Commitment coming soon for Ohio State?

It’s been a minute since Ohio State added a recruit to their highly touted 2020 class. That’s certainly the nature of recruiting —especially as we enter spring— which is usually a time for evaluation rather than commitments. Despite that, it’s still easy to get a bit antsy waiting for more substantial news, and it’s been nearly a month since Ohio State picked up a pledge from Trey Leroux.

That seems primed to change in just a few days. A familiar face, former Buckeye commit and IMG cornerback Lejond Cavazos has a new commitment date: Friday. Cavazos, who decommitted from Ohio State in the aftermath of Urban Meyer’s retirement, has remained in constant contact with the Buckeyes as they’ve transitioned from old staff to new, and they’ve remained among the leaders on his list.

Now, roughly four months after his decommitment, it looks like Lejond is ready to rejoin the class he joined for the first time last June.

Obviously, this is not a sure thing, as nothing in recruiting is. Miami, Florida and Oregon have all been pushing hard for Cavazos since his decommitment, and I think he does have legitimate interest in all three, especially Miami and Oregon. However, Ryan Day and his new defense staff, namely Jeff Hafley, have shown Cavazos everything he’s wanted to see in terms of stability and continuity in Columbus.

He visited last month, the visit went very well, and he announced his commitment date a little over a week later. Because of Lejond’s familiarity with Ohio State, and his affinity for the new coaching staff, I would be shocked if he picks up anything but a scarlet and gray hat (so to speak, I believe the announcement is being made on Twitter) on Friday.

Gray thinking Buckeyes?

Lejond Cavazos isn’t the only big time defensive back looking at Ohio State this week. Thanks to the commitments of RJ Mickens and Fred Davis to Clemson, south Florida cornerback Henry Gray seems to be looking towards Columbus as a possible landing spot.

Let’s elaborate on that a bit. Because Clemson is only looking at taking three defensive backs this class, and because they’ve just taken two (with a third likely to join in Tyler Venables), they aren’t really in the market anymore. That puts Gray in a strange spot, because Clemson was seen by many as the team to beat in his recruitment.

With the team to beat off the table, things change a bit for the top 100 corner. That means that Ohio State, who had been team No. 2 for a while now, has taken over as the presumed leader in this recruitment, thanks to the work put in by Hafley.

Now, Gray probably isn’t committing anytime soon. I expect him to look around, take some visits, including at least one to Ohio State, and explore his options fully. However, right now, Ohio State is in the driver’s seat, and with Ryan Day and Jeff Hafley leading the recruitment, I feel pretty confident that they can maintain a lead.