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Ohio State recruiting: State Secrets, 12/18

Ohio State keeps trucking on through the dead period in hopes of using their telephoning privileges to their benefit.

By Luke Zimmermann
Ohio State target Tommy Sanders will make his decision as early as Wednesday.
Ohio State target Tommy Sanders will make his decision as early as Wednesday.

While we're officially a day into the dead period (which essentially means there can't be any in person visits anymore until January 4th, 2013 but a phone call per day to recruits is still permissible), that doesn't mean there isn't a ton of movement on the Ohio State recruiting front.

We begin with Tommy Sanders, a target of a few dispatches from the past week. First there was rumors he was committing to Ohio State, then there was chatter he didn't have an offer at all, then he had an offer ($) but he hadn't made up his mind and still wanted to take a visit to South Carolina.

That visit happened ($) and unfortunately for Ohio State fans hoping to have resolution sooner rather than later, he not only by all evidence appeared to have a great time, but was also put up by South Carolina all-everything defensive end Jadeveon Clowney.

In the same light, the good news is now that Sanders still isn't any closer to offering up his decision. While he's indicating that South Carolina is on his short list, he's still weighing offers from Texas A&M, Ohio State, and Mississippi State, and won't announce a decision until Wednesday at the earliest. And for those worrying that a Sanders commitment would mean the end of the recruitment of Mike Mitchell, Christopher Worley, and/or Trey Johnson, worry not. Particularly given new departures along the lines of Verlon Reed, Ohio State should have more than enough room to accomodate all of those guys (and what a good problem it'd be to have all four of them wanting to commit).

Meanwhile, in a world where Ohio State and Ohio are the same thing:

Leave it to Brady Hoke to troll offer an Ohio State basketball recruit in an attempt to get under the skin of Buckeyes everywhere. To Hoke (and Jae'Sean Tate)'s credit, Tate played half a season of high impact high school football this past fall, and fielded inquiries from multiple Big Ten programs on his interest in potentially pursuing football in lieu of basketball. And while by all accords Tate is sold on both Ohio State and the Ohio State basketball program, there's still a chance yet he might try his hand at being the first memorable two sport star in recent Buckeye memory. From this past November:

Jae’Sean Tate didn’t plan to play football for Pickerington Central this season, but when the basketball team’s preseason open gyms were not enough to satisfy his appetite for competition, he rejoined his teammates for the last half of the season.

The 6-foot-5, 190-pound junior who committed on Monday to play basketball at Ohio State, did well enough as a pass rusher off the edge that some Big Ten schools were interested enough to contact him.

Now, Tate is wondering whether he could play both sports at Ohio State.

"I’m really flip-flopping" about whether to play football as a senior next season, he said. "I actually talked to my (football) coach (on Tuesday) and he talked about Ohio State football may be offering me a scholarship, and maybe talking to coach (Thad) Matta to see if he would be OK with that."

It's no sure thing Tate will even play football his senior year, but if he does, you have to think the odds of him deciding to pursue a two sport track increase exponentially.

And speaking of the class of 2014, 4-star 247composite rated corner Jalen Tabor has his final ten:

And staying with prospective signees for February 2014's signing day (so not this coming one but the one after), Ohio State may be getting their first verbal commitment of the class of 2014 at the end of this week:

Lonnie Johnson is a 3-star according to 247sports, the only major recruiting service that's evaluated him. None the less, the 6'3 wide out from Gary, Indiana could be Meyer's first for '14.

Finally, on the Vonn Bell watch front, it sounds as though Bell will in fact be taking an official visit to Ohio State after all along with checking out Tennessee and Alabama one last time. Alabama still has to be considered in the driver's seat, but if Bell does wind up making it to Columbus January 11th (which would be the weekend of the Michigan game), you have to expect Urban Meyer and Luke Fickell will put on the full court press to not let him leave Columbus without his word he'll be playing football for them next fall.

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