Will Ohio State get good news tomorrow from 4-star LB K’Vaughan Pope?

Announcement coming for Pope

We are now 24 hours away from announcement day for ‘18 LB K’Vaughan Pope, the nation's seventh-best inside linebacker, from Dinwiddie County (VA). The 6'2, 210-pounder will finally sort through an offer sheet that features over a dozen programs to select the one school that he will attend for the next 3-4 years.

Despite not the highest number of offers in the world, the four-star prospect has an impressive group of schools that gave him opportunities at the next level. Throughout his recruitment, Pope has secured offers from Alabama, Clemson, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Michigan State, Notre Dame, Ohio State, and more. With that being said, it seems that this the battle for his commitment may only feature two schools and that might even be pushing it.

It’s widely expected that the Buckeyes are the beneficiary of Pope’s announcement that will take place tomorrow. The Scarlet and Gray are the current 247Sports Crystal Ball leader for Pope with 93% of the predictions. The other 7% would go to Florida. But I would consider Georgia to be the only other possibility here and that’s simply because he set his announcement date just days after making an unofficial visit to the Bulldogs' campus.

What I really think happened? I believe that was the time that Ohio State got in touch with the 168th-overall player in the class and relayed to him that he had the green light to make his pledge. I fully expect that to be the case tomorrow as well. Pope should certainly be a Buckeye by tomorrow nights end and if so, he will extend the class to 17 members.

A Pope addition for Ohio State would pair him with Dallas Gant and Teradja Mitchell — another fellow Virginian — at the linebacker position. The commitment of Pope would also further boost the Buckeyes' lead over Miami (FL) for the top ranked recruiting class in the country.

Jones reveals official offer

As of August 1st at midnight, programs were able to send out official offers to 2018 prospects. So, if you scrolled through your Twitter account within the last couple of days, you have probably saw a good amount of prospects revealing some impressive edits that are official offers.

You may have seen guys like Sevyn Banks, Andrew Chatfield, Dallas Gant, Emory Jones, Teradja Mitchell, defensive end target Jayson Oweh, defensive end target Micah Parsons, Josh Proctor, and Jaiden Woodbey show off their offers from Ohio State. But on Wednesday it was ‘18 OG Matthew Jones, an Erasmus Hall (NY) standout, who had his turn to show off his offer from the Scarlet and Gray.

Jones is obviously someone that Buckeye Nation should be excited about as far as what he could bring to Columbus when he touches down on campus. The mammoth 6'4, 315-pounder is a high four-star prospect and is the third-best offensive guard in the class. Not to be forgotten, Jones also holds the 57th-highest grade of any player in the class and is the second-best player in the state of New York right behind ‘18 TE Jeremy Ruckert, who is also committed to the Scarlet and Gray.

Smith headed to Polynesian Bowl

While there is some current confusion on when ‘18 WR L’Christian “Blue” Smith of Wayne (OH) will announce his collegiate commitment between Kentucky and Ohio State, the top-tier Ohio talent did make one commitment on Wednesday. The 6'6, 210-pounder pledged to participate in the Polynesian Bowl that will take place at Aloha Stadium in Hawaii on January 20th, 2018.

The Polynesian Bowl is currently securing an impressive amount of talent to participate in the event. From an Ohio State perspective, names other than Smith that will be playing include: commits Jeremy Ruckert and Brian Snead and targets Micah Parsons, Tommy Togiai, and Solomon Tuliaupupu.