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Vo. 1, No. 34
This week in Ohio State football, we are squarely into the offseason.
You know what that means? Time to check in on Ryan Day’s recruiting efforts (or read about Jim Tressel’s first year at Ohio State if you prefer).
If you’re not a recruiting person, don’t fret: That is not all that will be filling this spring and summer.
We’ll have plenty of time to re-analyze spring ball, assess the two-deep, track the rest of the conference and whatnot.
Of course, I’m always open to suggestions, too!
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Ohio State’s 2027 class enters May ranked No. 5 in the nation per 247Sports Composite rankings
For a while, the headliner of the class was Jamier Brown, a five-star receiver from Huber Heights who recently transferred to Big Walnut High School in the Columbus area.
Brown, who is the reigning state champion in the 100 meters, was the first to commit to Ohio State for ‘27, but he is the No. 2 player in the class now behind DJ Jacobs, a defensive end/linebacker from Roswell, Ga.
Jacobs is the No. 4 overall player in the country and No. 1 edge defender in the class.
Those are the two five-stars while there are seven four-stars and a pair of three-star prospects.
(Incidentally the lowest-rated commit is Hollywood, Fla., safety Angelo Smith, who happens to be the younger brother of Jeremiah Smith.)
Brown is one of four Ohioans in the class, and the other three are offensive linemen: Kellen Wymer (Liberty Center), Davis Seaman (Columbus Bishop Watterson) and Mason Wilt (St. Clairsville).
That could signal a trend starting last year with a big class of in-state linemen, particularly since Wymer is a top 100 recruit overall in the country while the other three are outside the top 300.
The class has a quarterback in Brady Edmunds of Huntington Beach, Calif., though Ryan Day missed on a chance to add another when Wonderful “Champ” Monds IV verbally committed to Notre Dame on Friday. (Yes, that is really his name.)
(Incidentally No. 2: Quarterback R.J. Day, the coach’s son, is the No. 49 prospect in Ohio and has offers from South Florida, Boston College, Cincinnati and Northwestern, among others.)
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What about the rest of Ohio?
There are 16 four-star prospect in the state as of this writing, and seven have already committed elsewhere.
That includes Cincinnati Anderson cornerback Ace Alston (Notre Dame) and Euclid cornerback Kel’Shjuan Telfair (Penn State), who are both national top 100 recruits.
Akron Hoban’s Brayton Feister, an “athlete” prospect is No. 5 in the state has about a million offers, including Auburn, Cincinnati, Colorado, Indiana, Michigan, Notre Dame, Oregon and Ohio State.
Cincinnati Princeton’s Monsanna Torbert Jr. is ranked No. 6 and is committed to Indiana while Tri-Village offensive lineman Dominic Black is ranked No. 7.
Black is one to watch as Ohio State brought him in for a visit during spring practice but has not offered him a scholarship, at least not yet.
With that being the case, Black recently released a top eight of Kentucky, Indiana, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia Tech, N.C. State, West Virginia and Michigan State.
I say Black is one to watch because Division VI prospects getting Ohio State offers is not common, and the Patriots are among the teams we cover at PressProsMagazine.com.
Bucknuts reported Friday Ohio State offensive lineman Tyler Bowen visited Black this week and he could be a candidate for a summer camp offer.
Other southwest Ohioans in the 247Sports Composite rankings at this time include Cincinnati Withrow WR Chuck Alexander (Louisville commit), Anderson LB Antwoine Higgins (Kentucky), Winton Woods edge Jaylen Mercer, Cincinnati Taft LB Josiah Pouncy (Louisville), Lakota West RB Kenyon Norman, Cincinnati Northwest safety Hezikiah Kelley, Lakota West offensive lineman Reilly Newman (Iowa), Winton Woods offensive lineman Lual Aleu (Missouri), Cincinnati Moeller offensive lineman Patrick O’Brien, Cincinnati St. Xavier defensive lineman Josh Fasbender, Centerville CB Ziere Alton, Springfield LB Jahmiere Daniels-Portis, Lakota West CB Roman Combs, Taylor offensive lineman Ryan Massie-Cable (Cincinnati), Middletown DE Jaiden Davis, Springboro DL Carter Napier and Lakota West TE Xavier Ratica (Louisville).
Looking ahead to 2028, Ohio State has two verbal commitments among juniors-to-be: Trotwood-Madison defensive end Jameer Whyce and running back Elijah Newman-Hall of IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla.
Whyce is the No. 2 prospect in Ohio in his class behind Taft WR Lorenzo McMullen Jr.
Judah Blair, a linebacker at Lakota West, gives southwest Ohio the top three prospects in the class of 2028 as we head into the summer camp season so that’s something.
That’s all for this week, but I am interested to see how these next two Ohio State recruiting classes start to take shape this spring and summer.
Why?
No. 1, we’re not quite sure how Ohio State going to approach recruiting now and in the future. Day said he still wants to build primarily with high school prospects, but the transfer portal offering annual opportunities for everyone on the roster to leave in search of more playing time or a higher pay day makes that trickier than it used to be.
Ohio State signed a big class including some developmental in-state prospects for 2026. Will it do so again? What will the balance be for those guys along with major national prospects?
No. 2, I’ve honestly not followed recruiting as closely as I used to because I had other priorities when I was working for the Dayton Daily News. I used to be one of those recruiting junkies, but I didn’t really mind letting it go because…
No. 3? Urban Meyer made Ohio State recruiting kinda boring.
How? By being too damn good at it for one.
I started following recruiting during the John Cooper days when classes were a fun mix of out-of-state stars and well-known Ohioans from every corner of the state. That continued under Jim Tressel, who had a knack for uncovering diamonds in the rough from Ohio and beyond, adding another fun layer to the whole exercise.
Then Meyer came along, who not only nationalized recruiting even more (going from 60% Ohio signees to about 40) but also had a habit of recruiting over players at every position on a regular basis.
That’s not a bad thing, of course. It’s how you have one of the best rosters in the country every year, but it does tend to ramp up the roster churn. That makes getting too familiar with most of the recruits before they actually make a move for playing time feel more like wasted time.
Then again, what else are you gonna do, think about basketball?
BONUS CONTENT!
Aside from launching this newsletter, these days I’m writing for multiple other sites, including primarily PressProsMagazine.com, The Associated Press and MensJournal.com.
(I’m also sharing my thoughts on the premium message board at BuckeyeSports.com if you’re into that sort of thing.)
This week for Men’s Journal, I had stories on new games coming to Playstation Plus subscribers for May, more on the insane/troubling saga of former Cincinnati/current Texas Tech QB Brendan Sorsby and a piece on Luke Combs rocking Ohio Stadium and welcoming three former Buckeyes and a gold medalist on stage in front of a record crowd.
