The Hurry-Up: Ohio State Hands Out Three More 2023 Offers, Quinn Ewers’ Receiver Will Visit Buckeyes and Tegra Tshabola Won't Visit Kentucky

By Dan Hope on May 12, 2021 at 2:35 pm
Tegra Tshabola
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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.

*ICYMI: The daily Hurry-Ups will be back soon once we hire our new full-time recruiting writer, but I’ll be filling in with a couple of Hurry-Ups per week until then.

2023 DBs, WR earn offers

After landing commitments from a pair of defensive backs in the class of 2022 last week, Ohio State handed out a pair of offers to defensive backs in the class of 2023 on Monday.

One of those offers went to Ethan Nation, who’s ranked as the No. 10 cornerback and No. 110 overall prospect in the recruiting class of 2023.

A rising junior at Roswell High School in Roswell, Georgia – which is also the hometown of current Ohio State running back Steele Chambers, though Chambers played at Blessed Trinity Catholic – Nation already holds more offers from more than 40 schools, including a litany of top programs like Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Notre Dame, Oklahoma and Texas A&M.

Elliot Washington, the other DB who received an offer from the Buckeyes on Monday, isn’t yet quite as highly touted – he’s ranked as the 33rd-best safety in the 2023 class by 247Sports, and doesn’t yet have a composite ranking – but his growing offer list will likely lead to a big move up the rankings soon.

On Monday alone, Washington received offers from Georgia, Indiana and Florida State after getting his offer from the Buckeyes. A native of Venice, Florida, Washington has also received offers from Georgia Tech, Michigan State, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Virginia Tech, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

On the other side of the ball, Ohio State also made an offer on Monday to Johntay Cook, who’s ranked as the No. 10 wide receiver and No. 57 overall prospect in the recruiting class of 2023.

A product of DeSoto, Texas, the hometown of former Ohio State H-back Dontre Wilson, Cook adds the Buckeyes to a list of 30 offers that also includes Alabama, Oklahoma, Texas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Notre Dame, Oregon, Texas A&M and USC, among others.

Southlake receiver will make visit with Ewers

After signing the St. Joseph’s Prep quarterback-wide receiver tandem of Kyle McCord and Marvin Harrison Jr. in the recruiting class of 2021, there’s a chance Ohio State could bring another high school QB-WR pairing to Columbus in 2022.

Landon Samson doesn’t yet have an offer from the Buckeyes, and he’s only ranked as the 125th-best wide receiver and 940th overall prospect in the recruiting class of 2022 – far lower than the rankings of every other scholarship wideout that’s joined Brian Hartline’s room over the past few years. Yet the Southlake Carroll wide receiver has been in communication with Hartline, and will be visiting Ohio State in June alongside quarterback commit Quinn Ewers, who’s his quarterback for the Dragons.

According to 247Sports’ Steve Wiltfong, Samson plans to make an unofficial visit to Ohio State next month, while he also has an official visit to Nebraska scheduled for the first weekend of June.

Samson currently lists offers from 18 schools, also including Baylor, Colorado, Duke and Utah in addition to Nebraska among Power 5 teams. He put up big numbers for Southlake Carroll last season, catching 74 passes for 1,293 yards and 15 touchdowns, and he has plenty of speed, having run a 4.4-second 40-yard dash at 6-foot-1 and 185 pounds. He’s committed to play in the 2022 All-American Bowl with Ewers.

Tshabola won’t visit Kentucky

For about 24 hours, it looked as though Tegra Tshabola might be second-guessing his commitment to Ohio State.

Tshabola, who is currently the Buckeyes’ only offensive line commit for the class of 2022, told Rivals’ Dave Lackford on Sunday that he was planning to take an official visit to Kentucky on June 18. He told Lackford that his family wanted him to take a look at Kentucky – his relative George Asafo-Adjei was also an offensive tackle for the Wildcats – and that he had been in communication with Kentucky associate head coach Vince Marrow.

On Monday, however, Tshabola reaffirmed his commitment to the Buckeyes and said he was no longer visiting the Wildcats.

Shortly following those tweets from Tshabola, Marrow sent a tweet of his own that was seemingly directed toward Ohio State.

Johnson staying committed to Michigan

When Michigan lost co-defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach Maurice Linguist to the head coaching job at Buffalo last week, there was naturally speculation about how that might impact the commitment of five-star cornerback Will Johnson, who had been primarily recruited by Linguist.

Ohio State had been a finalist to land Johnson, along with USC, before Johnson committed to February, potentially opening the door for the Buckeyes to make another run at Johnson with Linguist’s early exit from Ann Arbor.

After Michigan hired Steve Clinkscale as its new defensive backs coach earlier this week, however, Johnson told Rivals’ EJ Holland that he was excited about who his new Michigan position coach would be.

Johnson’s father Deon also played cornerback at Michigan, and it appears Johnson – a Grosse Pointe, Michigan native – is still locked into following in his father’s footsteps.

Buckeye commits, targets earn Rivals Five-Star Challenge invites

The Rivals Camp Series made its latest stop in Indianapolis on Sunday, and of the nine players who received invitations to the national Rivals Five-Star Challenge from that event, three of them are Ohio State commits while several others are Buckeye targets.

Tshabola and fellow 2022 Ohio State commits C.J. Hicks and Gabe Powers all received golden footballs at Sunday’s event, as did 2022 guard Demon Moore, who remains one of Ohio State’s targets on the offensive line. 2023 prospects who earned Five-Star Challenge invites included Pickerington Central safety Sonny Styles, who’s one of Ohio State’s biggest targets for the rising junior class, and Detroit quarterback Dante Moore, the No. 3 QB in the class of 2023.

Alabama quarterback commit Ty Simpson, Louisville defensive end commit Popeye Williams and Penn State wide receiver commit Kaden Saunders, all in the 2022 class, rounded out the list of invitees.

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