By now, everybody is at least somewhat familiar with the big news of the week.
Quinn Ewers is reclassifying to the class of 2021 and will be eligible to play for Ohio State this upcoming season. This, of course, comes with the caveat he is not yet on campus and not officially signed, so neither Ryan Day nor any other OSU coach can comment on him directly until the paperwork is complete, per NCAA rules.
What’s uncertain is what ripple effect this will have on the Buckeyes’ quarterback recruiting for 2022, 2023 and 2024. Without getting into too many specifics, Day addressed how his staff will target quarterbacks moving forward when asked this week at the start of fall camp.
“It’s year to year,” Day said Tuesday of his approach to recruiting quarterbacks. “It really is, you just have to approach it that way. You try to plan, and it doesn’t always work out that way. We’ll continue to recruit guys in the next couple classes, we’ll figure out how it’ll play out because you just don’t know what’s coming next. There’s so much uncertainty going on in college football in general right now. If we just keep taking it one day at a time and keep that approach and don’t get frustrated, then we’re going to come out of this in a great position.”
On Monday’s Hurry-Up, we speculated it could be difficult to find an elite 2022 quarterback because of the crowded, albeit enormously talented, quarterback room. But some depth may be needed should one or more of the four quarterbacks OSU has on scholarship transfer after the season.
For 2022, one option could be to target a quarterback from the state of Ohio as a means to fill depth. The highest-rated 2022 Ohio quarterback that has yet to commit, according to 247Sports, is Te’Sean Smoot from Springfield. Smoot, a three-star signal caller, told Eleven Warriors in a text message Wednesday he has not heard from Ohio State since he camped in Columbus in June.
Higher-rated Ohio quarterbacks for 2022 already committed elsewhere include Drew Allar (Penn State), Chase Harrison (Marshall) and Mekhi Lynn (Buffalo). Of those three, Allar is the only one rated as high as a four-star.
Of course, should a quarterback transfer occur and Day can’t find an incoming freshman to his liking to provide depth, there’s always the transfer portal.
Nwankpa reportedly visiting OSU
In a recent interview with 247Sports, top Ohio State 2022 safety target Xavier Nwankpa’s mother told Steve Wiltfong that they plan to visit Ohio State and Notre Dame in the fall.
“We are talking about going to game days,” Nwankpa’s mother Amy Erickson told 247Sports. “I’m not 100 percent for sure but I think he wants to try and go to the Ohio State-Penn State night game at the end of October and we might do a game at Notre Dame, not sure yet, we don’t want to do back to back weekends. We talked about doing the USC night game at Notre Dame but that’s back to back so we might switch it up a little bit.”
Nwankpa has two official visits remaining after he visited Ohio State, Notre Dame and Texas A&M in June. Rated the No. 5 safety in 247Sports’ composite rankings but the No. 1 safety by 247Sports itself, Nwankpa has been given two crystal ball projections to OSU. He and Zion Branch remain priority safety targets for Ohio State in the 2022 class.
Mitchell announces Top 10
A top OSU cornerback target for 2023 has narrowed down his list of schools.
Tony Mitchell, a five-star cornerback from Alabama, put the Buckeyes in his top 10 list along with Alabama, LSU, Georgia, Florida State, Oregon, Clemson, Miami, Texas A&M and Florida.
top 10 pic.twitter.com/pRXB0VCTID
— Tony Mitchell (@DatGuyTM) August 5, 2021
Mitchell is the nation's top-rated cornerback in the 2023 class. He has three crystal ball projections to Alabama on 247Sports.
MaxPreps announces Ohio All-State Preseason Team
In Tuesday’s Hurry-Up, we linked MaxPreps’ Preseason All-America team, which had plenty of OSU ties on it. On Wednesday, MaxPreps unveiled its all-state preseason team from Ohio, which figures both OSU targets and commits alike such as Sonny Styles, Tegra Tshabola, Luke Montgomery, Gabe Powers, C.J. Hicks, Jyaire Brown and Aamil Wagner.
The full team can be found here.
