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Ohio State recruiting: State Secrets, 5/16 - Jamel Dean, 2 others offered

Three new offers for the future of Ohio State football came to light on Wednesday. Get the low down on who they are and what they prospectively bring to the table for the Buckeyes.

By Luke Zimmermann
New Ohio State offeree Jamel Dean.
New Ohio State offeree Jamel Dean.

Very rarely does it happen in the world of college sports recruiting where a young athlete's first offer comes from a major program. Even rarer does it happen when that program is of the pedigree and caliber of Ohio State. Enter: Jamel Dean. LGHL's Bret Favachio spoke with Cocoa HS (FL) head coach John Wilkinson who told him that Tim Hinton was at his school yesterday and offered the 2015 athlete.

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Dean is so under the radar at this early juncture, in fact, that he doesn't even have recruiting pages with the likes of 247Sports, Scout, or Rivals yet. As a junior to be, Dean checks in at 6'2" 183 pounds that could definitely bulk up with major college weight lifting and conditioning. He's raw enough to be utilized in any number of facets, but is ordinarily a corner.

Our Charles Doss caught up with Dean to see the experience was like for him:

My high school coach told me about the offer after practice in the locker room. When my coach told me, all I could do was smile. That was the best feeling ever hearing that I got my first offer.

Check out what Dean would bring to the Buckeyes here.

Tim Hinton was a busy man Wednesday. He also checked in on 2014 S/RB D'Cota Dixon. Dixon was a high school teammate of soon to be new Buckeye, James Clark. Dixon rates as a 3-star in the 247Composite rankings and is the 83rd best safety in the class of 2014 and the 142nd best player from the state of Florida.

Charles spoke with Dixon as well to get his vantage on the Hinton visit:

[Hinton and I] talked today. He wants me to come up this summer. Hopefully I can set something up. I think of Urban Meyer and my teammate James Clark when I think of the Buckeyes. It's a crazy but a great feeling.

You can see some of Dixon's highlights here.

The Buckeyes made waves with a second offer on Wednesday afternoon. 2015 safety Kendrell McFadden added Ohio State to his offer list. The Hollywood, FL native measures out at 6-2, 172 pounds and also has offers from Florida, Miami (FL), Cincinnati, Clemson, and FIU. There's a long way to go on this one yet, but it definitely merits keeping an eye on:

Check out McFadden one year ago as a freshman:

The last other big offer of the day besides Dean and McFadden was 2015 OT Sterling Jenkins. Jenkins is a 6-8, 305 pound lineman from the Pittsburgh area. As is often the case with high school juniors to be, it's far too early for the major recruiting services to have done comprehensive evaluations of his game. The Buckeyes join Michigan, Penn State, Pittsburgh, and Toledo in offering the possible future o-line bookend.

After receiving the offer from Buckeyes' defensive coordinator/linebackers coach Luke Fickell, Jenkins spoke about the offer and some new praise from Rivals:

Check out Jenkins' sophomore year tape here.

The Buckeye coaching staff was out in full force earlier this week and Wednesday proved no exception to their earlier efforts. 2014 3-star safety Mattrell McGraw was the recipient of a Buckeyes visit. McGraw is the 615th best player in the 247Composite rankings for the class of 2014, the 51st best safety, and the 35th best player in the state of Louisiana. He's also considering offers from the likes of Oregon, UCLA, Alabama, Arizona, and Arkansas. Many have the Ducks as the team to beat.

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