Through the month of July the Buckeyes have the 4th best 2023 recruiting class in the nation, 1st in the Big Ten. So far the Buckeyes class includes 1 5-Star, 15 4-Stars and 2 3-Stars. The Buckeyes hit the ground running to start the summer, landing a lot of recruits from May to mid July. The past few weeks have been a bit slow. Ohio State has missed out on a few big targets while also losing 4-Star TE Ty Lockwood to Alabama and 4-Star CB Dijon Johnson to presumably Florida or Miami. Today we will talk about the biggest gets, biggest misses and possible Buckeye commits.
Biggest Gets
Brian Hartline has been killing it on the recruiting trail the last several years, this year is no different. The Buckeyes landed four outstanding Wide Receivers, Brandon Inniss, Carnell Tate, Noah Rodgers and Bryson Rodgers. Inniss being the Buckeyes one 5-Star while the others are 4-Stars. Ohio State has 3 of top 10 WRs in the 2023 class and Bryson Rodgers isn’t far behind at 32. Ohio State also landed 4-Star TE Jelani Thurman who is a very good pass catcher and is a great addition to this class.
Another Position that has been recruited very well this year is cornerback. The Buckeyes currently have three cornerbacks committed. The three cornerbacks are Calvin Simpson-Hunt who flipped from Texas Tech, Kayin Lee and Jermaine Mathews. All three are 4-Stars and ranked in the top 25 of their position. Another good get for the Buckeyes was 4-Star Qb Brock Glenn. He might not ever get the starting job at Ohio State but it’s always important to get a solid Qb in every recruiting class for depth.
Biggest Misses
While WR and CB are set there are some holes at the other positions. I’ll start on the offensive line. The Buckeyes currently have three commits for the offensive line, two 4-Stars and one 3-Star. 4 Star OT Luke Montgomery was an awesome get for Offensive line coach Justin Frye but there’s been big fish who have slipped away. We can’t blame coach Frye because he hasn’t had a whole year to recruit and his predecessor was lackluster to say the least. OT Olaus Alinen was a big miss for the Buckeyes, Alinen chose Alabama over Ohio State. Alinen would of been a great pairing with Luke Montgomery.
If you have to worry about any position its the Linebackers. Ohio State did an excellent job last season recruiting Linebackers but it hasn’t translated to this year. The Buckeyes 2023 class has zero linebackers currently. Ohio State has missed out on a lot of LB target so far. They lost Troy Bowles to Georgia, Tackett Curtis to USC and Raul Aguirre to Miami. Ohio State must land a solid Linebacker late to save the position group for this class. The Buckeyes biggest lost this recruiting season came to Alabama. 5-Star safety Caleb Downs chose the Crimson Tide over the Buckeyes. Downs is the Number one safety in the class and he is absolutely phenomenal. The Buckeyes had a real good opportunity to land Downs but just missed him.
Possible Commitments
We all know how Larry Johnson is the best defensive line coach in all of college football and he always gets his guys. Right now the Buckeyes have two defensive lineman in the 2023 class led by 4-Star Jason Moore who just committed 3 weeks ago. While Larry Johnson is off to a slow start I expect a couple of big time DL commits in the coming months. Defensive Lineman to look out for are 5-Stars Matayo Uiagalelei and Damon Wilson. Those guys would be massive adds to this class. A lock for this defensive line room is Desmond Umeozu, I believe Umeozu will commit to the Buckeyes on August 29th.
A must get for Ohio State is 4-Star Linebacker Arvell Reese from Cleveland. Reese is a must get for them because of how many guys they have missed out on at linebacker so far. I believe the Buckeyes will be able to get Reese to improve their class. Another guy to keep your eye on is 4-Star safety Jayden Bonsu, at this moment Bonsu is leaning Ohio State over Miami. We can’t sleep on Miami, they have had a really good recruiting season. Bonsu would be a big get for Ohio State after missing out on Caleb Downs. With a lot of time before national signing day the Buckeyes have put together a good class but need to reinforce a few positions. I expect the Buckeyes to fill their needs and end with a top 3 2023 recruiting class.
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