Published Apr 12, 2018
Take Two: Will a Midwest program capitalize on region's top talent?
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Adam Gorney  •  Rivals.com
National Recruiting Director
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CLASS OF 2019 RANKINGS: Rivals250 | State | Position | Team

Take Two returns with a daily offering tackling a handful of issues in the college football landscape. Rivals.com National Recruiting Analyst Adam Gorney lays out the situation and then receives takes from Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell and a local expert from the Rivals.com network of team sites.

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THE STORYLINE

Three of the top six offensive tackles in the 2019 class are from the Midwest and if Huntington, W.Va., five-star Darnell Wright is included on the list as well that makes four since Wright lives closer to Ohio State than Tennessee.

Can one program - the Buckeyes, or Michigan, Michigan State, Notre Dame or Wisconsin among others - benefit from the unique collection of Midwest talent at offensive tackle or will all of these top players pick different schools?

Only four-star Logan Brown is committed to Wisconsin but the Kentwood (Mich.) East Kentwood will not be ignored by local Big Ten schools. There’s a lot of buzz around Wright going to Tennessee but many other programs are involved.

Notre Dame could have an edge for four-star Quinn Carroll, out of Edina, Minn., but plenty of other Big Ten programs are staying in the mix. Devontae Dobbs, from Belleville, Mich., already has a teammate committed to Michigan State in four-star athlete Julian Barnett and the Spartans could have a jump on Dobbs but that’s no guarantee.

There are a lot of high-end programs in the Midwest that could make a run at a group of outstanding offensive linemen in this class. Can one of those programs come away with a big haul or will these talented prospects spread out across teams and across the region?

FIRST TAKE: RIVALS.COM MIDWEST RECRUITING ANALYST JOSH HELMHOLDT

“The team that has the chance to benefit most right now is Wisconsin, because it already has a commitment from Logan Brown and is still in the hunt for the others. But these are individual recruitments that do not really have much of an impact on one another. None of these top tackles in the region are particularly close, and their decisions will not sway the others. I like Notre Dame’s shot with Quinn Carroll, but the Irish are unlikely to land any of the others. I could see Devontae Dobbs staying in-state and joining his teammate on Michigan State’s commitment list, but it also would not shock me if he picked a Southern school like Clemson or Georgia. So, it’s likely they all go different places and some of those places may be out of region.”

SECOND TAKE: RIVALS.COM NATIONAL RECRUITING DIRECTOR MIKE FARRELL

“Every one of them will go to a different school. Darnell Wright is looking more to the Southeast and there has been a lot of talk around Tennessee with him.

“Carroll could end up at Notre Dame. He could also end up at Ohio State or Michigan. With Dobbs, the same thing or he could go to Michigan State. All four go to different schools because I think Brown is going to stick with Wisconsin in the end. If there is one school that has a chance to get two of them it’s Ohio State. They’ve been recruiting at a much higher level than any other team in the Midwest.”