NEW OFFERS FOR 2022 COMMIT
Let me preface the following with this: It’s not a unique circumstance for a committed player to tweet out offers, so that’s not really a big deal. C.J. Hicks tweeted out a Tennessee offer just minutes before he committed, for instance, and he just made public an offer from Oregon on Thursday. And Mike Hall still tweeted offers after he had pledged to the Buckeyes, and there’s about a 1 percent chance, probably lower, that either of them decommits from Ohio State.
The case of Jyaire Brown provides a tad more hesitancy, though.
The Louisiana cornerback being committed to the Buckeyes is not going to scare off other teams from making a hard push for him over the next two years before the 2022 cycle’s National Signing Day. You can expect LSU to make the hardest push of probably any program with an offer down the road, but as evidenced by Brown’s two new offers this week – from Penn State and TCU – other schools won’t be shy about making their pitches to him. We expect his offer sheet could rise from 21 to at least 30 by the time his junior season concludes.
When Brown committed so early to Ohio State’s 2022 class, it jump-started a surge of momentum for the Buckeyes that carried over from the junior cycle to the sophomore cycle, which helped lead to a pair of in-state commitments (Tegra Tshabola and Hicks). Those two Ohioans would both register as a “one” on a scale of 1-10 in terms of concerns about a decommitment down the road (with 10 being the most worried, of course).
Because of circumstance, I would put Brown at a higher number than one. I’m not saying that there should be major concern, but I would put the number at about a neutral three or a four – just because any time a national player makes a commitment that early without ever having visited, it should at least draw some hesitancy (even if this is a unique circumstance with Brown originally being from Ohio and having so many family members living in the state).
To be very clear, I am absolutely not reporting that Brown is on the verge of a decommitment now or that he will be in the near future. But when Mark Pantoni said that one of the staff’s top tasks is to recruit committed players as if they are uncommitted, I believe this is the prime example of why those coaches make that such a priority.
Brown’s case is a good example of why Ohio State’s coaching staff is probably not virtually high-fiving each other too hard simply because they have a verbal from Brown. In the end, I don’t think Brown will decommit because of what I said earlier – the strong local and family connections in the state and the fact that he’s at least visited the state a few times, even if he hasn’t visited Ohio State yet. That plus Kerry Coombs’ cornerback development reputation.
But this is nonetheless going to be a challenge for the Ohio State staff to make sure Brown keeps his commitment until he signs. I would say the Buckeyes have a five-run lead in the sixth inning. In other words, they’ve got a major upper hand, but there is still a lot of time left to close it out.
