Michigan Wolverines

The writers at WolverineNation and BuckeyeNation put their heads together to break down the rivals’ 2013 classes. Position-by-position, they’ll give you a look at who Brady Hoke and Urban Meyer brought in and, ultimately, which class edged out the other. It’s too early to say what will happen over the next few seasons, and we won’t make any promises except that Hoke and Meyer are going to put talent on the field.

Ohio State got: If there was ever a position where Urban Meyer proved he was one of the best closers in the game, it is the wide receiver position. The Buckeyes headed into the last week of recruiting with just Taivon Jacobs (Forestville, Md./Suitland) and Jalin Marshall (Middletown, Ohio/Middletown) in the fold. Meyer picked up junior college standout and former Akron (Ohio) Buchtel star Corey Smith (East Mississippi Community College) first before really closing the door. Dontre Wilson (Desoto, Texas/Desoto) was next to commit with James Clark (New Smyrna Beach, Fla./New Smyrna Beach) wrapping things up as a signing day special. It left no room for Jacobs, who stayed home to play with his brother at Maryland. What it also did was give the Buckeyes three four-star commitments in the final week and rounded out a position of strength that has four four-star signees to help Meyer and his spread offense continue to grow.

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Every other week, Tom and Chantel invite in an outside writer to give some of their thoughts on the state of recruiting. Today, since they’ve started their Michigan-Ohio State position-by-position comparison, they decided to ask BuckeyeNation writer Brad Bournival to weigh in on the rivalry and its recruiting.

1) Defensive end Lawrence Marshall (Southfield, Mich./Southfield) recently committed to Ohio State, then decommitted after visiting Michigan State and Michigan. Where does he eventually end up?

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Ohio State will get its chance to make a late pitch for the top-ranked offensive guard in the nation when David Dawson (Detroit/Cass Tech) makes an official visit to Columbus, Ohio.

But the 6-foot-4, 282-pound ESPN 150 senior won’t be making the trip when many of the 2013 targets are coming to Ohio State, and that could be a good thing.

Dawson indicated that his trip is slated for Jan. 18 -- a full week after Kenny Lacy, Cornelius Elder, Shelton Gibson, James Hearns, Ryan Timmons, Marcus Baugh, Johnny Townsend and Jalin Marshall are making their visits to see the Buckeyes.

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Around 50 of the country’s top senior and junior prospects were at Notre Dame this past weekend, so the Fighting Irish coaching staff wasn’t able to give every recruit -- especially the juniors -- the kind of attention it probably wanted.

However, coach Brian Kelly and the staff made it a point to make sure Pickerington (Ohio) Central junior linebacker Taco Charlton knew he was a priority for the class of 2013.

“He just said he’s interested in the main guys they pulled over, like six or seven of us,” Charlton said of Kelly’s message to a select group of juniors, which also included Ohio’s Jalin Marshall. “They’re real interested in us and want us to be a part of the Notre Dame history.”

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