2013 3-Star Athlete Darron Lee Commits To Ohio State

Lee is the 13th commit in the 2013 class

2013 3-star athlete Darron Lee turned in two very good performances at the Ohio State camps this month and has been rewarded with a Buckeye scholarship offer. Now it seems that it didn't take Lee long to accept.

Lee spoke to Luke Fickell on Monday and Fickell indicated an offer was likely on the way today. That became a reality as Darron not only received an offer, but committed almost immediately.

Lee becomes commitment No. 13 for Urban Meyer’s 2013 recruiting class - a class that is expected to number at least 20 come National Signing Day. 

The 6'3", 205-pound Lee played quarterback, wide receiver and safety during his junior season and also returned punts and kickoffs.

Lee was recruited as an 'athlete' that will likely play safety or linebacker for the Buckeyes. He also could be a factor on special teams.

Lee had at least 16 scholarship offers as well, with teams like West Virginia, Illinois, Arizona State, Boston College, Cincinnati, Purdue, Minnesota, Duke and Marshall vying for his services.

Darron is ranked 89th out of all athlete's in the country according to 247Sports and the 52nd best prospect in the great state of Ohio.

Keep it at Inside The Shoe for the latest news, updates and opinions on Ohio State athletics.

Ohio State Offers Tyquan Lewis, Jamarco Jones At Senior Camp

Lewis has a mean streak

Ohio State’s first Senior Advanced Camp concluded Sunday with two more offers as the Buckeyes reached out to 2013 three-star defensive end Tyquan Lewis (Tarboro, N.C./Tarboro) and 2014 offensive tackle Jamarco Jones (Chicago/De La Salle Institute) after impressive showings. 

From RecruitingNation:

"Being recruited as a hybrid by Ohio State, Lewis made the trip this weekend with the purpose of stitching up a few loose ends.

“It was a non-committable [offer], but now it is committable,” Lewis said. “Today it changed.

“This one means a lot. I’ll have to get my mom back up here. We’re going to sit down and we’re going to discuss this and we’re going to talk academics and things like that and see how everything else is.” "

The 6'3", 220-pound Lewis is still mulling offers from LSU, Ole Miss, Clemson and North Carolina, but he certainly put the Buckeyes in the mix after Sunday. Lewis registered eight sacks his sophomore season. He made 63 tackles with 12 sacks during his junior season.

“They’re up there pretty high,” he said. “I loved it here. This was a great visit. I don’t want to make a decision based on a place I’ve never been. [The facilities] are top notch. Everything is nice here.”

As for Jamarco Jones, who has offers from Illinois, Toledo and Vanderbilt, he thought much of the same after his trip to Columbus.

“It means a lot to me,” the 6'5", 285-pound Jones said. “They’re one of the premier college football schools in the nation, so I was pretty excited.”

Jones has hit the recruiting phase early, being a 2014 prospect. He has 2 more years in high school, meaning that although he's not ranked right now, he has plenty of time to establish himself as one of the better offensive lineman in this class.
Ohio State’s second Senior Advanced Camp is June 23.

3-Star OLB Lewis Neal Decommits From Ohio State

3-star outside linebacker commit Lewis Neal, who had just committed last week at the spring game, was offered by LSU today, and is opening his recruitment back up by committing from Ohio State. 

Lewis is still considering the Buckeyes, but with the recent offer from LSU, Neal's recruitment is about to heat up across the country. 

Here's what Neal had to say via Silver Bullet Recruiting:

"I don't know my scholarship is open he said (Coach Meyer), so I guess I'm not committed anymore, but I still consider them. I just don't think I was ready yet and took the right amount of time to think on my decision to be honest." 

"I just want people to understand what I'm going through that's all! It's hard! And I need time to think! I'm really still considering them though."

This leaves the Ohio State class at 12 total commits for the 2013 class. While Neal did change his mind, I think that this recruitment will still be open. If Urban and the rest of the recruiting staff like what they see more of next season at linebacker, they're going to go after him harder than anyone else.

We wish Neal the best of luck in his recruitment.

Keep it at Inside The Shoe for the latest news, updates and opinions on Ohio State athletics. 

2013 3-Star OLB Lewis Neal Commits To Ohio State

Neal is the 13th commitment in the Class of '13

After landing a commitment from Alex Anzalone on Saturday and Joey Bosa earlier today, Urban Meyer has done it again as the Buckeyes’ boss has landed a star linebacker.

Lewis Neal announced on Twitter that he has picked the Bucks, making him the 13th commitment in the Class of 2013.

Neal committed to the Buckeyes earlier this afternoon, almost minutes after Joey Bosa had given his verbal commit to the Buckeyes.

After attending the Ohio State Spring Game on Saturday, rumors were floating around that Neal could commit to the Buckeyes before heading home on Sunday.

Obviously, it happened a little later than expected, but either way the Buckeyes have landed a solid player at the linebacker spot. Neal might even be considered underrated, while he's only 3 stars according to 247Sports, but he has started to shine at recent football camps.

The 6'2", 235-pound Neal has played mostly defensive end during his high school career. He played on the Hunt varsity during the second half of his freshman season. After a good sophomore season Neal was outstanding as a junior.

Despite missing three games, Neal made 88 tackles including eight sacks last season as Hunt finished 13-1 and made it to the regional finals.

Neal had ten scholarship offers before selecting the Buckeyes over Tennessee, South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Clemson, East Carolina, North Carolina, North Carolina State, and Wake Forest.

Neal will most likely play linebacker for the Buckeyes. With Courtney Love committing to Nebraska over the weekend, this looks like a solid fill-in for Ohio State. 

Keep it at Inside The Shoe for the latest news, updates and opinions on Ohio State athletics. 

2013 3-Star Defensive End Tracy Sprinkle Commits To Ohio State

Sprinkle is #9 in the Class of 2013

Defensive end Tracy Sprinkle visited Ohio State eleven days ago with his mother and father and was offered a scholarship. As of yesterday, Sprinkle is a Buckeye.

Sprinkle picked Ohio State over a dozen offers including Michigan State, Arkansas, Penn State, Pitt, Purdue, Indiana, Kentucky, Syracuse and Toledo. 

Sprinkle confirmed via Twitter that he had become commitment No. 9 for Urban Meyer’s 2013 recruiting class.

His final three were the Buckeyes, Michigan State and Arkansas.

The 6'4", 250-pound Sprinkle was a varsity starter at guard his sophomore season. He moved to the other side of the ball his junior season and played defensive end. Sprinkle made 80 tackles including eight sacks. He had a whopping 25 quarterback “hurries.”

Sprinkle has been recruited as a defensive lineman and will most likely be lining up on the outside as a defensive end. While only a 3-star, Sprinkle's commitment is very good for the Buckeyes in more ways than one. The first reason is that Sprinkle has only been playing on the defensive side for 1 year. 

Starting next season, you can bet that Sprinkle will be much improved after Urban gets a workout set up for him at his high school and you'd better believe that's going to happen. When it does, it would not shock me one bit if his ranking rose to a 4-star. 

The second reason is that Ohio State is limited to the number of players they take in recruiting classes and this particular offer was rumored to not be commitable.

The interesting thing about it, is that it might force another Buckeye recruit in Joey Bosa to make his commitment to the Buckeyes sooner rather than later because room is starting to run out. 

Be prepared for recruiting to heat up here for a little while as the space in the class of 2013 starts to narrow down to the main targets as more recruits make their decisions on where to play for school.

Keep it at Inside The Shoe for the latest news, updates and opinions on Ohio State athletics. 

2013 3-Star Safety Jayme Thompson Commits To Ohio State

Thompson adds depth to the '13 safties

Very late last night, according to Bucknuts ($), Ohio State received their 7th commitment for the 2013 class. That commitment came from 3-star safety Jayme Thompson (Toledo, Ohio/Central Catholic). The 6'2",183-pound Thompson originally committed to West Virginia.

Thompson had scholarship offers from West Virginia, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Missouri, Illinois, Vanderbilt, Louisville, Toledo, Bowling Green, Buffalo and a couple others before committing to the Mountaineers in early February.

However, an Ohio State scholarship offer last Tuesday has turned into a commitment for the Buckeyes.

Thompson played free safety and returned kickoffs during his junior season, his first as a varsity starter. Thompson averaged over 11 tackles per game and had three interceptions.

Thompson becomes the third 2013 defensive back to commit to Meyer joining to super cornerbacks, Cam Burrows (Trotwood, Ohio/Madison) and Eli Woodard (Voorhees, N.J./Eastern). Meyer is still looking to add one more great corner and another great safety to his 2013 class.

He joins Ezekiel Elliott as another commit for the Buckeyes on Sunday. Thompson runs a 4.69 40-yard dash, which isn't as fast as Elliott's 4.4 speed, but safety was an area for concern coming into the 2013 class. Now that the Buckeyes have nabbed Thompson, the depth is slightly getting better. 

Keep it at Inside The Shoe for the latest news, updates and opinions on Ohio State athletics.

2013 3-Star RB Ezekiel Elliott Commits To Ohio State

Elliott has 4.4 speed

2013 3-star running back Ezekiel Elliott has committed to Ohio State per Bucknuts ($). Following a weekend visit to the campus, Elliott gave his verbal to the Buckeyes, giving OSU it's 6th member of the 2013 class. Elliott is also the first running back in the '13 class.


The 6'0", 195-pound Elliott chose Ohio State over his other finalist Notre Dame, as well as a slew of other offers from the likes of Missouri, Arizona State, Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas State, Nebraska, Penn State, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Virginia and Wisconsin.

During his junior season of football, Elliott ran for 1,802 yards and 42 touchdowns, while catching another 23 passes for 401 yards and six more scores.

Also an elite track athlete, Elliott won a Class Three state title in the 110-hurdles (14.1) and finished second in the 300-hurdles (37.85) as a sophomore. Last summer, Elliott won the AAU national championship in the 15-16 age group in the 400-intermediate hurdles, and finished second in the 110-meter hurdles. He plans to run track in Columbus as well for the Buckeyes, making him a 2-sport athlete at the D-1 level.

While only a 3-star, there is plenty of talent coming from this kid's legs. He has clocked a 40 time of 4.40. That's exceptionally fast, which is what Urban Meyer is looking for. He can use Elliott in a multitude of ways including kickoffs, punt returns and perhaps even a couple of packages that use his speed well against certain defensive alignments. Either way, this is a solid pick up for the class of 2013. 

Keep it at Inside The Shoe for the latest news, updates and opinions on Ohio State athletics. 

'12 WR Recruit Roger Lewis Not Expected To Be A Buckeye

Pickerington Central's Roger Lewis

According to the Dispatch, 2012 Buckeye commit Roger Lewis might not be a Buckeye based off of what his high school coach has told the media. According to the coach, Lewis is not expected to sign his national letter of intent to Ohio State on Signing Day, due to not having the requisite pre-enrollment test scores and that he now is exploring other options.

Lewis's coach also stated, Lewis visited Ohio University this weekend, and said he also is considering Marshall and Bowling Green.

That leaves the OSU 2012 class, the first by new coach Urban Meyer, at 22 members, including the six players who enrolled at the start of the winter quarter.

Roger Lewis is a 3-star wide receiver commit, and with the recent struggles at wide receiver, the coaching staff made a priority of trying to get some athletes that can play the receiver position. While losing Lewis is not a huge deal, it does put a bit more pressure on Meyer to land either Davonte Neal or Stefon Diggs.

It sounds like Lewis doesn't have the test scores, and there's no chance anything can change. Especially coming from the coaches mouth, it looks like Lewis's time as a Buckeye commit will end short.

Sitting Down With 2012 Offensive Lineman Commit Jacoby Boren

The third Boren to come to OSU

Our coverage of the recruiting front continue with another interview.

This time Jacoby Boren, a 3-star offensive guard, answers our questions. Boren is the youngest of the Boren brothers, with former Ohio State offensive lineman Justin Boren and current OSU fullback Zach Boren.

Jacoby committed to Ohio State well before Jim Tressel was forced to resign (December 4th to be exact), but has stayed true to his commitment to the Buckeyes. Now with a class that is depleted in offensive line recruits, Urban Meyer has made it a priority to try and land top offensive linemen across the country. Keeping Boren is just as important, and Meyer proved it by calling Boren up recently.

We talked with Jacoby on Wednesday night to get his thoughts and feelings on Ohio State and his recruitment overall.