That’s because the list of visitors this week includes multiple home-grown talents after the Buckeyes rolled out the red carpet a week ago for a group that included five-star prospects K.J. Bolden (Georgia), Dylan Stewart (Washington D.C.), Eddrick Houston (Georgia) and Kobe Black (Texas) along with multiple other national top 100 prospects.
“Last week was kind of the big, ’Let’s bring in the kids from Texas, and let’s bring in the kids from Georgia,’ and this week the goal is going to be to lock down these major Ohio talents Bryce West, Aaron Scott Jr., Damarion Witten and those guys.”
Scott is a four-star cornerback prospect from Springfield while West and Witten are four-star prospects from Cleveland Glenville who play cornerback and tight end, respectively.
Scott is ranked the No. 1 prospect in Ohio per 247Sports rankings while West is No. 1 in the composite rankings compiled by the site that include other services (Scott is No. 2 in the composite). Witten is No. 11 in the composite and No. 8 per just 247.
“They want to get these guys locked in, so depending on your perspective of you know, looking at the star ratings versus looking at keeping the best Ohio kids home, you could argue either weekend I guess is the biggest,” Givler said.
Scott and West are both consensus top 100 players who play a premium position.
They are also the targets of heavy recruitment by Michigan, which appears to be making a much harder push to recruit the Buckeye State than in recent seasons.
Credit: David Jablonski
Credit: David Jablonski
Scott and West have both already made official visits to Ann Arbor, but this weekend it is Ohio State head coach Ryan Day’s turn to impress along with secondary coach Tim Walton.
In an interview last month, Scott said he talked to Walton and Day on a daily basis while also building a strong relationship with Michigan defensive backs coach Steve Clinkscale, who is regarded as a strong recruiting presence head coach Jim Harbaugh hired away from Kentucky two years ago.
“I think Michigan has picked things up in Ohio,” Givler said. “This cycle right now the only real head-to-head battle they’ve won against Ohio State in Ohio is (Cincinnati Moeller running back) Jordan Marshall, which was a big win. He’s the state’s top running back, but they’re obviously pushing very hard for both Bryce West and Aaron Scott so it’s really keeping those two corners away from Michigan.
“When you think about that in terms of the Ohio State secondary and some of the struggles they’ve had since losing (assistant coach) Jeff Hafley (after the 2019 season), you could definitely see how this is a very important weekend for them to not let the two top corners in Ohio go to Michigan because that’s the battle right now.
“And quite frankly, it’s unusual for Ohio to give you two top 100 national players at the cornerback position in the same year, so you want to take advantage of that.”
The focus won’t be only on the in-state trio, though.
Ohio State is also hosting Justin Scott, a five-star defensive tackle from Chicago, along with four-star linebackers Payton Pierce (who has already verbally committed to Ohio State) of Lucas, Texas, and Kyngston Villiamu-Asa from Bellflower, Calif., and four-star cornerback Miles Lockhart of Chandler, Ariz.
Entering the weekend, Ohio State had the No. 4 class in 247Sports Composite national rankings.
The Buckeyes trailed No. 1 Georgia, No. 2 Michigan and No. 3 Florida while Notre Dame was fifth and Penn State ranked sixth.
Adding to the importance of this weekend is how many of the visitors play defense.
Only three of their 14 verbal commitments play on that side of the ball, and the effort to remake a unit that has fallen on hard times the last three years is ongoing under Walton, defensive coordinator Jim Knowles, safeties coach Perry Eliano and defensive line coach Larry Johnson.
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