• NC State offers Cliff Alexander
• South Carolina offers Josh Malone

Yes, #OhioState is probably the other big threat to #Auburn for Trey Johnson. He visits there on Nov. 24 for #Michigan game.

— Mike Farrell (@rivalsmike) November 14, 2012

Rivals$--Barker getting closer to a decision? '14 KY QB Drew Barker

• Drew will visit ND and then tOSU again. He is very interested in the Buckeyes, plans to ask about where he stands on an offer, and wants to make a decision in the spring.

BN$--Ohio State Offer Excites Linebacker '14 FL LB Dillon Bates

• Dillon is up to 20 offers, loved his tOSU visit, but does not have any favorites yet.

Rivals$--North's Tough Call '13 NC WR Marquez North

• Marquez is now wavering on visiting Columbus and says he is favoring UNC, Clemson, and Tennessee.

Scout $ - Campbell Sees Buckeyes in Action '14 OH DT Tyler Campbell

• By Trieu.....Grew up an Ohio State fan & visited for the Illinois game. Plans on attending a lot of camps during his off-season & is also hearing from Michigan, Ohio, Toledo & West Virginia. 

Scout $ - Sophomore Lineman Getting Looks '15 OH OL Matthew Jones

• By The Bank....Says his favorites are Ohio State & West Virginia and has been hearing from both. Has also heard from Illinois, Michigan, Michigan State, Kent State, Toledo & others. Visiting West Virginia this weekend & is going to set up a visit for The Game.

High school football: Elyria’s Tracy Sprinkle, Midview’s Cody Callaway and Clearview’s Chad Anderson district players of the year (North Coast Now)

Every high school football player puts together a handful of goals before the season. Midview junior Cody Callaway trimmed his list to three.

“One was to get all-state recognition,” Callaway said. “The others were to get to the playoffs and win a state title.”

Two out of three ain’t bad.

Callaway will earn his All-Ohio recognition after being named the Division II Offensive Player of the Year in the Northeast Lakes district Monday night. The quarterback led the Middies to a postseason berth, but they were eliminated in the first round.

Joining Callaway with top district honors were Elyria senior defensive end Tracy Sprinkle — the Division I Defensive Player of the Year — and Clearview senior running back Chad Anderson — the Division IV Offensive Player of the Year. Callaway’s coach, Bill Albright, was named the Co-coach of the Year in Division II.

“You’re kidding … wow, what a great honor,” Albright said. “We have our awards banquet (tonight) so that’s something we can talk about. The kids had a vision when we went into the season. They set some goals, and we accomplished the majority of what we wanted to do.”

Callaway finished with 1,892 yards and 20 touchdowns, all while playing half the season with a bum ankle and the last three games with a broken finger on his throwing hand. He also ran for 240 yards and six more scores.

“It stinks that we couldn’t go a little further in the playoffs,” said Callaway, who has 15 Division I offers for baseball and football. “But it’s nice to get recognition now. It’ll make us feel a little better, but it’ll also make us want to do that much better next year. We are going to want to start working right away.”

Anderson also led his team to a spot in the postseason, but wasn’t able to play in the Clippers’ lone playoff game after being ejected in the regular-season finale.

“This is great, but there’s nothing that’s going to soothe the pain of missing that game,” Anderson said.

“We tried everything we could think of but there’s no appeal process at all in high school football. That’s not the way I wanted to finish my high school football career.”

Anderson will have a better ending when he, too, earns All-Ohio recognition in a couple weeks. He ran for 1,544 yards and 16 touchdowns this season, and caught 12 passes for 60 yards.

“I was second team All-Ohio last year at linebacker,” said Anderson, who finished with 102 tackles, four sacks and two interceptions at the position this season.

“So it’s a special honor to earn (All-Ohio recognition) on the other side of the ball this year.

“It might be my name on the list, but it’s my team, too.”

cont...

Florida Speedster Still Open to Buckeyes (The Ozone)

Speed.

It can’t be taught, and it really can’t be game planned against.

Speed offers teams in just about every sport with physical advantages that are unrivaled. Ohio State knows all about speed. Names like Joey Galloway, Terry Glenn and Ted Ginn Jr. grace the memories of Buckeye lore with blazing speed that ran down the field of play for touchdowns.

Wide receiver Levonte Whitfield out of Orlando, Florida, possesses that type of speed. He has run the 100m in 10.21 seconds and possesses sub 4.4 speed in the 40-yard dash.

In one phrase: he is fast.

Currently a Florida State Seminole commit, Whitfield is still keeping his options open. He will be taking visits to a few other schools and Ohio State is going to be one of them. It’s a longshot that he will end up in Columbus, but Urban Meyer will welcome a visit from a kid with the type of speed he is looking for on the offensive side of the ball.

We recently caught up with Levonte for a glimpse into his recruitment, to find out where things stand what his plans are before National Signing Day in February.

cont...

Road Report: Paramus (NJ) Catholic (247sports)

On Tuesday, 247Sports National Writer Steve Wiltfong stopped by one of the top up-and-coming programs in the country in Paramus (N.J.) Catholic. The Paladins are led by the nation’s No.3 player in the class-of-2014 in cornerback Jabrill Peppers, but they have another 14 players with a chance to play college football.

Jabrill Peppers is the nation's top CB and No. 3 prospect overall in the class-of-2014 according to 247Sports.

Here is Wiltfong’s notes from the road.

Jabrill Peppers, 6-1,205, CB/S/RB/ATH, 2014
Recruiting Update: The five-star Peppers says that Ohio State and Stanford are the two programs recruiting him the hardest and that he plans to visit both in the spring. Besides Rutgers, the 6-foot-1, 205-pound Peppers has yet to see any other campuses, focusing on his junior season at his new school. He played his first two seasons at nearby Don Bosco Prep. Peppers added that he’d like to take visits to Miami, Michigan, Notre Dame, and USC. He plans to take his time with the recruiting process and doesn’t expect to have a decision made prior to his senior season.
Prospect Note: Ranked as the nation’s No. 1 cornerback in his class, Peppers has been playing safety this fall and makes the checks and calls presnap. The straight-A student is also an aspiring musician, business owner and doctor. “He’s better than advertised,” head coach Chris Partridge said. In eight games, Peppers has 891 yards rushing on just 93 carries and 12 touchdowns. He’s added another 323 yards receiving and five more scores. On defense he has 48 tackles, a sack and two interceptions.

cont...

This weekend will be big for ESPN Watch List safety Darius West (Lima, Ohio/Lima Central Catholic). It is not a regional final like he hoped, but Saturday he will get a better feel for where he stands with one program he considered to be in his top two this summer.

Michigan was West’s favorite along with Ohio State when both were heavily interested this summer, but as contact with the Wolverines staff has tapered off so has West’s feelings for the program.

He will get a better understanding as to how the coaches view him Saturday when he visits Ann Arbor when the Wolverines host Iowa.

cont...

OSU men's basketball: Loving ready to sign, without the hoopla (columbus dispatch)

The growth of social media has given an even larger platform to high-school drama kings recruited by major-college football and basketball programs.

As they long have, they hold anxious fans hostage while they decide. Now, though, they do it with the whole world watching on Twitter and Facebook, all the better for heightening the drama.

Marc Loving is part of their generation, if not their ilk.

“He’s a low-key kid,” said Ed Heintschel, Loving’s basketball coach.

In August 2010, before his sophomore year at Toledo St. John’s, Loving made a verbal commitment to play at Ohio State. Not much has been heard from him since on the recruiting trail. Today, the highly skilled, 6-foot-8 wing/forward will sign his national letter of intent and fax it to the school.

Coach Thad Matta is expecting a letter from one other recruit for the class of 2013: 6-3 guard Kameron Williams of Baltimore, who committed a few days after visiting Ohio State in September.

Matta will be able to comment on both after he receives their signed letters.

Loving never visited another program. He said no other coach tried to persuade him to change his mind. He knew where he wanted to play and saw no reason to sow suspense when, he said, he could use the past two years to improve himself as a player and person.

“There’s no point to saying, ‘I have so many number of offers, I can go wherever I want to go,’ when you know you have your heart set on going to a specific place,” Loving said. “There’s really no need to drag out the process more than it has to be.”

cont...

Matta Signs Two to NCAA Letters of Intent (Ohio State Buckeyes)

COLUMBUS, Ohio—Thad Matta, head coach of the Buckeyes, announced Wednesday the signing of Marc Loving (Toledo, Ohio/St. John Jesuit HS) and Kameron “Kam” Williams (Baltimore, Md./Mount St. Joseph’s HS) to NCAA National Letters of Intent to join the Ohio State men’s basketball program for the 2013-14 season.

Loving, a 6-foot-8-inch, 215-pound forward, is considered one of the Top 100 players nationally by several recruiting services. He was the 2012 Associated Press Division I Co-Player of the year in Ohio as well as earning all-district and Three Rivers Athletic Conference Player of the Year accolades.

“We have followed Marc’s career closely for several years,” Matta said. “He is a terrific young man and is a skilled basketball player. He fits in well with our program and has a bright future at Ohio State.”

Loving was a second team all-state selection in 2011 as a sophomore. St. John Jesuit is 52-15 over his three seasons, which included a 19-2 record as a sophomore. As a junior last year, he averaged 22.5 points, 9.0 rebounds and 2.7 assists.

During the 2012 NCAA Final Four activities in New Orleans, Loving was one of eight juniors selected to play in the 2012 All-American Championship event.

Williams (G, 6-2, 170), another Top 100 prospect, led his AAU squad, Nike Baltimore Elite, in scoring with 22.2  points per game while shooting 53 percent from the field and 48 percent from 3-point range.

“Kam is another great fit for us,” Matta said. “He has a natural gift for scoring the basketball. He has a natural feel for the game and I look forward to incorporating his skill set in our program.”

Williams earned first team Baltimore Catholic League honors as a sophomore and was the league’s MVP in 2011-12.