Drew Thurman (4:16 pm)

As we wade through the 2013 recruiting waters position by position, it is time to take a deeper look into what is going on at wide receiver. We previously looked at the quarterback, offensive line, defensive line, and linebacker positions.

Even if you marginally follow the recruiting world, you know how hungry Urban Meyer and the staff are for playmakers. In fact, Meyer was quite open about the lack of game changers at the wide receiver position in spring practice, something that he will look to change. While the wideout ranks are still very young and have potential, Meyer is looking some more versatile talent that can alter games in his diverse attack.

He already has one of those players on board in Jalin Marshall. While there has been a lot of speculation about where Marshall will play in college, since he plays QB for Middletown and wants a shot there at Ohio State, most everyone assumes that he will eventually end up in a Percy Harvin type role when the dust settles. Marshall is a very rare talent with 4.4 speed and great lateral movement, qualities that make him a scary asset with the ball in space.

Besides Marshall, the staff will be looking to add two to three more players at wide receiver in this class. Fortunately, almost all their targets are still on the board, as the big time wideouts don't appear to be picking schools as quickly as their fellow classmates. Let's dive in a take a deeper look at who those players are...

Ken Kohl (6:58 pm)

It’s been a somewhat quiet off-season, and this week was not much of an exception. What a relief from the past year or so, no? Nonetheless we do have a few things going on, so let’s stroll into the midweek musings and see what’s there.

Two Deep: The news of the day is the post-spring two-deep that was released by the coaching staff early this afternoon. You can check out the depth chart here. While there are not a lot of surprises on the list, there were a few things to note.

*Doran Grant has worked his way into being a co-starter with Travis Howard at one of the corner spots. Roby is still at the other.
*Amazingly, Chris Carter is listed as a backup alongside Joel Hale at nose tackle. The transition from OL appears to have worked.
*Neither Rod Smith or Bri'onte Dunn were able to surpass Jordan Hall or Carlos Hyde at the running back position.

OSU Crew: Let's take a look at some of the other sports around campus. First up is the club sport, OSU Crew. They participated in the Dad Vail Regatta in Philadelphia PA this past weekend.

Drew Thurman (9:44 am)

After catching up with Michigan's recruiting class, it's now time to dig deeper with Penn State. While the Wolverines and Buckeyes have caught the most attention for their hot starts in 2013, Bill O'Brien and the Nittany Lions have quietly been putting together a solid class. We sat down with Tim Tolley of Victory Bell Rings to get his perspective on everything from Adam Breneman to Alex Anzalone.

1) What should Buckeye fans know about Penn State's 2013 class? What are your feelings about the class thus far?

Obviously, the two key players committed right now are QB Christian Hackenberg and TE Adam Breneman. Many feel that the O'Brien offense will work best when he has a high caliber QB and strong TE play, in order to replicate the Patriots offense...without Tom Brady, of course.

We've hit a lull right now, and some fans are worried. Still, I think that if you had asked fans back in February if they'd be happy in May to have eight verbals, including guys like Ross Douglas, Garrett Sickels, Breneman and Hackenberg, every fan would have taken it. 

2) Which position groups do you think are the most important to fill in this class? How has the staff addressed those needs?

Linebacker and defensive back really jump out. PSU has taken a total of TWO linebackers combined in the last two classes. I have no doubt that they'd like to land at least three in this cycle. They've offered several, including three in the past couple of weeks, but have yet to land one. Luckily the region is pretty plentiful at the position, but quality is a must because these guys will be forced into action early in their careers, due to lack of depth. 

Penn State has been thin at DB for some time now. The starting secondary last season all graduated and the staff moved a WR, Curtis Drake, into a starting CB role this Spring. They have CB Ross Douglas in the fold and are in it for a few other DBs, but they'll be hurting if they don't get at least three solid DBs (corners or safeties) in this class. 

Michael Chung (10:24 am)

Tommy Schutt was a much-heralded recruit out of Glen Ellyn, Illinois. Shortly after Urban Meyer took over the head-coaching job at OSU, Tommy Schutt de-committed from Penn State and became a Buckeye. He joins a much heralded d-line recruits in the 2012 class. He took some time to answer questions for us.

What was Joe Paterno like?

TS: I was over his house for breakfast. He had lots of energy. Paterno preached University and did not talk football as much.

Compare JoePa to Urban Meyer?

TS: Coach Meyer is really intense.  Coach Meyer talks football but he also emphasizes family and wants our team to be a big family.

Did the current head coach at Penn State try to flip you?

TS: No, I never met coach O’Brien.

Did Michigan come at you?

TS: UM at one point had all there positions full. After I de-committed from Penn State, they did jump in but I was never really interested.

Ken Kohl (9:46 pm)

Editor's Note: Ken's creative title is a play on "social media" using the Latin phrase "in medias res" which means "in the middle of things."

Rob Oller had an interesting commentary piece in Wednesday’s Columbus Dispatch on athletes and social media. Specifically, it tees off with the Alex Anzalone Affair, then rolls into cautionary commentary regarding athletes, but which I feel can apply to society in general. For disclosure purposes, I don’t Tweet nor do I Facebook. My platforms for social
media are the telephone and email, once cutting edge technologies in their own right.

Ohio State’s latest recruiting rhubarb sends a sad but necessary message to athletes: The best way to handle social media is to be unsocial, because one never knows where a Facebook post or Twitter tweet will lead.
 
Rob then goes on to recap the actions, which I believe we are fairly familiar with. He goes on to say that even though Alex has de-committed, he may yet re-commit to the Buckeyes. We shall see.

Regardless of whether Alex Anzalone recommits to Ohio State or goes elsewhere, the takeaway from this oddity is that the Internet has created a new world of worry, where posing for a seemingly innocent photograph can cause unintended pain, fear and embarrassment for individuals and institutions.

For individuals, the cellphone camera has become a potentially damaging device. Just ask Brett Favre, Grady Sizemore or former Ohio State center Greg Oden, all of whom were caught with their pants down when sexually explicit private photos turned up or were discussed in public. Those embarrassing episodes were somewhat self-inflicted.

Of course, this is not limited to Oller’s examples of athletes.  Here in New York, we are too familiar with Congressman Chris Lee’s self-portrait resulting in a Chippendales moment as well as Congressman Anthony Weiner having a Weiner moment.

The situation involving Anzalone is more distressing because it encompasses a much wider swath of social interaction. To the OSU recruits, Waugh was nothing more than a fan wanting to interact with up-and-coming Buckeyes — the proverbial
“brush with greatness” that motivates many people to pose for pictures or ask for autographs.

But if Waugh’s potential motivation sounds familiar, do yourself a favor; either stay in the stands or get help before its too
late. The kids may be media savvy, but social savvy, not quite.

Choosing our words more wisely is more important than ever, too. Tweet too much information, or wrong information, and suffer the consequences. The freedom to say what you want, when you want, is not always free. The college athlete who
rips his coach via social media will suffer the consequences of his decision to apply his First Amendment rights.

What comes to mind is the sad case of Yuri Wright of New Jersey. From a different article. Due to an unsavory Tweet, young Yuri ran into some trouble, and had his scholarship from Michigan pulled. He did receive an offer and signed with the University of Colorado this past year.

New Jersey cornerback Yuri Wright might be learning the hard way how social media can blow up in one's face. The highly regarded 2012 recruit has had his scholarship offer rescinded by Michigan and been expelled from his high school over a series of racial, sexual and otherwise offensive tweets, according to thewolverine.com and northjersey.com. Wright since has deleted his Twitter account. His reported tweets are too graphic to reprint.

"Hopefully. this example will send a wake-up call to high profile prospects moving forward to watch what they put out in cyberspace. To my knowledge this is the highest profile prospect to be dropped by a college program and expelled from school over Twitter," Rivals.com national recruiting analyst Mike Farrell said.　

Back to Rob Oller‘s article:
The burden of responsibility to monitor social — and social media — interactions falls on the athlete. Good luck with that in this not-so-brave new world, where things once held secret have become sensationalized.
 
I agree with Rob up to a point. There is also an onus on fans and media, including the unshaven press, such as us poor bloggers, to pull it back a bit as well. If the incoming athlete is fluffed to the point where it may create an unjustified oversized ego, then the athlete will be more than happy to Tweet to his hearts content, which can prove problematic. If it’s a lower profile athlete, the star-struck nature of new found notoriety of being offered a scholarship to a dream university may mean tamping down the social media interaction be a bit too much to ask. I admit that I am speculating, but it would be irresponsible not to.

I suggest you read Rob’s commentary in its entirety.  I’s well worth the effort for the perspective.

Michael Chung (8:02 am)

A source close to the Ohio State program mentioned to me that Alex Anzalone is a really good person who loves his family. He also mentioned that the five linebacker recruits in 2012 along with redshirt freshman Connor Crowell may have been too much depth at linebacker, influencing his decision.  And he thinks that Jaylon Smith’s recruitment may have also contributed as that would mean even more depth, and many believe Smith will see the field wherever he signs.  My source indicated that he thinks Smith may go to Notre Dame because he could play earlier but is not sure. Also, he felt that Penn State has a good shot at landing Anzalone as well as Florida. 

JC Shurburtt recently tweeted that Anzalone was visiting the University of Florida on Thursday and Friday.  Later, it was reported that he was only visiting family.  11 Warriors reports that:

• Urban is recruiting him hard right now
• Gordon Gee wrote a personal email to his parents
• He is considering OSU again along with Notre Dame, Stanford, Florida, PSU, and "maybe" USC....in no order
• Things are a little better for him now that the whole situation has calmed down and he'll be able think with more of a clear head

As I indicated in a recent article, OSU fans need not to worry about the two recent de-commitments because we are stacked right now at LB and at D-line. It would be nice to have Anzalone and Urban is still going at him hard but his loss would not be insurmountable.

In other news, Lewis Neal mentioned to me that he will have a top 5 in June and that Ohio State has a 90% chance of being on the list.

Tracy Sprinkle recently had a shoulder issue, but said he is fine.

Ken Kohl (8:10 pm)

Believe it or not, there are other things going on at The Ohio State University besides football and basketball. In our feature, Campus Spotlight, we will periodically catch you up with what is happening with those sports and activities.

For this week’s Campus Spotlight, we have several topics to recap; men’s and women’s lacrosse, men’s and  women’s golf, baseball, softball and a club sport, crew.

Ready? Here we go.

OSU Crew
GRAND RAPIDS, MI
A few items to report on this week in our Campus Feature.  Sticking with the “Campus” theme, let’s start with a club (non-varsity) sport, Ohio State Crew. The men’s and women’s rowers spent the weekend participating in the 43rd MACRA (Mid-America College Rowing Association) Regatta in Grand Rapids, MI. Of the seventeen members of the MACRA, Ohio State in the only member that participates as a "club" status, so the competition is very stiff.

Having said that, congratulations to the Men’s Varsity Pair, the Women’s V4, and the Women’s X1 for their 3rd and 1st place finishes at the MACRA Championships this past weekend!

Final round times for each boat:

Men’s V8 – 6:12.45                        
Men’s 2V8 – 5:47.70                      
Men’s V4 – 6:44.32                       
Men’s 2V4 – 7:18.89                      
Men’s Novice 4 – 6:46.88 
Men’s Novice 8 – 6:30.92        
Men’s 2N4 – 6:43.49 
Men’s x2 – 8:30.92
Women’s V8 – 7:35.08
Women’s V4 – 7:48.69
Women’s Novice 4 – 8:43.61
Women’s Novice 8 – 7:27.04
Women’s x1 – 8:44.96

The Men’s V8 (Varsity 8-man boat) times compare very well with times that more traditional teams, such as Princeton for example, achieve. Not only do these rowers represent Ohio State University, as you can see, they do it well.

Michael Chung (7:44 pm)

Just a couple weeks after the Ohio State Spring Game, OSU fans were in a very good place. An exciting game with more passing than the whole 2011 season, plus witnessing Urban on the field for the first time, Buckeye Nation had hope.

But recently, some of that hope was dashed.  First, Lewis Neal de-committed based on personal reasons.  Then, shortly after the Lantern published a story on a child sex offender, Charles Eric Waugh, Alex Anzalone de-committed.  Buckeye Nation, still healing from “Tattoo gate,” became worried.  Fear not!

Ohio State had a plethora of LB recruits last year: David Perkins, Camren Williams (pictured), Jamal Marcus, Joshua Edward Perry and Luke Roberts.  There are also a plethora of D-linemen both on the current roster and commitments from the 2012 and 2013 classes. Losing two recruits is not the end of the world.  Ohio State has more than enough bodies and had Anzalone and Neal not de-committed recently, both may have been subjects of transfers in the future.

But their de-commitments are puzzling. Neal told me personally that his reasons were too personal to share and had nothing to do with football, LSU or Urban Meyer. 

I tried to contact Alex Anzalone, but he has not returned my correspondence. 

Regardless of what has been shard in the media, it seems odd that these two young men would de-commit so soon, but it may not be so bad.  If a de-commitment so soon after issuing one’s verbal is a negative sign, is keeping your word amidst tragedy a positive one?

Dave Thurman (4:38 pm)

First it was Lewis Neal backing out of his commitment to the Buckeyes earlier this week for "personal" reasons.  Then, earlier today Alex Anzalone, a highly decorated linebacker from Pennsylvania, de-commited from his verbal to OSU. And once again, vague language is being used.  Anzalone has simply told people that he has a reason, but does not want to share it. 

It also does not appear like Ohio State is going to be among his options. When asked if he is still considering Ohio State, Anzalone replied, “Not really.”

Anzalone told Sean Fitz of 247Sports that the five schools he is looking at right now are Penn State, Notre Dame, USC, Stanford and Florida.

All of this is especially strange considering an article that appeared in The Lantern about a convicted sex offender from the state of Kentucky who has made contact with Buckeyes student-athletes both in-person and through social media websites.  There may be no connection at all between the sex offender and his tweets to Ohio State athletes, but something is is the water, and Urban and Co. can't be happy.  Stay tuned!

Update #1 - The newspaper in Anzalone's hometown has some reactions from his family. It appears that the family was trending away from the Buckeyes before the Waugh/Twitter episode surfaced, but that may have sealed the deal. You can definitely tell, Alex's dad is very upset.

Update #2 - Here's the statement the athletic department has released:

Update #3- Well things have already calmed down. ESPN quotes Anzalone's father as saying Ohio State may still be in the picture.