Ohio State recruiting: Nyheim Hines, 2015 ATH, talks Buckeyes, recruiting

Urban Meyer has pulled a couple of very good players out of the state of North Carolina the past couple of years. The latest Buckeye target from the Tar Heel state is 2015 Garner (NC) athlete Nyheim Hines, who recently received an offer from the Scarlet and Gray.

The 5-foot-8-inch, 178 pound speedster is one of the fastest players in the 2015 recruiting class, clocking a blazing 4.34 40-yard dash time as a junior in high school. He's already receiving interest from many of the top colleges across the nation and for good reason.

"I have offers from Akron, Clemson, Duke, East Carolina, North Carolina, N.C. State, Ohio State, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia Tech, and Wake Forrest," he said. "I have probably been hearing the most from North Carolina, Ohio State, and Tennessee."

Ohio State defensive coordinator Everett Withers, who is the primary recruiter for Buckeye targets in North Carolina was at Hines' school a couple of weeks ago. The standout athlete got some big news.

"Coach Withers came to my school one day a few weeks ago, but I couldn't really talk to him, other than saying hi because of the recruiting rules," he told Land-Grant Holy Land. "I ended up calling him later that night and that's when they offered me a scholarship."

As you can imagine, Hines was ecstatic to receive an offer from Ohio State as the spread offense is the perfect fit for his style of play.

"It was awesome. It's really just a blessing. I've kept up with Coach Meyer ever since he was at Florida, so it was really great to get an offer from the team he coaches," he continued. "I've always seen myself playing in the spread offense, so it could be a great fit for me."

Hines took in the Ohio State-Michigan game a few weeks ago and really liked what he saw.

"It was good, I watched the whole game. It's a rivalry game, one of the best in college football. Those games are always going to be hostile and intense," he told Land-Grant Holy Land. "They were able to stand strong at the end and win without two of their key players which I liked to see."

He is very excited with how the Ohio State coaches are saying they will use him in their offense if he decides to play his college ball in Columbus.

"They want to use me in the Percy Harvin/hybrid role," he said. "Kind of like they have been using Corey Brown and Dontre Wilson this year."

Last week he had the chance to talk to Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer for the first time. Despite Hines saying he was nervous going into the call, it went really well.

"I talked to him last week. I was pretty nervous going into the call because I've never talked to someone like him. The conversation was brief, but it went really well," he continued. "We talked about my game since I had just played really well. He was telling me how good the team was doing this year and about their win streak, which was 23 games when we spoke (now 0)."

While he has yet to make the trip to Columbus to visit Ohio State for the first time, he would like to do that as soon as he possibly can. There are also a couple of other school he would like to check out.

"I definitely want to get up to Ohio State, maybe for a basketball game. I definitely want to see a football game there because I've heard the atmosphere is crazy. They pack like 107,000 fans into their stadium," he said. "I also want to get back to Clemson. Death Valley is a great atmosphere. I'd really like to check out all of the teams who have offered me."

Obviously the Buckeyes aren't the only team in this race. In fact, the early favorite for his commitment is probably in-state North Carolina. He has built a very good relationship with second year head coach Larry Fedora.

"I talked to coach Fedora every Tuesday, though I missed this past Tuesday. I've seen him offense in action a lot and I know it will work really well," he continued. "They played tough this year."

It's still relatively early in the recruiting process for him, but he has had the chance to make visits to most of the schools that are close to home.

"I've visited South Carolina, Clemson, North Carolina State, North Carolina, and Duke. All of the visits went really great," he told Land-Grant Holy Land. "I was able to spend time with all of the coaching staffs, except for at North Carolina because I got there late."

Currently he doesn't have and leaders, but he does have an idea of when he would like to make his college decision.

"I haven't really thought about it, but it will probably be next year in October or November since I'm enrolling early," he said. "Really all of the teams who have offered me so far are standing out."

When he sits down to make his decision, there will be a couple of major things that factor into which college he decides to attend.

"Academics first. My mom and dad will also have an important role in my decision. My parents have always been there for me," he continued. "Also the offense. I have to see myself fitting into the offense."

Hines just finished off a strong junior season, where he led his team deep into the playoffs.

"I had a really good season, but my team got knocked out of the playoffs last week. I was able to break the school rushing record."