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Ohio State recruiting: State Secrets, 11/4 - Torrance Gibson commits, Matthew Burrell to follow?

Get caught up with the latest Ohio State recruiting news from Monday, including a HUGE commit.

By Ian Cuevas
Ohio State has made the cut for '16 offensive lineman Thiyo Lukusa.
Ohio State has made the cut for '16 offensive lineman Thiyo Lukusa.

In case you somehow missed all of the excitement from Monday afternoon, Ohio State gained a commitment from '15 quarterback/athlete Torrance Gibson (Fort Lauderdale, Florida) to add to their already impressive recruiting class. The commitment from the 6'4, 200-pound athlete lifted the Buckeyes' class to the eighth spot in the 247Sports Composite team rankings. Land-Grant Holy Land's own Charles Doss wrote on what Gibson's commitment means from the Buckeyes, while Christopher Jason also breaks down a detailed scouting report on what the young prospect brings to the table based off of his skill set and beyond.

Here's a little blurb from Christopher's piece, which I strongly recommend you read:

Gibson is a versatile athlete with the skillset to play quarterback or receiver at Ohio State. His size, mixed with his elite athleticism would allow him to transform into an NFL quality wide receiver and if he improves his footwork. The scary thing is that Gibson could step on the field right now in Columbus and be one of the best athletes on the field, but he still has an extremely high ceiling with untapped potential.

Buckeye targets congratulate Gibson, drop hints?

Of course, plenty of congratulatory tweets came Gibson's way from all directions following his commitment, including some noteworthy players:

'15 outside linebacker/weak-side defensive end Ricky DeBerry has been considering Ohio State for some time now, and offered up a shout out to Gibson on committing to the Buckeyes. While DeBerry still has upcoming official visits set in place (Michigan State this weekend, Alabama on Nov. 29), there's no doubting the interest coming on both sides of DeBerry's recruitment.

The 6'2, 240-pound recruit is a four-star under the 247Sports Composite while being ranked as the seventh-best linebacker in the country and second best prospect at any position from the state of Virginia. At this point in his recruitment, DeBerry is only seriously considering Alabama, Michigan State, Texas A&M, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Penn State, Virginia, and Virginia Tech, with a handful of schools having an outside chance at landing the talented defensive standout.

'15 linebacker and Ohio State commit Justin Hilliard has been a prospect that Buckeye fans have been keeping an eye on when it came to a potential flipping, due to some rumors swirling around his recruitment. That looks long past, because on Monday, Hilliard was all over Gibson and trying his best to recruit '15 RB Damien Harris and '15 OT Matthew Burrell.

Burrell on watch:

Hilliard's name-drop brought up an interesting tweet out of Burrell himself. Burrell has been back and forth with Ohio State, but the timing of this latest tweet from the offensive tackle might be a hint as to what he's thinking about the Buckeyes lately. With Gibson's commitment, this might put the wheels in motion to land some other big names on Ohio State's recruiting board, including Burrell.

Despite Burrell's father stating that the younger Burrell won't be making a decision sometime this week, it could end up being a sort of smokescreen with Matthew's tweet on Monday night. We'll be sure to have the latest updates on Burrell's recruitment and whether he decides to pull the trigger on a verbal commitment to a school. Right now, it comes down to Ohio State and Penn State for the 6'5, 302-pound tackle and the 247Sports Crystal Ball pretty much reflects that, with the Buckeyes getting 72 percent of the predictions while the Nittany Lions bring in 28 percent.

Buckeyes make Lukusa's cut:

Finally, '16 offensive tackle Thiyo Lukusa tweeted out his list of schools that made the cut for his first top five (six, in this case) and Ohio State found themselves firmly in the race for the Michigan native. The 6'5, 300-pound tackle is a four-star under the 247Sports Composite and is ranked as the 25th-best offensive tackle in the country and eighth-best prospect at any position from the state of Michigan.

It was slightly surprising to not see the Wolverines make Lukusa's cut, considering they're the home state favorites (normally), but perhaps with the past few seasons and the program looking to make changes at the higher levels, Lukusa wasn't comfortable putting Michigan into the fold. The Spartans, meanwhile, will take advantage of being in perfect position to land Lukusa, becoming the home state favorite.

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