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.
Buckeyes pursuing LSU decommit
When Eleven Warriors spoke with four-star West Brook (Texas) safety Bryce Anderson in April, the 2022 safety recruit had been committed to LSU for a few months.
But once Ohio State and other programs came calling with offers, that changed things in his recruitment quite a bit.
“Coach (Kerry) Coombs offered me, and I was very excited to receive such a prestigious offer,” Anderson said at the time. “I'm 100 percent open in my recruitment, and I'm interested in Ohio State.
“I'm going to a school that's putting DBs in the league and (putting a lot in the) first round, and I'm going to whichever fits me.”
One of the items standing out the most about both LSU and Ohio State was the number of draft picks each program had sent to the NFL. Anderson had taken note of the Tigers (14 draft picks) and Buckeyes (10 picks) having had the most players selected in the draft. Both programs are now at the forefront of his recruitment, Anderson says.
“LSU they’re recruiting me harder since I decommitted and they text me and are calling me every day,” Anderson told 247Sports' Steve Wiltfong. “I already know their schemes and stuff and how they play and I’m ready to see what the new DC does.”
Anderson says he's weighing out all of his options and will be committing at next January's All-American Bowl.
“Bama, Ohio State, I’ve been talking to Clemson, Texas and Texas A&M and LSU.”
Alabama: “All the guys they put in the league. I could go there and have a chance to compete at a high level. All the five-star receivers going there and competing against those guys every day, practicing makes the game easier.”
Ohio State: “Their pitch to me was eery Texas DB that went out there and started has always gone in the first round of the NFL Draft. That stood out highly.”
Clemson: “Coach (Mike) Reed, I’m looking forward getting out there with him. He’s been telling me a lot of things and I’m ready to build the relationship with them.
Anderson, a 5-foot-11, 185-pounder, is ranked No. 66 overall, No. 4 at safety and No. 12 in the state of Texas. The Longhorns are also heavily in the mix under Steve Sarkisian and his new staff, as Anderson told Wiltfong, “I’ve been talking to Coach (Terry) Joseph and Coach (Blake) Gideon, they’ve been talking to me and telling me all the schemes and stuff and how I’d fit them. I like what I’m hearing from them.”
Ohio State offers unranked safety
And since we're on the subject of 2022 safety recruits...
Safety is one of the top three positions of biggest needs in the 2022 cycle, so the Buckeyes are getting after it in terms of pursuing players at the spot.
Over the weekend, Ohio State extended its ninth offer to a safety prospect by offering Buford (Georgia) 2022 prospect Jake Pope.
Wow...so blessed to be offered by THE Ohio State University! #buckeyes @Coach_Davis22 @Mansell247 @CoachMattBarnes @CFravel247 @ErikRichardsUSA @ChadSimmons_ pic.twitter.com/U9JN923LIg
— Jake Pope (@JakePope24) February 5, 2021
Pope, a 6-foot-2, 190-pounder, does not have a composite ranking. However, Pope has been blowing up of late on the recruiting trail.
He now holds offers from Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Notre Dame and USC. Pope, who took an unofficial visit to Alabama this weekend, is certainly going to attain a ranking at some point in the near future when analysts dive more into his tape.
Ewers reaffirms commitment
Five-star quarterback Quinn Ewers and five-star receiver Caleb Burton have already reaffirmed their Ohio State commitments several times.
And the two Texas natives are going to be asked to continue to do so until the day they sign with the Buckeyes in December.
Ewers was back at it over the weekend, telling Rivals' Sam Spiegleman that seeing Ohio State face Alabama in the national championship game (despite the loss) only cemented his decision further.
Will No. 1 overall player and Ohio State QB commit Quinn Ewers stick with the Buckeyes or opt to stay home with Texas?
— Rivals (@Rivals) February 6, 2021
That's one of several story lines we are tracking now that the Class of 2022 is on the clock: https://t.co/gAYDQ81cl8 pic.twitter.com/Z4q980jpyx
“It was awesome to watch the team I'm gonna be playing for in a year or so,” Ewers said. “Just watching them and seeing what they do, I had to be a part of something like that. Just the way they carry themselves off the field and just the way they practice, the way Coach Day coaches the quarterbacks and the way he coaches the whole team, I just like the way their whole system is. They like to take shots, but they'll scheme it up when they have to, and that's just something I wanna be a part of, for sure.”
Ewers said that one main reason he elected to commit to Ohio State was because of seeing Day's work with Justin Fields and Fields' progression throughout the past two years.
“That's another reason I picked Ohio State is Coach Day and Coach (Corey) Dennis really know how to develop quarterbacks,” Ewers said. “I wanna be a part of that. I wanna be developed to my highest potential. God willing I get drafted. We'll see. It's just a dream come true to be committed to Ohio State, and I'm just super excited.
“Not a lot can change my mind right now. I'm pretty stuck in with Ohio State, for sure. Not much can change my mind on that one.”
Header photo: Bryce Anderson – Andrew Ivins/247Sports
