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It’s been a wild couple days out on the mean streets of Twitter. Everything from rap battles to alleged “burner” accounts by an NBA executive gave us entertainment for hours on end.
On Wednesday, though, the Twitter-sphere gave us something related to the Ohio State Buckeyes and their recruiting efforts. Let’s go take a deeper look into what happened on the recruiting trail.
Zone 6 goes back to Texas
The bigger news to emerge on social media on Wednesday was the announcement from three-star wide receiver Jaylen Ellis (Round Rock, TX / Cedar Ridge) that he picked up an offer from the Buckeyes.
Wow! Beyond blessed to receive an offer from THE Ohio State University ! #Zone6
— jaylen ellis 4 (@J4ylenellis) May 30, 2018
@OSUCoachMeyer pic.twitter.com/RzEDedZoem
A member of the 2019 class, Ellis is considered the 80th best WR, and 75th best product from Texas, according to the 247sports Composite. Even though he’s been a commit to Baylor since June 2017, he’s picked up a flurry of offers this month. On May 7, the Michigan Wolverines, and national champion UCF Knights made it known that they wanted Ellis to be part of their respective programs. A couple weeks later, Tennessee made an offer (May 24) followed up a couple days later by the Texas Longhorns. And then yesterday, it was the Buckeyes that came calling.
With those May offers coming from power programs, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Ellis get bumped up to four-star status sometime soon. Last season, he hauled in 56 receptions for 1,248 yards and 14 touchdowns. If his production goes up this season, then it’s almost certain that he’s going to attract more top schools—and get a bump upward in the recruiting rankings.
Right now, Garrett Wilson is the only WR commit for OSU in the ‘19 cycle. That may play into the Bucks favor as it appears that both Wilson and Ellis are friends. In an article by 247sports recruiting expert Bill Kurelic , Ellis talks about his closeness to Wilson, who has been recruiting Texas prospects to OSU, and how he plans on making an official visit to Columbus.
Bringing Ellis into the fold would be huge for the Buckeyes, as there is an expectation that most of the production in the WR department will be going away after next season due to graduation and/or the NFL Draft.
Speaking of Wilson...
An early arrival on the horizon
The Buckeyes’ marquee prospect of the 2019 recruiting class may be arriving to Columbus a tad earlier than expected. A couple hours before Ellis made his offer known, the five-star Lake Travis standout let the world know that he was working on graduating early, and is intending to enroll at Ohio State in December.
Working on getting all my stuff straight to graduate in December, and enroll at the best University in the country early. #GoBucks ️
— Garrett Wilson (@GarrettWilson_V) May 30, 2018
As mentioned, Wilson is trying to bring more top-flight prospects from the Lone Star State to Ohio State—and he looks to be making headway. Clearly, Wilson wants to be part of the Buckeye program as soon as possible, and can’t wait to make an impact. That’s the kind of thing I want in a commit, and Wilson may very well be one of the best wide outs to don the Scarlet and Gray in the Urban Meyer era.
We won’t have to wait too long to find out what he can do at the collegiate level.
Quick hits
• CFB Data Lab (@redmondlonghorn) came out with a nifty chart of how far the average recruit travels to their college choice. In the Big Ten, Ohio State has one of the smaller distances at an average of 316 miles, and a median distance of 142 miles. You can see the graph of all Power 5 programs by clicking here.