To say a lot has transpired since we released our previous Tuesday edition of Recruiting Roundtable is an understatement.

During that time, the Buckeyes saw Benji Gosnell and five-star cornerback Jaheim Singletary decommit from their 2022 class. And, just yesterday, it was announced by the nation’s No. 1 overall prospect, Quinn Ewers, that he will be forgoing his senior season at Southlake Carroll to enroll a year early at Ohio State.

In this edition of Recruiting Roundtable, Carson MacRae and Joseph Hastings share their thoughts on Ewers’ decision to enroll a few months earlier than initially expected. They also list a couple of cornerback options the Buckeyes may consider turning up the heat on, and ask if the program can still sign the No. 1 class in the country.

MacRae: The Quinn Ewers news definitely came as a shock to me. I was actually not aware of how much he had actually fast tracked himself through school. Ewers only had one high school class left to graduate, which shows he has taken his academics pretty seriously to be ahead of his class’ learning schedule.

Now, in terms of the football side of it, I can totally understand where Ewers and his family are coming from. A missed year on NIL can seriously affect his life in the long term. Let’s take Tate Martell, for example; now, I’m not comparing the two players in terms of skill, rather I’m comparing their brands coming out of high school.

When Martell was playing at Bishop Gorman and leading Bishop Gorman to four straight state titles, his brand was higher than any other prospect in the country. That also happened to be the point in his life where his brand would be higher than it ever was and probably will ever be now. The ability to profit off NIL back then would have probably resulted in Martell making 500-800k alone in his first year being committed to the Buckeyes.

If you look at where Ewers’ brand is at the same point in his high school career that Martell was, Ewers is significantly bigger. He is going to have the opportunity to make a million dollars without ever taking a snap for the Buckeyes. With the unforeseeable future ahead of Ewers, it is easy to understand the decision. We never would have imagined Martell turning out the way he did after watching him in high school but here we are, he is now on his third school battling to start at UNLV.

Like I said before, I am not comparing the talent or Ewers’ future to Martell, I am simply comparing their brand at this point in time and if Ewers were to sustain an injury, that slows his growth and future down; well, at least he would have some compensation because he took advantage of his brand recognition while it was its highest.

My two cents on the subject.

Hastings: First of all, I do want to make it very clear that this is ultimately Quinn Ewers’ decision, and he is doing what is best for him. He said in his statement yesterday that people will have their opinion on the mater, acknowledging that not everyone will agree with it.

After some time to think on it, I definitely believe Ewers made the best choice for him, though I do have some thoughts coming from the lens of what some may call a traditionalist.

On one hand, Ewers gets to step on campus a few months early, learn the playbook, and get a head start on the college experience. This includes learning how to balance academic and football obligations as it is definitely an adjustment for student-athletes whenever they start this new chapter in their life.

Also, Ewers will immediately have an opportunity to capitalize on his Name, Image and Likeness as opposed to waiting until 2022 to start making money off of endorsements. Truthfully, I don’t even blame him for this influencing his decision.

Over the past several months, Ewers’ stock has soared higher than it was before. With dazzling passes on the camp circuit, doing a throwing session with Patrick Mahomes, and appearing on seemingly every platform that covers sports, Ewers is at the height of his popularity.

Why not enroll now and earn money as soon as you can?

On the other hand, however, there is a part of me that values the high school experience. I’m only a few years removed from having senior night with my basketball teammates, celebrating a journey that lasted throughout high school, and excited for the chance to compete in the playoffs for the final time.

That is a journey that cannot be replicated at any point in your life, and I do think there is some value in it as it is something you would likely cherish for a long time.

But, once again, this was always going to be up to Ewers, and I won’t fault a kid for focusing on his own future. It is not what I would have done, but the great thing about the human being experience is that it is a subjective one and priorities vary from person to person.

MacRae: I touched on this a little bit in last week's Skull Session, but I had predicted Singletary to decommit and with the expectation that now all eyes turn to Ephesians Prysock.

The Mission Hills (California) product is a long 6-foot-3, 170-pound cornerback who has all the intangibles to be a very elite player at the college level.

Now, the interesting part about this recruitment is Tennessee is to be considered the leader here but the Buckeyes have continued to stay in Prysock’s ear for a fair amount of time. I believe the Ohio State staff was well aware that they could be losing Singletary with the amount of pressure Kirby Smart and his staff were putting on.

However, I spoke to a source close to Prysock who said he was told by the Ohio State staff that there was the possibility that they may lose a guy and did not want to shut the door on him.

From what I’ve gathered in the past couple days, Prysock has not been too worried about pushing his recruitment and was waiting to see how everything played out. This is a pretty solid indicator that he is pretty big on the Buckeyes if he was waiting on seeing if the spot would open up in the class for him.

Like I said, UT is leading here but with the Singletary decommitment, I expect all eyes to turn to Prysock and I think the Buckeyes are, at the very worst, number two here.

I’m going to try to touch base with him this week. Hopefully more to come shortly.

Hastings: Look, there’s no replacing Jaheim Singletary. He’s the No. 5 overall player in the 2022 class, is an exceptional lockdown defensive back, and would have been a major haul for the Buckeyes if he stuck through with his commitment.

And, to be clear, Ohio State is going to keep pursuing him. This relationship has been established for roughly a year now, and you don’t ever give up on a prospect who has as much talent as he does.

Since Singletary seems likely to stay in the Southeast, however, the Buckeyes are going to put the full-court press on for some other guys they’ve been keeping warm as of late. The two that immediately come to mind are Ephesians Prysock and Julian Humphrey.

Prysock is a 6-foot-3, Rivals250 cornerback out of California. He brings length and athleticism to a position where those two traits are desired by Coombs, and he’s from a state the Buckeyes are looking to make waves in in this cycle and the 2023 class as well with Nico Iamaleava.

This also isn’t a situation where Ohio State would have to deliver a summer-before-senior-year offer and be late to the party as Prysock received the green light from the program as a sophomore. With established relationships here and him already having officially visited in June, keep an eye out for Prysock.

Another player to pay attention to is Humphrey. Despite being committed to Florida, the Rivals100 corner made his way up to Ohio State to attend their June 2 camp, and left a good impression on the staff.

Humphrey would later go on to tell me that the Buckeyes were definitely in consideration for his services and that an official to the fall may transpire. Barnes and Coombs have communicated to him that they’d like for Humphrey to visit this season, and we know – using Carson Hinzman as the most recent example – that official visits without an offer are fine with the program.

I think Prysock is the likeliest addition at this time, but I would not rule out Humphrey if they decide to offer him.

MacRae: I personally believe the Buckeyes still do have a chance to land the number one class in the country. With the Ewers reclassification, it obviously becomes a lot harder to do so, but the pieces on the board are still there.

I believe the Buckeyes stand about a legitimate 20 percent chance of landing with the top class in the country, but only if they are able to land who I expect in Kam Dewberry, Earnest Greene, Caden Curry, Kenyatta Jackson and a few others.

Also, I have been told that the possibility of a certain OL recruit with Kentucky could be flipped, according to an insider at UK. I’m not putting too much stock in it right now, but they informed me that Kiyaunta Goodwin has told the staff he would still like to visit some schools and they’re requesting he does not.

It sounds like there is some murky water there which I will not speculate too much on, but usually kids wanting to go visit schools while committed and the staff telling them no is not a good sign. Just ask Clemson; it has caused them some trouble the past couple cycles, including with a top DE target in Korey Foreman.

If the Buckeyes were able to pull that flip and still land Dewberry, I think Ohio State definitely lands the top class but there’s so many factors that still must play out.

I see these four teams finishing in the top four: Ohio State, Georgia, Alabama and LSU. I would put the most stock in the Tide landing the top class again as Saban always seems to push right towards the end of a cycle for flips. It will be interesting how it all plays out but Ewers reclassifying sure makes it harder.

Hastings: This is a great question by Carson.

A few weeks ago, Ohio State’s 2021 class was set to finish well short of Alabama’s point total of 3,554. Now, they’ve added J.T. Tuimoloau and Quinn Ewers to that class to close the gap a little bit, though Nick Saban’s program still finished several hundred points ahead.

Despite this, the Buckeyes will finish with their greatest class in the Rivals.com era, an impressive feat nonetheless.

As for the 2022 class, well, that’s where it gets tricky. Decommitments from Benji Gosnell and Jaheim Singletary, as well as the reclassification of Ewers, has brought Ohio State down from 2,636 to 2,051 total points. That’s a steep drop, and brings the program down from first in the team rankings to fifth.

But what’s encouraging for the Buckeyes, however, is that they have less commits than each of the four schools ahead of them, so this drop was just a matter of having less commits than a reflection of the quality of the class. They also still have a 4.07 average star rating, which is the best in the nation in the 2022 class.

There’s also the belief that Ohio State appears to be trending for top-60 overall players Xavier Nwankpa and Zion Branch, and they have multiple Rivals100 d-linemen, like Caden Curry, Chris McClellan, and Hero Kanu, that could end up committing. Also throw in the fact that they are in a good spot with Rivals100 o-linemen Earnest Greene and Kam Dewberry, and it becomes apparent that Ohio State could end up recovering from these recent losses.

I think Alabama and Georgia, and maybe even USC, will be contending for the top spot, but I still envision the Buckeyes finishing No. 1 when it’s all said and done.

Stay tuned to BuckeyeGrove