Ohio State Football: Tony Alford can still recruit with the best
The Ohio State football team just landed its future running back in James Peoples. Tony Alford is still an elite recruiter.
The Ohio State football team and running backs coach Tony Alford just got their big catch for the running backs room in 2024. Four-star and top-100 national recruit James Peoples of San Antonio, Texas just committed to Ohio State on Sunday night.
Getting Peoples to Columbus was a massive win in recruiting and proves that Tony Alford can still get it done with the best of them. The Buckeyes and Alford earned Peoples’ commitment over the likes of Alabama, Oklahoma, TCU, Oregon, and in-state favorite Texas.
Tony Alford deserves a ton of credit as he continually gets it done on the recruiting front, especially in must-get situations like the 2024 class was for the running back position. With no running back in the 2023 class, it was imperative that Alford delivered in 2024. And boy did he ever as Peoples has been compared to former Buckeye and Texas native J.K. Dobbins. If Peoples is anywhere close to the player Dobbins was, then Ohio State just hit a home run.
This commitment comes on the heels of the Buckeyes losing an in-state four-star back in Jordan Marshall to Michigan. This certainly lessens the blow, but it would have still been nice to have paired Marshall and Peoples together in this class, much like TreVeyon Henderson and Evan Pryor were paired in 2021.
The need is still there for another back in the class as Ohio State could lose both Henderson and Miyan Williams after next season. Tony Alford and the Buckeyes are still very interested in Stacy Gage, a four-star back from St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Florida, a school that Ohio State has recruited successfully over the years.
Another option is Sam Williams-Dixon, a three-star back from Pickerington North. With the success that Miyan Williams has had being a local kid with a lower rating coming out of high school, Alford could look at Williams-Dixon in that same sort of light.
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Nevertheless, Alford gets a ton of credit for getting their back in 2024. Ohio State just got a dynamic weapon to add to its arsenal and fans have reason to be very excited following this commitment.