Ohio State's Big Weekend: Over Fifteen Top Recruits Set to Visit Columbus

As the Ohio State men's basketball team battles the Indiana Hoosiers on the court of Value City Arena this Sunday, the Ohio State football coaching staff will be wooing some of the best Midwestern high school football talent in the stands. February 27th kicks off Ohio State' s second Junior Day of the year-- the first was on January 15th-- and there will be eighteen top 2012 prospects, mostly from Ohio, spending their first extensive time on campus and meeting with the coaches. Junior Days are scheduled to coincide with home basketball games to provide an entertainment factor for recruits and to simulate gameday environments as closely as allowed by the NCAA rulebook.

This Junior Day will be the biggest and most important of any that Ohio State hosts this year, with eight of the eighteen juniors scheduled to attend already holding Ohio State offers. Out of the remaining ten, there are a few who are likely to receive their offers in person from Jim Tressel. As you can imagine, receiving a scholarship offer from one of the icons of college football in the flesh can be a powerful moment for many of these athletes, especially those who have grown up Ohio State fans. The Buckeye coaching staff sometimes waits for intimate moments like Junior Days to deliver the offer to a recruit in person, setting up emotional and personal moments that are impossible to replicate over the phone.

Junior Days are also prime times for recruits to commit on the spot to coaches. Technically, the NCAA bars recruits from committing while on the campus of a school, but all it takes is one phone call in the car on the ride home to make it official (or at least as official as verbal commitments can be.) Coaches often use commitments as a form of building momentum and excitement among a group of players while they are gathered together. For instance, when Curtis Grant and others were officially visiting Ohio State on the weekend of Ryan Shazier's commitment, Jim Tressel stood up in front of the group and publicly announced that the Buckeyes had just flipped Shazier from Florida.

Ohio State may never have as much elite talent together on one visit for the rest of the 2012 recruiting cycle, and this represents a special opportunity to build momentum and impress a group of athletes that will soon receive almost relentless attention from multiple colleges from here until Signing Day. The list of attending juniors, compiled by Smith, is below with those holding Ohio State offers in bold.

'12 ATH V'Angelo Bentley (Glenville Academy - Cleveland, OH)
'12 CB Sean Draper (Glenville Academy - Cleveland, OH)
'12 DB De'Van Bogard (Glenville Academy - Cleveland, OH)
'12 DB Jarrod Wilson (Buchtel - Akron, OH)
'12 DB Terry Richardson (Cass Tech - Detroit, MI)
'12 DE Adolphus Washington (Taft HS - Cincinnati, OH)
'12 DE Greg McMullen (Hoban - Akron, OH)
'12 DE Ifeadi Odenigbo (Centerville, OH)
'12 DE LaTroy Lewis (Hoban - Akron, OH)
'12 DE Tom Strobel (Mentor, OH)
'12 DT Alex Pace (Glenville Academy - Cleveland, OH)
'12 DT Tommy Schutt (Glenbard West HS - Glen Ellyn, IL)
'12 LB James Ross (Orchard Lake St. Mary's, MI)
'12 OG Benny McGowan (Centerville, OH)
'12 OT Kyle Dodson (Cleveland Heights HS - University Heights, OH)
'12 TE Sam Grant (St. Edward HS - Westlake, OH)
'12 WR Corey Smith (Buchtel - Akron, OH)
'12 WR Dwayne Stanford (Taft HS - Cincinnati, OH)

Seven of these players with Buckeye offers are from Ohio, with linebacker James Ross (OLSM, Michigan) being the only exception. Usually, Junior Days (for all schools) are comprised of mostly in-state talent, so it's a bit of serendipity any time the coaches can get an out-of-state star like Ross to visit. His recruitment has taken off, and he now holds offers from coast-to-coast, but his decision is likely to come down between Ohio State and Michigan. New Wolverine defensive coordinator Greg Mattison impressed him on an unofficial visit last weekend, comparing him to Ray Lewis and selling him on being a weakside linebacker in their scheme. Mattison has used the Ray Lewis line on multiple linebackers already, so let's hope the Buckeye coaches point out how pedestrian Mattison is making that compliment.

Along with his family, Ross will be bringing cornerback Terry Richardson with him (Detroit Cass Tech.) Richardson is short but quick, and is projected to be a true cover corner in college. He holds offers from LSU, Alabama, and Michigan already, but he wants an Ohio State offer. Part of that may just be the distinction of having an offer from the Midwest's premier program, but at least some of it is legitimate interest. I'm a big fan of Richardson personally, and I hope he gets what he's looking for this weekend.

Richardson joins a group of other hopefuls who are coming to Columbus with a desire to be offered by the Buckeyes. Cleveland Heights offensive tackle Kyle Dodson is the most probable recruit to be offered this weekend, but the Akron Buchtel pair, wide receiver Corey Smith and safety Jarrod Wilson, also have a real chance of receiving their own offers. Michigan apparently leads for the two right now, their head coach being former UM player Ricky Powers, and they've expressed a desire to attend the same college together. Of the two, Wilson is the more obvious talent and plays a position of need for Ohio State in this cycle.

However it plays out, look for something to happen this weekend. Storylines always emerge out of Junior Days, and this one is too big to not have some news comes out of it. My bet is that at least one player commits (Greg McMullen, perhaps?) and at least two receive Buckeye offers in person. But we'll just have to wait and see while we watch Thad Matta's crew take on the Hoosiers .