The Hurry-Up: Ohio State Extends First 2024 Offer to Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa, Buckeyes Pick Up Crystal Ball for Dallan Hayden

By Zack Carpenter on April 13, 2021 at 7:30 pm
Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa
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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.

First 2024 offer

There have been a few items of importance over the past 24 hours that we need to hit on, so we are taking a mini sabbatical from analyzing Sunday's all-important Under Armour Camp. We'll be back to regularly scheduled programming tomorrow.

But if you want to get a fix and missed a way-too-long breakdown of some of the showcase's most important observations, you can sift through my Monday Hurry-Up – one that ended up being 2,000-plus words because I just couldn't help myself.

Back to the matter at hand...

Get used to a name that is one of the best names you're going to find in the world of college football recruiting. At least in the 2024 class, specifically.

Ohio State extended its first offer to a prospect in that 2024 cycle on Monday night, as Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa confirmed with Eleven Warriors that he had been offered by the Buckeyes prior to making it public with a late-night tweet.

“Definitely a blessing for a big school like OSU to offer me,” Viliamu-Asa told Eleven Warriors. “I was in shock and for sure grateful for the opportunity.”

Even in limited film from his freshman season that is only five games young, it's clear to see the 6-foot-2, 205-pound outside linebacker/safety prospect can rush up the middle and off the edge, plays with physicality and good pursuit and isn't afraid to stick his helmet into any offensive player.

Now that he has those five games under his belt, Ohio State felt plenty comfortable making Viliamu-Asa a very early offer – led by Al Washington, who was the assistant to actually offer him on Monday.

“I feel like I bring versatility, and being able to be put in a lot of different positions to fit the defense as well as leadership and aggressiveness,” says Viliamu-Asa, who confirms he is being recruited early on by the Buckeyes as an outside linebacker. “I’m a little familiar with the way they use their outside linebackers and safeties, and I’ve heard of the bullet position.”

Viliamu-Asa plays his high school ball in California's St. John Bosco, a national powerhouse on the West Coast that has housed a pair of players (Wyatt Davis, Kourt Williams) who picked Ohio State, in addition to a bevy of stars such as five-star Clemson quarterback DJ Uiagalelei. 

Viliamu-Asa says he is familiar with former Bosco players, including Davis and Williams, but he has never spoken with either Buckeye before. Perhaps that will change now that Ohio State added its name to a growing list of early offers that includes Michigan, Oregon and Boston College, where Jeff Hafley's crew continues to get in early on players who become high-level prospects.

Hayden Crystal Ball

The Buckeyes have picked up a Crystal Ball prediction to land Dallan Hayden, as he continues to emerge as a player who could give them a splash in the 2022 cycle.

Ohio State has rolled with momentum for the four-star Memphis running back ever since January, when Hayden told Eleven Warriors how strongly Tony Alford and the Buckeyes believe that he is a "perfect fit" for their offensive system.

Since then, we've been on top of Hayden's recruitment here, as he and others continued to inform of us of where the Buckeyes stood in the hierarchy of his recruitment. First, it was Ohio State, Notre Dame and Tennessee standing above the rest with Oregon dropping out.

Then it became very clear that the Buckeyes and Irish were the top two (and still are to this day) with the Volunteers essentially completely falling out of the race and Illinois becoming a darkhorse. That was shortly after Hayden, the No. 23 running back in the 2022 class, had taken self-guided visits to Ohio State, Notre Dame and Illinois before locking in three official visits with each program.

I love where the Buckeyes stand in this recruitment right now and going forward. That June official visit could lock things up if it goes well.

Booker's top five

As we briefly hit on Monday night, borderline five-star 2022 offensive tackle Tyler Booker out of IMG (Florida) Academy released his top-five list last night.

There were no major surprises there, though I got the Penn State prediction wrong, as Oregon supplanted the Nittany Lions as one of five on a list that includes Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Ohio State. He made the announcement with a pretty kick ass customized t-shirt.

“Another school with great tradition. I really describe Ohio State as an old school program adapting with the new school,” Booker told 247Sports. “I say old school, hard-nosed program, they’re not afraid to be physical. That’s the tradition of the program and also the Big Ten. I also like the trajectory of the program and class that Ohio State has now is one of the best in recent years so to be part of that is great.”

Miller's recruiting battle

Since I've written this a couple times over the past two weeks or so, we don't have to dive into it too deep. But it's certainly worth touching on since the man himself has now made it public:

Georgia four-star defensive tackle Christen Miller, who is one of my favorite personalities I've covered on the recruiting trail, has Ohio State, Georgia and USC as the three leaders in his recruitment, he told Hayes Fawcett.

I've felt that his recruitment has been coming down to those for a short while here, so that's not a surprise but worthy of an update nonetheless.

McCullough's brother locks in IU commitment

Four-star safety prospect Daeh McCullough was one of the top performers at the Under Armour Camp, but he decided he didn't care about earning any additional offers before locking in his commitment.

McCullough, the younger brother of Ohio State commit Dasan McCullough and the son of Indiana running backs coach Deland McCullough, announced his pledge to the Hoosiers on Tuesday evening.

Good thing I wrote last night that "Indiana is a lock" for the younger McCullough if Ohio State didn't offer. And for those wondering or concerned, there should be no worries of Dasan flipping to the Hoosiers. He has been adamant with Eleven Warriors about his steadfast Buckeye commitment and is looking forward to beating his dad (and now his brother) in future Big Ten games.

Bellamy locks in visit

Jayden Bellamy, Ohio State's last 2022 defensive back offer, has locked in a visit to Columbus for the weekend of June 25-27.

You can read all about Bellamy in his interview with us from a few weeks ago – an interview in which he said that the Buckeyes are recruiting him because he could develop at all three defensive back positions of safety, slot corner and outside corner.

Offers/Commits pages

One final item to touch on here is that one key page at Eleven Warriors is back from the dead, and another was born last night.

We recently updated our Offers page with a sleek, clean grid that breaks down every player in the 2022 and 2023 classes (and now the 2024 class too).

We also debuted an awesome page that gives a run down of the Buckeyes' 2022 class of commitments (which will eventually feature the 2023 class once that cycle begins to fill up). It includes breakdowns of rankings with links to highlights and our stories at Eleven Warriors from back when they each committed.

Both pages are really cool, and I think we crushed it. So check 'em out.

Header photo: Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa – Greg Biggins/247Sports

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