Take Two: Will it be Ohio State, Texas or LSU for Anthony Cook?

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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Fve-star cornerback Anthony Cook plans to announce his commitment on Oct. 30 and he’s narrowed his selection to Ohio State, Texas and LSU.

He has already taken his official visit to Columbus and the Buckeyes have long been considered a front-runner. It certainly doesn’t hurt Ohio State’s chances with the five-star prospect that Urban Meyer and his staff have put so many defensive backs in the NFL the last few seasons.

Cook told Rivals.com recently that he really wanted to see improvement from Texas this past weekend against USC. Since the Longhorns took USC to double overtime and played well defensively, maybe that could be the spark for Cook to go to Austin?

LSU seems like an outside shot at this point, but the Tigers cannot be counted out for mainly two reasons: Ed Orgeron and his staff know how to recruit and secondly LSU might be the best school nationally for churning out top defensive backs for the NFL.

Will it be Ohio State, Texas or LSU? Cook has a little over a month to decide with official visits coming up to Austin and Baton Rouge. Is Cook’s recruitment closer than some think or are the Buckeyes just too far ahead to be caught?

“I have always thought that Cook was an Ohio State lean. Had five-star Texas native Jeffrey Okudah not signed with the Buckeyes last season, I might feel differently today. Since he did, I think that's the extra bit that Ohio State needs to stay in the lead. Cook said this week that he wanted to see something special from Texas against USC, but that the Longhorns didn't need to win to stay high in his consideration. They showed enough defensively that Cook should be encouraged by the performance, however, his personality is a more natural fit with the culture at Ohio State. I see more similarity to Okudah when it comes to Cook and what he's looking for in a program than I do between him and the other top prospects that Texas has been able to secure in 2018.”

“Texas helped itself, but Ohio State has been Cook's favorite the longest. He told me in June it was 51-49 percent or 50-50. It’s close. Even Texas insiders know the Longhorns have to make up ground on him and really prove they can put him where he wants to be. It’s a 1-2 football team. They looked good against USC, but it doesn’t matter. Ohio State lost to Oklahoma, but it is going to be in the playoff discussion and it puts defensive backs in the NFL better than anybody else in the last few years. You have to assume Ohio State is the team to beat.”