Former Buckeyes, Wolverines weigh in on Springfield Aaron Scott Jr.’s pending college decision

Scott’s head coach at Springfield, Maurice Douglass, is also a veteran of the recruiting scene, and Scott is also seeking input from players and recruits at each of his finalists.

Oh, and a couple of Heisman Trophy winners, another two-time Big Ten Quarterback of the Year and plenty of other people online with far fewer credentials have also weighed in.

“Since these (official visits), it’s been hectic,” Scott said Monday night around the same time a Twitter post he had recently made was going viral.

The post featured four pictures of him from his Ohio State official visit that took place last weekend and in only a couple of hours was seen by more than 250,000 users.

Among them was Charles Woodson, the 1997 Heisman Trophy winner who spurned Ohio State for Michigan when he was a hotshot recruit at Fremont Ross High School in Northwest Ohio. He shared the post with a twist, adding a photo of Scott in a Michigan uniform — taken during one of Scott’s visits to Ann Arbor — and the message “(hashtag) GoBlue” and a fist emoji.

“I just jumped out of my bed when I saw that!” Scott said, but it wasn’t the last high-profile engagement for that Tweet.

Troy Smith, a Cleveland Glenville grad who won the 2006 Heisman Trophy at Ohio State, later chimed in as well. In his message, Smith encouraged Scott to join his “twin” Bryce West, another senior-to-be at Glenville who also is a highly rated cornerback, in picking the Buckeyes.

Ted Ginn Jr., a high school and college teammate of Smith who spent 14 years in the NFL, replied to Smith’s tweet with a “(hashtag) GoBucks,” and Springfield native Braxton Miller, who starred at quarterback for the Buckeyes a decade ago, also shared West’s original Tweet.

When it comes to making a final decision, Scott, the state’s top recruit in the Class of 2024 according to 247Sports, figures to rely on people much closer to the situation, of course.

That includes the college coaches he’s grown close to at each school — Demetrice Martin at Oregon, Steve Clinkscale and Jesse Minter at Michigan and Tim Walton and Ryan Day at Ohio State — and Douglass.

Douglass has been sending players to colleges from the Big Ten and SEC down to Division III for nearly two decades now.

Among them is his son, Moses. Clinkscale successfully recruited him to Kentucky (Douglass’ alma mater) when he was a member of that staff, and the Northeast Ohio native developed a reputation as an ace recruiter in the Buckeye State both when he was in Lexington and for the past two years in Ann Arbor.

“He rocks with ‘Coach Clink’ heavy,” Scott said. “Coach Clink recruited his son in high school so he respects Coach Clink.”

As for the Buckeyes, Scott said Douglass has advised him on the potential value of being a Buckeye beyond the years a player is actually on the team.

“He told me being from Ohio and going to Ohio State comes with a lot the networking and all that,” Scott said.

Scott is looking at making a final decision sometime in July, but his official visits left him with a lot to think about.

He went to Oregon and Michigan in back-to-back weekends before concluding his college tour with a trip to Columbus.

“I had a great time,” he said of his OSU visit. “It was my last visit, so I definitely got the questions that I needed to get. I got the questions that I was looking for and got them answered. So that made me feel more comfortable for real. And to hang with the players through the OV, and to hang with the commitments that were already there, I had a great time.”

He continues to weigh his fit within each school’s defensive scheme, fit with the recruiting class and fit on the roster when he gets to campus.

“I’m really like talking to my family and seeing what they think about because it was like I’ll have my mind made up and then go on a visit and it would change,” Scott said. “But I feel like I’ve been talking to a lot of the players that’s already there [at each school] and ask them how they’ve been, like the freshmen, and I’ve been talking to a lot of recruits from the schools and just trying to get a feel for how they feel.

“I’m gonna take like a week or two and try to like figure it out, but I feel like I’m definitely coming in before the end of July.”