The Hurry-Up: Inspecting Josh Moore's Decision, Kevin Feder Film and the Search for Linemen

By Jeremy Birmingham on October 23, 2014 at 7:45 pm
Kevin Feder's got some new film
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Welcome to The Hurry-Up, which runs Sunday through Thursday, serving as your last stop for recruiting news and notes nightly. We'll recap the day as it happened and preview the days ahead while keeping our ear to the ground on the Ohio State recruiting scene.


KEVIN FEDER NEW HIGHLIGHTS

Don Bosco Prep athlete and Ohio State 2015 commitment Kevin Feder has some new highlights.The 6-foot-9, 305-pound two-way lineman and New Jersey native shows off his considerable skills from a variety of positions. Yes, he's lined up at tight end a lot, but DBP uses him essentially as an additional offensive tackle. 

 
OFFENSIVE LINE SEARCH

It seems that we've been talking about the offensive line recruiting for a while now, but it's always a handful of names we keep repeating: Matt Burrell, Drew Richmond, and Venzell Boulware. Burrell officially visited Ohio State early in the season, Richmond and Boulware, both committed elsewhere, are still planning on late season or off-season visits. Yes, Ohio State is in the mix for all three, but it's time to start talking about a few other possibilities.

Last weekend, Josh Wariboko, a former Oklahoma commitment, visited. It went well, but he did not commit to the Buckeyes and I'm not expecting him to. UCLA and even Oklahoma are more likely ultimate destinations for Wariboko.

On Tuesday night of this week, Ohio State offered LSU commitment Matt Womack. The Mississippi native is likely to end up somewhere other than Baton Rouge, and the Buckeyes are throwing their hat in the ring for the 6-foot-7, 320 pound tackle. Ole Miss and Mississippi State, along with Alabama, are also vying for the flip.

Ohio State is also interested in getting to know a bit more about Minnesota's Drayton Carlsberg, a 6-foot-5, 290 pound tackle who has offers from Oregon, Michigan State, North Carolina and others. 

Branden Bowen, committed to Utah, and Andre James, committed to UCLA, are each talking about an official visit to Columbus. Bowen is doing more than talking: he'll visit next weekend. James, who committed to UCLA at The Opening was a favorite of more than a few Buckeye coaches. If he decides to return to Columbus for an official, that could be interesting.

Gabe Megginson, offered by the Buckeyes in February, visited Columbus in early April, but committed to his homestate Fighting Illini in late April, also remains an Ohio State target. Megginson said the Buckeyes are continuing to recruit him hard, but he's 100-percent sold on his choice of Illinois, and says that even if a coaching change occurred in Champaign, he'd stick with them. 

One more name worth watching? Michigan commitment Grant Newsome, if he decides to take visits elsewhere. 

Right now, Ohio State has two pledges, Grant Schmidt and the aforementioned Feder, but they'd like to finish with at least four.  

MORE ON JOSH MOORE 

There were some cryptic tweets last night from (now) former Buckeye commitment Josh Moore

Today, that door was revealed: Moore was no longer a Buckeye and instead now a Kansas Jayhawk commitment. I did some digging into the particulars of the situation and here's what's what.

Moore, who Ohio State accepted a commitment from in July, might have been in some academic peril, and because of that the Buckeyes informed him that it was unlikely he'd be able to make it into their class come February. That call, I'm told, happened Wednesday night and today, Moore has committed to Kansas. 

Although he committed as a tight end, there was a lot of speculation that Moore would eventually move to the offensive line at Ohio State, a move he was against. That possibility is another reason, so I'm told, for the disconnect. The fact that the Buckeyes are considering new commitment Rashod Berry as a tight end sheds some light on the matter here as well. It would seem they've been aware of the academic issues for a while now and were just waiting to see if it cleared up. It didn't and Ohio State and Moore parted ways.

Anytime a decommitment happens, there's bound to be skepticism and rumors. There's always two sides to a story, but Moore's decision or Ohio State's decision, it's a done deal. Moore, for his part, appears to be seeing things from a better vantage point tonight.

 Best of luck to Josh Moore. He's a class kid who's been through more in his young life than most of us could imagine.

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