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Bill Kurelic January 2001 Posts January 29, 2001 Speaking of top Ohio prospects, DB Dustin Fox has arrived at OSU and started his official visit with the Buckeyes. Fox of course has things down to OSU and Penn State. He will be in Columbus today and tomorrow for his official visit. The Buckeyes are hoping to get good word very soon from lineman Marcus Green from Kentucky. Green has narrowed things down to Ohio State, Michigan State and Texas, and he could make an announcement at any time. The Buckeyes continue pursuing prospects in Florida as Ohio State assistant coach Bill Conley and Buckeye assistant coach Jim Heacock are in the Sunshine State today. Those coaches have also been joined by new Buckeye coaches Mark Snyder and Jim Bollman, all were at Fort Lauderdale Dillard High School today. The Buckeyes were pursuing five prospects. They include Jovan Hay (6-2, 240) who played guard and defensive tackle this season for Dillard. Hay has committed to Vanderbilt but he told me this evening that he is looking at Ohio State a little bit. In fact, Hay said he might visit Ohio State this weekend. Hay made official visits to Michigan State, Marshall, Vanderbilt and Western Michigan, and all offered him a scholarship before he committed to Vandy. Hay also, he said, been offered a scholarship by Ohio State and Hay said that while he might visit OSU this weekend, he thinks his team mate, DL Mathias Askew (6-6, 275) has made official visits to Michigan State, Auburn, Tennessee and USC. The Buckeyes are certainly hoping that he makes an official visit to Columbus this coming weekend. Also at Dillard, OL Nigel Seaman (6-4, 290) told me tonight that he is still committed to Vanderbilt but there is a little doubt in his mind. He said he hasn't made a total, final decision on his college yet and the other school that he has under consideration is Ohio State. Also at Dillard , WR Chris Gamble (6-2, 180) is still considering the Buckeyes. Gamble has under considerations Ohio State, Iowa and Pitt. The Buckeyes have also offered a scholarship to DE Quinton Thomas at Dillard High School. Thomas has visited Ohio State as well as Minnesota, Iowa State, North Carolina State and Virginia Tech. Thomas says he doesn't have a favorite. Speaking of Florida, it has just been announced that Miami Head Coach Butch Davis is leaving Miami to take the head coaching job with the Cleveland Browns. When you look at Miami's commitment list, there are a number of players that the Buckeyes had been involved with before they committed to Miami. Players such as Thomas Carroll, the standout linebacker from New Jersey as well as OL Robert Bergman from California, and DB Antrell Rolle from Florida are among the players that Miami have on their commitment list that the Buckeyes were involved with. A player who's name has not come up much lately but certainly is still interested in Ohio State is kicker Mike Nugent (5-10, 160) from Centerville. Nugent is mainly looking at three schools, Central Michigan, Ohio State and Pitt, and all three schools are still involved with Nugent and it's not out of the question by any means that Nugent could end up in this Buckeye recruiting class. Nugent will make an official visit to OSU this weekend and tells me that he is leaning to Ohio State. It would not be out of the question that Nugent will commit to the Buckeyes this weekend. Nugent says he was offered a scholarship by Ohio State on Friday. In fact, Nugent says that if all goes well this weekend on his visit, he will probably commit to the Buckeyes. Nugent made five of seven field goals this season, with a long of 52 yards and also connected on 29 of 29 PATs. He has an extremely strong leg and I have him rated as the top kicking prospect in Ohio. On the other hand, it's a very long shot for TE/WR Kellen Winslow Jr. to end up in this class for OSU. Winslow visited Michigan State this past weekend and did not commit to the Spartans, and he has not announced that OSU is out of the running, but the Buckeyes are a long shot at this point to land him. January 29, 2001 WR Angelo Chattams had a good visit with the Buckeyes this weekend though he did not make a firm commitment. He continues to call himself a soft commitment to Ohio State. Chattams will likely make his final decision between Ohio State and Purdue sometime this week. DT Marcus Green, after visiting Ohio State and being hosted by Adrien Clarke, said that he is still kind of wide open between Ohio State, Texas and Michigan State. He said he will probably decide between those three sometime this week. The other play to make an official visit to Ohio State this weekend, DE Simon Fraser, of course has already committed to the Buckeyes. Dustin Fox is set to being his official visit to Ohio State today. He says that prior to that visit, it is still 50-50 between Ohio State and Penn State. On the other hand, DB Marlin Jackson, who had been a possibility to visit Ohio State starting tomorrow, is not going to make that visit and plans to stick with his Michigan commitment. DB Marcus Hudson from Florida has had his official visit to OSU set back until this Wednesday. He was supposed to start his visit today but wants to attend his football banquet on Tuesday, so he will start his OSU visit until Wednesday. Hudson has visited Michigan State, North Carolina State and Nebraska. He will also visit Georgia this coming weekend. DE Quinton Thomas is still considering Ohio State. He is a looking at other schools as well, but right now is seems like the Buckeyes have as good a shot as anybody at landing Quinton Thomas. With national signing day looming just a week from Wednesday, the question has come up as to whether OSU can have a top 25 recruiting class this season, and the answer is yes. There are enough big-time prospects still out there that the Buckeyes still have a very legitimate shot at landing to make a big difference in where this class is ranked nationally on signing day. For instance, can the Buckeyes hold on to WR Angelo Chattams. Also what happens with DB Dustin Fox, he is a difference maker and is of course starting his official visit to OSU today. Fox would make a big difference in how this recruiting class is seen nationally, as would RB Maurice Hall. RB/Athlete Jeff Backes from Upper Arlington would be another would make a big difference in this class as well. Also DL/OL Marcus Green from Kentucky will decide most likely this week where he is going, and he could certainly help this class as well. Marcus Hudson is another player that could help this class, as well as DE Quinton Thomas. If the Buckeyes could land a number of those prospects, or even a majority of them, that would make a big, big difference in where this recruiting class is ranked nationally. January 26, 2001 The official visit weekend has begun at Ohio State. This afternoon, DE Andri Tyree (6-3, 265) made an unofficial visit to OSU and there is very good news on that front. Tyree told me tonight that he talked to coaches Dantonio and Conatser and Tyree said that everything went very well and he is once again a solid commitment to Ohio State. He said he is not considering Louisville or any other college any more for that matter and that he definitely will sign with Ohio State on national signing day. WR Angelo Chattams is beginning his official visit to Ohio State this evening, and certainly the Buckeyes are hoping that results in closure on him as well. The Buckeyes are hoping that things could get wrapped up this weekend and that he would not visit Pitt. Chattams is certainly a player that the Buckeyes want to keep in this recruiting class and is still calling himself a soft commitment to Ohio State. Also, two-way lineman Marcus Green (6-3, 300) from Louisville, Kentucky is beginning his visit to Ohio State this weekend as well. Green is a player that the Buckeyes would like to add to this recruiting class. He is being recruited a little bit more for defense, but certainly could play on either side of the ball in college. OSU has offered him a scholarship. Also beginning an official visit to OSU tomorrow are RB/DB Jeff Backes from Upper Arlington, Ohio and DE Simon Fraser, also from Upper Arlington. Fraser of course has already committed to the Buckeyes. Backes is certainly one the Buckeyes want to land and this one right now is very, very close right now between Ohio State and Virginia, though Northwestern is also a school that Backes has visited as well. One of the key things this weekend could be how things go in terms of how Backes feels he would be used if he selected Ohio State. Backes had a tremendous season on offense last year and would like the opportunity to at least give offense a try in college and how that works out in terms of Ohio State could be key to his decision. The Buckeyes are not yet totally out of the picture with RB Lydell Ross of Florida. Ross has considered OSU very strongly but committed to Notre Dame last weekend. However, Steve Spurrier from Florida convinced him to make an official visit to Florida last weekend and I have confirmed that he is in Gainesville on that official visit. If by chance he does not commit to Florida this weekend there is a chance he will visit OSU as well. He has not totally ruled that out and the Buckeyes would love that to happen. RB Dominick Anderson from Fort Lauderdale, Florida has committed to Wake Forrest. Also, OL Ronnie Lunford, from Jacksonville, Florida has committed to Florida State. WR Ernest Terrell, who had been tentatively scheduled to visit OSU this weekend has decided to commit to Penn State. The Buckeyes were at Fort Lauderdale Dillard High School in Florida this week to check on DE Quinton Thomas, OL Nigel Seaman and DE Mathias Askew. Thomas told me that meeting coach Tressel was an excellent meeting for him, and that he liked Coach Tressel quite a bit and he seemed like, as he put it, a "good dude." He also said that OSU remains one of his top choices. The Buckeyes also continue their pursuit of WR Chris Gamble of Dillard High School. Gamble has visited both OSU and Auburn, and he is also definitely interested in Pitt, but the Buckeyes still have a shot at Chris Gamble. OL Nigel Seaman committed to Vanderbilt last weekend, but the Buckeyes are still staying in touch with him. The Buckeyes are a longshot with the 6-6, 275 DL Mathias Askew. He has already visited Michigan State, Auburn and Tennessee, and while he has not ruled out Ohio State, the Buckeyes definitely are a long shot on him. OL Alphonso Townsend had made official visits to Ohio State, Michigan State and North Carolina. He had committed to OSU, but decided to make other visits when John Cooper was fired. Townsend's mother told me recently that as far as she knew, Alphonso was not going to take any other official visits, and she thought that Alphonso had talked to OSU's new offensive coordinator recently. She also said that in her opinion, Alphonso would stay with his OSU commitment. January 23, 2001 Another RB the Buckeyes were recruiting, Ryan Grant from New Jersey, has also committed to Notre Dame this evening. Grant said that Georgia Tech finished second. Another piece of bad news for the Buckeyes in Florida is that offenisve lineman Ronnie Lunford told me just a short time ago that OSU is now out of the picture. He has made four official visits, and said that if he takes a fifth visit, it would be to Tennessee and he will not visit OSU or Georgia. The Buckeyes are visiting with WR Jomo Fagan from Florida on their swing through the Sunshine State his week. Fagan made an official visit to OSU this month but subsequently committed to Tennessee. However, Fagan was visited at his house this evening by Jim Tressel and Bill Conley. That visit was not complete as of this report, so I will update you on the outcome in a subsequent report later this week. DL Quinton Thomas from Fort Lauderdale Dillard told me that Coach Tressel and Coach Conley will be visiting with him at his school tomorrow (Wednesday). Thomas said that he is still considering Ohio State but he has taken Minnesota and Iowa State off of his list. He had visited those two previously. Ohio State and North Carolina State are still on his list. Thomas said that he is going to visit Virginia Tech this weekend. Thomas also said that he was told that coach Heacock is going to stay on the Ohio State staff, and that Coach Heacock is a favorite of his, so Ohio State is definitely still in the picture. He said that helps the Buckeyes' cause. He also mentioned that OSU is one of his favorites along with NC State. He is a 6-4, 235 pounder. At least one Upper Arlington standout is going to sign with the Buckeyes on National signing day, that of course is DE Simon Fraser. The Buckeyes also hope to sign RB/DB Jeff Backes who has narrowed things down to OSU, Northwestern and Virginia. Both of those players will make their official visits to OSU this coming weekend, January 27th. Also, one other standout at Upper Arlington certainly has OSU on his mind. In fact, he plans to go to Ohio State as a preferred walk on. ILB Joe Bradley had a tremendous season for Upper Arlington High School and he has decided that he is going to go to OSU as a preferred walk on with a chance to earn a scholarship down the road. WR Ernest Terrell from Norristown, Pennsylvania, is expected to make an official visit to Ohio State this coming weekend. Terrell is a 6-3, 180 pound WR who caught 30 passes this past season, scored five times and averaged about 20 yards per grab. He has a 2.5 GPA and a 790 on the SAT and had been scheduled to visit the Buckeyes the weekend of January 5th, however he did not make that visit because of weather and transportation problems. He has thus far made official visits to Virginia, Penn State, and West Virginia this past weekend. According to Terrell's mother late last night, he is supposed to visit Ohio State this weekend and then make a decision. He has been offered a scholarship by the Buckeyes and at one time OSU was his favorite. He is a track standout and John Cooper did allow OSU football players to run track so Terrell for that reason was leaning to Ohio State. However, after a visit to Penn State, even though the Nittany Lions did not offer him a scholarship, Terrell said that Penn State was his favorite. Another prospect from Pennsylvania who might visit OSU is DL Troy Banner (6-5, 280) from Pittsburgh Penn Hills. Banner visited UCLA this past weekend and said that that visit went very well and he liked it, but he said it is just too far away from home so he has taken UCLA off his list. Banner thus far has visited Pitt, Maryland, Temple and UCLA. He said that he is scheduled to visit Virginia February 2nd, but he is not sure about that. He said that he could possibly visit Ohio State or Boston College instead. Banner said that a couple of Buckeye coaches are going be visiting with him on Wednesday or Thursday, and he will consider instead of visiting Virginia possibly visiting Ohio State. All of the schools on his list have offered him a scholarship and Pitt and Maryland remain his two favorites. The Buckeyes are very busy in the state of Florida right now. Head Coach Jim Tressel is in The Sunshine State for home visits right now. One of the players that he visited is DB Marcus Hudson from Homestead South Dade High School in Florida. Hudson is a 6-1, 175 pounder who originally was going to visit OSU the weekend of January 5th, but had air transportation problems so he did not visit the Buckeyes that weekend. Hudson has visited Michigan State and North Carolina State so far, and is going to visit Nebraska this weekend and Georgia the weekend of February 2nd. Hudson told me last night that he will be met with Coach Tressel and Coach Conley and will set up a week-day visit to Ohio State between his Nebraska visit this coming weekend and his Georgia visit the weekend of February 2nd. He will visit OSU on the 29th and 30th of January. Hudson said that the Buckeyes have now offered him a scholarship and that he does not have a favorite at this point. Hudson says he has scholarship offers on the table right now from OSU, Nebraska and Michigan State. Eric Shelton from Kentucky told me on Monday night that he is now down to just three schools and OSU is not one of them. Shelton said that he is going to decide between Florida, Florida State and Texas and that he will not have OSU visit with him. The Buckeyes have a new defensive coordinator and defensive backfield coach in Mark Dantonio who has left Michigan State to become OSU's DB coach and defensive coordinator. With that, of course, OSU gets an outstanding recruiter in Dantonio and he also has experience n recruiting in the the state of Ohio. January 22, 2001 OL Nigel Seaman from Florida, who made an official visit to Ohio State, visited Vanderbilt this weekend and committed to Vandy. DB Johnny Sylvane from New Jersey, who had previously told me that the Buckeyes had offered him a scholarship and he was considering a visit to OSU, has committed to Wisconsin. Also some interesting news is that Mark Dantonio, assistant head coach at Michigan State who worked for Jim Tressel at Youngstown State, is set to be announced as Ohio State's new defensive coordinator on Monday. Dantonio and Jim Tressel visited with DB Dustin Fox earlier today. Dantonio is a fine recruiter, and it will be interesting to see if by any chance any of Michigan State's commitments might have an interest in Ohio State and vise versa. DE Andri Tyree from London, Ohio met with Jim Tressel and Bill Conley tonight. Tyree is not yet back tonight, so we don't know the outcome of that meeting yet. Tyree did make an official visit to Louisville this weekend, but did say that he was still a soft commitment to Ohio State and I think that he will end up in this OSU recruiting class. Tyree said that after the visit, he has pretty much decided on the Buckeyes, though he did leave the door open just a bit for Louisville. He has ruled out Northwestern, who he has also visited. Coach Tressel and Assistant Head Coach Jim Heacock met with Angelo Chattams tonight at Chattams home, and Chattams said he is a soft commitment to Ohio State but after his Ohio State official visit this coming weekend, he might make an official visit to Pitt on January 28th and 29th. Chattams has also previously visited Purdue and has not ruled out the Boilermakers. DB Dustin Fox as I mentioned was visited by Coach Jim Tressel and Mark Dantonio at Fox' home this afternoon. Fox said that the visit went well, and said that he had been leaning a little bit toward Penn State before the call, but now says it is 50-50 and says it is going to be a very tough decision picking either Ohio State or Penn State. Fox is going to visit the Buckeyes next Monday, January 29th and Tuesday January 30th. He says he might wait until signing day before announcing a decision. RB Maurice Hall from Columbus, Brookhaven, after visiting Penn State this weekend, has now narrowed things down basically to three schools, Ohio State, Florida State and Georgia Tech. Hall is not sure when or how he will announce his decision. He says he now has to think about things, weigh his options, and make his decision. According to the Hall's, Tressel talked for 45 minutes with them and didn't even talk about football. Tressel impressed Maurice Hall's parents with his conversations about everything else that is important. Of course football is important too, but Coach Tressel was very impressive, especially to Hall's parents. RB Ryan Grant from New Jersey after visiting Notre Dame this week now says Notre Dame is his leader. However, Grant says he has not ruled out any of the other three schools he has visited, Ohio State, Georgia Tech or Florida, and Grant says he has not ruled out a visit to Virginia this weekend. If he does not visit Virginia this weekend, he most likely will announce his decision by Thursday or Friday. WR Ernest Terrell from Pennsylvania, who was going to visit Ohio State January 5th, but postponed the visit when he had weather and travel problems, visited West Virginia this weekend. Terrell had said that he would probably reschedule his OSU visit until January 26th so we will wait and see what happens on that . OL Alphonso Townsend visited Michigan State this weekend but did not commit to the Spartans. He has not visited Ohio State, North Carolina and Michigan State. Townsend I think will end up in this Buckeye recruiting class, but he says he is intending to meet with Coach Jim Tressel before making a final decision. DB/RB Jeff Backes from Upper Arlington High School did make a visit with Coach Tressel at the Woody Hayes Facility on Saturday and it went very, very well. Backes did not commit to the Buckeyes, but that was to be expected since he has not even made his official visit visit OSU yet. He will make his official visit to OSU next weekend. Also meeting with Tressel since being named head coach has been Blue-Chip running back Maurice Hall from Columbus Brookhaven High School. He visited the coach on Friday morning before leaving for his official visit to Penn State. Hall visited along with his head coach Greg Miller and his parents and the visit went extremely well. Also visiting on Saturday was DE Simon Fraser from Upper Arlington. Also, LB Reggie Arden visited Coach Tressel on Saturday as well. Even a top junior got into the act. OL/DL Eric Fritz from Dublin visited with Coach Tressel on Saturday as well. Fritz is of course the son of former Buckeye standout OL Kenny Fritz. OL Adam Olds made his official visit to Ohio this past weekend. Olds has of course already committed to the Buckeyes and will sign with the Buckeyes on national signing day. There was a rumor that DE Pat Massey from Cleveland who committed to Michigan long ago wanted a chance to meet with Jim Tressel, but that rumor is not accurate. Massey told me that he is solidly committed to Michigan and will sign with the Wolverines on national signing day. |