Ohio State recruiting: State Secrets, 3/20 - '16 QB Xavier Gaines offered, latest on visits

It's hard to imagine being back in eighth grade and receiving a full-ride scholarship offer from USC, but that's already happened. LSU has done the same, and now, even more schools are participating in trying to grab kids' attention at an early age. With coach Meyer being the best in the business, it was only a matter of time he started playing into it a little bit as well.

While not as drastic, the Buckeyes offered '16 QB Xavier Gaines yesterday, over a phone call to Gaines. Being that Gaines is just a freshman in high school, there's not been a lot of contact with other schools and yet, Gaines already holds four total offers. Those schools, including Ohio State, are Clemson, Florida and Florida State. The 6'2", 210-pound Gaines started every varsity game his freshman season, an impressive feat. He also played on the high school varsity his 8th grade year when he was a starter at defensive end and played some quarterback during the playoffs, which is simply mind-boggling.

During his freshman season Gaines passed for over 1,200 yards and nine touchdowns and rushed for close to 400 yards and nine touchdowns. Gaines still has three full years at the high school level ahead of him, which gives him plenty of time to develop and hone his skill-set. Check out what Gaines can do on the gridiron in his highlight film:

Urban Meyer and offensive coordinator Tom Herman have offered just one quarterback in the class of 2014, Clemson commitment DeShaun Watson. The staff has given looks to a couple of names, including '14 QB Drew Barker and '14 QB Caleb Henderson. Yesterday, Henderson told reporters that he will be coming to Ohio State for a visit this weekend, along with some of his family. Henderson holds offers from Virginia, Virginia Tech, Michigan State, Maryland, Illinois, Marshall and Old Dominion, among others.

Henderson threw for 2,470 yards and 24 touchdowns with 12 rushing touchdowns during his junior season. While he's listed as the second best pro-style quarterback, Henderson makes it clear that he can play in the spread offense, and actually likes to think of himself as a spread-type of quarterback. While Ohio State hasn't offered, the time may be coming soon to where Henderson picks one up from the Buckeyes. If that's the case, don't be surprised to see coach Meyer's team high on Henderson's list when it comes down to his decision.

Finally, '14 OL Alex Bookser is another top prospect set to visit Ohio State soon. The 6'6", 295-pound Bookser plans to visit the Buckeyes the weekend of April 5th. Bookser has been a two-year starter at offensive tackle and also started at nose-tackle during his junior season. He has offers from Maryland and Northwestern as a defensive tackle and over a dozen other offers as an offensive tackle.

Pitt, Alabama, Florida State, Kentucky, Rutgers, West Virginia, Virginia and Maryland are some of the schools that have offered, with Alabama being the most recent. Ohio State only recently offered, so don't expect anything big to come from the visit. Bookser is making signs that he's not close to making any sort of commitment anywhere, and wants to be totally certain where he wants to end up.