Ohio State making a move for 4-star WR and Tennessee pledge Alontae Taylor

Ohio State after Tennessee WR commit

Head coach Urban Meyer and the rest of the Buckeye coaching staff have done a tremendous job at stockpiling offensive talent thus far in this year's recruiting class. The Scarlet and Gray have reeled in pledges from every group on that side of the ball. With that being said, they do only have one true wide receiver committed to the program thus far, and that is WR L’Christian “Blue” Smith of Wayne (OH), who verballed to Ohio State back in August.

Perhaps that’s why the Buckeyes sent out an offer to ‘18 WR Alontae Taylor of Coffee County Central (TN) on Wednesday. The 6'0, 182-pounder is currently committed to Butch Jones and Tennessee, and has been since June of 2016. The timing is interesting because other programs like Notre Dame and Wake Forest have also offered the Volunteer State prospect in recent days. Does that mean Taylor is openly looking at other options and isn’t set on his commitment to Tennessee? We shall see.

Either way, Taylor is a four-star prospect and an Under Armour All-American. The Manchester, Tennessee native finds himself just outside of the Top 150 best players in the class (151). However, he is graded as a top 30 wide receiver overall and the fourth-best player in the state of Tennessee.

We will see if things between the two parties begin to gain traction. The best way to ultimately make that happen is if the Buckeyes are able to get the blue-chip prospect on campus for a visit.

One player that is still widely expected to become a Buckeye when it’s time for the ink to hit the paper is ‘18 WR Kamryn Babb of Christian Brothers College (MO). The 6'1, 189-pounder is a long-time target of Ohio State and will likely remain one. We will see if the new offers going out to 2018 wide receivers are more of the Buckeyes hoping to add three prospects to Zach Smith’s room or if perhaps there has been some sort of shakeup with the recruitment of Babb.

Cine grabs Buckeye offer

Taylor wasn’t the lone offer that went out from Ohio State on Wednesday. The other recipient was ‘19 safety Lewis Cine of Everett (MA).

Cine is a 6'2, 180-pounder that has plenty of high-profile offers to his name thus far. The Buckeyes joined Florida, Louisville, Michigan, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Penn State, Wisconsin and more when they dropped an offer to the four-star prospect yesterday.

At this time, Cine is currently expected to be Big Ten bound. If you take a look at the 247Sports Crystal Ball for the defensive back, the predictions are split amongst three teams — the Badgers, the Nittany Lions, and the Wolverines.

Can the Buckeyes jump into the picture here? Well, they certainly have the time and I’m sure the defensive staff would love to get somebody like Cine in Columbus. Cine, at this time, is a high four-star prospect and falls just outside of the top 50 overall in his class. As expected, he is the highest graded player from the state of Massachusetts, but furthermore, he is the fifth-best safety that the class has to offer.