Samuel down to six

Ever since Urban Meyer’s arrival in Columbus, Ohio to become Ohio State’s head football coach, the Buckeyes have had plenty of success on the recruiting trail down in Florida. The most notable would be at St. Thomas Aquinas in Fort Lauderdale, where they have reeled in talents like Damon Arnette, Nick Bosa, Joey Bosa and Trevon Grimes in previous years.

On Wednesday, they got one step closer to being able to add another name to that group when 2018 cornerback Asante Samuel Jr. narrowed his 38 offers down to his Top five schools on Twitter. As expected, Ohio State did find their way on the list for the 5-foot-9, 166-pounder and their competition will be very tough in this recruitment. The top list also included Alabama, Florida State, LSU and Miami (FL).

For now, the Buckeyes will have some catching up to do. Well, so will the Crimson Tide, Tigers and Hurricanes. It was just late last month that Samuel spoke with 247Sports’ Chris Nee and told him that the Jimbo Fisher and the Seminoles have a “big lead” for his services. As of Wednesday night, the Garnet and Gold hold 85 percent of Samuel’s 247Sports Crystal Ball predictions.

However, the good news is that Samuel is currently uncommitted and Ohio State has time to potentially throw a wrench into things — and attempt to make this battle much closer. First order of business is to get the four-star prospect in Columbus and on campus. If that doesn’t happen before summer, it may be too late for the Buckeyes.

With that being said, anything can happen in recruiting. Samuel is ranked as the No. 108 overall player in the 2018 recruiting class. Among cornerbacks, Samuel finds himself as the 14th highest graded one and is pegged as the 27th best player in the talented state of Florida.

Kinnard waits for Bucks

Back on National Signing Day for the 2017 class, Urban Meyer and Mark Pantoni touched on how the Buckeyes need to make Ohio more of a priority going forward. So far, the Buckeyes are doing that. They have a commitment from 2018 all purpose back Jaelen Gill of Westerville South (OH) and have offered eight others inside the state.

However, one they have not offered is ‘18 offensive tackle Darian Kinnard of St. Ignatius (OH). The 6-foot-6, 315-pounder does have offers from Cincinnati, Iowa State, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, Purdue and UCLA. But it certainly, and definitely not shockingly, seems that the three-star prospect is waiting on that offer from the Scarlet and Gray to come.

“I don’t have an offer from Ohio State but they always stay in contact. I’d say the ones that stick out the most are Kentucky, Maryland and Ohio State,” Kinnard relayed to 247Sports’ Steve Wiltfong. It was also revealed by Wiltfong that the only campus Kinnard has been to yet is the Buckeyes’.

Obviously, it is a wait-and-see approach here in regards to whether or not Kinnard will get an offer from Ohio State. The good news for the Buckeyes is that the three-star prospect hasn’t gotten offers that force them to play their hand. However, UCLA is probably the top offer he has gotten and that just came about on Tuesday. We will see if that starts some crazy recruiting momentum for Kinnard and enables offers to start pouring in.