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OL Matthew Jones (Official Thread)

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Buckeye Football Commitment Impact: Matthew Jones

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When 4-star lineman Matthew Jones committed to Ohio State on Saturday, he gave the Buckeyes one of the best defensive tackles in the 2018 class. He also gave the Buckeyes one of the best offensive linemen in the 2018 class.

Jones is arguably the top two-way lineman in high school football, so where he ultimately ends up at Ohio State won’t truly be known until he gets knee deep into his first (or second) Buckeye camp.

The Player
Matthew Jones (6-4 315) committed to Ohio State over offers from Alabama, Michigan, Clemson, LSU, Florida, and many, many others. He is rated as the No. 3 defensive tackle in the nation per the 247Sports Composite and the No. 53 player overall.

He plays for Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, New York, which is the same school that sent Curtis Samuel to Ohio State.

Jones plays nose tackle on defense and left tackle on offense. He plays both positions with a desire to finish each play by putting somebody into the ground. When he pulls as a left tackle, he sees it as free violence.

He is mobile and finds defenders to block. He’ll drive them if need be, but he’s also able to simply bully smaller players around with a big-brotherly shove.



Entire article: http://theozone.net/2017/06/buckeye-commitment-impact-matthew-jones/
 
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Buckeye1 said:
I will coach a kid like this any day of the week over one of those "Carman" recruits...


https://ohiostate.247sports.com/Bol...s-ready-to-enroll-early-in-Columbus-112603904
Click to expand...
Hell yeah. Great article. I must have counted words like team, attitude, effort, work hard, etc about a dozen times. Love seeing guys with this mind set.

As others have pointed out, Urban is clearly interested in a certain type athlete and it’s pretty consistent across the board when looking at these kids interviews. Academics, good families, hard workers, etc. Really pumped to get these kinds of guys into the system.
 
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Ohio State football: Can Matthew Jones be factor at center right away?

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There’s a coaching adage that comes immediately to mind when projecting early playing time for recruits: The closer they are to the football at the snap, the harder it is to get on the field right away. And for Matthew Jones, it doesn’t get any closer than standing over the football and hiking it. So, even as highly regarded as Ohio State’s latest pickup from Brooklyn (N.Y) Erasmus Hall was both by the coaching staff and the national rankings services, odds are it will require some patience before Jones contributes.

There are a few things that might work in his favor, of course. First, and perhaps most important, is that Jones is already on campus going through winter conditioning and preparing for spring practice. Since he arrived with the kind of size and strength at 6-foot-4, 315 pounds that isn’t exactly typical for a freshman, that also might be a reason to boost his chances. Factor in that Ohio State’s battle to replace Billy Price appears somewhat wide open, and that means nobody can reasonably be excluded as a potential factor — especially after Michael Jordan proved a couple seasons ago that first-year freshmen can earn a spot on Urban Meyer’s offensive line.

Entire article: https://www.landof10.com/ohio-state...nes-buckeyes-football-center-depth-chart-2018
 
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MATTHEW JONES ASPIRING TO BE OHIO STATE'S NEXT GREAT CENTER

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As the last two winners of the Rimington Award, which honors the best center in college football, former Ohio State centers Pat Elflein and Billy Price have their pictures hanging on the walls of the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.

When Matthew Jones sees those pictures at Ohio State each day, it motivates Jones to follow in their footsteps.

Ranked as the No. 1 center for the recruiting class of 2018 out of Erasmus Hall in Brooklyn, New York, Jones arrived in Columbus last month as an early enrollee, and he already has his sights set on becoming the Buckeyes’ next great center.

In order to achieve that, though, Jones knows he must work as hard as Elflein and Price did in their Ohio State careers – starting now.

"To see that I have a chance of being in the same position they are, I just got to put the effort in and give it my all just like they did," Jones said while meeting with the media on National Signing Day. "You always got to have a finish mindset. You’ve always got to say that 'I could be great.' You could be the next Billy Price, and that’s the mindset I have basically every day."

While Elflein and Price both redshirted in their first years on campus, and did not start at center until they were fifth-year seniors, Jones has a shot – by virtue of already being on campus and able to participate to spring practice – to potentially compete to start for the Buckeyes at center as a true freshman.

Fifth-year senior Brady Taylor is projected to succeed Price as the starting center, but that’s no guarantee. Taylor, who backed up Price last year, will still have to compete for the starting job this spring, and while fourth-year junior Matthew Burrell projects to be Taylor’s top competition, Jones should get a shot to make his case for the job as well.

Jones is looking forward to that opportunity to compete, and believes he has a chance to win the job if he performs well, but he expects Taylor, Burrell and others to also fight hard for the job.

"It’s always about competing, no matter what you do, players always compete," Jones said. "I’m hungry for it, as much as everybody else is. Everybody’s going to compete. It’s not going to come easy, not going to just fall in any hands or whatever, but that’s it. It’s just about competing."

Entire article: https://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio...-aspiring-to-be-ohio-states-next-great-center
 
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BETTER KNOW A BUCKEYE: MATTHEW JONES, THE NO. 1 CENTER PROSPECT IN 2018, CONTINUES THE ERASMUS HALL-TO-OHIO STATE PIPELINE

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We continue the Better Know a Buckeye series with its 11th installment in 2018. Here, we profile Matthew Jones, a center from Brooklyn.

MATTHEW JONES
  • Size: 6-4/305
  • Position: C
  • Hometown: Brooklyn, NY
  • School: Erasmus Hall
  • 247 Composite: ★★★★
  • National Ranking: 68
  • Position Ranking: 1 (C)
  • State Ranking: 2 (NY)
  • Under Armour All-American
Jones had an uneventful and rather quiet recruitment coming from the Erasmus Hall program in New York. However, the nature of his recruitment belies how coveted he was as a center prospect. He gathered offers from Alabama and Clemson shortly after their January 2016 national championship bout and held additional offers from heavyweights like Georgia, Michigan, and Penn State. Yet, Ohio State was always the top pick; he even visited Ohio State in eighth grade as a strong signal of interest in the program. He finally received an offer from Ohio State in May 2016 and committed over a year later.

I retell this recruitment below and provide some context for his commitment. Thereafter, I provide a scouting report of a prospect that multiple coaching staffs evaluated for different positions but will primarily factor into Ohio State's interior line rotation, especially at center. I offer a projection of a redshirt in 2018 and conclude with some highlight film to watch at the end of the feature.

HIS RECRUITMENT
The word is out about Erasmus Hall. New York is not necessarily a hotbed of talent, or at least not sufficiently deep to put it on par with next-door Pennsylvania. However, New York's top talents can play anywhere and Erasmus Hall has been home to several of the state's most talented players over the years.

Better yet, those top talents from Erasmus Hall have eyed Ohio State as a destination. Curtis Samuel was the first in this line, signing with Ohio State as part of the Buckeyes' 2014 recruiting class. Jahsen Wint followed suit as part of the 2016 recruiting class. Matthew Jones was next in line and always eyed Ohio State as a destination landing.

The recruitment that followed was rather quiet, all things considered. A New York prospect is going to command immediate regional attention from programs like Boston College, Connecticut, Rutgers, and Syracuse. Indeed, all four programs extended scholarship offers to Jones in the spring of his freshman year but did so after Jones communicated his interest in Ohio State by attending the Buckeyes' 2014 Friday Night Lights.

Several major programs made their pitch to Jones in his sophomore year after it became apparent that Jones was one of the top ten interior offensive linemen in the country for his recruiting class. Georgia and Penn State extended scholarship offers in the Fall of 2015. Alabama and Clemson extended offers of their own in the spring. Ohio State finally followed through the day after Clemson made its offer by letting Jones know he had an official offer on the table to come to Ohio State.

There was little drama over the remainder of his recruitment. Jones by that point had visited Ohio State several times. He had expressed being close to Curtis Samuel and Jahsen Wint with both still enrolled at the university by times Jones received his offer. Other programs made runs on Jones. Assistants from programs like Alabama, Florida, and Michigan even flew to New York to further their pitch to Jones to come to their respective programs.

There was, however, no question where Jones was going to enroll. It was just uncertain when Jones would announce his decision.

HIS COMMITMENT
Matthew Jones committed to Ohio State on June 17, 2017 as the 11th member of what would become Ohio State's full 2018 recruiting class. He chose Ohio State over competing offers from programs like Alabama, Clemson, and Penn State.

The pipeline has a lot to do with why Jones circled Ohio State as his top priority on the recruiting trail. Erasmus Hall coach Danny Landberg is a big fan of Urban Meyer. Landberg and Meyer have formed a bond since Meyer arrived at Ohio State that routinely gets exposure for Landberg's top players on Ohio State's recruiting radar. Indeed, Landberg brought Jones to Columbus to meet Urban Meyer at that 2014 Friday Night Lights when Jones was still in eighth grade.

Jones said little of why he chose Ohio State, leaving his head coach to do most of the talking. Jones doesn't have a social media presence either. His recruitment effectively ended with that June 17 decision last year. Jones later signed with Ohio State during the early signing period and enrolled on campus in January.



Entire article: https://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio...he-no-1-center-prospect-in-2018-continues-the
 
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