The Hurry-Up: Ohio State Extends Five More Offers to Recruits, Earnest Greene Announces Final Four Schools

By Garrick Hodge on December 3, 2021 at 5:30 pm
Peyton Bowen
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This week has already seen Ohio State extend a flurry of offers. And they just keep pouring in.

In the time between Thursday's Hurry-Up and Friday’s edition of Eleven Warriors’ daily recruiting notebook, the Buckeyes had extended five more offers to recruits.

From a recruiting rankings standpoint, the most highly touted of the four new offers is 2023 four-star Texas safety Peyton Bowen.

Bowen has 25 Division I offers to this point, including Notre Dame, USC, Texas, Oregon, Oklahoma, LSU, Florida, Alabama, Arkansas and Auburn. The 6-foot-1, 185-pound standout is ranked as the 59th-best prospect and the fifth-best safety in the 2023 cycle per 247Sports’ composite rankings. Ohio State quality control coach Keenan Bailey was at Guyer High School (Denton, Texas) and presented the offer to Bowen, who has not yet visited Columbus. 

Another four-star 2023 pass-catcher received an offer on Thursday as tight end Andrew Rappleyea, a 6-foot-4, 215-pound prospect from Massachusetts, picked up an offer from tight ends coach Kevin Wilson and special teams coordinator Parker Fleming.

Rappleyea has 22 Division I offers, also including Michigan State, North Carolina, Penn State, Virginia and Wisconsin. He is ranked as the 330th-best player and the 19th-best tight end in the 2023 cycle. OSU already has a tight end committed for 2023 in Ty Lockwood, but is still pursuing a second tight end in the class.

Ohio State linebackers coach Al Washington made visits to several linebackers in Texas this week including 2023 three-star Derion Gullette, who also picked up an OSU offer on Thursday. 

Gullette, a 6-foot-2, 225-pound linebacker, has six Division I offers, also including Baylor, TCU, Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Tech. Ohio State is the first offer he’s announced from outside of Texas.

Ohio State also made a pair of offers in the 2024 class. OSU wide receivers coach Brian Hartline extended an offer to North Carolina wideout Jonathan Paylor on Friday.

While composite rankings are not yet available for the 2024 class, Paylor is ranked as the No. 8 overall prospect in his cycle. Paylor already has 13 Division I offers including Georgia, LSU, Maryland, Michigan State, Penn State, West Virginia and NC State. 

In-state 2024 cornerback prospect Bryce West also received an offer from OSU on Friday evening.

The 5-foot-11, 177-pound Glenville High School standout has eight Division I offers including OSU, Boston College, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan State, Penn State and Pittsburgh. 

Greene puts OSU in top four

One of Ohio State’s top two remaining offensive line targets in the 2022 class, four-star Earnest Greene, released a top four list Friday afternoon consisting of Alabama, Georgia, Texas and Ohio State. 

Ryan Day personally visited Greene in California on Tuesday, making one final recruiting pitch. Landing the services of Greene still looks like a tall order, though, with less than two weeks to go until the early signing period. Greene took an unofficial visit to Alabama on Thursday and will be in attendance for Saturday’s SEC Championship Game between the Crimson Tide and Georgia. According to On3, Georgia is the favorite to land Greene.

Greene isn’t the only offensive lineman who got an in-home visit from Ohio State this week as offensive line coach Greg Studrawa went to see four-star Wisconsin offensive lineman Carson Hinzman on Wednesday. 

OSU officially out on Dewberry 

While Ohio State is still in the hunt for Greene, it’s out of the race for Kam Dewberry, who announces his final three schools and a commitment date of Dec. 15 – the first day of the early signing period – on Thursday night.

The four-star offensive lineman from Humble, Texas, has narrowed his recruitment down to Oklahoma, Texas and Texas A&M. 

It isn’t totally surprising to see Dewberry leave the Buckeyes off his list, considering he hadn’t visited Columbus this fall and momentum was seemingly fading with him the last couple of months. OSU will hope to land either Greene or Hinzman to fill out its 2022 class on the offensive line. 

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