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As Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer, assistant head coach Luke Fickell, offensive coordinator Tom Herman and the entire Buckeyes coaching staff gets after it on the recruiting trail, a privileged few OSU verbal commits move onward in their respective high school's football post season tournaments. An even fewer select players got to play for state championships this weekend. While deciding to give their verbal commitments to a school of Ohio State's pedigree should give them the opportunity to play for additional future post season accolades, appearing in a high school state championship game, win or lose, is something they won't soon forget.
QB JT Barrett - Barrett's sidelined for the season with an injury, but even in his stead, the Wichita Falls Riders (Wichita Falls, TX) managed to move ahead in the 4A Division II regional semifinals after defeating Midland Burges, 64-35. They now move on to the Texas state 4A quarterfinals.
DE Joey Bosa - The Buckeyes' arguable best recruit in the class of 2013 had to sit out his school, St Thomas Aquinas,'s 38-24 win over Boyd Anderson in a Florida Class 7A regional final due to a suspension for a flagrant foul in the waning moments of their previous playoff game. They move on to the state semis and it's expected that Bosa will play then.
S Jayme Thompson - Thompson had a critical late tackle on 4th-and-2 and added 2.5 tackles as his Central Catholic (Toledo) Fighting Irish defeated fellow C/O '13'er Cam Burrows and Trotwood-Madison to win the D2 state championship. Congrats to Thompson on a tremendous senior season.
DB Cam Burrows - And on the flip side of that ledger, Cam Burrows will have to spend the rest of his football playing days thinking about the game that never was. Burrows finished the state championship game with 2.5 tackles of his own and will now be enrolling early to join the Buckeyes next month.
CB Eli Woodard - Another planned early enrollee's high school career too came to a conclusion as despite Woodard's best efforts, his Eastern High School (Voorhees, NJ) team came up just short, 30-27, in a NJ semifinals loss. Woodard had four catches for 64 yards (including a 31 yard TD) from Joe Flacco's little brother, Tom. His next time on the gridiron will be Ohio State's spring game.
DE Tyquan Lewis - The most recent scholarship commitment for the Buckeyes added injury to insult as he suffered a foot injury in the second quarter of a 24-20 loss in the North Carolina 2A state championship game. Lewis' Tarlboro High Vikings had won 3 straight state championships and were looking for a fourth but even with Lewis playing both ways with a heavily wrapped foot, it wasn't enough.