Marcus Washington out of Trinity Catholic in St. Louis was highly recruited in the class of 2018. He had 36 scholarship offers including Ohio State and Missouri. Washington ultimately signed with Texas, but newly released texts from July 2018 show that former Ohio State coach Urban Meyer and assistants Tony Alford, Ryan Day and Zach Smith were focused on turning Washington against the in-state Tigers. At the time, they believed Washington was down to Missouri and Ohio State.

Gabe DeArmond of PowerMizzou.com took screenshots of the text discussing Washington’s recruitment and shared them on Twitter. Of note, Meyer tells his staffers to “Have graphics help attack Missouri.” He specifically mentions comparing OSU and Mizzou’s opportunities to play on TV, record crowds and big-time bowl games. Smith also accuses Missouri of “illegal” recruiting, noting that the staff sat down with Washington for two hours in the spring. Presumably, Smith is saying this was during a dead period or violated visit protocol between coaches and recruits. He does not go into detail in the July 19, 2018 text beyond saying it is something that OSU must overcome.

As far as Washington’s recruitment, he took an official visit to Ohio State on June 22, 2018. His next visits, after the Meyer-Smith scandal broke, were to Nebraska (Sept. 8, 2018) and Texas (Sept. 15, 2018). He committed to the Longhorns on Oct. 26, 2018. You might remember that Smith and UT coach Tom Herman have bad blood.