The Hurry-Up: OSU Commits Go On a Twitter Barrage, Tony Alford’s Honesty About Recruiting Other RBs Making a Positive Impact on Damari Alston

By Zack Carpenter on February 5, 2021 at 6:30 pm
C.J. Hicks
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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 commits up to something again

Back in October, Ohio State's group of 2022 commits went on a Twitter barrage talking about something that would wind up being "the best thing you've ever seen in recruiting history."

A little dramatic, as we predicted, but landing five-star quarterback Quinn Ewers and five-star receiver Caleb Burton was still a massive haul. (Even if it wasn't as massive as the six or seven blue-chip commits that had been advertised.)

The Buckeyes' 2022 group was back at it again on Thursday night as the commits all changed their Twitter profile pictures to the one that Ewers has as his profile photo.

Just like the 2021 class had the steak emojis, now the 2022 group has deer antlers.

The rumblings are that the Buckeyes' next commit could come from the offensive line. No matter who the next one is, or the next few are, this 2022 class is shaping up to be another star-studded haul. One that could rival the incredible 2021 class, and members of the Buckeyes' 2021 cycle know that:

Two more OSU offers

This week, we have already seen Ohio State extend an offer to Florida three-star cornerback Ryan Turner, whose junior year film thoroughly impressed Kerry Coombs and Matt Barnes.

Ohio State was back at it on Thursday night, extending two more offers in the 2022 class to four-star defensive lineman Christen Miller and four-star defensive end Marvin Jones Jr.

Miller is the No. 159 overall player, No. 10 defensive tackle and No. 17 player in the state of Georgia out of Cedar Grove High School.

Jones is the No. 70 overall player, No. 5 weakside defensive end and No. 9 player out of Florida, hailing from American Heritage High School.

Miller, in fact, was so impacted by the offer that he already has put the Buckeyes in his top five among a list of offers that includes Florida, Georgia, LSU and Florida State.

Armella's top 7

Julian Armella is one of the top offensive line prospects in the 2022 class, and he has a litany of offers that include Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State.

On Thursday night, the No. 133 overall player and No. 14 offensive tackle in America released a recruiting update with a top-seven list. It features those three blue bloods plus Miami, LSU, Florida State and Florida:

Alford's approach a positive for Alston

When we spoke with four-star Georgia running back Damari Alston in November, he told Eleven Warriors that his "best relationship" with any college coach was with Ohio State running backs coach Tony Alford.

That remains true as we sit here in February with Alston inching closer to cutting his list down from the 50 total offers he has in his pocket right now.

The relationship between the running backs coach and the 2022 standout has been strong for the past several months, and it’s only getting stronger. Alston’s parents are big fans of the Buckeye assistant, and Alford has made the Georgian feel like a priority.

“He’s keeping it consistent. We talk every day,” Alston said. “He was one of the few coaches who called me on Monday when they were allowed to call. He made that call out to me at about 5 a.m. before I started working out. He’s really pushing for me. He’s a great guy, my parents love him. He’s built a great relationship with my parents and gotten to know them better. He’s good people, and I like him.

“He’s made me feel (like a priority). He probably hasn’t told me that because he doesn’t wanna hype my head or anything like that. But he does make me feel that way. Definitely a great coach, and the way he’s been recruiting me makes me feel like I am the No. 1 priority.”

Stop us if you’ve heard this before, but Alford’s honest approach in recruiting – especially in being open about other running backs he’s recruiting in the 2022 class – has made a positive mark.

“I mean, he’s pretty open about it. We talk about it sometimes,” Alston said. “He tells me about some of the guys he’s stopped recruiting and about some of the guys he’s still talking to. Kids like Nicholas Singleton. It’s recruiting. Why wouldn’t he be open to talk about it? I feel like if he wasn’t open about it, he wouldn’t be as real of a coach as I thought he was, but he’s real open about it. We have real good conversations about recruiting and other kids he’s recruiting and stuff like that.”

Alston does not have a concrete decision timeline, but we can pretty confidently say that a decision won’t come until after he’s able to get out and see schools. He had been pondering the idea of releasing a top-eight list recently, but once offers began rolling in he decided to take a step back and let the recruiting process play out a bit more. He’s continuing to build relationships with college coaches as he undergoes the evaluation process.

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