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. 

Senior Defensive End Nathan Williams Out For Spring

Williams is a big part of the defensive line

After being knocked out in Ohio State’s season-opening game against Akron with a knee injury, it's been announced that defensive end Nathan Williams will also miss all of spring practices for the Buckeyes as well.

"The school confirmed today that Williams will be sidelined for the spring as he continues to recover from knee surgery that cost the senior all of the 2011 season. The announcement isn’t a complete surprise, but spring is almost always a time of limited depth and having Williams back would have been nice for the Buckeyes."

By no means is this a worst-case scenario, as the redshirt senior should be available by the time fall camp rolls around. The downside to this, is that with the incoming defensive line recruits, Williams might not have his spot when he comes back. 

Although he will most likely get the chance to earn it back, head coach Urban Meyer has said that he wants his two deep set by the end of spring practices. 

The 2012 recruiting class features some big names on the defensive line, including Adolphus Washington, Noah Spence, Se'Von Pittman and Tommy Schutt among others.

As a junior in 2010, Williams was seventh on the team in tackles (46), grabbed an interception and recovered two fumbles.

Keep it at Inside The Shoe for the latest on Ohio State's spring practices

2013 4-Star Offensive Lineman/Defensive Lineman Billy Price Commits To Ohio State

Price is #3 in 2013

The Buckeyes had already landed commitments from the top two 2013 prospects in the state of Ohio, defensive back Cam Burrows and quarterback/athlete Jalin Marshall. Now, according to the man himself, 2013 4-Star OL/DL Billy Price has committed to Ohio State, giving Urban Meyer his third commitment of this class. 

Price was in Columbus on Saturday. He spent the afternoon visiting Ohio State, and then was honored at the Touchdown Club Of Columbus’ banquet on Saturday night.  The 6'4" 300-pound Price plays defensive end and offensive left tackle for Fitch. He rarely came off the field the past two seasons.

As for his future at Ohio State, Price has said that he will play on the defensive line for Luke Fickell, and be a defensive tackle. Price had numerous scholarship offers including Ohio State, Michigan State, Michigan, Notre Dame, Pitt, West Virginia, Tennessee, Nebraska, Arizona, UCLA and SMU before selecting the Bucks.

Coming into the 2013 recruiting class, there were three main targets. Those were Cameron Burrows, Jalin Marshall, and Billy Price. They are 3 of the best prospects in Ohio, and now they are a part of the 2013 class which is already shaping up to be a great haul.

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

4 Star Defensive End Se'Von Pittman Commits To Ohio State

Pittman follows Schutt to OSU

According to Bill Greene, Se'Von Pittman, the defensive end from Canton, OH, has de-committed from Michigan State and is now an Ohio State Buckeye.

Pittman changed his commitment from Michigan State to Ohio State after making an official visit with the Buckeyes this past weekend.

Pittman committed to Michigan State in June over scholarship offers from Ohio State, Michigan, Florida, Alabama, Nebraska and others.The 6-foot-5 and 235-pound Pittman has had an outstanding senior season as the Bulldogs qualified for the state playoffs and finished with a 9-3 overall record. Pittman made 102 tackles including eight sacks. He also recorded 20 tackles for loss this year.

He has exceptional quickness off the ball and overall athleticism and agility. Can win with a speed rush and can win with quick inside moves. He has to get bigger and stronger, which will help him against the run, but he's a pure pass rusher. This defensive line he joins is turning out phenomenal.

This has all now resulted in Pittman becoming Ohio State's 18th commitment for their 2012 recruiting class. Urban Meyer is on a roll, and like we said in the Schutt post, this is now the second domino to fall in Meyer's recruiting game plan. Things are starting to fall into place for the 2012 class, which continues to get better and better.

Keep it at Inside The Shoe for all the latest news and updates.

4 Star DT Tommy Schutt Commits To Ohio State

Schutt is Number 17

According to Allen Trieu, 4-star defensive tackle Tommy Schutt has switched his commitment from Penn State to Ohio State this evening. Schutt made his official visit to Ohio State over the weekend, and it did not take Schutt long to publicly announce he has committed to the Buckeyes.

Schutt becomes Urban Meyer’s first verbal commitment as head coach of the Bucks and commitment No. 17 for Ohio State’s 2012 recruiting class. The 6-foot-3 and 285-pound Schutt was a starter at defensive end in a 3-man front the past three seasons. He made 73 tackles including 14 sacks during his senior season as Glenbard West finished with a 10-1 record. Schutt had 27 tackles for loss as well on the season.

Tommy was recruited as a defensive tackle, and then committed to Penn State during the summer. At the time he picked the Nittany Lions over dozens of scholarship offers including Ohio State, Oregon, USC, Michigan State, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Northwestern, Minnesota, Nebraska, Purdue, Duke and Boston College.

This is a huge get for Ohio State and especially Urban Meyer, who has gone wild on the recruiting trail, picking up a lot of interest in many top recruits across the country. Schutt will join 5-star defensive end Adolphus Washington on the defensive line, and both are hoping to hear good things from the Noah Spence camp very soon. The line of thinking is that Urban's first commitment will make the rest of the dominoes fall into place for the 2012 class, which could end up being one of the Top 10 in the country. 

Inside The Shoe: Game for the Ages

Braxton was all smiles

Ed. Note: Brady was at the game Saturday, giving his view/look and opinions from being "Inside The Shoe". Literally.

What a game to select as my only trip to Columbus for football this season! I'm not claiming to be a genius as any Buckeye fan would've picked the Wisconsin game if put in the same situation but damn that was F'n awesome! That trip was everything I could have hoped for and more. I got to party like a rock star the night before in my killer pilot costume, tailgate my ass off behind the varsity club in a private party, watch our freshman quarterback become a star right in front of my eyes, witness one of the great moments in Horseshoe history and watch fat Wisconsin children dressed in cow outfits be taunted on the way out of the stadium.

What more could you ask for? Sure I ended up with a hangover that lasted two days and a hoarse voice from yelling all night but those were just minor inconveniences. The magic and excitement of Buckeye football is back... for another week at least. So how did OSU come out on top against the Badgers? Let's hand out some game balls to those who were able to help the bucks come out on top.

Booooooooooom Herron- The crowd was all over this chant the entire game and for good reason. Boom ran hard all night and was pretty much the only consistent weapon for OSU on Saturday. It was a helluva weapon though. Wisconsin did not have an answer for Herron, especially in the 2nd half. There were many occasions that he was only getting 2-3 yards on first down but it was still positive yardage. Even though we all would like to see 5 yards on first down the Badgers were never able to bottle him up behind the line to force Ohio St. to throw on second down. The offensive line definitely had a part in Herron's huge night but the majority of those yards came from Boom's sick moves, surprising speed and brute strength. We really missed this guy during the first half of the season.

Are Adolphus Washington And Dwayne Stanford Coming To Ohio State?

Washington looks ready to go

According to Cincinnati News, the seniors from Cincinnati Taft, Adolphus Washington (DE) and Dwayne Stanford (WR) are making their announcement of where they plan to go to their choice of schools on the same day at the same time, 10 a.m. on November 9th.

Washington's "Top 5" include:

- Ohio State, Michigan State, Alabama, Kentucky, and Oregon. All in no particular order.

Stanford's "Top 5" include:

- Ohio State, Oregon, Alabama, LSU, and Arizona State. All in no particular order

Washington had made an official visit to Michigan State when the Spartans hosted TTUN. That game, of course, resulted in a big upset for the Spartans after knocking off an undefeated, Denard Robinson-led team. After the visit it appears Washington was actually impressed with the way the defensive staff switched in many different defensive linemen in and out during the game, but luckily, as we all know, Ohio State does almost the same exact thing. I'd have to say that Washington is a lock, because it sounded like he was all Ohio State before the visit, and after the visit he's said that Ohio State is still #1 in his mind, and likely won't change.

As far as Dwayne Stanford goes, my guess is that with the recent "addition" of Michael Thomas, and the already committed Cardale Jones (currently at Fork Union to help grades, etc) Stanford will follow where Washington goes, and all signs point to Ohio State. Those 4 players right there are huge for the Buckeyes as the wide receiver spot is thin, and these guys are good. We'll find out on November 9th, where we hope to announce the addition of 2 new Buckeyes to Buckeye Nation.

Video highlights of both after the jump

Mike Vrabel Accepts OSU Job, Headed Home

Much to our expectations, Mike Vrabel has accepted the job to Ohio State. That job title is assistant coach, and could be a great find for the Buckeyes. Not only does this help out current players trying to get to the NFL, but think about the recruiting it could bring Luke Fickell's staff. A just retired NFL player that was outstanding at what he did could be a serious attention grabber for some big time defensive recruits. Simply because he has been there and knows what NFL scouts are looking for and what teams will treat them like, etc.

Vrabel will bring some serious intensity to this team and get them fired up. I'm truly excited about this pick up, because if anyone is going to motivate this team into doing things no one thought possible it's Mike Vrabel. An impressive NFL career that included 4 Super Bowls, Vrabel knows how to win. This is a refreshing choice by the Ohio State office, and I think we're in for a treat.

Chase Farris Dismissed From High School Basketball Team

Farris is a tough, physical player

Chase Farris, the OL/DL from Elyria High School, has been dismissed from his high school basketball team due to team violations.

It's been said that he is being kicked off because he and his other 2 teammates skipped a practice for no reason, and this resulted in a "symbolic gesture" from the coach. He obviously doesn't want other players to think that sort of behavior is OK.

This should not affect his status at Ohio State, although it would be best if he learns not to skip team functions before arriving in Columbus.


We'll keep you updated with any further news.

Keith Wells transfers to a Community College.

Reports are coming out that Keith Wells, a defensive end for Ohio State, has transferred to an unnamed Community College thats located in Kansas. Wells, a Junior, has been ruled academically ineligible for this season. Wells is a junior who hoped to add to an already outstanding defensive line.

Keith Wells says this is a "minor speed bump in his career at Ohio State". He plans to return to Ohio State sometime in the future. This is not horrible news for Ohio State, but the added depth would have been nice to have. Now that there is one less person, they have to factor it in and make some changes. Updates if we get any.