Tommy will visit this weekend and has offers from Texas A&M, Mississippi State, Kansas State, Baylor, Florida State, South Florida, Arizona, and Arizona State. He is favoring tOSU, Texas A&M and Mississippi State. Kinda late getting to this, he announced he was visiting on Nov. 30th
Ensworth assistant coach Paul Wade says came home from The Game very excited and will be return January 11. He has not scheduled any other visits but is still interested in Vanderbilt, Alabama, Miami and Georgia Tech.
ORLANDO -- The Army All-American crew made a pit stop at Boone High School Tuesday morning to present senior punter Johnny Townsend with his jersey and official invitation to the U.S. Army All-American Bowl game.
"It’s a huge honor… they actually selected 90 kids out of the entire nation and I think it’s a huge honor to be selected," Johnny Townsend said. “I’ve been working hard, harder than I have ever been working in preparation for this game. It’s going to be the biggest game of my life."
The Ohio State commit will take the national stage January 5 at the Alamodome in San Antonio. Evans WR Tony Stevens will also be representing Central Florida in the 2013 U.S. Army All-American Bowl game.
Trinity High School wide receiver and top University of Louisville recruiting target James Quick made among the biggest climbs of any player in the country in the Rivals250 prospect rankings - rising 68 spots to the No. 114 position.
Quick, the state’s all-time leader in receptions, finished the year with 85 catches for 1,413 yards and 16 touchdowns and helped the Shamrocks to their third consecutive Class 6-A state title.
“Quick continues to prove he is one of the most electric playmakers at his position, as well as being one of the more polished receivers in the country,” Midwest analyst Josh Helmholdt said in a story on Rivals’ site. “His stock has risen steadily over the last year and he could be in line to keep that positive momentum with a big performance at the U.S. Army All-American Bowl next month.”
Quick, who has a top three of U of L, Ohio State and Oregon, is now ranked as the nation’s No. 13 wide receiver.
He’s one of three Kentuckians in the Rivals250. The others are Apollo offensive lineman/Notre Dame commitment Hunter Bivin, who is ranked No. 171, and Trinity defensive end/Southern California commitment Jason Hatcher, who is No. 215.
Quick and Hatcher will play in the Army bowl in San Antonio on Jan. 5.
Massillon’s boys basketball team managed to avoid one of the rarest of all things on Tuesday night — a rained-out season opener. The Tigers also managed to avoid an opening-night loss, holding off home-standing Kenmore 53-50.
However, the Tigers suffered a big loss — at least for the short-term — in terms of a leader on and off the floor, as Gareon Conley suffered what appeared to be a severe ankle sprain in the first half.
“I think that’s where true success is if you can develop young men to overcome adversity and handle the things that come their way,” Massillon coach Larry Taylor said after his team opened with a 1-0 record. “... God bless Gareon; you’re sick to your stomach. But Gareon Conley’s the best competitor I’ve been around; one of the toughest kids. He’s going to want us to do what we just did in here right now. I don’t know if I’ve seen a group of kids go through that much adversity.”
The opener almost didn’t get played, at least not Tuesday night. A leak developed in the roof of Kenmore’s varsity gym, which led to the junior varsity game being shifted to the school’s smaller auxiliary gym, while the fate of the varsity game was debated by the coaches, referees and Kenmore administrators.
It was finally determined, with no expected let-up in the leak in the immediate future, to just move the varsity game to the auxiliary gym as well. The biggest adjustment for the teams in the move was the size of the court, which was roughly 10 feet or so shorter than the regulation 94-foot floor in the main gym.
“It wasn’t any fault on their part,” Taylor said. “We just had to travel back in time to Hickory, Ind., for a little ‘Hoosiers’ in here.”
The bigger issue, though, came with just more than two minutes left in the first half and Massillon leading 26-20. As Conley, who is a highly-regarded major college football prospect, was coming down after trying to defend a Kenmore shot attempt, he crumpled in a heap on the floor, grasping his ankle in obvious pain.
After about a five-minute delay, Conley was helped to the bench, putting no weight on the injured left leg. He departed the bench area before the half would end to have the injury assessed.
The ranks of four-stars in the class of 2013 swelled by several new names in the post-senior season update of the Rivals.com rankings. More than a dozen prospects from around the country jumped from three stars to four stars and sit just outside the Rivals250.
Prospects proving they were back from injury and others who took their games to the next level as seniors account for a good portion of the new four-stars. Georgia linebacker commit Reginald Carter of Snellville (Ga.) South Gwinnet was one of those who bounced back from an injury.
"Coming off a torn ACL, there were a lot of questions about Carter entering his senior year," Rivals.com Southeast analyst Woody Wommack said. "He answered a lot of them, while still only playing at about 90 percent. He's great in pursuit of the football and had some outstanding individual games this year. He plays well against the run but also has the ability to play in space."
What the heck is going on with recruiting these days? Despite my decade-plus experience in the recruiting world and having seen almost everything, there are still a few things that surprise me, and many of them happened this past week. Here are a few things that have me baffled.
EXAMPLE NO. 1: Mission Viejo, Calif. safety Max Redfield was committed to USC, de-committed from the Trojans after a great visit to Notre Dame but has always been very high on Oregon and is always wearing Ducks gear or talking about how high he is on Chip Kelly's team.
Then, all of a sudden, Oregon drops Redfield, apparently because they think he's already a done deal for Notre Dame. While I disagree with simply giving up on a five-star prospect who has always shown great interest in your program and wants to take a visit, punting on this one is the Ducks' prerogative. Redfield has now decided to take a visit to USC this weekend, which clearly shows he's still open to the process. A good source told me last night that Redfield has essentially told the Irish coaches he is coming, but when did that ever stop someone from recruiting a player?
Either Kelly is mailing it in and is already counting his millions for whatever NFL job he takes, or there is more to the story here. Either way, things look even better for Notre Dame with Redfield, but why if he's a done deal to the Irish is he visiting USC? Why not just end the process and head to South Bend? Puzzling.
The Buckeyes were late on a few of Ohio’s blue chip prospects in the class of 2013, but it looks like Urban Meyer is going to make sure that doesn’t happen again.
Trotwood-Madison linebacker Mike McCray II, whose father played at Ohio State, was offered months after he committed to Michigan. Current Massillon DB Gareon Conley also committed to Brady Hoke, but only recently has he been recruited heavily by the Buckeyes.
Conley may very well end up in Columbus, but this trend cannot continue and Meyer has clearly taken steps to rectify the situation. In a strong turn of events, the Buckeyes were the first school to offer LB Kyle Berger out of Cleveland’s famous St. Ignatius High School.
Before any school in Ohio, the MAC, or anywhere else offered a scholarship, Urban Meyer was the first coach to officially ask Berger to play for his team. If OSU loses this Ohio prospect, it will not be due to a late offer. Meyer himself told Berger over the phone that he would like Kyle to come to Ohio State. He took time to talk to the Ozone about his recruitment.
This week has seen some major coaching dominoes fall into place, with the most surprising being Bret Bielema’s decision to leave Wisconsin for Arkansas.
Many thought Charlie Strong was the coach to beat, but with Bret on his way to Fayetteville, does Paul Chryst get the call from Barry Alvarez? If so, des this impact players like Dorian Johnson, who committed to play for Chryst at Pitt?
Does this impact Ohio State? Luke Fickell was a finalist for the Pitt job last year. Does Strong stay at Louisville, all but guarantying that Ohio State loses out on wide receiver James Quick? Will Darrell Hazell going to Purdue influence any current OSU assistants to take the Kent State job? Will Butch Jones leave UC? Would Kerry Coombs be a candidate if he does?
Only time will tell.
The two biggest recruiting weekends of the season are over and it’s safe to say Ohio State hit the ball out of the park on both occasions. In talking to recruits, the two craziest game day atmospheres were easily Nebraska and Michigan, which happened to be the games where most recruits attended.
The recruiting dead period will happen in less than two weeks – from Dec. 17 into January, ending after the 3rd. During this period, coaches cannot personally contact nor assess a recruit on or off campus. No official or unofficial visit by recruits or phones calls to them are permissible. Hence, coaches will be working feverishly on recruiting over the next 12 days.
Next to the Nebraska and Michigan games, this weekend will be the most important recruiting opportunity of the year for the class of 2013. Though the number of recruits is not even comparable to those two game day weekends, the quality of the visitors is certainly worth mentioning.
Here is a look at the kids who are expected to be on hand this weekend, many of whom will attend Friday night’s 12-0 celebration at St. John Arena.
TYRONE, Ga. -- ESPN Watch List wide receiver Demarre Kitt has been popular over the last 10 days. A number of college coaches have stopped by Sandy Creek (Ga.) High School to check in on the 6-foot-1, 185-pound junior who sports offers from 11 major programs such as USC, Alabama, Ohio State and Clemson.
Kitt was verbally committed to Georgia for a few months before reopening his recruitment. The Bulldogs had three coaches, Rodney Garner, Kirk Olivadotti and Scott Lakos, at his game Friday night. While their attention was focused mainly on Georgia commit cornerback Shaq Wiggins, Kitt was happy to see them.
“When I decommitted I told them I still wanted to be recruited by them because I still have interest,” Kitt said. “I just wanted to open it up because I thought I did it too early. They are still recruiting me so Coach Garner came by today. I still have a spot there if I want it, a scholarship, and they really want me. I have been talking to Coach [Mark] Richt on Facebook, too.”
The kicker from Chattanooga (Tenn.) Baylor told ESPN that he is sending recent highlights from his junior season to several schools, including Stanford, Southern California, UCLA, Florida and Florida State.
Several other schools have already begun recruiting the 6-foot, 200-pound prospect, including Nebraska, Brigham Young, Duke, Ohio State and LSU. Gaglianone visited Ohio State this fall and said it was the best visit he has taken to any prospective college.
Junior or not, Jeb Blazevich is ready to pare down the schools he's considering.
The 2014 tight end prospect from Charlotte (N.C.) Christian stated via text message on Wednesday that he plans to cut his many scholarships down to six or seven schools. The ESPN Watch List prospect said he plans to announce the list sometime next week.
When asked if there are any schools that will definitely be on the list, Blazevich stated, "I'm going to wait to tell everyone that list after I get a chance to tell all the schools so they don't find out another way."
Blazevich has shown strong interest in several schools, namely Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Clemson, Ohio State and Tennessee. He visited all of those schools this year.
Rico McGraw didn't get the scholarship offer he hoped for, but he still holds Ohio State in high regard.
Buckeye coaches were at Nashville (Tenn.) Ensworth on Tuesday. Ohio State is recruiting senior running back Cornelius "Corn" Elder and McGraw, a sophomore cornerback who already has several scholarship offers.
McGraw said Ohio State's coaches have told him an offer should be coming soon. McGraw is being recruited by tight ends/fullbacks coach Tim Hinton.
For the second time this week, the Oregon Ducks offered a star defensive recruit from SEC country. While trying to improve at the linebacker position, the Ducks continue to venture into the South in an effort to expand their recruiting reach. Early this week, the Ducks offered fast rising LB Zach Cunningham (Pinson, Ala./Pinson Valley).
Today Oregon wide receivers coach Scott Frost stopped by (Lawrenceville, Ga./Central Gwinnett) and left after offering one of the elite defenders in the state. LB Trey Johnson (Lawrenceville, Ga./Central Gwinnett) will be honored at a ceremony on Thursday to recognize him as the region's defensive player of the year.
The former Auburn commit will have to decide if the late offer from Oregon is enough to get him across the country for a visit. Ohio State appears to be in a good spot for Johnson, but -- as always -- if the Ducks get him on campus, they could potentially become a player for the four-star LB.
Malcolm Cook (Fork Union, Va./Fork Union) hasn't officially decommitted from Virginia following the firing of four assistants, but the safety said he's re-opening his recruitment.
In the last 48 hours, the prospect has received 11 offers and entertained visits and phone calls from the likes of Michigan, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State and USC. He planned to speak with the Trojans after basketball practice Wednesday, and he chatted in-person with Penn State assistant Charles London on Tuesday.
"It doesn't really matter to me about other schools looking at me," he said, when asked whether this new attention was a consolation. "The reason I committed to Virginia was because of the defensive coordinator, Coach [Jim] Reid. So I was really hurt by Coach Reid not being there.
The big four coming on official visits to Ohio State this weekend is now just three as David Dawson (Detroit/Cass Tech) had to change plans at the last moment.
The top-ranked offensive guard in the Class of 2013 was scheduled to join Gareon Conley (Massillon, Ohio/Washington), Mike Mitchell (Plano, Texas/Prestonwood Christian) and Donovan Munger (Shaker Heights, Ohio/Shaker Heights) as well as eight Ohio State commits for what looked like a big weekend.
Now, Dawson will have to find an open date that works with the Buckeyes.
Love the news on my boy egw top soph in the st lock him up urb.
egw led canton mckinley to an outright federal league (arguably toughest league in neo) title as sophmore his first yr full time varsity and first time ever playing qb. his only losses were twice to massilon which features a ton of bcs prospects and once to glenoak in a very tight game(alma matter of briontee dunn and dustin fox) who also has alot of talent. i can not say enough about this kid. he is the best player i have seen wear a mckinley bulldog uniform sorry mike doss lol
I don't know, they aren't exactly a defensive powerhouse. Either way I see them losing to tOSU in a Rose Bowl in 2015 when tOSU is rebuilding reloding after XBrax360 graduates with 2 crystal foseballs.
That is some dedication Gene. Impressive trying to squeeze in every last bit of newsworthy information of the day. You got it done with 9 minutes to spare or else you would have had to work on the next days. An up vote is in order.
EXAMPLE NO. 1: Mission Viejo, Calif. safety 
Thank you for these... Quick Bits is my daily recruiting fix
Tom Crean listens to Nickelback...
Curious: If a high school b-ball game is played on a non-regulation sized court, does the game count?
Thanks again Gene!
Does JUCO LB Tommy Sanders have an offer from the Buckeyes??
Yes there are two Buckeyes in Ann arbor on this site!
No
Love the news on my boy egw top soph in the st lock him up urb.
egw led canton mckinley to an outright federal league (arguably toughest league in neo) title as sophmore his first yr full time varsity and first time ever playing qb. his only losses were twice to massilon which features a ton of bcs prospects and once to glenoak in a very tight game(alma matter of briontee dunn and dustin fox) who also has alot of talent. i can not say enough about this kid. he is the best player i have seen wear a mckinley bulldog uniform sorry mike doss lol
O'Deez330
stark county football
Added a video, 2 articles and a new offer went out
Crap, saw that Oregon offered Trey Johnson. Anything to worry about?
I don't know, they aren't exactly a defensive powerhouse. Either way I see them losing to tOSU in a Rose Bowl in 2015 when tOSU is
rebuildingreloding after XBrax360 graduates with 2 crystal foseballs.Final
That is some dedication Gene. Impressive trying to squeeze in every last bit of newsworthy information of the day. You got it done with 9 minutes to spare or else you would have had to work on the next days. An up vote is in order.
Thanks bud
it looks like Dawson is going back to UM....thanks Gene