The rush is his nightly dose of updates to the Ohio state football recruiting route, which controls the latest in commitments and goals across the country.
Grimes chooses UNC
Five-star cornerback Tony Grimes, the country’s No. 1 player in the 2021 class in the position, has made it official: Princess Anne (Virginia’s) star is engaged to North Carolina, he announced Tuesday.
BREAKING: Tony Grimes, No. 1 CB in the class of 2021 engages @ TarHeelFootball @ CoachMackBrown and the Tar Heels have one of the top 5 classes in 2021 @ 757EliteDB | @ 247 recruitment | @InsideCarolina pic.twitter.com/DHPIT9DSPn
– CBS Sports HQ (@CBSSportsHQ) June 30, 2020
For head coach Mack Brown, cornerback coach Dre Bly and the Tar Heels, that’s as big as possible in this class. In the modern recruiting era, dating back to 1999, Grimes is the third five-star composite prospect that North Carolina has landed, ranked by 247Sports, and is the third highest-ranked recruit the Heels have landed on that same weather. lapse.
T-1: Marcus Hands (No. 4 overall; No. 1 defensive side of the strong side in 2004)
T-1: Marvin Austin (No. 4 overall; No. 1 in defensive tackle in 2007)
3: Grimes (No. 7 overall; No. 1 cornerback in 2021)
4: Donte Moss (No. 26 overall; No. 2 defensive end weak side 2009)
* Hands is the lone player who was not a five-star composite on this list
With Grimes’ commitment, North Carolina has surpassed Tennessee for No. 3 in the 247Sports team ranking, as the Heels now have 259.73 points total with 17 commits. Grimes is just the second out-of-state engagement in the Heels’ class.
For the state of Ohio, landing Grimes was always going to be a difficult task, but with Kerry Coombs leading the charge, there was still a chance that the Buckeyes could get him off the east coast. But that would always require another visit to Columbus de Grimes and his family, as they had not returned for a visit since April 2019.
“That is our goal. Tony wants to go back there one more time, “said Grimes’ father Deon Glover. Eleven warriors in the first week of June, after Grimes had cut his list to the last four. “We try to visit programs three or more times. In light of everything that is happening across the country, we have to take that into account and think, OK, maybe next time we go we just have to try to include everything we need to know in that visit. ”
However, having set a commitment date of December 1, Grimes announced on June 21 that he was putting his commitment on the fast track, having a change of heart in mid-summer, and set the date to June 30. . He needed much more time with Grimes, so once the decision date was set, the Buckeyes’ fate was unofficially sealed as if he was looking out.
Aside from Ryan Day, Coombs and Al Washington were the two coaches who spearheaded this recruitment. Grimes said Rivals‘Adam Friedman this week says that Coombs is “really the only person I talk to and that I train Washington a little bit” from the state of Ohio and that “if I go to that school it’s because of him.”
June has not been a fruitful month of recruiting for the state of Ohio, and while Grimes was highly unlikely to end the Buckeyes, it adds to the growing list of top goals that have been committed elsewhere this month:
Latham and Wolfe are the only two on this list to have substantial losses, with Smith’s loss also hurting, though the Buckeyes should be able to recover from that a little more easily.
Now, the Buckeyes have their sights set on the top two remaining prospects on their defense board: safety Derrick Davis Jr. and cornerback Clemson are engaging Jordan Hancock, as well as other players we may see appear in the coming weeks.
Commit again on the road
After being the best team on the national draft road in the spring, after getting eight commitments from 2021 and three from 2022 from March to May, the Buckeyes have cooled down a bit and lost some momentum. At one point, it seemed like that momentum would never be broken and that Ohio State was going to be able to get whoever it wanted.
However, it is far from panic, obviously. The Buckeyes still have the No. 1 draft class in the country, and while the best class of all time seems more like a remote possibility than reality right now (although it’s still possible), they’re still the favorites for its the three highest uncommitted goals remaining in the class 2021.
And they have a group of commits in this class that are hungry to add another one, with the cream of the crop that they focus on.
“I think we will land JT (Tuimoloau), Emeka (Egbuka); all those great goals that everyone always talks about. Derrick Davis, ”Henderson told Eleven Warriors this week.
We are working to get another BOOM, just be patient. We have them all
– Jantzen Dunn (@JantzenDunn) June 30, 2020
There has always been great optimism coming from the Buckeyes group of new superior commitments that other players with the same vision will be able to achieve. Once a player commits to the class, they instantly begin their own recruiting to get someone to adjust to Ohio State.
“It’s hard to explain, but it’s essentially being elite and not being average,” Henderson said when asked what the coaching staff wants from his players. “That is basically the message. Ohio State wants elite people who want to be great. They don’t want the stocking. They want people who want to be great and who want to be leaders and show the way to other people. ”
McCord fights for the door
Ohio state five-star Kyle McCord is one of 20 quarterbacks competing in the Elite 11 finals this week in Nashville.
If McCord is to join Justin Fields (2017) and CJ Stroud (2020) as Buckeye quarterbacks who recently earned MVP honors in the competition, he will have to bounce back from his struggles on day one.
McCord was reportedly a bit inconsistent on Monday night’s opening night of the three-day competition. By ranking the first day’s performance of each quarterback, rivals ranked McCord at No. 11, and Sports Illustrated ranked McCord at No. 13.
Top photo: Jantzen Dunn
