COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Kerry Coombs is no longer a member of the Ohio State football coaching staff and, with his departure, the Buckeyes have lost their best bargaining chip for landing its top 2023 defensive back target.
A.J. Harris is the nation’s No. 18 player and No. 3 cornerback in the 2023 class, holding offers from 35 schools. The past month was supposed to be about the five-star prospect making decisions. His first was to switch schools in his Phenix City, Alabama, from Glennwood to Central High School. That was an easy choice as it raises the level of competition he’d be playing against, providing a chance for him to even more back up that five-star rating.
The second decision hasn’t been so easy. The amount of turnover on his list of schools forced him to delay it altogether. He and Coombs have spent the past year building a relationship ever since he earned an OSU offer last April. Coombs did his homework fully aware that even though he was tasked with pulling an elite prospect out of the heart of SEC country, it wasn’t an impossible feat.
That relationship mixed with Coombs’ recruiting reputation built over last decade was why it wasn’t crazy to think Harris would be the latest five-star cornerback to come through Columbus. Instead, the Buckeyes are now starting from scratch with two new defensive back coaches in Perry Eliano and Tim Walton.
Eliano at least has some level of a relationship with Harris and his family from his time at Cincinnati, even if it never resulted in an offer. That might be more because they didn’t think they had a shot at getting him than because they didn’t think he was good enough. But that relationship isn’t strong enough to make up for Coombs not being in Columbus anymore.
For both new coaches, their best asset right now is their reputation.
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Eliano just spent the past year coaching Jim Thorpe Award-winner Coby Bryant and All-American Sauce Gardner. Walton has been in the NFL for the past decade, even spending some time coaching All-Pro cornerback Jalen Ramsey, who has spoken highly of him in the past. Both came to the recruiting table with the proper credentials to pique Harris’ interest, a good first step. The next step is building a rapport which will take more than a few phone calls to make happen.
Meanwhile, Harris will go back into “collecting information” mode even if he’s not happy about it. He chose a Jan. 11 commitment date as a chance to both celebrate his birthday and also bring an end to a recruitment process that he’s never been much of a fan of.
There isn’t a leader anymore. That’s a good and bad thing for Ohio State.
With Coombs now Cincinnati’s cornerbacks coach and special teams coordinator, he’ll continue his recruitment of Harris. The news of his hire prompted the five-star to announce that the Bearcats are now among his top schools, which isn’t something to take lightly.
For now, here is what’s important when it comes to Ohio State’s chances of still landing Harris: There is no new commitment date, and while there may be a goal of wrapping things up in April or May, this realistically may head into the summer months. That gives Eliano and Walton time to make up ground.
OSU may have lost its best asset in landing Harris, but it still has as good a chance as anyone to pull this off. Eliano’s and Walton’s qualifications have already provided them a seat at the table. Now it’ll be about spending the next six months making sure they maximize their time at it.
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