Wow so Jayson Oweh in an interview with 247 openly admitted Ohio State was being negative recruited as people was telling him Larry Johnson was going to retire. James Franklin? Oweh down to 2.
— jbook (@jbook37) December 18, 2017
In an interview with 247 today, Oweh admitted what we all knew already - that LJ has been the target of negative recruiting about his age and intentions to retire, and that it has been going on for quite some time.
We all know James Franklin negative recruits. Remember Birm's tweet from a YEAR ago.
Just got a DM from father of a 4* prospect. Weve visited (OSU, UM, MSU and PSU) - the ONLY person that negatively recruited was Franklin."
— Jeremy Birmingham (@Birm) July 26, 2016
I, for one, hope this opens the door to Oweh coming back into this class with Tyreke Smith. Lots of speculation that Smith shut the door on the Nittany Lions when he found out the rumors about LJ weren't true - and we can only assume the people telling them these rumors were at PSU.
It's pretty telling that the only way PSU can compete with OSU in recruiting is to spread gossip and outright lies. If I were a recruit, I wouldn't trust Franklin with my career if that's how he has to level up.
There is also speculation that Cox was negatively recruited in this regard as well. Curious LJ didn't publicly squash the rumors more quickly when they started trickling out, could have possibly saved him.
