Ohio State misses out on 5-star OT

In what didn’t come as a surprise to many, five-star offensive tackle Trey Smith (Jackson, TN / University School Of Jackson) committed to Tennessee. Smith was considered a Tennessee lean throughout his recruitment, but the Buckeyes made a late push after his official visit to Columbus, Ohio in late November reportedly went extremely well. Coach Greg Studrawa followed up with an in-home visit and Urban Meyer was at his school on Monday for one last effort. At the end of the day, it was too little, too late for the Buckeyes – and they can bank that scholarship for another player in an already loaded 2017 haul.

Who might that player be? With the Smith ship sailed, Ohio State could turn to in-state offensive lineman Thayer Munford. Though not as nationally recognized as Smith, Munford holds 16 total offers of his own, but Ohio State is not on the list. The four-star prospect is adamant about becoming a Buckeye, but the stars have not yet aligned. With Jake Moretti decommitting last month, one would think Ohio State would bring in another offensive lineman – which would give them three total this cycle. We will more than likely not find out if Munford will be in this class until mid to late January as Ohio State is sure to expand their search nationally.

However, if the Buckeyes do offer, Munford would likely jump into this class. Pittsburgh and Kentucky are the other two programs heavily involved with Munford at this point.

An update on the future ground game

Now, to the running back position. J.K. Dobbins (La Grange, TX /La Grange) is saying all the right things and appearing 100 percent solid to Ohio State. Recently on Twitter, Dobbins has retweeted and tweeted about the Buckeyes and thanking the OSU coaching staff for coming down to visit with him.

Since the Tweet with Meyer and running back coach Tony Alford, Dobbins has taken to the social media world to retweet the Buckeyes being in the College Football Playoff, as well as a tweet from Alford.

With Dobbins appearing to be in favor of OSU, it turns the attention to five-star target Cam Akers. Akers was in Columbus for the Michigan game and has been on campus multiple times over the past year. Highly acclaimed recruiting writer Steve Wiltfong of 247Sports recently wrote that he thinks Akers’ final three consist of LSU, Florida State and Ole Miss. If this is indeed true, it’s not totally shocking that a highly touted prospect from the South decided to stay at a program close to home.