The Hurry-Up: Jaheim Singletary Discusses Ohio State Commitment, Catching Up on Top Schools Lists, “The Dot God” Quinn Ewers Shows Off Again

By Zack Carpenter on January 3, 2021 at 5:18 pm
Jaheim Singletary
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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.

It's the Return of the Mack on this beautiful Sunday. Or at least the return of the Hurry-Up.

As you may have noticed, there's been an absence of recruiting updates from yours truly over the past week. As you also may have noticed, Ohio State's current team played a football game of some rather major importance on Friday. So...was busy with my focus on that.

(For example, if checking out photo galleries is your thing, you should jump on over here and take a look at some of the work from Friday. And please pretend that the photos are good because I'm a good photographer and not because my lens is amazing. Oh, and if checking out the best Sugar Bowl coverage in the Land of the Free is your thing, head on over to the Eleven Warriors bundle to check out our staff that features more talented people than myself who shined over the past two weeks.)

OK!

We have a lot of recruiting stuff to catch up on.

*Takes deep breath*

Here we go.

Singletary talks OSU commitment

Ohio State beat Clemson on the field Friday night and then got another win over the Tigers (and Georgia and Florida) on Saturday with the commitment of five-star cornerback Jaheim Singletary – the No. 10 overall player and No. 5 cornerback in America who is the Buckeyes' highest-rated cornerback commitment since Jeff Okudah (No. 8 overall, No. 1 CB) in the 2017 class.

RELATED What Jaheim Singletary’s Commitment Means for Ohio State’s 2022 Class

His commitment got Kerry Coombs pretty damn excited, and Singletary soon sounded off on why he chose the Buckeyes over those other three programs in his final four.

"I'm going there because DBU and Coach Coombs. He puts guys in the league in the first round," Singletary said. "And it's not promised. It's based all off your work ethic and just the love. Ohio State came and took over my recruitment. ... They were doing everything to get me."

That last part is something we've been hitting on over the past couple of weeks, as Singletary's recruitment to Ohio State was going fairly slow until he was extended an offer on November 5. Once that offer rolled in, the Buckeyes instantly became the favorite and the momentum boost helped them land their third player ranked in the top 15 overall.

Singletary told Rivals' Chad Simmons:

"I am surprised myself. I am not going to lie about that.

"For my whole life, I have loved Florida and Alabama, so when I first started getting offers, I always thought it would be one of those schools. Florida offered me early, I have visited more than any other school, I know all the coaches, and I honestly thought I would end up there, but a school farther away came in, recruited me well, got to know my mom and I will be honest and say I am surprised I feel this way about Ohio State."

Early in the fall is when things picked up with the Buckeye staff. Communication was there much earlier, but things went to another level early in the fall, then once the offer was presented, it really took off.

"About two months before they offered is when I got really serious with Ohio State. We have been talking since last summer, but early in the season, they started recruiting me a lot harder. They wanted to see junior film, and once they got that, they offered, and then it just got deep with the coaching staff.

"I am so close to them now. Everything is like family with them. They talk to my mom a lot, they have made her feel comfortable, they know us well and we are all in this deep like one big family."

Bevy of top schools lists released

All right, as I said, it was a hectic week for us here, so we're going to play a little bit of catch-up here in regards to players who released top schools list over the past week. That includes a busy New Year's Day, which is right up there with the 4th of July as being the most popular day for commitments or trimmed lists to be released.

All of the following players are in the 2022 class:

Xavier Nwankpa

We start things off with the Buckeyes' top safety target in the cycle and one who we strongly, strongly believe will wind up in Ohio State's class. The four-star prospect Nwankpa is the No. 76 overall player and No. 7 safety in the country out of Southeast Polk (Iowa) High School.

Nwankpa is down to Ohio State, Penn State, Iowa State, Notre Dame, LSU, Nebraska, Missouri, Clemson, Iowa, Wisconsin and Arizona State:

Dallan Hayden

First up is one of Ohio State's top running back targets in 2022, one whom Andrew Ellis believes the Buckeyes land and one who I was close to putting in my class prediction that we published last week but ultimately did not. Hayden is down to Ohio State, Notre Dame, Oregon and Texas. He is the No. 25 running back and No. 252 overall player in the nation out of Christian Brothers High School in Memphis.

Kojo Antwi

Antwi is the No. 19 receiver and No. 162 receiver in the country out of Lambert High School in Suwanee, Georgia (the same hometown as Ohio State's 2021 four-star cornerback signee Jordan Hancock).

Antwi is right up there with Kyion Grayes and Armani Winfield as one of the Buckeyes' top receiver targets in the class. He is down to Ohio State, USC, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Texas A&M, South Carolina and Oregon:

Kam Dewberry

Another priority target in the class, four-star offensive tackle Dewberry is ranked No. 11 at his position and No. 115 overall out of Atasocita (Texas) High School.

Dewberry is down to Ohio State, Alabama, Auburn, Baylor, LSU, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Texas, Florida and Georgia:

Dillon Tatum

One of the most underrated recruits in the 2022 class, the four-star Tatum – No. 12 athlete and No. 246 overall player – hails from the same West Bloomfield (Michigan) High School as four-star running back Donovan Edwards.

Though Tatum – likely to be a slot cornerback if he came to Ohio State – appears to be a Michigan lean just like Edwards, who signed with the Wolverines in the 2021 cycle, he is down to Ohio State, Notre Dame, Wisconsin, Georgia, Nebraska, Michigan State, Michigan, Penn State, Baylor and USC:

Mykel Williams

Ranked as the No. 4 defensive tackle and No. 42 overall player, Williams is the highest-ranked of all of these players out of Hardaway High School in Columbus, Georgia.

Williams has cut his list to Ohio State, Clemson, Georgia, LSU, Penn State, USC, Kentucky, Alabama, Georgia Tech and Arizona State:

And, honestly, there were so many of these list releases that included Ohio State that I may have missed one. So if I did, please put it in the comments section.

The Dot God

If there's one thing that all of you lovely readers know about me it's that I'm a Kansas City Chiefs fan. Been one since I was 9 years old for all you non-believers thinking I'm a bandwagoner (though everyone who's been following me since day one at Eleven Warriors know it's real).

So when five-star quarterback commit Quinn Ewers made a left-handed throw reminiscent of Patrick Mahomes, my ears obviously perked up:

And then my ears perked up even more when CTE Media Executive Director Bryan Thomas Miller called Ewers “The Dot God” in a postgame interview from Saturday.

That's one of the best nicknames I've heard for a quarterback in a long time. Just in case anyone isn't aware (because there are some who don't know):

  • A dot = a perfect pass

Soon enough, that talent and that nickname will be coming to Columbus. It was a hell of a weekend for Ohio State quarterbacks, current and future, as Ewers' 450-yard, six-touchdown performance came less than 24 hours after Justin Fields' 385-yard, six-touchdown output in the Sugar Bowl.

Leigh picks Clemson, OSU and USC battle for Davis 

It was entirely expected that five-star offensive tackle Tristan Leigh was not going to pick Ohio State. It did come as a last-minute surprise, however, that Leigh elected to commit to Clemson over Oklahoma. (In reality, he had committed and signed with the Tigers during the early signing period but kept it under wraps for a couple weeks.)

That leaves two key players for Ohio State to go after in the 2021 class – five-star defensive end J.T. Tuimoloau and four-star outside linebacker Raesjon Davis.

Unfortunately for the Buckeyes, all of the Crystal Ball predictions are currently set for USC to win out in this recruitment, and the commitment/signing of the nation's No. 1 player in the 2021 class, five-star defensive end Korey Foreman, has given the Trojans a big momentum boost.

Fortunately for Buckeye fans, Davis' recruitment is not over, and it's possible that his relationship with Al Washington and the position group's strong play in the College Football Playoff win could give them some momentum as well.

Talent gap

Matt Gutridge and I compiled a side-by-side comparison of Ohio State and Clemson in looking through the lens of recruiting rankings before the two did battle over the weekend. Hopefully you got to check that out.

It was a bit surprise to pore through the data and find out that Ohio State had such a massive advantage in offensive line recruiting over Clemson. The Buckeyes also had a slight advantage in defensive line recruiting across the board, and that's proven with this set of numbers as well:

Crazy month ahead?

As one final note, it's looking like we could be in for a hot month for Ohio State's 2022 class. At least if you ask C.J. Hicks and Dasan McCullough, two commits whose peer recruiting is going to be talked about by Ohio State fans until the end of civilization.

Guess it's time to get your popcorn ready.

Header photo: Jaheim Singletary – Hale McGranahan/247Sports

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