Ohio State recruiting: State Secrets, 8/16 - Nick Glass decommits from Georgia

Before we get into the big news of the day that was, some late breaking news last night caught a lot of folks on the national recruiting scene rather off guard. Long time Georgia commit, Nick Glass, who'd been a vocal recruiter for the 'Dawgs' 2014 class after initially thought to be a 'soft verbal' before his junior year, decommitted from UGA.

Though he told our Ian Cuevas "all of the other schools still have a chance" last July, as mentioned, he'd been a real rock for the Georgia class of late, often taking to Twitter to tease commitments before they happened. While Ohio State was recruiting him hard a year ago, it's tough to say whether or not the 3-star APB would be a viable target of interest for the Bucks at this point given their scholarship limitations.

It is worth pointing out that Glass has a tremendous relationship with top Georgia LB Raekwon McMillan, who's widely considered a favorite to wind up with the Buckeyes when everything's said and done.

Shifting gears, the general perception is that the Big Ten's expansion into the New York metropolitan area, as well as the Washington D.C. metro area, is all about money. It mostly is. However, that doesn't mean that some of the league's member institutions can't benefit in other ancillary ways as well. Programs like Ohio State will have new opportunities to expand their footprints into areas where perhaps they didn't have as many relationships prior.

Kids such as Erasmus Hall's Curtis Samuel or Abraham Lincoln's Thomas Holley, both from Brooklyn, New York, can be wooed in part by the prospect of being able to play a game or two close to home.

Samuel, a five-star athlete, is rumored to potentially be visiting Columbus this week and could make his decision at almost any time.The 6 foot, 185 pound speedster is expected to choose between Ohio State and Rutgers, but the Buckeyes seem to be the heavy favorite.

With the Big Ten's addition of the Scarlet Knights, the Buckeyes may have some some unexpected recruiting battles down the line with their future conference foe, however.

For the second time this week, the State University of New Jersey was able to keep a top-ranked recruit in-state, and in the most recent instance, out of the scarlet and gray. St. Peter's Prep (Jersey City, NJ) running back Jonathan Hilliman committed to Rutgers over offers from some of the top programs in the nation, including Alabama, Ohio State, and Arkansas. Rutgers also received a commitment from the state's top wide receiver, Saeed Blacknall, this past weekend.

In previous years, the Buckeyes have had some success inthe Garden State, gaining commitments from the likes of Malcolm Jenkins and Eli Apple. This time, however, the Scarlet Knights were able to keep some of those prospects in-state.

Although, many see this as a recruiting win for the Scarlet Knights over their future Big Ten brethren, At least in Hilliman's case, with the complicated NCAA sanction induced restrictions of their current recruiting limitations, it's possible the Buckeyes pulled themselves out of the running for the back's services a while ago.

On another note, love how people are saying Hilliman's decision is #OhioState or #Rutgers.....OSU is not an option...will be RU

— Alex Gleitman (@alexgleitman) August 15, 2013

With Chad Mavety still possibly in the cards (and relationships now established in the state of New Jersey), while Rutgers fans certainly have good reasons for optimism based on the success of the past week, Ohio State should be able to continue laying the ground work to expand their ever growing national reach.

QUICK HITS:

• Derrell Scott will announce his commitment October 16th. Short of an official visit to the Buckeyes, you can safely expect OSU to be out of the picture for the talented all-purpose back.
• The Dispatch's Bob Baptist sees a little Jared Sullinger in 2014 OSU target Elbert Robinson.