The Hurry Up: Buckeyes Continue Recruiting Trips, Decommitment Season Underway and More

By Jeremy Birmingham on December 1, 2015 at 7:45 pm
Richard LeCounte at the FBU Camp in Dublin, Ohio in summer of 2015.
Richard LeCounte
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The Hurry Up is your nightcap of Ohio State recruiting news, catching you up on the day’s events with an ear on the ground for what’s next.

OHIO STATE COACHING STOPS FOR TUESDAY

After a busy first day back on the recruiting road, the Buckeyes' coaching staff stayed active Tuesday.

Quarterbacks coach Tim Beck spent Monday in Florida, spending time at Jacksonville's Batram Trail High School — the home of eventual five-star 2018 quarterback Joey Gatewood — and Trinity Christian where he visited Ohio State commit Shaun Wade. 

Tuesday, Beck was in Dallas, checking on 2016 commit Tristen Wallace and others in that area. 

Zach Smith was in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he stopped to talk with Austin Mack at Bishop Luers. Wednesday, Smith is expected to stay in Ohio and check out Springfield 2017 wide receiver Danny Davis.

Luke Fickell spent Monday in Illinois visiting Tuf Borland and was scheduled Tuesday to head to the Pittsburgh area, likely to visit with Lamont Wade and Damar Hamlin, among others. Kerry Coombs also was in Pittsburgh Tuesday, if you believe his top-notch Twitter game.

Chris Ash was in Hinesville, Georgia, Tuesday and saw one of Ohio State's top 2017 targets, Liberty County star Richard LeCounte. 

SPEAKING OF LECOUNTE

There has been some speculation that LeCounte will make his college choice this month, but that is not the plan according to the five-star 2017 athlete. In fact, he says it never was.

The 5-foot-11, 175-pounder — who has Ohio State and Georgia at the top of his list — says that the plan has been to commit next December, shortly before signing day in his senior season. That's how Raekwon McMillan did it in 2013, and it's a reasonable blueprint for how LeCounte's decision should go.

That is, of course, good news for the now head coach-less Georgia Bulldogs who will need the additional time to reforge relationships and show LeCounte where the next generation of Bulldog football is headed.

HAUSMANN OFFICIALLY AN ARMY ALL-AMERICAN

Ohio State 2016 tight end commitment Jake Hausmann, added to the US Army All-American team two weeks ago, picked up his official invitation Tuesday.

Hausmann is the country's third-ranked tight end and will be joined in San Antonio by future teammates Austin Mack, Demario McCall, Drue Chrisman, Jonathon Cooper and Michael Jordan.

DECOMMITMENT SEASON

Over the summer, the critically acclaimed short story "Decommitment Season: You Chose Too Early" came and went, claiming a number of awards such as "Most Likely to Wear Another Teams' Shirt to Your School" and "Maybe You're Not as Good as We Thought."

Now, officially December, the sequel "Decommitment Season Two: Your Coach is Gone and You're Screwed" is hitting the airwaves. 

There is an inherent unfairness in a system that permits coaches to come and go as they please but binds players to the schools they sign with. At least when these things happen this time of the year there's a chance to find a new home for committed players. Every prospect commits to a school for their own unique reason, but the truth is that in most cases, the relationship they have with a coach, whether it be the head coach or a position coach, is the thing that matters the most.

Tuesday, Mundelein, Illinois, four-star offensive lineman Sean Foster decommitted from Minnesota, where he's been pledged since April. Already forced to deal with the sudden departure of Jerry Kill, Foster was surprised when the Gophers made additional changes to a coaching staff he felt was going to stay together. His decision to re-open his recruitment obviously was a difficult one.

The 6-foot-8, 275-pound Foster is certainly not alone in his plight, but it's another sobering look at the business that is college football.

NOT A GOOD LOOK, GEORGIA TECH

It's hard to imagine all the ways that a recruitment can be impacted during a visit. From game atmosphere, to the time spent with coaches to facilities and more, each visit is a singular opportunity for a program to win — or lose — a recruit and his family.

Consider if you will the case of now former Georgia Tech commitment Jordan Johnson, a 6-foot-3, 260-pound offensive lineman.

The "experience" Johnson is talking about? He felt that his family was racially profiled by a police officer at Georgia Tech during his visit this past weekend.

From SBNation.com Georgia Tech affiliate FromTheRumbleSeat.com:

When recruits visit games, they are identified by a lanyard which is worn around their necks as opposed to a ticket. In this case, Johnson and his brother went to the concession stand and returned to see their mother being approached by an officer who said that she had to leave because she had no ticket. According to Johnson, who showed the officer his lanyard, the officer "felt as though we had forged those badges and we didn't belong in the game". Johnson then told the officer that he would decommit because of it, to which the man responded that he "wouldn't care because he would still have his job if I went there or not".

Johnson is not the first verbal commitment around the country to decommit from a school because of an off-the-field incident at a school. Earlier this year Oklahoma lost a pledge from Texas four-star offensive lineman Jean Delance.

For a recruit, as they prepare to make the biggest choice of their young lives, every single thing that happens at a school, or in a community, can become a decision-changing moment.

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