What is up? Welcome into your daily Buckeye Blitz for a Monday, Monday, January 30th, 2023. I can’t believe the first month of the year is a 1/12th, it’s almost 1/12th over, amazing! Just did that math in my head.
If it’s a Monday, you know what we’re talking about, it’s recruiting. The latest recruiting updates for the Ohio State Buckeyes. Had a late one last night on YouTube live, hope you guys checked it out. So, let’s kick it off here. We got a long, long list of dudes, a lot of dudes, young guys, and talking about a lot of young guys. So, let’s start with the news. We’ll get into some visitors, some visits by coaches, I’ve got a portal visitor, and some new offers went out this past week, so let’s talk about it all.
Right, Stacy Gage, running back four-star out of Florida, announced that he will visit Ohio State, Oklahoma, USC, and Alabama, using four of his five official visits. He announced the top eight earlier this month, including Ohio State, Oklahoma, USC, Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Miami, and Penn State. Okay, he has visited Columbus three times, last spring and last summer for recruiting camp, and then last fall for the Michigan game. So, getting back on campus, probably not sure what time of year, so hopefully a game day would probably be ideal.
Next, five-star defensive tackle Justin Scott out of the Chicago area, announced Tuesday that he would be delaying indefinitely his commitment. So, he was supposed to announce on the 31st, so tomorrow, and he’s delaying that. So, that seems to be a good thing for Ohio State because it was expected that he would pick Notre Dame. He’s a number 11 overall prospect in the class of 2024, so this might be a good thing. Let’s see, wait and see what happens. I do wonder if this has anything to do with potential coaching change for Ohio State, especially on the d-line. Be curious to see if this kid has gotten word, you know, kind of under the table, you know, whisper, hush, hush, don’t tell anybody, you know, that Larry might be stepping down, so the kid wants to see who they bring in. And we’ve talked about this before, but if Larry does step down, I believe Randall Joyner, the current d-line coach at Ole Miss, would be the best and probably the next only option. Not the only option, but we talked about him. Go find the previous Buckeye Blitz where I talked about Larry Johnson’s retirement from a month ago, at least.
Anyways, we got a portal visitor on campus this weekend. He’s ranked by 24/7 Sports as the best uncommitted player currently in the portal, so we could use that, probably. He’s from formerly Ole Miss. He was a freshman last year. He’s a corner, Davison Igbinosun is what we’re going with. Four-star, like I said, class of 2022, 6’3″, 185 out of Union, New Jersey. New Jersey, 6’3″, so he’s got the length. You know I love some length and some strength. You have to pack some muscle in there. 6’3″, 185 is pretty lean anyways. Other players in this recruitment are Tennessee, UCLA, and Michigan, so obviously NIL is going to play a role to some degree. Well, let’s find out. Anyways, he visited this weekend, and I believe he also visited Michigan this weekend. So, let’s see how it goes. All right, now visits. We had coaches visiting all over, sprinting all over the country, getting to know those Air Miles, racking them up, stacking them up.
Friday Coach Day, and Coach Dennis visited Air Noland, hands down the best name of this 2024 class, except maybe that Posse kid, that’s pretty badass too. Anyway, he’s a four-star Air Noland, is a four-star out of Georgia, six three one ninety Pro style quarterback. So, kind of right in line with that CJ Stroud Justin Fields size, six three, 190, packs and pounds on him, get him up to 205, 215, something like that. Undefeated state champ in 2022 at his high school, possibly a big deal. Teammate of current Buckeye new 2023 enrollee tight Jelani Thurman. So, threw quite a few touchdowns to Jelani, let’s keep that in mind, having work on his boy.
Currently, the Buckeyes have offered six quarterbacks in the 2024 class, so keep your eye on that one. Next up, we got Booker Pickett, Ryan Day stopped in, he was down here in my neck of the nape in Tampa, checking out Booker Pickett. He’s a four-star, six six, 200 pounds, Edge rusher from, he’s at the Wharton High School, over there as a private school. He was one of the earliest offers in this class on defense by the Buckeyes, highly regarded, and he’s a flexible athlete, he can play Edge rusher or the Jack position. So, he’s got to be able to run obviously to play the Jack. I’d been to Columbus a few times, key note, mark this down, nephew of former Buckeye defensive tackle Ryan Pickett, so got a connection there that is pretty strong, I would say. And they’ve, they’ve made sure that he knows that he’s a priority to the Buckeyes, so keep that one in your hat.
Charles Lester III, I like this kid, six two Corner, again with the length, you know I’m in love with length. Tim Walton visited him at his high school, he’s down in Sarasota at Riverview High School, currently ranked the number one corner in the country, six two, one eighty. Visited Columbus back in October, he just included Ohio State in his top six, and he had a quote here. Walton is a great dude, keeps it solid with me, plus the dudes he’s coached, a lot of dude talk here, the dude sees coached before and helped me produce and helped produce before, guys like Jalen Ramsey, said he’s one of the best, if he’s not the best coach he’s ever had, that means a lot. He goes on to say, he let me know how many defensive backs they want to take in this class, it’s important to me because I know exactly where I stand and that they want me to be one of those guys. I know his personal opinion about me and he’s not hiding anything. I just locked in an official visit June 16th, so a little summertime visit. He also kind of likes to talk, he said, “now this is the one thing, one negative thing that he actually said is, but I’m not really big on leaving Florida, it would be great to stay down here so my family has easy access to me at a university.” Dude, you gotta grow up and move away eventually anyway. Ohio State’s been clear with Lester about its plan at defensive back, he knows the Buckeyes are serious and interested in him. Keep your fingers are crossed because you know those NIL deals down in Miami and at the University of Florida, they’re going to be a big, big, you know, chip in the game.
So, all right, Brian Hartline visited four-star Ohio running back Jordan Marshall, a stop running back target in the cycle, and he plans to be back for a visit sometime this spring on campus. So, good to see Coach Hart in there visiting.
Okay, let’s talk offers. New offers going out this week. Matt LeBlanc, tight end from Tennessee, was offered on Tuesday. Originally from Montreal, so maybe he speaks a little French. He lives in Chattanooga now. His offers from Florida State, Penn State, Tulane, Tennessee, go on and on. He’s 6’6″, 225. He had a nice quote here. He said, “I know a lot about the program. Ohio State’s been a dream for a long time. I moved to Tennessee in August this year. He came in last year. I have a lot of relatives that support Ohio State, and in the last few years, I’ve been watching them a lot,” he said. “I’ll probably be visiting in the spring, and he’s excited to get to know more about the program. Have a good time.”
Right, moving on. Dakota Fields, athlete, 6’2″, 175, got the length from Gardenia, California. He was offered Wednesday night. He has offers from right after that. These guys all offered him after we offered him back in Texas A&M, Alabama, Tennessee, Miami, all piled on. So, do your own recruiting, your own players, you know, scouting anyway. He can play corner or safety, so a very flexible athlete.
Let’s go to Dwan Williams, 5’10”, 193, running back out of Saint Francis High School in Baltimore, Maryland. Four-star, 299th best prospect in the country, 225th rated running back. He’s the 11th running back the Buckeyes have offered in this class, so yeah.
Jameson Riggs, 6’5″, 285, three-star Georgia offensive tackle, 409th best prospect in the country, 31st rated tackle. He has 30 Division I offers, so guessing he’s going to get a ratings bump eventually if he’s only a three-star right now. If he’s got 30 Division I offers, Assad, cool name. He’s a four-star linebacker out of California, top 80 overall prospect, and seventh-best linebacker in the class. He visited Ohio State earlier this season for the Notre Dame game. This past season, he had a quote, “I got a first look at the defense to see how I would fit, but I like the way Knowles uses his backers, and the defense definitely has a lot of speed.”
All right, good to know. Okay, this guy Peyton Pierce just newly offered. I don’t know Lucas, Texas, four-star, 6’1″, 225. So, this one is extremely important when we think about the James Laurinaitis coming back home to Columbus idea. So, Laurinaitis is back in the fold as a GA, helping the linebackers, helping Jim Knowles. He has a relationship with Peyton Pierce. Tom Loy, the Notre Dame 24/7 writer, he said that, “These two are extremely close. Pierce has a ton of respect and admiration for James Laurinaitis, so bring him, bring him in, bring him into the fold.” Peyton announced the top 10 schools list early in December, and he’s aiming for a summertime decision. He had a couple quotes here, he said, “The Buckeyes are in it big time. It has always been a school I felt like I might fit at. If they don’t want to run me off after meeting me, I hope to make a trip up to check everything out. Ohio State has always been one of those four or five schools that you dream of playing for as a kid, legit. He also said, “I mean, it’s the Horseshoe and great linebacker tradition. I have been super lucky to have a lot of opportunities to play for a lot of great schools, but this one felt a little different. I’m grateful for it. Whatever they do, it’s elite. They’re committed to excellence, being one of the greatest programs of all time. They seem to have a culture that I would fit into, and ultimately, that’s what I’m looking for.” Alright, I like the way this kid talks.
Alright, moving on. Justin Williams, four-star linebacker and other Texas linebacker, 6’4″, 205, so a little taller, 54th ranked prospect, fourth-ranked linebacker.
Come on in, Jordan Seton. Moving on to the O-line, 6’5″, 287-pound, four-star. He is a tackle, yeah, out of Washington, DC. Brian Hartline and Tony Alfred visited his high school, St. John’s. He has been on campus. He visited Ohio State for the Michigan game. He’s also made a trip to Columbus in April for the spring game last year. Ohio State’s currently considered favorite. He’s a top 50 prospect in the class, and with Ian Moore already committed for the 2024 class, that would give us two top 60 O-linemen in the cycle. So keep your fingers crossed there.
Last guy, Max Anderson, is a four-star Texas offensive tackle, 6’5″, 300 pounds, 163rd ranked, and eighth-ranked tackle in the class. Currently has 19 Division I offers. So how was that? Is that enough for you? No more? Now I’m going back to bed. I’m just kidding. Oh, anyways, hope you guys have a good start to your week. Appreciate you. Please like and subscribe. Really would appreciate it. And as always, I will talk to you tomorrow. Go Bucks!