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December 16, 2025 • 15 mins
In this episode of the Skull Session Recruiting Podcast, hosts Marc Givler and Juck Miletti discuss 2026 LB signee Cincere Johnson out of Glenville. They discuss his path to Ohio State, how his recruitment played out, his senior season, and what he could bring to the Buckeyes next year and down the road.

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, everybody, Tony Gerdaman here get another bonus edition of
the Skull Session Recruiting Podcast. This is Mark Givler and
Juck talking about Glenville linebackers. Since here Johnson and what
he could bring to the buck Eyes. Could he be
the next Rvel Reese. He had a monster year as

(00:21):
a senior at Glenville this year. So the fellows talk
about that, talk about a little bit about Glenville as
a whole in the pipeline that it has been for
iOS tape and what cincor Johnson could bring to the
buck Eyes as soon as twenty twenty six. Go ahead
and listen again. My highly recommended advice to you is

(00:43):
to subscribe to the Skull Session Recruiting Podcast all your
podcast platform of choice. Thanks, here you go.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Hello everyone, Welcome to the Skull Session Recruiting Podcast, Brushway,
Buffey Huddle dot Com. I am Mark Givler Juck Maletti
joining me today. Our recruiting capsules continue our class of
twenty twenty six sinnees. We're going one by one talking
about the recruiting process, looking at some film path to
the field at Ohio State. All sorts of good stuff. Juck,

(01:14):
We are at look. I mean, I don't know how
else to say. This is one of our favorite players.
This is a guy I had. I have to pat
myself on the back. It's the guy I had his
the number one player in his position in the state
of Ohio in a very deep year in Ohio and
a top five player in Ohio before High State offered him,
before any big news schools offered him. Actually, and you

(01:36):
have seen him in person and you have continued to
gush about him as well. And that is Cleveland Lenville
linebacker Sincere Johnson, who has shot up the rankings. Like
many of these guys, I believe some people have him
as the number one player in Ohio. Juck the Glenville
pipeline rolls.

Speaker 3 (01:53):
On rolls on double time, double time this year, which
obviously you love to see. And Sincere is great kid.
I mean like I've been talking to Sincere about the
potential of an Ohio State offer since before he ever
got it, and I remember being so irritated that Jakobe

(02:16):
Clapper got it before him, and Sincere was just like, oh,
that's so great for him. It's just like a really,
really solid, nice guy. But he wanted this one bad.
Wanted this one bad, and they took the Glenville Parade,
the whole camp. Everybody came down, and I thought he
was going to get that offer. I think you thought

(02:37):
he was going to get that offer as well. When
they went down, he didn't get that offer, left without it.
And James had told him, we want to see him
losing weight before his junior year. So he drops down
to two fifteen plays his junior two fifteen, four games
into it, he gets his Buckeye offer. The speed, the burst,
everything's there, and from there it's just been to the moon.

(02:59):
As he had two hundred tackles his junior year, Defensive
Player of the Year, does it again this year, only
he leads into a state championship, top fifty player overall
by both rivals and two four seven. The future is
bright for mister Johnson. And I know all the Buckeye
nation is so pumped for this one.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
Yeah, And that's a good story you told there about
dropping some pounds and kind of wanting to see things
on film his junior year. And I have to wonder, like,
first of all, I think it takes a unique type
of kid to hear that feedback. And here it's the
way it's meant to be given and not taken as oh,
you're calling me fat, like I'm never visiting you again,

(03:43):
like we're done. And it also takes, in my opinion,
what helped here the special relationship that OHIOSI has with
Tedginsr where tedgn Senior can pull him aside and be like, hey,
I've been doing this a long time. Ohio State been
doing this a long time. They've had a lot of
my kids over the years. They've told them they wanted

(04:05):
them to work on things and if they did, they
would get they would get their offer. They've followed through
on that, like, just trust the process here, listen to
what's being said to you, take the coaching like. There's
a lot of things that allowed that conversation to not
disrupt the recruiting process, where I think a lot of
kids would have taken it super personally and not followen

(04:28):
through and maybe the recruitment falls apart there. I mean,
we're in an era where parents tell coaches like, we
don't camp, we only camp at places where we have
an offer from And so for him to kind of
take the opposite approach of I'm going to earn this
I'm gonna do it. I'm told I need to do
and go out there and do it. I think is
super commendable. Again, there's been Ohio kids. There's some kids

(04:52):
in ohioan twenty twenty seven then have already total high state.
They're not camping unless they have an offer in Ohio
states like, well, that's just backwards because we're not offered
if you camp, so we have to see it first
before we offer. What are you talking about? So this
this was a refreshing recruitment to cover since here's a
great kid. I think he's gonna be a captain at
Ole High Street one day.

Speaker 3 (05:12):
Totally agree. Uh, this guy's just he's got it all, man,
he's got it all as a young guy. You know,
people love to be around him. Great personality, nice to everybody.
And on the football field, it's the flips, you know,
the switch flips, and he is brutal. Mark, he's brutal.

(05:32):
The burst is electric sideline to sideline and when you
see him hit somebody, you know, I look at Sonny
just in this game we just watched and against Indiana,
I think maybe Sonny's best game he's ever played where
he's just reading his keys. He's filling gaps and when

(05:53):
he hits somebody mark, they don't move an inch forward
like they're They're not like bo Jackson getting extra two
three yards and going down after he gets hit like
these dudes Sonny was hitting him and they were just
stopping dead in their tracks. And Sincere is that kind
of dog? Is that like face in the bottom of
the screen, your.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
Face in the bottom you get too junks?

Speaker 1 (06:21):
How uh?

Speaker 3 (06:22):
Yeah? And again I don't. I don't do these breakdowns
for many Sincere. I just I've always loved this kid's
game and he's just so he's just such a dog.
A lot of people make the comparison to Arvel because
it's you know, he's from Glenville. He plays nothing like Arvell.
I really think if you want to make an Ohio
state comparison, it's Cody Simon as a senior. I think

(06:46):
that that is a much more apt comparison to Sincere.
And I think that he's gonna play that type of
role and be a captain like Cody. Like I see
so many similarities between him and Cody, other than I
think Sincere ready to make that impact at a much
younger age than Cody was, but just a total dog man,
total dog He's got it all, all the intangibles and

(07:09):
again a top fifty player.

Speaker 1 (07:10):
Now.

Speaker 3 (07:11):
Throughout the recruitment, it was a little with Alabama at
one point, you know, he liked Alabama and ultimately James
keeps him home and this is where he belongs.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
Yeah, he's a devastating hitter. He can he can fill,
He can truly fill gaps and he he just the
burst he plays with.

Speaker 1 (07:35):
Is special.

Speaker 2 (07:36):
He but like he is absolutely one of the more
violent hitters I've seen in Ohio, you know, the last
five or ten years. Yeah, the linebacker position very very
special in that regard. I agree with you about the
I think the Reese comparisons came from their listed heights
and weights weren't far off. They're both from Glenville and
Orvil's like a big brother to him, so everyone's kind

(07:56):
of penciled him in that because I was I was
getting this discussions about this before he was offered about
like well you know there, because they were like again
the weight thing, and like is he gonna get too big? This,
that and the other, and uh, I said, well he can't.
And someone asked to why can't he I said, he

(08:19):
doesn't have the thing. Orvelle's frame is like insane, like
his shoulders are so broad, and like it's just if
orvel didn't play linebacker, he could absolutely play defensive end
and I probably will play that probably a lot in
the NFL. Like since here's got to be a linebacker,

(08:40):
they're just they're different players. He can't put on if
since here becomes two or sixty five pounds, he's he's
not going to have the flexibility and fluidity as now,
and he's not gonna it's not he's not gonna be
an effective defense in then. So that was my thing
was like when people were like, oh, I'll just woke
up like Orvelle, I'm like no, no, no, no, no, different frames,
different frames, different play styles, like you know, and what

(09:04):
he's been able to do with his body the last
eighteen months is phenomenal. Shows phenomenal discipline and also shows like, hey,
he can maintain this, and so it's only going to
get easier to maintain once he's at Ohio State with
you know, their world class nutrition system. But like, this
is a guy who I agree with you could play
very early. Unfortunately for him, he's got a bunk the

(09:28):
dudes coming back in the fixt year that are waiting
their turn. But I do think Sincere could be like
next year's Riley Pettijohn, who we see play and get
into the rotation. I do think that's possible for him.

Speaker 3 (09:42):
Yeah, you cut out for a for about ten seconds there.
I think that you were saying, correct me if I'm wrong.
This is my feeling and always has been on this
when people make that cup our bell. Big, wide framed guy,
long limbed Sincere, I think if you put more weight
on Sincere, and again this is why he wasn't getting

(10:04):
that offer. He built more like a an interior defensive tackle.
If you make him bigger, right like he at two
sixty five, he looks much squattier. Pick It doesn't have
the long limbs like it's it's not the same thing.
But this dude is a guy who, similar to Riley,

(10:25):
I think could be a wow guy right, not getting
a lot of playing time, but like everybody saw Riley
this year and was like that dude's got it. You know,
you feel really really confident right now as you look
at next year, knowing that you got Peyton coming back,
you got Riley who looks absolutely ready. And what we've
seen out of TJ. Alford, like everybody, I think feels

(10:47):
really good about those three guys. You throw Sincere in
the mix and uh, you know even better.

Speaker 2 (10:55):
Yeah, And and to be clear, as I was kind
of comparing him to Rvel, this wasn't a shot at Sincere.
In fact, one thing I would say in Sinceres, you know,
and and optimism with Sincere is I think as a
high school player, he's more instinctual than Rvel. Orvell made

(11:17):
a lot of wow plays and still of course does,
but Orvell has become instinctual at Ohio State, like that's
been drilled into him, and he's done a great job
learning and becoming more instinctual. I think Sincere is a
more natural instinctual football player than was coming out, uh,
in terms of you know, reading and reacting and and

(11:37):
and those types of and you kind of reading his keys,
reading what's going on in front of him. So there
are things that you know, obviously he doesn't have quite
the ridiculous frame athleticism that Rvel has, but there are
some things he brings to the table that took Rvel
two or three years at Ohio State to develop.

Speaker 3 (11:58):
Absolutely spot on. And when we look at Sincere as
an off ball linebacker, he's already at the level Rvel
is Arvel. His his game is so unique and so diverse,
and he's so good at rushing the passer in in
in in open space, making that you know, making a
tackle against a a guy like Jeez the Washington quarterback

(12:23):
who's modeling that kind of like that's something that that's
just a different type of cat right there. But as
an off ball linebacker, Sincere is as good as it
gets coming out of high school, whereas Arvel not the
best off ball or you know, off ball linebacker on
his team, but what he brings is just a totally
different skills and he's one of one, right, Like we've

(12:44):
not seen a dude like that at Ohio State. Uh
And and that's why it's almost like unfair to be like, oh,
he's the next tim He's not that. But when we
look at Sonny and we watch how Sonny played that
Indiana game, like there you go right there, absolutely shutting
down the run, just dominant from that perspective, reading his keys,

(13:04):
filling the whole, sure tackler and when he hits man
does it with attitude. The kid loves football, right, and
that's what I also always like, how much does this
kid love football? Man? That dude loves football? So good stuff. Man.

Speaker 2 (13:20):
Yeah, I'm I'm very high on Sincere in his ability
to play long terminal high state, be a potential captain,
but also maybe even again be this year's or next
year's Riley Pettijohn, maybe where he can get out there
early and into some situations and obviously you get the
garbage time, but I mean even you know, they started
throwing Riley out there earlier and earlier games that felt

(13:42):
like as the year went on, I could see that
with Sincere as well, and just trying to get your
best guys on the field. So big pickup for high
Stake Glenville pipeline rolls on. We'll also talk about Jamior
Perez later, but guy's got two Lenhil guys in this
class and there could be some more down the pike.
They got a couple of young guys I'm really high on,
which we'll talk about here in future episodes as well.

(14:03):
But chuck any final faults on this again, I know
this is kind of your steps on here, so it's
beaming with pride over there about this one.

Speaker 3 (14:13):
Yeah, man, Hey, look, I love the Ohio kids, particularly
the Northeast Ohio kids right here in my backyard, and
sincere gonna do us proud. Man, It's gonna do us
all proud up here in the northeast wing of the
state for sure.

Speaker 2 (14:26):
All right, guys, we'll be back here soon with another one.
Make sure you keep it locked in here at YouTube
dot com slash Bucky Huddle for more of these. We
break down all of the signings for O High Seats
twenty twenty six recruiting class, and make sure you're catching
Tom and Tony's coverage of the team as they go
for a repeat. We won't call it the title defense,
We'll call it a repeat. And make sure you river
at buckehell dot com subscribe over there, and it's a

(14:47):
great time to join with this upcoming playoff run and
everything else is going on with the program right now.
It's a great time to be a High State fan,
So check us out over there for more coverage of
the Ohio steat buck guys, But thanks everyone again for watching, listening,
and we'll be back here soon with another one.
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