Ohio State hosting DMV native this weekend

It’s just about here. Finally, the matchup between the Ohio State Buckeyes and TTUN is upon us. With The Game coming tomorrow at noon, the season and everything that has come down to this regular season finale. Obviously, this Ohio State season has been a bit of a roller coaster of emotions. With a trip to the Big Ten Championship on the line, Urban Meyer and his Buckeyes are not usually the underdog in games. Tomorrow though, a home game, Ohio State is not favored. While that may be cause for concern, the Buckeyes—in Meyer’s tenure—are pretty good in underdog matchups. With nearly everyone’s eyes glued to this game, many of Ohio State’s top recruits will be paying attention. Whether in person or on television, the Buckeyes need to impress.

DMV prospect in town for The Game

This weekend’s game owns quite the impressive visitor list regarding some of the nation’s top recruits. Each year, the Buckeyes and their staff do a pretty remarkable job when putting together their top recruiting weekends of the season to host their top target recruits. This season, the home game schedule was not as “impressive” as it has been in years past, but when your arch-rival comes to town on Senior Day, this is a game that sets the stage pretty well for any recruit.

Thursday night, one of the visitors for the weekend shared his excitement via his Twitter account. Making the trip from Maryland, D’Von Ellies, a four-star defensive tackle prospect, will be taking one of his five official visits—and this weekend will be spent in Columbus. A 6-foot-3, 280-pounder, Ellies is an extremely talented defensive tackle.

Whether getting pressure on the quarterback or stopping the run, D’Von has the abilities any top program would covet in their 2019 class. Currently, Ellies checks in as the 16th best prospect at his position, the fifth best player in Maryland, and a top 250 player regardless of position for the 2019 class. Obviously worthy of his four-star ranking, D’Von will be given the red carpet treatment this weekend.

Being that Ellies is from Maryland, Penn State is a school with probably the best chance to land his services. But when considering how well Ohio State recruits in the DMV area, Ellies has to be taking notice of that. When players such as Dwayne Haskins and Chase Young are making such massive impacts in their underclassmen seasons, that has to show D’Von that when you come to Ohio State as a Maryland native, you’re going to fair pretty well if you do the work asked of you.

Time will tell if the Buckeyes truly have a shot in this recruitment, but with Larry Johnson handling this recruitment, anything is possible. Saturday and this weekend could very well be a step in the right direction.

Do we even stand a chance?

It was reported earlier this week by Lettermen Row’s Jeremy Birmingham that in-state top prospect Zach Harrison would be taking another visit to Ohio State’s campus on Wednesday. A surprise visit, Harrison’s name hasn’t really had many positives linked to it lately considering where he stands with Ohio State in his recruitment. Everyone by now knows that Michigan is thought to be the front runner, but like Birmingham noted, the fact that Harrison visited the Buckeyes again this week may actually show that truly his mind is not made up yet. While that saga continues on and stresses Buckeye fans out to the max, there’s some rumblings in the state up north that show they’re at least making room if Harrison does in fact decide to leave Ohio for Michigan.

Yesterday, Tyrece Woods decommitted from his in-state school, Michigan. A 2019 Wolverine class commit for a few months, Woods is a three-star defensive line prospect that was thought to be really solid to Michigan. Not here to give any truth to the rumors, it’s thought that this decision was not Tyrece’s doing, but possibly one of the attrition affects the world of competitive college football brings. If so, this shows Harbaugh and Michigan are making room for the very best prospects in their 2019 class. With a larger class of 25 kids already, Michigan will have to watch it’s numbers a bit until the rest of the class is signed, sealed, and delivered.

Is this a direct effect on Harrison possibly wanting in their class? Time will only tell.