The Hurry Up: A 2022 Quarterback and a 2021 Wide Receiver React to Friday's Visit, Two 2020 Targets Commit Elsewhere

By Taylor Lehman on April 7, 2019 at 6:30 pm
Chase Harrison
@ChaseHarrisonQB/Twitter.com
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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.

2022 QB Chase Harrison Makes Another Visit

Dayton freshman quarterback Chase Harrison hasn’t played a full season as a starting quarterback, as he split time with a senior at the position during the 2018 season at Centerville High School, but the 2022 prospect has already hit the recruiting scene. Ohio State has noticed.

Harrison was at Ohio State on Friday to watch practice and talk with head coach Ryan Day and quarterbacks coach Mike Yurcich, though he was mostly able to talk to Yurcich.

“Coach Yurcich talked to me about quarterback leadership qualities he’s looking for – competitive, enthusiastic, unselfish, being accountable,” Harrison said. “He wants me to come back for camp and ball out.”

Harrison made a visit to Ohio State during the 2019 season too, coming to Columbus for Ohio State’s game against Tulane. He walked away with a good idea of how Day likes to coach and that built on the relationship they’d already created when Harrison was in town for a summer camp going into his eighth grade year.

Harrison said, though, that he doesn’t want to wait around for any schools. He’s already received an offer from Louisville, and Ohio State has offered two 2022 quarterbacks at this point – Texas pro-style quarterback Quinn Ewers and California dual-threat quarterback Maalik Murphy.

The Dayton quarterback has earned honors such as the Rivals 3 Stripe Young Gun award in the summer, the FBU adidas All-American QB award and the MaxPreps First Team All-American honor last season. He’s also gunning for his brother’s records, which includes the 17th-most passing yards in a career in the state of Ohio (8,453). His brother, Jacob, currently plays for Navy.

“They would be in my top-10, but I’m not waiting,” Harrison said. “I want to be the top QB choice, not a third or fourth choice for the coaches.”

Kaden Dudley Meets Brian Hartline

Ohio State has already offered 11 wide receivers in the 2021 class, but wide receivers coach Brian Hartline continues to build relationships with more wideouts in the class. Colorado-native Kaden Dudley is another, and the 6-foot, 180-pound receiver was in town Friday for Ohio State’s spring practice with his father, stepmother and eight-month-old sister.

“I honestly didn’t know much about Coach Hartline,” Dudey said. “But he just talks to me differently than other wide receivers coaches, and he really puts wide receivers into the NFL.”

Not many of Dudley’s numbers as a sophomore jumped off the box score. For Palmer Ridge High School, he caught 30 passes for 341 yards and six touchdowns, and he made 34 tackles on defense. But what does leap off the page is his nine interceptions. When the ball is in the air, he can compete for it.

Ohio State running backs coach Tony Alford, who is also from the Colorado Springs area, introduced Dudley to the Buckeyes and discussed how Hartline has a wide pool of football knowledge, and Dudley said he was able to see that Friday during his visit.

“Coach Alford told me that Coach Hartline really was the one who turned the program around receiver-wise,” Dudley said. “I know you can’t always look at a school for a coach, but even if Hartline wasn’t there anymore, he’s set them up for success.”

Dudley was at Notre Dame the day before his visit to Ohio State as well, and he said Ohio State’s facilities had an advantage on Notre Dame’s as well as its intensity and its focus on football more than academics, which he finds attractive in a football program.

The Colorado wideout said he plans on visiting Utah, Michigan, Oregon and Northwestern but is only looking at attending summer camps for schools he feels are most interested in him, and Ohio State’s camp is on that list, even if the Buckeyes haven’t detailed how he can earn an offer yet.

“Coach Alford told me, ‘Notice how I’m not talking to you about coming to Ohio State? That’ll come later,’” Dudley said.

Mark Redman to Washington

Ohio State’s top tight end target of the 2020 class committed to Washington on Saturday. Four-star California tight end Mark Redman made it official on Twitter that he was staying on the West Coast.

That makes the tight end scene fairly bleak for the Buckeyes moving forward within this class. Redman is ranked as the No. 10 tight end in the class, and Ohio State just offered Theo Johnson, the No. 5 prospect at the position, last week. It has offered seven of the top-10 tight ends in the class, including Maliq Carr, who has no interest in playing tight end at the next level but has a lot of interest in Michigan, and none of the other tight ends are looking at the Buckeyes as a top landing spot.

The tight end with the strongest interest in Ohio State is Massachusetts three-star tight end Cam Large, who fits the mold for what a tight end should look like at the Big Ten level, at 6-5, 240, but hasn’t played the level of competition that some of the other tight ends have. There are only a few other tight ends the Buckeyes are looking at including, Luke Lachey, who do not have offers yet.

Ohio State doesn’t necessarily need a tight end in the 2020 class, though. Ryan Day and the tight ends have frequently referred to the position as a source of strength, since all of the 2018 tight ends have returned for 2019, and sophomore Jeremy Ruckert could potentially be a big part of what offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson plans to do with tight ends in the offense. If there is any position the Buckeyes could get away with not bolstering this recruiting season, it’s this one.

Jordan Johnson to Notre Dame

Four-star Missouri wideout Jordan Johnson has committed, and it’s no surprise that he chose Notre Dame. The No. 1 recruit out of his state and the No. 34 player overall had been high on the Irish for months and made his official visit there Friday. He announced his commitment the next day.

Ohio State was once upon a time interested in Johnson, the No. 6 receiver recruit in the 2020 class, offering him in April 2018 and welcoming him in for a visit in June. It later turned its attention toward prospects of higher caliber, such as No. 1 wideout Julian Fleming, No. 2 wideout Rakim Jarrett, No. 4 wideout Johnny Wilson and No. 5 wideout Marcus Rosemy.

High-tier four-star wide receiver Gee Scott Jr. is already committed to Ohio State as the No. 13 receiver in the class, which could change for the better before signing day, and four-star Texas wideout Jaxon Smith-Njigba is committed as the No. 25 wideout in the class too.

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