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Ohio State recruiting: State Secrets, 11/29 - Avery Gennesy commits to Texas A&M

LGHL recaps Thursday's headlines and takes a look at other important stories in the world of Ohio State recruiting.

By Miles Joseph
Believe it or not more than one picture of Mavety in Buckeye gear exists
Believe it or not more than one picture of Mavety in Buckeye gear exists

We're just a day away from the final game of this season, which will take place tomorrow in Ann Arbor, Michigan at high noon. While there were some recruiting story lines from over the weekend, all has been pretty quiet on the recruiting front over the last couple of days.

There was one noteworthy development on Thanksgiving day when South Haven (MS) East Mississippi community college offensive tackle Avery Gennesy committed to Kevin Sumlin and the Texas A&M Aggies.

The massive 6-foot-5-inch tackles surprised many when he decided to play his college ball in College Station. He was widely expected to be a member of the Ole Miss recruiting class. Ohio State likely finished a distant third for the JUCO standout (some speculated Missouri may have even finished ahead of the Buckeyes). He officially visited Columbus for the Penn State game at the end of October.

Now we're going to touch on the status of a couple of Ohio State's top targets in the 2014 and 2015 classes.

We'll start of with Hinesville (GA) Liberty County linebacker Raekwon McMillan who is the Buckeye's top remaining target in the 2014 class.

Recently there have been reports that Clemson has gained ground in the race for the five-star linebacker, which has reflected on the 247Sports Crystal Ball as four of the last seven predictions have been for the Tigers – mostly from Clemson writers though.

Despite these reports, I'm still pretty confident that Raekwon will be a Buckeye when he announces his decision on December 16th.

Next is junior college offensive tackle Chad Mavety who took his official visit to Columbus last weekend to watch the Bucks take on Indiana.

I briefly spoke to Chad about his visit and he told me it went really well. He is down to Florida State and Ohio State and added that he is very close to making his college decision. He said it's probably only a couple of weeks away. I think this weekend helped solidify the lead for the Bucks.

You still can't count the Seminoles out of this race, but I would be mildly surprised if Mavety didn't announce for the Scarlet and Gray sometime in the next couple of weeks.

Palm Beach Gardens (FL) Dwyer wide receiver Johnnie Dixon and Durham (NC) Hillside wide receiver Trevion Thompson are the two wide receivers left on Ohio State board that the Bucks have the best chance at landing.

Earlier this week, Dixon revealed that he would be announcing his college decision on December 8th, which is just a little over a week away. Right now I have Dixon projected to Ohio State, but it's not a pick I'm super confident on. Miami definitely poises the biggest threat to the Buckeyes in this race. Alabama is also still in the race. The 5-foot-10-inch, 187 pound wideout took his official to Ohio State for the Wisconsin game at the end of September.

While I've seen a couple of Crystal Ball picks pegging Trevion Thompson to OSU over the past couple of days, I don't think this is very likely. Clemson has been in the driver's seat for the duration of this race and I don't think much has changed recently. If Dixon goes elsewhere, I think this would be more likely, but for now I'm sticking with the Clemson Tigers in this race. He officially visited OSU last weekend for the Indiana game.

2015 Cincinnati (OH) St. Xavier linebacker Justin Hilliard has made many trips to Columbus, but the Buckeyes still have some ground to make up in this race. Right now I think Iowa leads for his commitment. His brother, CJ is a current commit to Iowa's 2014 class. Michigan is another team that might be ahead of the Bucks in this race. He's visiting this weekend for "The Game".

It's important to remind people that while Hilliard currently resides in Ohio, he is not from Ohio. He moved here from Michigan when he was seven and doesn't root for any teams in particular. I think there's a chance for the Buckeyes here, but definitely not as good as some people think.

To wrap things up, Jerome Baker, who in my opinion is the top player in the state of Ohio's 2015 class, finally named the Buckeyes as his leader when we spoke earlier in the week. I think it's not if, but when Baker become a member of the 2015 class. His visit last weekend went very well.

Finally, here are my latest predictions to close out the 2014 recruiting class:

1. ATH Marshon Lattimore

2. S Erick Smith

3. ILB Raekwon McMillan

4. OT Chad Mavety

5. DE Solomon Thomas

6. WR Johnnie Dixon

7. S Mike Rogers


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