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.
LET'S GO CRYSTAL BALLING
So, as some of you may have already noticed today, I made a Crystal Ball selection today for Minnesota linebacker Carter Coughlin. I went on a limb — a hunch and nothing more — that Coughlin surprises most and picks Ohio State over Minnesota this week, whenever he decides. Call me a homer, call me a Buckeye apologist or whatever you will, but when it comes down to it, the chance to play linebacker at Ohio State right now carries a lot of weight. I believe family ties, legacies and all that are obviously important, but if I had a son who had the chance to play where I played, or play for the country's premiere program, I'd tell him to "do better" than I did. We all want the next step for our next generation, don't we?
My discussions with Coughlin, which I admit are infrequent, have never led me to believe that staying home and following his father and grandfather's footsteps was any more of a priority than developing himself and his game. I know that Minnesota has a blossoming program, and I know that Jerry Kill is working hard to establish a culture where Minnesota's best players stay home and compete for the Gophers, but when Urban Meyer makes you a priority, that is hard to say no to.
Am I super confident in this pick? Absolutely not. I know that all signs point to Minnesota keeping the legacy at home, but betting against Urban Meyer isn't wise.
I also made a crystal ball prediction this week on St. Francis de Sales (Columbus) defensive back Austin Andrews, who has been blowing up with college offers including Wisconsin and Pittsburgh this week. Andrews is one of those kids that we see every cycle, very talented but a prospect that the Buckeyes want to see more out of and he seems to be the type willing to wait and earn his spot with the Buckeyes. Ohio State has been in regular contact with him and I do believe they'll offer him this summer when he shows up to camp and showcases his athletic talents and — more important to the Buckeyes — a passion for competing.
Obviously, as Andrews does not yet have a Buckeye offer, I'm going on a limb here, but I think if that offer comes there's little doubt he'll accept it on the spot, similar to Denzel Ward a year ago.
MCCALL WORTH THE WAIT
Now that his basketball season is over — North Ridgeville was toppled by the runaway train that is Rashod Berry's Lorain Knights — Demario McCall is likely to be a name we hear a bit more frequently in the coming weeks and months. This weekend he's scheduled to visit Morgantown and West Virginia University, one of the many schools still interested in the country's 50th-ranked prospect. McCall has recently added offers from Arizona State and UCLA, and it'd be a surprise if he didn't double or triple his offer list as summer approaches. While the Buckeyes are still thought to be the most likely landing spot, Ohio State isn't taking anything for granted.
"McCall is a different type of kid, different kind of player," a source close to the Buckeyes said. "We think he'll end up here but we're not going to take it easy and not recruit him as hard as possible. He's explosive, maybe the most explosive player in the state since Jalin [Marshall], we don't want to risk him getting 'more love' somewhere else."
Oregon, Alabama and Florida State have regularly been mentioned as flies in the potential ointment for the Buckeyes, but at this point none of that trio have offered McCall.
BURRELL WORKING HARD TO MAKE IMPACT AS FRESHMAN
We haven't talked much about the "Elite '15" since they've signed – because that's not technically "recruiting" anymore – but I had the chance to talk to Matt Burrell, Jr. yesterday and wanted to pass on to you all a little info on the future Buckeye guard. To get started, here's a side-by-side comparison of Matt from last summer to yesterday.
Clearly, he's working his tail off to get himself in a spot where he can challenge the two-deep as a freshman. Burrell, who is listed on his scouting profiles at 6-foot-5 and 321-pounds, told me he's down to 305-pounds and feeling better than ever.
DREMONT JONES UPDATE
One of the stars of the Elite '15, Cleveland St. Ignatius' Dre'Mont Jones had some bad news last Saturday night and we reported it here on Eleven Warriors as quickly as we could.
Jones still does not have a full prognosis on his injury, according to sources at Ohio State, but an MRI is scheduled for tomorrow, so news should come soon on the severity of the injury. While the fear is still a torn ACL, people are still holding out hope that it could be just a partial tear or a still serious, but less significant, sprain.
Slightly off-topic, I did receive an email from someone the morning following the injury who was lamenting the fact that we put a story up on Dre'Mont's injury. While we generally don't want to report too heavily on negative news, the potential injury of a Buckeye signee was both pertinent and topical, so we ran the story, and I don't think doing so was inappropriate.
From a reader's perspective, do you guys think that sort of stuff is better off unwritten for the most part? I'll admit to being surprised at the tone of the email I received and wanted to bring it to the table for discussion.
