seeing the use of Jeremy Ruckert those last two games, he made great plays in big moments.”

Lockwood told Cleveland.com’s Robert Fenbers that Ohio State is already one of the main schools he has at the top of his list:

“Ohio State is definitely in my top three,” Lockwood told cleveland.com. “They have showed a lot of interest; they have been calling me. They have been telling me to set up Zoom calls and I am really getting to know them. They are definitely top three, probably top two.”

He believes he would fit in Ohio State’s offense seamlessly as he does “a great job as a tight end getting open in empty spots and scanning the field. I feel like from playing a whole lot of basketball my field vision is very good.”

Lockwood is one of five tight end prospects the Buckeyes have extended offers to in the 2023 cycle. He joins St. Louis’ Mac Markway out of DeSmet High School (whom I like the most early on to eventually wind up in the class based on what I’ve heard and the connections between DeSmet cornerback signee Jakailin Johnson and the Buckeyes), Jaxon Howard out of Minneapolis (one of the nation’s most versatile athletes) and Duce Robinson (who was offered by the Buckeyes two weeks ago and did not report the offer but did confirm the offer with Eleven Warriors).

On Tuesday, the Buckeyes added another name to that list of tight end prospects in Luke Hasz, an unranked player out of Bixby, Oklahoma.

Hasz is a 6-foot-3, 220-pounder and holds nearly 20 offers already, including from the likes of Baylor, Florida State, Oklahoma, Oregon, Penn State and USC.

Top five pending for Goodwin

We have been harping on the fact that Kiyaunta Goodwin is almost certainly going to be a five-star prospect down the road and probably already should be. Instead, he's saddled as the No. 47 overall prospect, No. 5 offensive tackle in the country and No. 1 in Indiana's 2022 class.

But speaking of the number five, the Charlestown (Indiana) prospect will be coming out with a top five in the very near future he announced on Twitter on Tuesday night.

That list could be coming as soon as soon as this week, and the Buckeyes are guaranteed a spot on it. I will venture a guess that it will be Ohio State pitted against Alabama, Clemson and Kentucky and maybe a surprise team. Mel Tucker at Michigan State has built up a great relationship with Goodwin so do not count out the Spartans.

Another offer, another top schools list

Ohio State added another defensive back prospect in the 2023 class to its offer list, as IMG (Florida) Academy four-star cornerback Malik Muhammad announced that the Buckeyes have come calling.

Muhammad is the No. 80 overall player, No. 6 cornerback and No. 21 player in the state of Florida, per 247Sports' initial rankings for the class.

The 6-foot, 170-pounder has offers from Alabama, Auburn, Baylor, Georgia, LSU, Michigan, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Oregon, Penn State, Texas and Texas A&M.

On a final note, the Buckeyes got a recruiting update from a borderline five-star prospect and one of their top targets at one of their biggest positions of need.

Earnest Greene, the No. 52 overall player, No. 2 offensive guard in the country and No. 6 player in California's 2022 class, has the Buckeyes as a top-10 finalist.

Greene, from the alma mater of Wyatt Davis and Kourt Williams in St. John Bosco, announced that he has Ohio State pitted against Oklahoma, Texas, Oregon, Texas A&M and USC among others.

Header photo: Daemon Fagan – Gaby Urrutia/247Sports

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