Ohio State target commits to Polynesian Bowl

Recruiting is a game of fickle emotions, and often, it may surprise. These are young people, after all, and reading into everything that they say and do can get out of hand, and, at times, lead to over analysis. That’s why last week, when Justin Rogers announced on Twitter than he would be making a commitment soon, I said that “commitment” could mean a number of things in recruiting, and mentioned that there was a pretty good chance the commitment wouldn’t be what it seemed.

Yesterday morning, those suspicions were confirmed.

Now, does this mean that Rogers isn’t intending to make a college decision sometime soon? I don’t think so. I think it is still possible he could be committed within the next few months, and wouldn’t be surprised at all if his recruitment was wrapped up by January. However, the 2020 five-star guard is in no rush, and that may be good news for Ohio State.

Breaking the seal?

The month long dead period is nearly over. As a new season approaches on the field, we’re in a similar place in the recruiting world, with the dead period officially set to end on Sept. 1. That means recruits will once again be allowed to visit schools, and it also means Ohio State will likely be sending out offers at a far more rapid pace than they did in August.

While there could be a pretty decent crowd of recruits visiting Ohio State on that first day out of dead period, as the Buckeyes host Oregon State, there is one key recruit I’d like to focus on. Devell Washington, from Bay City, Michigan, will be on campus this Saturday, after picking up an offer a little over two months ago.

This visit is an important one because Washington is one of Brian Hartline’s top targets in 2020, and Ohio State has the chance to get an early lead in his recruitment. While Michigan State could be the leading team right now, if Ohio State can impress him this weekend, he may becom a Buckeye.

Shaking up the rankings

We’re entering fall, so you know what that means: time to release new recruiting rankings for athletes that have spent roughly two weeks as juniors in high school. No matter how you feel about recruiting rankings being such a big factor this early in recruit’s careers (you can probably tell how I feel about it), we recover recruiting here, warts an all, so let’s take a look at the brand new 2020 Rivals top 100.

The news in this release is mostly good for Ohio State. Top targets like end Bryan Bresee (4), cornerback Elias Ricks (6), linebacker Mekhail Sherman (9), and guard Justin Rogers (15) are all listed as five-stars. Paris Johnson Jr. (18) drops four spots, receiver Rashawn Williams (24) drops one, and quarterback Jack Miller (48) falls 14 slots.

On the positive side, receivers A.J. Henning (68) and Rakim Jarrett (62) are up four, and one spot(s), respectively, and defensive end Darrion Henry (37) jumped a whopping 30 spots. Commitment Luke Wypler stayed put at 90, and cornerback target R.J. Mickens remained at 30. The list is loaded with Buckeye targets, and this should just confirm how good this 2020 class could be for Ohio State.