Parris Campbell Jr. signs with Ohio State

Keeping the best players in state is a priority for Urban Meyer and his coaching staff. The Buckeyes were able to do that when they scored a commitment from Akron (OH) St. Vincent-St. Mary athlete Parris Campbell about a year ago and just received his National Letter of Intent, making him an official member of the football program.

The 6'1, 185-pound speedster committed to Ohio State last February while attending an Ohio State basketball game. Receiving his offer a month before committing, Campbell was seemingly a lock to play his college ball for the Scarlet and Gray. He will be joined in Columbus by his high school teammate Dante Booker Jr., who is also a member of the "Dream '14".

Campbell is joined by early enrollees Johnnie Dixon and Curtis Samuel, Terry McLaurin and Noah Brown as players who could potentially play wide receiver during their time in Columbus. He's still pretty raw, but he still hasn't turned 17 and has a very high ceiling.

He was used a lot at running back for the Irish and occasionally out wide, but will need to work on his route-running abilities before stepping on the field — likely at slot receiver for the Buckeyes. His best asset might be his excellent speed, as he clocked a 4.41 40-yard dash time at Nike's "The Opening" last summer.

Interestingly enough, he didn't hold many scholarship offers as the Buckeyes secured a commitment from him when he was more of an unknown commodity. After he committed, other schools didn't even bother trying to poach him. The only other two offers he held were from Michigan State and Tennessee. Hey, if you're only going to hold three offers though, that's not a bad list.

Our Christopher Jason took a look at Campbell's tape, and came away with this report:

Campbell is an interesting prospect, as he broke the single-season rushing record at St. Vincent-St. Mary this season and is the school's second all-time leading rusher, but he is being recruited to play wide receiver. SV-SM used Campbell primarily as their tailback and on jet motion from the slot. He played sparingly as a receiver and the few times he did, his route running was very raw. He is a natural athlete so he could be coached up into a Philly Brown-type role but if I were to take a guess, I think he will be more of a change-of-pace type back or a receiver whose game stays inside the numbers.

If you haven't seen the electrifying athlete in action, you can check out his highlights below: