As national letter of intent day gets closer and the number of openings in Ohio State’s recruiting class continue to decrease, the staff can begin to focus more and more of their energies on the few remaining targets at positions of need.
As it turns out, some of those targets are currently committed to other schools.
This year, the focus is primarily on wide receivers and linebackers heading down the homestretch. The number of already-committed players planning to visit Columbus in the coming months at those positions makes that apparent.
The other obvious position of need in the class is at offensive tackle, but at this point no new targets have emerged outside of PA OT Dorian Johnson.
Normally, targeting an already-committed player wouldn’t mean much, but when those players plan official visits to places like Ohio State, the chances of that prospect “flipping” their commitment increases drastically.
Here are some of the names that I have added to the 2013 Recruiting Board based primarily on their stated plans to visit Columbus sometime in the near future.
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Sebastian LaRue – 5’11” 185 lbs
WR, Santa Monica (CA) HS
Current USC soft verbal Sebastian LaRue was recently offered by Ohio State and plans to visit Columbus. He says he remains firmly committed but wants to take his official visits to make sure.
I don’t really anticipate anything here and there are plenty of other options still on the board, but like most of these recruits, the planned trip to Columbus is what puts him on the radar.
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Trey Johnson – 6’1″ 220 lbs
LB, Lawrenceville (GA) Central Gwinnett
Georgia linebacker Trey Johnson is currently committed to Auburn but like LaRue, he wants to take his official visits and one of the places he is currently planning to go is Ohio State.
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Holland Fisher – 6’2″ 200 lbs
LB, Midlothian (VA) Manchester
Holland Fisher is yet another LB currently committed to another school who plans to make a trip to Columbus for The Game in November.
Linebacker is a position that the Buckeyes are putting a lot of emphasis on and they are obviously putting a lot of feelers out to currently committed players to gauge interest.
Fisher joins Trey Johnson and Florida verbal Daniel McMillan as committed players to keep an eye on if they visit Columbus.
TX LB Mike Mitchell is currently the only uncommitted LB on the board.
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Corey Smith – 6’0″ 170 lbs
ATH, Scooba (MS) East Mississippi C.C.
Corey Smith is a wild card in the 2013 class. He is originally from Akron (OH) Buchtel HS and was a member of the 2012 class but after attending East Mississippi C.C. for a year he is now considered a JUCO prospect.
He could be a WR target or he could be a backup plan in the secondary. Either way, he is an intriguing player that could help address needs in a number of different ways.
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Nick Glass – 6’1″ 195 lbs
S, Atlanta (GA) St. Pius X
Nick Glass is a member of the 2014 class that has already committed to be a Georgia Bulldog. However, he plans to visit Columbus for The Game and is close friends with ’14 classmate GA LB Raekwon McMillan, who many fans are hoping is a Buckeye lean.
Glass, McMillan and VA DE De’Shawn Hand have all talked about attending the same school together, and while package deals rarely work out, that is clearly a possibility to watch closely.
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