Antjuan Simmons (Pioneer) commits to Buckeyes

My biggest takeaway from 2016 recruiting was that recruiting will be so fluid with Harbaugh that the time to really pay attention to the 2017 class is several months away.  Aside from a few big recruits who for some reason feel unlikely to decommit after they choose (McCaffrey, DPJ, etc.), I'm in wait and see mode.

...sometimes kids want to get away from their hometown. Columbus is away but not far enough that his family can't come see him.

Not too worried. A recruit like Simmons doesn't make or break the class.

He may sign with OSU and he may turn out to be great, but we'll be fine either way.

Losing Devery Hamilton upsets me more than this guy.

I bet he ends up in our class anyway.  Commitments aren't worth the paper they're not written on.

 

 

I don't like to wish ill on kids making major decisions like this, but I hope his last year-plus of high school is very uncomfortable, with lots of people TPing his house, and one particularly vindictive friend performing "upper deckers" in every toilet in his house on a weekly basis...  

New Jersey is the new Ohio.

Florida is the new Michigan.

            California is the new Illinois.

Welcome to National recruiting in the Harbaugh era.

We weren't really that interested it seemed. And that's not sour grapes, just the fact of the matter.

We've gotten kids out of columbus that OSU didn't want. Jaron Dukes as a recent one comes to mind. 

I guarantee Urban will find a way to push him out when higher rated players want to commit near signing day.

I think it's pretty obvious that Harbaugh wasn't all that interested in this kid given how long he waited to offer him.

So what he's from Pioneer?  He's a 3* OLB.  Why take someone like that this early in the process when a 4 or 5 star will be available later?

This one stings a bit.  I thought he was very undervalued thus far.  That being said, I think the narrative that results from this ("LOL Har-ball-less can't even keep a kid who goes to school 50 feet away") will be far more annoying...at least in my neck of the woods.

Going to to high school twice. First, pioneer high and then Ohio State.

Okay, okay... I know- rather snarky.

Good luck to the kid, except when he plays us

This doesn't move my needle one way or the other. Kids have the right to go where they feel they fit best and the staff never seemed that high on him. It's an interesting choice given his current location and I am fascinated to see if it holds up.

They already have 2 five stars and 8 four stars committed.  Simmons is a high end 3 star. 

This just shows that even though we have come a long way in recruiting we still have a ways to go to catch programs like OSU and Bama.  Thankfully there is almost a year until signing day/  

I'm sure this kid is very good in his own right, but this is very much a psychological move by Urban. Recruiting kids that go to school literally in the shadow of the Big House. He wants to try and break down this program's self confidence by saying "I'm taking kids that play 50 ft down the road from you, kids that should theoretically grow up rooting for Michigan, and there's nothing you can do to stop me."

Hard to blame him. As we all know, recruiting is a very cruel mistress. But really as long as we start actually beating them, he could recruit the top 10 players in the state to OSU every year and I wouldn't care.

I think I'm more annoyed with the fact that an Ann Arbor kid went to OSU than that he didn't pick Michigan. Anyhow, if Harbaugh really wants him at the end of the day then there's a lot of time and opportunity to convince him. Getting him on campus should be easy enough.

Beilein

Anyone else think the timing of this is calculated?

I really hate myself for following recruiting year round. Bound to lose some good prospects to rivals and have to deal with the heart break. I know this topic has been beaten to death but I find it strange with our lack of pursuit of Ohio and Michigan kids. Sure we have some offers out there but coach does seem to put way more effort into recruiting nationally...not just 4-5 stars, but the diamond in the rough types as well. The kind of guy Harbaugh is you think he would be pursuing these local kids daily with the kind of national offers they recieve. Now if we lose DPJ to osu I will really be disappointed.

It's pretty clear Harbaugh was never that high on him.  We'll take guys like Peppers and Hudson (about 6', 205 lbs.) and let OSU think they stole guys like Simmons right from under our nose.  Suckers.

Over the years we have taken alot of "under the radar" types from Michigan and ohio...some flopped...some turned into stars. This kid doesn't even seem to be under the radar so no idea why we were late to the party here. Ok rant over....if you can't tell I'm a Midwest homer.