HARRIS A RISING STAR AT CORNERBACK
Ohio State’s defensive back recruiting has been on fire ever since Kerry Coombs’ return to Columbus, and it’s not a coincidence.
The Buckeyes have landed five commitments from defensive backs in the past month, with sophomore
Jyaire Brown’s pledge on Wednesday night serving as the second defensive back commit in a three-day span.
In totality, it’s not solely because of Coombs, as Matt Barnes, Brian Hartline and Tony Alford – as we briefly outlined in
our analysis of Brown’s commitment – each deserve a large portion of the credit in the recruitments of
Jakailin Johnson,
Andre Turrentine and
Jantzen Dunn.
But Coombs was certainly a mega cherry on top – or as our own Colin Hass-Hill suggested, perhaps he is the
Kerry on top – to secure each of those players’ commitments, as he’s shown that he certainly has no recruiting rustiness after his time in the NFL.
What Colin also pointed out – in the
latest edition of Real Pod Wednesdays – is something I agree with too: Coombs and Co. are on fire in DB recruiting, but the one big piece that feels like it’s missing is that a five-star, no-doubt, first-round NFL Draft pick like Jeff Okudah or Shaun Wade, whom Coombs landed in his final recruiting class in 2017.
But it looks and feels like that is trending toward a possibility in the 2022 class, and that’s why we emphasize the following player whom Coombs and Barnes have already made waves with in the next cycle.
(Note: In the 2021 class, that five-star headliner is still in play with Tony Grimes, even if the Buckeyes are not trending in the right direction in that specific recruitment.)
We have to start with the caveat that it’s still very early in the process, but things are trending toward Houston cornerback
Denver Harris turning into that premier five-star cornerback prospect in the same vein as former five-star Texas corner Jeff Okudah, who played his high school ball less than four hours away from Harris’ North Shore High School.
