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Ohio State recruiting: State Secrets, 2/4 - Jamarco Jones, Malik McDowell updates

T-minus one day until National Signing Day kicks off, but there is still plenty of recruiting news to keep you busy until tomorrow.

By Ian Cuevas
Will Jamarco Jones pick Ohio State again?
Will Jamarco Jones pick Ohio State again?

As our Miles Joseph reported last night, '14 OL (and current Ohio State commit) Jamarco Jones will be calling both Michigan State and OSU today to tell them his final decision on who he'll be signing with. Jones has been committed to Ohio State since June 25th, 2013, but after taking an official visit to East Lansing over the weekend, speculation has been flying as to just how strong his commitment is. In addition to those rumors, some of the experts on the 247Sports Crystal Ball (Our Luke Zimmermann switched his choice to MSU, but Bret Favachio, Charles Doss, myself, Miles Joseph, and SB Nation Recruiting's Bud Elliott are sticking with Ohio State) have flipped their picks to Michigan State from Ohio State.

The 6'5, 290-pound 4-star is rated as the fourth best offensive tackle in the class of 2014, so there's no doubt that the Buckeyes would like to keep him if possible. From Miles' report from yesterday evening:

Boehm (Jamarco's coach) hopes the decision will be made public tomorrow, but he's not 100% sure when his final decision will be known to the masses.

"(I'm) not sure, (I'm) hoping Jamarco tweets (his decision) after talks to both coaches," Boehm stated about when Jones will make his decision known.

As if that wasn't enough, it looks like the Buckeyes are pulling out all the stops to try and factor into Jones' last minute decision. 247's Steve Wiltfong is reporting that Jones' high school teammate (and friend) '14 ATH/QB Shelby Spence will be taking an official visit to Columbus this coming weekend:

As Ohio State's scholarship numbers are just about maxed out here in their final year of NCAA sanctions, it'd almost assuredly have to be in a walk-on capacity.

Yet another recruit that is on the edge with his recruitment, is '14 DE Malik McDowell. Bill Greene weighed on the speculation as to where McDowell will land, and thinks he ends up in the scarlet and gray. As of now, the 6'7, 290-pound defensive end is favored to land with Michigan State, according to the Crystal Ball. But as you might have read yesterday, McDowell's father had some concerns with where his son ends up playing football:

"I want him out of Michigan. I don't care if that's Ohio State or Florida State."

"From when we talked Friday he's coming around because he knows how adamant we are about him not attending Michigan State," the elder McDowell said. "I don't have anything bad to say against Michigan State but I don't think they're the school for my son. I think the coaches are cool and they're establishing a good program, but this is my son and I choose to not want him there. If he were to choose Michigan State I don't know what I would do. It is what it is. I just want my son away from this environment and Michigan. I want him out of here."

With that in mind, it still all comes down to McDowell himself, and where he wants to attend school. Michigan, Florida State, and Ohio State are all still in the mix and are commonly viewed as the leaders now for his services. Be sure to keep checking Land-Grant Holy Land for the latest on McDowell's recruitment as National Signing Day arrives.

Last week Ohio State assistant coach Kerry Coombs visited Fairfield and checked in on '16 ATH TC Wells and '16 QB Hunter Krause. Both prospects are a bit under the radar, but obviously were worth a visit from the Buckeyes. We'll have the latest on both of these recruits as soon as we learn more.

It sounds like director of player personnel Mark Pantoni was feeling the workout provided for some of the Ohio State football players, including some of the Dream 14 members who enrolled early. '14 K Sean Nuernberger obviously was feeling the pain when he shared this on Twitter:

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