The Hurry-Up: Ohio State and LSU Offer Aidan Leigh, Tristan Leigh Likely to Not Enroll Early, Joenel Aguero Talks Bucks Offer, OHSAA Moves Forward with Aug. 1 Start Date

By Zack Carpenter on July 28, 2020 at 6:30 pm
Aidan Leigh
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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.

Bucks, Tigers offer Leigh’s brother

After dishing out offers to a pair of Florida offensive tackles in the 2023 class last week – TJ Shanahan and Clay Wedin – the Buckeyes added a third offer to the O-line cycle, and it was a familiar name to fans following Ohio State recruiting. 

Aidan Leigh, the younger brother of five-star offensive tackle Tristan Leigh, announced that Ohio State had come calling on Monday, exactly a week after he had received his first Division I offer from Maryland. And it ended up being a busy day for Leigh, as he announced an offer from LSU less than two hours later. 

Both Ohio State and LSU are two of the programs in Tristan’s top five that he released on Thursday, which also includes Alabama, Clemson and Oklahoma. LSU has also offered 2023 defensive tackle Cole Dellinger, the younger brother of one of the Tigers’ most recent commits, 2021 offensive lineman Garrett Dellinger – both of whom hail from Clarkston (Mich.) High School. 

Leigh told 247Sports’ Steve Wiltfong:

“It’s crazy,” Leigh told 247Sports. “It’s like mind blowing, it doesn’t seem real.”

It is though. Buckeyes coach Ryan Day himself gave him the good news.

“He just let me know we really see potential in you and we wanted to go ahead and give you an offer,” Leigh recapped. “They looked at my film and they looked at my video tape from the Underclassmen Camp on Friday.”

Leigh is certainly excited about the Big Ten power.

“They’re a really great school and I know you have to have pretty good talent to get an offer from there.”

Aidan Leigh is a 6-foot-4, 225-pound offensive tackle who, like all prospects in the 2023 class, is unranked at this early stage in his career. Leigh, who visited alongside his brother and other family members for Ohio State’s game against Penn State in November, is a long, rangy lineman who is heading into his second year at Robinson Secondary High School in Fairfax, Virginia.

According to longtime recruiting reporter Tom Lemming, Leigh could wind up as a 6-foot-5, 280-pound prospect:

No early enrollment for older Leigh?

And speaking of that second year, the Virginia High School League – the governing body of high school sports in the state – announced on Monday that it has put together a plan to keep fall sports grouped together when they kick off in February, meaning that football, golf, volleyball and all other fall sports will all take place from Feb. 15-May 1. This news comes about two weeks after the VHSL announced it is moving fall sports to the spring, meaning Ohio State running back commit TreVeyon Henderson, in addition to the Leighs, will not have a senior season in the fall.

While Henderson told Eleven Warriors that he would still be enrolling early at Ohio State in January – and then later announcing that he will not be transferring to another school this fall, thereby foregoing his senior season all together – it appears that Tristan Leigh will not be going forward with any early enrollment plans at whatever school he chooses. 

We can deduce that following Leigh’s tweet when he saw the VHSL’s schedule announcement for its high school sports:

Leigh is the Buckeyes’ No. 1 remaining uncommitted target at offensive line. As a refresher, Leigh was offered by Ohio State on Sept. 23, when he was ranked No. 177 overall in the country. The 6-foot-5, 270-pounder then built on his relationships with the Buckeye staff during his first visit to Columbus for the game against Penn State, and then he blew up on the recruiting trail in January. 

That’s when he earned Alpha Dog honors at the All-American Bowl National Combine, in addition to earning an invite to the 2021 All-American Bowl, for a dominant performance among some of the nation’s best talent. That performance helped him skyrocket into a five-star prospect who is now ranked No. 11 overall in the 2021 class.

"I’ve never felt like I didn’t belong (in that top tier). I always felt like I belong on this stage," Leigh told us one day after that January combine. "Now I feel like I’ve placed myself there."

Leigh said that he was going to take his recruiting process slowly, remain patient with a commitment timeline, figure out his top five and “just take it from there.”

"I mean, it is what it is," Leigh said. "I just gotta stay humble, keep working and not gonna get complacent, you know what I’m saying? I just gotta take this whole pace slow and figure out my final list of schools and where I’m gonna take my official visits."

Leigh still hopes to take his five official visits before he makes a decision, and it appears that a decision is not imminent. 

OSU coming for Michigan pipeline

St. John’s Prep (Mass.) 2023 athlete Joenel Aguero is an early candidate to find himself high on the Top247 rankings of his class when they are released, and 11 Division I teams have come calling to show their interest with an offer.

Ohio State became team No. 10 on Monday afternoon – followed by USC later in the day – as the Buckeyes joined Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska, Penn State and Tennessee as some others that have offered. 

Though it is way too early in the process for the 6-foot, 170-pound Aguero to have any top schools, the offer from the Buckeyes is still one of the best ones. 

“Coach Matt Barnes offered me. When he told me he wanted to offer me, I got really excited because Ohio State was one of the teams I grew up watching as a kid when I was a middle schooler,” Aguero told Eleven Warriors. “Some players I watched were Zeke Elliott and Chase Young.”

Aguero’s relationship with Barnes and the Buckeyes began in January when his head coach put him on a phone call with Barnes, “and ever since that, we had our talks here and there.”

“I think he is a cool guy,” Aguero said of his relationship with Barnes. “Honestly, me and him have been talking on the phone for a while, and he seems like a great guy and coach.”

So that’s what Aguero likes about Barnes, but what does Barnes like about him?

“They told me that I was one of the best players they’ve seen,” Aguero said. “They don’t see too many kids play that aggressive and fast. They see my playing safety, but I can play wherever and still be great.”

OHSAA moves forward with Aug. 1 start date

The Ohio High School Athletic Association announced on Monday night that it is continuing to move forward with the plan to begin practices for all fall sports, including football, on Aug. 1. 

Though states like Virginia, Washington and California are moving high school football to the spring – and Texas announced a rescheduling plan that pushed start dates back – it appears that Ohio, for now, will go on as scheduled. 
 

Also moving forward with plans to begin practices is the state of Kentucky, as the KHSAA Board of Control voted unanimously to return to action, with practices beginning on Aug. 24.

That means Ohio State defensive back Jantzen Dunn of South Warren High School and Buckeye target Jager Burton of Fredrick Douglass High School will soon begin their senior seasons. 

Top photo: Aidan Leigh

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