Commit No. 18 for Ohio State’s 2013 recruiting class came in a big way when ESPN 150 cornerback Gareon Conley (Massillon, Ohio/Washington) decided he wanted to join the Buckeyes.
Massillon coach Jason Hall confirmed the commitment.
The 6-foot-1, 165-pound Conley was in Columbus for his official visit beginning Wednesday night and was pretty much one-on-one with the coaches until Friday.
Apparently, it went well, because the senior saw enough to join an Ohio State class ranked sixth in the ESPN rankings. Conley has been an interesting case of late, as he was a Michigan commit until a little over a week ago.
He attended the Ohio State-Michigan game -- a no-no in Wolverines recruiting -- and then gave his decommitment to the school up north the following week.
Urban Meyer started his all-out blitz for the cornerback with an in-home visit eight days ago and stuck around the next two days to watch the Ohio high school state finals, where he was seen with Hall quite a bit.
Conley was being courted as a cornerback for the most part -- he is ranked as the ninth-best corner in the nation in the ESPN 150 and 62nd overall -- but the Buckeyes recruited him as a two-way threat athlete, similar to Chris Gamble.
Conley can do both well, as he was the figurehead this season for a Massillon team loaded with BCS-caliber talent that reached the Division I regional finals.
An athlete with incredible speed, the four-star cornerback excelled this season on both sides of the ball.
Defensively, Conley made 25 tackles, forced a fumble, had two fumble recoveries and returned an interception for a score, despite teams rarely throwing his way.
At receiver, Conley led the Tigers in catches (50), yards receiving (1,096) and touchdowns (16).