The Hurry Up: Tunmise Adeleye Reacts to His Ohio State Offer, Buckeyes Are Making the Cut with Several 2020 Targets

By Taylor Lehman on May 29, 2019 at 6:30 pm
Tunmise Adeleye
@JLMcCuistion/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.

Hello everyone. I’m back from vacation. Now all of you are the folks sitting next to friends, family or co-workers who just returned from their respective vacations and thinking to yourselves, “I don’t want to hear about your stupid vacation,” so I’ll spare my stories about Austin, Texas, and jump right back into The Hurry Up.

Tunmise Adeleye Earns his OSU offer a few weeks after making contact

In May 10’s Hurry Up, I detailed Texas four-star defensive end Tunmise Adeleye’s interesting path toward connection with Ohio State, and just two weeks later, Adeleye received his offer.

Rated as the No. 6 defensive end in the 2021 class by 247Sports, Adeleye had developed a good relationship with defensive graduate assistant Kenny Anunike and had been in contact with defensive line coach Larry Johnson, but neither of them extended the offer to the Katy standout. It was defensive coordinator Greg Mattison who broke the news.

“It honestly felt surreal,” Adeleye told Eleven Warriors. “This is an offer I’ve been waiting on for quite some time, and to hear from the defensive coordinator himself that I have a full-ride scholarship to my childhood dream school just meant the world to me.”

Since he received his offer on May 22, Adeleye has been in regular contact with all three coaches, as Mattison has jumped in as well.

“They’re all great guys,” Adeleye said. “I can tell they’re very family-oriented and want the best for their players.”

The Tompkins High School sophomore said that he had hoped to find a time to visit Ohio State this summer and he tweeted that he will be visiting out-of-state schools this summer as well. Some of those schools will likely include Auburn, Oklahoma, Florida, Alabama, LSU, Florida State or Michigan – all schools that have offered. Texas and Texas A&M have also offered and are being considered.

For Ohio State, though, Adeleye said he will likely be in Columbus in June but hasn’t made it official yet, since plans could change at any point.

“I’m still pretty high on them,” Adeleye said. “You could argue I feel a little bit stronger now that they’ve offered.”

Lathan Ransom to release top-five soon

Four-star Arizona safety Lathan Ransom released his top-14 schools March 21, and now, he will be releasing his top-five, he teased via Twitter on Sunday.

Ohio State will surely be in that top-five. He has an official visit planned for Columbus on June 21, during Ohio State’s big officials weekend. Other schools that will likely be on the list are the three other schools he’s visiting officially, which include Oklahoma (April 12), LSU (April 26) and Notre Dame (June 8), and potentially Texas, UCLA and USC.

Ransom is the No. 4 safety in the class and is a top target remaining for the Buckeyes.

His teammate, five-star running back Bijan Robinson, who he’s said he would like to play with but isn’t considering a package deal, only has an official visit planned for Ohio State (June 14) but has a lot of interest in UCLA and Texas as well. The intersecting schools on their top lists will be programs to watch moving forward in their recruitments.

Sam Adams drops his top-six

Four-star running back Sam Adams II released his top-six Tuesday night and Ohio State was included. Washington, Florida, Alabama, Texas A&M and Penn State were also included.

Adams is rated as the No. 174 player overall in the 2020 class, the No. 16 running back and the No. 3 player out of Washington. He is also teammates with Ohio State wide receiver commit Gee Scott Jr. He’s the son of former Texas A&M and NFL defensive tackle Sam Adams.

Most recruiting experts predict Adams to choose Washington, but Texas A&M seems like a strong possibility too. I detailed in a separate post this morning how if the dominos fall just right, Adams could take a strong look at the Buckeyes. Having a teammate like Scott Jr. coming to Columbus could play well for the Buckeyes if Adams would want to look in that direction, but right now, it seems that there is a mutual distance between the two as both parties look in other areas and that Adams included the Buckeyes as another option if Ohio State would want to move forward with him.

He did announce Wednesday morning, though, that he will be making an official visit to Columbus on June 21. He will be taking that visit with Scott Jr.

He’s one of the top-20 backs in the class that can actually catch out of the backfield, which makes him an asset. He ran for 929 yards and 17 touchdowns on just 94 carries in 2018, and he caught 10 passes for 203 yards and three touchdowns too.

Theo Johnson includes Ohio State in top-seven

Ontario four-star tight end Theo Johnson released his top-seven Thursday via Twitter, and Ohio State was included. Other schools included were Alabama, Penn State, Miami, Iowa, Michigan and Georgia.

Johnson is rated as the No. 3 tight end in the class, and it appears his numbers support that. At 6-foot-6, 245 pounds, he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.65 seconds and jumped 35 inches in the vertical jump at The Opening Regionals this year. His wingspan is 79 inches, and his hands are 10.25 inches. He already has a body similar to the frame desired at the NFL level. Needless to say, he got the invitation to The Opening Finals.

But the Buckeyes could be on the outside looking in with Johnson. Johnson has made multiple visits to Penn State, Georgia and Iowa – a known favorite for top tight ends in the country. He has also scheduled his official to Iowa for June 7.

Ohio State, like Alabama, who offered a month after the Buckeyes, might have been just a little late in his recruitment.

It’s not the end of the line for Ohio State at the position, though. No. 5 tight end Jalin Conyers included Ohio State in his top-six Saturday and was in Columbus for a visit earlier this week.

The Buckeyes are also still in with Massachusetts tight end Cam Large and extended an offer to Texas tight end Blake Smith on Wednesday afternoon too. There are also some in-state options, including Luke Lachey, who has seen his recruitment ramp up in recent weeks.

Ohio State targets on social media

The summers are fast-approaching for many Ohio State targets, which means more showcases, more camps and more videos on the internet, of course.

Ohio State commit Trey Leroux placed second at the Division I Regional in shot put, with a throw of 55 feet, 8.5 inches. That was good for the sixth-best shot put throw at the Division I level this season.

Also, Julian Fleming participated in the PIAA State Championships and placed in four events. He won his second silver medal in the 100-meter dash and finished second in long jump, fifth in the 400-meter relay and fourth in the 1,600-meter relay. The No. 1 receiver in the 2020 class will be committing Friday.

Two Ohio State 2021 wide receiver targets – Colorado No. 61 receiver Kaden Dudley and Washington No. 1 athlete Emeka Egbuka – were named co-MVPs at the “Work Now” Tournament in Colorado over the weekend. Both made spring visits to Ohio State this year, and while Egbuka is well-documented, Dudley could see his ratings go sky-high if he continues to make catches like this one.

Kentucky offensive guard Jager Burton, who received his Ohio State offer May 9, announced that he will be attending a summer camp in Columbus on June 15. He will also be camping at Clemson and Alabama. Since receiving his offer from the Buckeyes, he earned an offer from Oregon and already had an offer from Penn State. Apparently, he can also waterski.

If there is anyone putting in the most work in the offseason, No. 1 2021 tight end Cane Berrong could make the case. He is constantly posting videos of workouts with his personal trainer, including this one, where he appears to be adding gains on his speed – a big area of focus for him going into his junior year – since his first videos. Ohio State offensive coordinator and tight ends coach Kevin Wilson and the Buckeye staff jumped on Berrong early and are holding on tight for obvious reasons.

Brooklyn defensive end and top New York 2021 prospect Jahzion Harris won the defensive line MVP award at the Future Phenom Showcase on May 20, and well, it’s pretty obvious why.

Indiana four-star offensive tackle Blake Fisher looks a lot like Ohio State 2019 signee and Indianapolis offensive tackle Dawand Jones in this video.

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