Hey, hey, where you been? Look, I've talked, it's about to begin. Hey, hey, hey, come on in.

Welcome to Buckeye Talk. I'm Nathan Baird, along with Stephen Means from Cleveland.com, Doug Lamerese turned in and excused absence today. So it's just the two of us. We are going to be talking both the future and the present of Ohio State football. We're going to start off with the future. We're going to get to the present a little bit later. Steven and I are going to discuss what we're going to be looking at on the first day of preseason camp when we are supposed to have a viewing me window Thursday morning when Ohio State opens things Wednesdays report day Thursday first practice.

As far as I've been told so far, but we want to talk about everything that's happened in the recruiting sphere since Wednesday been kind of a just a cascade of things that have come down. It started with the Caleb Downs commitment to Alabama that we already talked about. So we're not going to go back into that. But there have been what like five or six things that have happened since then or may be on the cusp of happening. Steven that have not done much to LA the discontent that some fans have right now.

What's the direction of this recruiting class? And I get it. And I think the overall. Stand thing that we're going to have to think about here is Ohio State's going to have to prove it on the field. And once they prove it on the field, you should see some improvement within the recruiting. And so let's start with the the real distant future of what that might mean going forward with the guy like John take Gilbert, not a 2025 cornerback from Georgia who committed first and foremost Georgia might be a place where Ohio State might, you know,

plant some roots here going forward because Tim Walden is front. He has some history there being from there. Perry Aliano has recruited that area before. But then also Georgia just has a bunch of top 100 top 200 recruits every single year. And the bulldogs aren't going to take all them. So why not, you know, plants and roots. They're the same way that we've seen in Florida in the past year. But I think John take Gilbert first and foremost, he's probably going to be a top 150 top 200 top 100 recruit at this point because Ohio State's already offered the national kid this early. It's only a matter of

time before some of the other SEC schools get involved into that one. But what that signifies to me is, yes, things have not necessarily gone all the way well and it's 2023 class of guys like Caleb Downs, guys like Joe Nell Aguero and guys like AJ Harris. But also, as we've kind of discussed, especially you, Nathan, you maybe said it more than all of us, a lot of these defensive assistant coaches got here in January, which means that they're trying to play catch up with a lot of relationships that have already been formed, you know, recruiting guys.

That quite frankly, they didn't offer. They just showed up and tried to get to work as quickly as possible here. While with guys like John take Gilbert guys in the 2025 class guys in the 2024 class, those are going to be a lot of guys that they offered and that they built the relationship with day one. And so we're really going to get to see what they look like guys recruiters. So you start there with what that could mean going forward and now granite. This is another case of Ohio State got a DB out of SEC territory, very, very early. In this case, ridiculously early, can they hold on them to sign in day.

But the idea of let's see what happens when some of these defensive recruits get to start from scratch with some of these recruitments and then maybe get gazed them off of that is maybe a better way to judge what they are as recruiters.

So I was texting back and forth with some people over the weekend that were asking about Gilbert. And my point to them was, I know it's astonishingly early, we don't know a whole lot about them. We can kind of project a little bit by what's out there as to how good he is.

There are definitely some fans out there who either because of what happened with the Ohio State the last couple of years.

And in those recruitments that you're talking about guys from the South Florida, Georgia, who the recruitment some stick, and especially it has happened a lot of corner, it seems like.

They're a little bit jaded and assume, well, why do I even care about this guy. And my point is, and there's actually even someone who said, like, why do you guys even report on this and my point was.

A commitment is not a one way street. If John take Gilbert is giving a commitment, Ohio State is also accepting a commitment. You know, I'm saying, like, it's not kids don't just get to walk up and say, like, hey, I'm committing to your school, even if you have a scholarship offer for it to be like a commitment that gets out there, it's it's a mutual decision.

So it says something to me, the Ohio State is taking this commitment now. I understand why people are skeptical about it going the distance and there's a skepticism built in. I think we have to talk about it.

In that context too. We have to say, hey, anytime a player commits, unless he's from the Columbus City schools and is, you know what I'm saying, and is like ranked in the 400 or something like that, then there's a there's a some chance that he's probably going to be leaving. So

That definitely needs to be brought up. I don't want to get too far into Gilbert, because again, we don't know a whole lot about him. And he is so distant. I want to run down some of the other things that have happened since Wednesday since downs committed to Alabama. So that was on Wednesday.

On Thursday. And again, these none of this was really surprising. The only surprising thing that happened all week was Gilbert, because nobody was looking at 2025. They only have one for 2024 right now. So nobody was thinking about 2025 at this point, but

On Thursday, John Walker defensive lineman from I'm from like away from Florida commits to UC up. So he stays in state. That is a top 100, like bottom of the top 100 caliber player guy that a house date.

I think a house date still. I said this on the podcast. We did last week. I think they still need help on the defensive line. Right now they have two commits and that's Jason Moore, who is a top 50ish commit.

I think there's some question whether he ends up on the edge, whether he ends up as a three tech, but we've seen a lot of guys come to a house date and be successful.

Despite being caught in that sort of tweener spot. And then we'll submit the legacy who's who's ranked lower in that class.

On Thursday, running back Richard Young commits to Alabama. That had been telegraphed for a long time. That leaves Mark Fletcher, a guy ranked number 269 as the only

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