Ohio State hosts West Bloomfield contingent, top defensive end visits, and more

It’s a pretty common practice in college football recruiting, especially around this time of year, to see a bunch of recruits from one school or region visit a number of colleges in one trip. It’s not as common, however, for one high school to send six future power five players at one trip. That’s exactly what West Bloomfield did yesterday, as some of the top players from the school made the trip to Columbus.

Lance Dixon, Makari Paige, Christian Fitzpatrick, Tre Mosley, Donovan Edwards and Cornell Wheeler all made the trip with their head coach, Ron Bellamy (yes, the same Ron Bellamy that went gashed Ohio State in 2002). While all those guys aren’t huge Ohio State targets, a number of them have legitimate interest from the Buckeyes.

Makari Paige: Paige, a 2020 cornerback, is No. 189 nationally. He doesn’t yet have an Ohio State offer, but one is almost certainly coming. His crystal ball is 100 percent in favor of Michigan, though that doesn’t mean a ton right now.

Lance Dixon: Dixon is the highest player on Ohio State’s board that hails from West Bloomfield. A 2019 OLB, Dixon is No. 286 nationally, and holds an Ohio State offer. He’s not one of the top linebackers on Ohio State’s board, but if the Buckeyes miss on some top targets, he’ll certainly get a look.

Donovan Edwards: The youngest of the group, Donovan Edwards, is currently just a freshman. Donovan saw playing time on a very talented varsity unit, and will only see his stock rise throughout high school. He isn’t yet listed on 247Sports, but he’s going to be one of Ohio State’s top targets at halfback in 2021.

Rushing into 2020?

It hasn’t just been a big week in the class of 2019. Along with the West Bloomfield contingent, Ohio State also hosted 2020 defensive end Jacolbe Cowan yesterday. Cowan, the 37th best player in the country, is one of Ohio State’s top targets in 2020, and will be a name Buckeye fans should get to know very quickly.

The North Carolina product has offers from just about every top program in the country, and while it’ll be difficult beating Alabama, Clemson, Florida State and Georgia, among others for the 6-foot-5, 250-pounder, Ohio State has a very good shot to pull him out of the south.

I’m nowhere near projecting Cowan to Ohio State yet, but along with Bryan Bresee, Darrion Henry, and many others, it should be a very good class for Ohio State in the trenches.

Sticking to basketball

Andre Gordon, a 2019 Sidney (Sidney, OH) prospect, made a pretty big announcement today: he’ll be playing basketball at the next level, not football.

Gordon, a three-star dual-threat quarterback, had interest from Iowa State, Notre Dame and Ohio State, though he wasn’t likely to end up in Columbus on the gridiron. While he won’t be playing football in Columbus, he could play his college basketball for Chris Holtmann and co, as he’s a very capable point guard.

He’s not yet ranked by 247Sports, and he’d need a big senior season, but Ohio State certainly needs a point guard, and with Jeremiah Francis headed to North Carolina, Gordon could be Ohio State’s guard of the future. A 2019 class with Alonzo Gaffney, Jordan Mitchell and Andre Gordon would be a huge boost for the program.