Breaking: NCAA Rivals “working hard” to Flip Four-Star commit from Ohio State Buckeyes

Jordan Lyle, four-star running back from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, has been committed to the Ohio State Buckeyes for some time. In fact, he’s been a Buckeye since April of 2023, choosing OSU over the likes of Miami and Penn State.

That recruiting loss hasn’t stopped the Hurricanes from pursuing the talented running back recruit, though. In fact, Lyle is scheduled to take an official visit to Coral Gables this weekend. The visit comes on the heels of several unofficial trips to Miami during the fall and all-in-all, head coach Mario Cristobal and his staff haven’t given up on trying to get a flip.

“I am still locked in with Ohio State, but Miami has been on me hard and I like it when I am down there,” Lyle recently told On3. “I am not sure what they have to do to change my mind. The visit is important and I will soak it all in, talk with my family about it and see if Miami can pull a rabbit out of a hat.”

If the Hurricanes have anything going for them, it’s proximity.

Fort Lauderdale is an hour south of where Lyle has played his high school ball. Columbus, on the other hand, is clearly a much different story.

With that said, the Buckeyes are a perennial College Football Playoff contender while Cristobal is coming off a 7-5 season in his second year with the Hurricanes. Ohio State will be playing in the Cotton Bowl and had a shot to make the CFP. Miami will be in the Pinstripe Bowl.

It’s worth noting that Lyle is accustomed to winning. He’s helped St. Thomas Aquinas High School capture five straight state titles.

Your (almost) daily dose of good-natured, Ohio State banter.

Everybody knows that one of the best parts of being a sports fan is debating and dissecting the most (and least) important questions in the sporting world with your friends. So, we’re bringing that to the pages of LGHL with our favorite head-to-head column: You’re Nuts.

In You’re Nuts, two LGHL staff members will take differing sides of one question and argue their opinions passionately. Then, in the end, it’s up to you to determine who’s right and who’s nuts.

Jami’s Take: Actual Seasons

Seasons. Central Ohio has seasons.

As someone who lived in Columbus for four years and who has, over the course of my life, spent 5 total years in sunny Southern California (where I am currently writing this piece), I can tell you firsthand that Southern California’s publicist has been working overtime to make everyone believe that perpetual sunshine is good for you.

The Palm Tree People want you to think they love the fact that it’s 75 degrees and sunny all day every day. No one is built for this. It’s soul-crushing. You’re supposed to have to work for your summer weather by suffering through snow-shoveling and frigid temps and icy sidewalks and defrosting your car before you can drive it.

Growing up in the Midwest, we’re taught not to waste sunny days because they don’t come around all that often. On snowy or rainy days, you feel comfortable with the choice to curl up on the couch with a cup of tea and a good book, movie, or even some trash reality TV because the alternative (going outside) is not an option.

But here in Los Angeles, every day is sunny, and the days of lying prostrate on the couch with baking shows on an endless loop come with a side of guilt. You’ve wasted a sunny day. Even though they are endless. You’ll have another one tomorrow and the day after that and the day after that and you can go to the beach in January if you want. Too much of a good thing, you know?

To some, it’s going to sound like I’m being facetious. I’m not joking. My soul gets crushed a little bit waking up every single day to sunshine. I often put rainstorm videos on my YouTube TV just to feel something. I have a blizzard video playing right now, in fact.

We’re meant to have seasons. They help us mark the passage of time. They help us appreciate the summers. They give us a reason to slow down and hibernate. They add some variety to our wardrobe!

They’re so pivotal to the human experience that they factor into the song “Carmen Ohio” for pete’s sake! The years keep rolling in Southern California, but it’s an exaggeration to say the seasons are passing in the land of endless summer. But seasons are meant to ground us, to mark milestones, to add a sensory element to everything we do. Every Central Ohio experience is tied to the season—fall is for football, for boots and sweaters, for the newness of a fresh school year. Winter allows us to settle in, to get cozy. Spring and summer bring hope and usher in the excitement of all that is to come.

There was a feeling I’d get in Columbus on the first day of spring weather after a long winter. I’d leave my winter coat at home for the first time in months, opting for a light sweater or layers instead. And as I’d walk to class, I’d think, “Hmm, maybe I’ll take the long way home today and go past Mirror Lake while the weather is nice!” I’d cross the Oval, noticing that everyone was smiling, laughing, maybe kicking a soccer ball or reading a book.

Some professors even taught their classes outside.

And then there would be a very specific moment when the sun would come through the trees and hit my face just right, warm, reminding me that the winter wouldn’t last forever. Hope would creep in. The heaviness of whatever was happening in my life at that time wouldn’t feel so scary. Seasons remind us that everything has its time and place. Everything is temporary.

Out here in Southern California, we don’t have those natural reminders. We have to manufacture them. Scary things feel like they’ll last forever.

But in Central Ohio, we know it to be true that the hard times pass, and the good people, things, and memories remain a constant.

The seasons pass, the years will roll. Time and change will surely show…

Southern California could never.