Ohio State target decommits from Texas A&M

Wednesday was a good day for the Ohio State Buckeyes coaching staff. Most of the key coaches on staff received pay bumps—with Greg Schiano and Ryan Day entering the land of $1 million salaries.

Even though it was Valentine’s Day, the recruiting world didn’t stop to smell the roses. A recruit that Schiano and Day have been chasing will make his college decision known before the start of the upcoming season, and an OSU commit got an offer from Penn State.

But the biggest piece of news was the one that broke late on Tuesday night—and the college football world felt the reverberations of it by Wednesday morning.

A familiar story

In early May 2016, Tate Martell was committed to Texas A&M before decommitting from the program in the middle of the night. While Martell eventually went to Ohio State, his story might be repeating again—but with a different main character.

On Wednesday’s edition of our recruiting roundup, Patrick Mayhorn wrote about Grant Gunnell (Houston, TX / St. Pius X) getting an offer from the Buckeyes. The 2019 QB was an Aggies commit when he made the OSU offer announcement on Twitter just after midday Monday. But by Tuesday night, he decided that he may have committed too early to the program—one that he’s had since June 2017.

As things stand, Grunnell is a four-star prospect, and is the No. 2 pro-style QB in the 2019 class. Over 30 offers have made it to his inbox, with Alabama, Florida State, Georgia, LSU, Michigan and Notre Dame listed as some of the schools that want the Houston native.

On the 247sports crystal ball, the Aggies were the leader in the clubhouse with 67 percent (10 of 15) of the predictions. But, behind A&M were the LSU Tigers with two predictions. Even more interesting, the latest prediction, which came in on Feb. 13, has Gunnell staying in Big 12 country and playing football at another OSU—this one being Oklahoma State.

Things are still shaping up in Gunnell’s recruitment, but with the recent history of a the Buckeyes snagging a blue-chip Aggie QB commit, one can only wonder how this thing will conclude.

Where is he going?

While there isn’t a date, three-star safety Tyler Rudolph (Waterbury, CT / St. Thomas More) let the world know via Twitter that he will be committed to a school by the start of the season.

The Buckeyes made an offer to Rudolph back on Feb. 2, but according to the 247sports crystal ball, all nine of the predictions for the No. 37 safety in the 2019 class have him suiting up for James Franklin’s Penn State Nittany Lions program.

According to his profile page on 247sports, Schiano and Day were the key recruiters for him. Being a kid from the Northeast, it’s only natural that a portion of the schools that sent offers come from that part of the country. Connecticut, Boston College, Rutgers and Pittsburgh are just some of the schools from that region that have made offers to him; additionally, Virginia Tech, Maryland and Michigan are in the hunt, too.

Speaking of Penn State

With things shaping up for PSU to snag Rudolph, they are also throwing their hat into the ring for an OSU commit.

Doug Nester (Huntington, WV / Spring Valley) is a four-star offensive tackle that’s been committed to the Buckeyes since August 2017. However, that didn’t stop the Nittany Lions from making an offer to the 2019 prospect.

Nester is currently ranked as the No. 51 prospect and No. 8 OT in his class. Over 15 schools have made offers, with Alabama and Florida being just two of the marquee SEC programs that have reached out.

We’ll keep you posted if anything happens with Nester on the recruiting trail.