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Dave Thurman (4:14 pm)

It is raining Buckeye commitments, and the flood continued today when Camren Williams verbally pledged to Ohio State.  In fact, Williams was so excited that he sent out the following tweet.  In a week of big commitments, Williams may wind up being the biggest yet.  Not only is he an excellent athlete and football player, but when Drew interviewed him at the Semper Fidelis All-American Bowl in Phoenix, he told me that Williams was most impressive - a young man who spoke with poise, focus, intelligence and humility. 

The 6-foot-2 and 215-pound Williams prepped at Catholic Memorial High School in West Roxbury, Mass., and registered 119 tackles with two interceptions playing middle linebacker during his senior season. Williams is rated as a 4-star prospect by Scout, Rivals, and 247 Sports.  He is considered to be an outside linebacker at the next level. 

Buckeye fans are hopeful that Williams' high school teammate, Armani Reeves, a 4-star cornerback, will follow suit, and it is certainly possible, as he supposedly came away from his Ohio State visit impressed.  In the meanwhile we take time to celebrate commitment number 23 in the class of 2012.  Team Urban is on a major league roll, and Buckeye Nation glady welcomes Camren Williams!

You can view Williams' highlight flim after the jump.
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Drew Thurman (5:17 pm)

Just moments ago Cameron Burrows announced his decision to commit to the Buckeyes at Trotwood-Madison High School, making him the first player to jump on board in the 2013 class. He chose the Buckeyes over Michigan, Alabama, LSU, Wisconsin and Tennessee.

Burrows is a 6-2 195 pound cornerback, and possesses the rare combination of size, speed, and physicality at the position. He is highly regarded as well, being ranked as one of the best two or three players in the state next season by almost everyone. Rivals ranks him as a five star prospect, while Scout and 247Sports rank him at a four star, but all three view him as a Top 100 type player. Burrows will also be playing in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl next January.

Burrows said during his announcement presser that "Urban Meyer is everything you'd want in a coach." Further proof of how quickly Meyer has built relationships and made impressions. This is also big because there were rumors of tension between Jim Tressel and Maurice Douglass (head coach of Trotwood-Madison). The Buckeyes under Tressel showed very little love to their program and overlooked several of their players in past years. This will no longer be the case. Urban Meyer has already worked hard to build a strong relationship with Trotwood-Madison, and it very clear he sees the major talent emerging from the school in recent years. 

Make no mistake about it, this is a huge commitment moving forward. Not only is Burrows a big-time player at a position of need, but being ranked as of the best players in Ohio, is an important get for Meyer and company. They plan to once again lock down the best players in the state and leave other programs fighting for the second tier guys. With Jalin Marshall announcing at the end of this month and rumors of the Buckeyes being the favorite, that statement may just get louder. You can check out Burrow's junior highlights after the break.
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Michael Chung (8:31 am)

“Well we moving on up, to the top.”

Excerpt from theme song of 70’s and 80’s sitcom, "The Jeffersons"

It was November 20, 2011.  Ohio State had been marred in a recruiting "crisis of confidence."  The once prominent B1G team, who had a fence around Ohio was lacking in star power from their home state as well as nationally.  Bill Kurelic believed Ohio State was not in the top 20.  

But things have changed and have changed in a hurry.  The number one player in the state of Ohio, Adolphus Washington, committed to play for Ohio State and mentioned he would like to play for Urban Meyer, whose hiring happened a week later.  

What has happened in less than two months?  Ohio State has been “moving on up, to the top.”  Scout.com currently lists Ohio State at #4 behind Alabama, Texas and Michigan.  Look for Ohio State to move up to at least #3 in Scout within the next two weeks and maybe #2.  247.sports also have Ohio State at #4 behind the same three teams.  Again, look for Ohio State to move into the top 3 within the next two weeks. 

ESPN has Ohio State the lowest of any list I have surveyed.  Currently, Ohio State is at #11 and many of their recruiting experts felt it would be difficult for OSU to crack their top 10 so there was an existing bias in their reporting.  They also only list 19 commits as of January 17, 2012 so they have not factored in Taylor Decker, Joey O’Connor and David Perkins' commitment. (Editor's note: So much for ESPiN being the Worldwide Leader in Sports!)
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Perkins picked OSU over Cal and Illinois.
The hits just keep on coming. The Buckeyes have received even more momentum from their big recruiting weekend, as David Perkins committed, becoming the 22nd member of the class of 2012. This is the third commitment in four days.

The 6-2 210 pound linebacker (who some report is now up to 230) hails from South Bend, Indiana (Washington), and was originally committed to Notre Dame, but after opening up his recruiting again was considering Ohio State, Oregon, Illinois, and California.  He comes to Columbus as a linebacker, and the young man nicknamed "Boom" totaled 103 tackles including 24 stops for loss and seven sacks. He also forced eight fumbles, recovered five and intercepted two passes.  Perkins was equally impressive on the other side of the ball as a running back where he rushed for 1311 yards and 15 touchdowns, and also caught another 19 passes for 275 yards and 3 scores.

As for rankings, Scout has him as a 4-star, and the 22nd best OLB in the nation, 247 Sports says he is the number 16 outside linebacker and number 177 prospect overall, and Rivals has him as the 11th best OLB in America and the second best prospect in the state of Indiana.  In a position of limited depth, Perkins should have the chance to play immediately. 

You can locate Perkins' highlights after the jump...
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Rivals has OSU at #7 and they will likely move up
Michael Chung (7:32 am)

[Ed. Note] We are in the process of adding several writers here at The Silver Bullet, and growing beyond just being a father-son operation. This means more content for you. So we would like to introduce Michael Chung. He's an OSU alum that we are excited to add to the team. You can read all about him here.

Wednesday February 1, 2012 is around the corner. National signing day offers fans of college football a glimpse into the fate of their teams’ future. Current AP and BCS national champion Alabama had the #1 recruiting class in 2008 according to Rivals.com, which translated into a championship four years later. Recruiting is destiny. 

Ohio State started out the 2012 recruiting season strong but with the forced retirement of Jim Tressel and tattoo-gate, recruiting took a nosedive. Top ranked offensive lineman Kyle Kalis de-committed from Ohio State and then pledged to Michigan. Top recruits Se’von Pittman, Kyle Dodson, Taylor Decker, and Greg McMullen, all considered OSU locks, decided to go elsewhere.  Ohio State was not even in the top 30 at one point of the recruiting rankings with few premiere recruits and little to no interest from recruits outside of Ohio. Even 10 days before the hiring of Urban Meyer, recruiting guru Bill Kurelic would not have put Ohio State’s class in the top 20.

But things changed. Adolphus Washington, Ohio’s top player, pledged to Ohio State on Nov. 21, 2011 and then one week later, Urban Meyer was officially named head coach of Ohio State. Since then, Meyer has taken a once less than stellar recruiting class by Ohio State standards to a top ten recruiting class in the opinion of most recruiting services.  

Currently, Rivals.com lists Ohio State as having the # 7 class, Scout.com lists OSU at #8, as does 247Sports.com, while ESPN has Ohio State at #10. These rankings will likely change in the near future as Ohio State is in on a lot of top prospects.
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Urban Meyer knows how to close.
Drew Thurman (2:12 pm)

Gray skies and gusty winds haven't been the only thing to make January an abysmal month in Columbus. For over a decade now, the first month of the year has been the source of some major recruiting woes. In fact, it was something that marked the Tressel era. Big Ten titles, BCS bowls and poor finishes on the recruiting front became an annual tradition for Buckeye Nation.

Some of you may remember the 2007 recruiting class. Looking back it was a vastly underrated class with guys like Cam Heyward, Brian Rolle, Dane Sanzenbacher, and Boom Herron in it. Still, the close to that class in January was a heartbreaking one for Buckeye fans. That year, there were three big names in OT Anthony Davis, OL/DL Joseph Barksdale and DE Ben Martin that the Buckeyes were fighting for as signing day approached. Many insiders were pointing to all three being Buckeye leans at one point as well. When the dust settled though, Davis chose Rutgers, Barksdale went to LSU, and Ben Martin headed to Tennessee. Davis and Barksdale went onto become big time offensive lineman, which really hurts when you realize that Evan Blankenship was the only offensive line commit in that class.

A similar storyline happened in 2010, a class that upon looking back has been full of disappointed for Ohio State. Don't believe me, go back and look. Anyway, that year the Buckeyes lost out on a handful of prospects that they were battling for late in the process. Sharriff Floyd picked Florida, Seantreal Henderson chose Miami, Jordan Hicks went to Texas, Matt James headed to Notre Dame, and Chaz Green also picked Florida. Three of those guys were offensive lineman, and just like in 2007, missing them caused Tressel and company to only sign one offensive lineman in Andrew Norwell.

It's also interesting, that it was Urban Meyer that plucked Floyd and Green away from the Buckeyes, something that along with the national championship beat down made him a hated man before coming to Columbus. In fact, many Buckeye fans will never forget the "God told me in a dream" story.
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Alex Kozan has heard from the new staff.
Drew Thurman (3:17 pm)

We are less than a month away from signing day and the Buckeyes still have a lot of question marks surrounding their 2012 class. Despite having a top five class nationally at the moment, the two biggest needs (offensive tackle and linebacker) really haven't been filled yet. So January should provide plenty of fireworks on the recruiting trail and Urban Meyer and the staff look to close strong. Let's take a look at some of the latest news with Buckeye prospects.

Semper Fidelis All-American Bowl

Last night the Semper Fi Bowl debuted, coming alongside the Offense-Defense, Under Armour and U.S Army All-American games as one of the premiere showcases of high school talent in the country. It was a very competitive game featuring Buckeye targets DB Demetrious Cox, OL Jordan Diamond, and LB Camren Williams playing on the East Team, as well as DB Bam Bradley and OL Alex Kozan in the West. I was lucky enough to not only be at their practices this weekend, but also got a chance to take in the action last night at Chase Field. Here is a rundown of each guy and where things currently stand in the recruitment. 

Demetrious Cox - Both in practice and in the game, Cox showcased that he is more of an athlete than a true safety at this point. As he told me last Friday, he is still adjusting to playing exclusively on defense and you can tell. While he definitely gets lost at times in coverage, he did show good recovery speed and the desire to be a presence in run support. He's down to Penn State, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Pittsburgh and Notre Dame, which will each gets visits in January. Cox was open in telling me that he is no hurry to make the decision, and isn't even sure he'll be close to making the decision around signing day.

Jordan Diamond - Diamond told me during practice that the coaches were giving him a chance to move around on the line, which was something he took them up on. Last night he took reps everywhere except for center. He looked really good, too, and had a nasty pancake in the second half of the game (something I got to see in practice as well). I was really impressed with his desire to play until the whistle blew and take on guys at the second level, though I have heard that hasn't always been the case in high school. Diamond is coming off visits to Ohio State and Auburn, which he called "even." He did tell me that he has more fans at OSU. He will be taking visits to Michigan (1/13), Arkansas (1/20) and Wisconsin (1/27) over the next month, and plans on announcing his decision around signing day on either February 1st or the 3rd.
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Camren Williams caught my eye throughout practice.
Drew Thurman (8:51 am)

The East Squad practice is where I devoted most of my attention in the first day of practice since Demetrious Cox, Jordan Diamond and Camren Williams were all there. Not only are those three some of the hottest names left on the board for the Buckeyes, but they are some of the best rated prospects in this game.

Unlike at the West practice, the portion I saw of the East practice was much more toned down and focused on fundamentals. They did open with a group of Marines leading the warm-up, which had to be one of the most interesting few moments of any football practice ever (or should I say boot camp). Afterwards they focused on special teams and positional drills, before finally getting into some offensive-defensive sets. Let's take a look at how Cox, Diamond and Williams looked, and where things stand in their recruitment. 

Demetrious Cox

One of the first guys that caught my eye when I first showed up was Cox. He was one of the quickest guys in the speed drills and seems to run so effortlessly. He did look a little raw in coverage later in the practice though, and had coaches working with him several times. Some of that can be credited to shaking off some rust on the football field.

"It feels great to be out here," Cox said. "It's been awhile since I put my gear on, I'm in basketball right now. I feel good and I'm ready to get things cracking."

Cox is also getting used to playing exclusively on the defensive side of the ball, as his focus has been at quarterback over the last several years.

"It feels a little weird just playing safety. I can adjust to it, but I'm just used to having the ball in my hands."
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Bam Bradley isn't sure he's ready to announce.
Drew Thurman (7:23 pm)

Today was the first of four days worth of practices for the guys in the Semper Fidelis All-American Bowl, which is played on January 3rd. While no Buckeye commitments are playing in the game, there are a handful of prospects on both teams. Bam Bradley and Alex Kozan will be playing for the West Squad, while Demetrious Cox, Jordan Diamond and Camren Williams are playing for the East.

At the West practice, I got a chance to take in a very hard hitting first day of practice featuring Bradley and Kozan. While Bradley could easily pass as an outside linebacker right now, he still showed the quickness to play safety. The West coaches had the offense in a lot of spread formations, and Bradley was in one-on-one coverage most of the afternoon instead of playing deep safety. Bradley held his own too, shutting down practically everyone he guarded, including Greg Garmon. He also stood out as one of the most competitive guys on the field.

"I'm trying to get the M.V.P. trophy," Bradley said. "If they're handing one out, I'm trying to get it."

As for his college choice, there have been many reports saying that Bradley will be announcing at the game what his final destination will be. While that still could happen, he made it clear that he will not announce if he is not ready.

"They (Semper Fi Bowl) asked me and I told them if I am ready then I will, but I also told them if I didn't feel ready, I wouldn't rush into it. I'm playing it day by day. I'm still praying on it and still asking my mom, and I'll know Tuesday if I'm ready to announce."
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Drew Thurman (1:51 pm)

If you're are a recruiting nut like me, you enjoy the bowl season as much for the All-American games as you do for the bowl games. Buckeye commitments and potential prospects are littered throughout these games, so don't miss out. Below is your guide to each game...
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_Offense-Defense All-American Bowl - December 29th 6:30 p.m. ET

Buckeye Commitments Playing: Joshua Perry, Se'Von Pittman, Bri'onte Dunn, Warren Ball, and Roger Lewis

Buckeye Prospects: None

Others of Note: Keith Byars II, Mauty Mauk, Jonah Pirsig, and Pharaoh Brown
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_Semper Fidelis All-American Bowl - January 3rd 6 p.m. ET (CBS)

Buckeye Commitments Playing: None

Buckeye Prospects: Demetrious Cox, Jordan Diamond, Camren Williams, Bam Bradley, and Alex Kozan

Others of Note: Greg McMullen, V’Angelo Bentley, Rushel Schell, and Deaysean Rippy
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