The Hurry Up is your nightly dose of updates from the Ohio State football recruiting trail, keeping tabs on the latest from commits and targets from around the country.
WELCOME BACK
Ohio State five-star running back commit Jaelen Gill and Westerville South travel to Dublin Scioto this evening, marking his first game action since he fractured his fibula 357 days ago.
“I'm so excited,” Gill told Eleven Warriors.
Without him, Westerville South struggled to a 1-9 record last season. And following a coaching change this winter that will undoubtedly lead to more involvement in the offensive gameplan, Gill hopes to end his high school career by leading the Wildcats to the playoffs. It would be their first trip to the postseason since 2012, which ended with a 31-10 loss to Hilliard Darby in the first round.
However, Gill first much face a tough-nosed Irish squad that held him without a touchdown in last year's season opener.
“Lots of people to silence,” Gill told Eleven Warriors, pointing out one message board commenter in particular. “It's been too long, and no one will regret coming.”
I'll be on the sidelines, so make sure to follow along on Twitter at @AndrewMLind for the latest updates. And if you haven't read Gill's senior notebook, make sure to do that now.
ABOUT TO LEAVE TWO SCHOOLS FEELING BLUE
Huber Heights Wayne four-star wide receiver L'Christian “Blue” Smith will make his long-anticipated college decision among Cincinnati, Kentucky and Ohio State before Sunday's nationally televised game against Pine-Richland, Pennsylvania. So who will he choose?
2 days.....
— BLUE (@bluesmith_) August 25, 2017
There was a moment in time where I believed the 6-foot-5, 198-pound Smith could have picked the Wildcats. His relationship with the staff — particularly recruiting coordinator Vince Marrow — and high school teammate and Kentucky three-star defensive end commit Alex Reigelsperger seemingly outweighed the chance of playing for the Buckeyes.
“It just feels like another home down there,” Blue told Eleven Warriors in April. “I go down there and I feel comfortable. I got a lot of family down there. [Former Wayne teammate] Tobias [Gilliam] is down there, Alex is committed now and coach Marrow, I talk to [him] every day. He's a super recruiter. He knows what he's doing. It's just the people pretty much, the community down there.”
Not to mention, the constant chatter about the Ohio State staff supposedly wanting to play him at tight end only pushed him closer and closer to Big Blue Nation. A one-on-one sit down with head coach Urban Meyer in May changed that for good, however.
“They gave me two plans,” Smith said. One of the plans was if I were to stay this size, [I'll be a] wide receiver. Just like I am now, and how they're recruiting me at wide receiver. But if I was to grow like my brothers — they're 6-foot-9, 6-foot-10 — then I'd be a tight end. It's all about my development.”
Smith continued to echo those sentiments through camp season and at Nike Football's The Opening Finals in late June and early July, and settled on a date for his announcement. He then added the Bearcats to his final three, surely as a hometown favor, but it's truly come down to the Buckeyes and Wildcats.
Ohio State has always been Smith's dream school, and following a one-day camp, he called Columbus — better yet to be specific, the Woody Hayes Athletic Center — “the place to be.” But Kentucky has always been in the back of his mind, as the Wildcats were the first program to offer him a scholarship as a freshman.
Then what's it come down to? Smith has always referred to Kentucky as a family and Ohio State as a business. Choosing the latter gives you him a better shot at winning in college and subsequently making it to the NFL.
“It's a lot of aspects I have to look at before I make a decision,” he said at Friday Night Lights.
FOOTBALL'S BACK
Though three Ohio State commits got their respective senior campaigns started last Friday, the high school football season begins in earnest this evening. The lineup is as follows:
| name | pos | high school | opponent |
|---|---|---|---|
| EMORY JONES | QB | FRANKLIN (GA) HEARD COUNTY | SARALAND (AL) |
| JAELEN GILL | RB | WESTERVILLE (OH) SOUTH | DUBLIN SCIOTO (OH) |
| BRIAN SNEAD | RB | ARMWOOD (FL) | @ TAMPA BAY TECH (FL) |
| MASTER TEAGUE | RB | MURFREESBORO (TN) BLACKMAN | @ RHEA COUNTY (TN) |
| JEREMY RUCKERT | TE | LINDENHURST (NY) | @ EAST ISLIP (NY) |
| MATTHEW JONES | OG | BROOKLYN (NY) ERASMUS HALL | OPEN |
| MAX WRAY | OT | FRANKLIN (TN) | RIVERDALE (TN) |
| BRENTON COX | DE | STOCKBRIDGE (GA) | MAYS (GA) |
| TARON VINCENT | DT | BRADENTON (FL) IMG ACADEMY | @ CHANDLER (AZ) |
| TERADJA MITCHELL | ILB | VIRGINIA BEACH (VA) BISHOP SULLIVAN | AMERICAN HERITAGE (FL) |
| K'VAUGHAN POPE | ILB | DINWIDDIE (VA) | DENBIGH (VA) |
| DALLAS GANT | OLB | TOLEDO (OH) ST. JOHN'S JESUIT | @ BEDFORD (MI) |
| SEVYN BANKS | CB | ORLANDO (FL) JONES | @ ST. JOHN'S (DC) |
| MARCUS HOOKER | QB | NEW CASTLE (PA) | @ ALIQUIPPA (PA) |
| JOSH PROCTOR | S | OWASSO (OK) | @ JENKS (OK) |
| JAIDEN WOODBEY | S | BELLFLOWER (CA) ST. JOHN BOSCO | @ ST. THOMAS AQUINAS (FL) |
| NAME | POS | HIGH SCHOOL | OPPONENT |
|---|---|---|---|
| DOUG NESTER | OT | HUNTINGTON (WV) SPRING VALLEY | @ HUNTINGTON (WV) |
You can actually watch some of the games, including St. John Bosco at St. Thomas Aquinas tonight at 7; Heard County, Georgia vs Saraland, Alabama, at 3:30 tomorrow afternoon; and IMG Academy at Chandler, Arizona, at 10:30 p.m., all on ESPNU. Blackman's game can be seen here, while Owasso can be viewed here. Both are scheduled for 8 o'clock ET this evening.
