A decommitment, two 5-star targets and where Ohio State’s recruiting stands heading into the summer: Buckeye Talk podcast (2024)

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- On this latest episode of Buckeye Talk, Stephen Means and Andrew Gillis catch up on what’s been happening on the recruiting trail for COLUMBUS, Ohio --.

It’s been about three weeks since the last deep dive into the 2025 class which ranks second nationally. Since then, the Buckeyes suffered a third commitment and a second from a cornerback. It’s also seen another highly-rated wide receiver target reopen his recruitment just as he’s set to take his official visit to Columbus.

Stephen and Andrew discuss at all the latest recruiting news and it impacts OSU heading into the summer as it hopes to continue putting together yet another elite class.

Thanks for listening to Buckeye Talk.

Read the automated transcript of today’s podcast below. Because it’s a computer-generated transcript, it may contain errors and misspellings.

Stephen Means (00:44.613)

Welcome back to book I talk I’m Stephen means and that’s Andrew Gillis and this is your Wednesday book I talk coming off of a Tuesday pod where we said a farewell to our lost brethren at Nathan Baird. He has he said in that pod he’s not dead. What is wrong with you people that’s that I’m not insinuating that somebody is dead. He is gone though. He’s no longer with us. He what we lost him. He’s no longer with us on this pod. He’s still in the world walking around.

Andrew (00:56.782)

Yeah, he’s not dead.

Andrew (01:04.814)

We’re a lost brethren.

Stephen Means (01:12.997)

He’s fine. It’s just, he’s not with us anymore. And that’s okay. He’ll be back at some point. We’ll definitely be bringing him back on the week. Ohio State place Purdue, because I guess I don’t know what else am I going to do? Not bring on the guy I spent the last five years working with. That’s weird to not do that. So Nathan will be back at some point, but we move forward. We’re still in the process of hiring a person who’s going to replace Nathan on the pod and on the beat for us. When we have more information on that, we’ll let you guys know through the text first, probably 6 1 4.

3503315 are really excited to get that guy or girl in here to get started on that. Listen, we’re open to everybody. Everybody’s it’s a pretty big job. And so we’re excited to see who ends up filling that role for us here on Buckeye Talk. But as we look forward to the future, we also do so within Ohio State’s 2025 recruiting class currently ranking second in the country behind Notre Dame still, I believe. Twelve recruit commits in it. A lot of those commits are down at the O -N -3 elite thing.

this week, so I don’t know how much we’re gonna be talking to guys this week, but we do have things to talk about, Andrew, because a lot has happened since the last time we did a surefire recruiting pod. Obviously, last week was Michigan week, so we focused more on a specific topic, but it’s been a while since you’ve just discussed the latest upbringings in just Ohio State football recruiting world, and we’re gonna discuss all those things, what they mean for the Buckeyes, and what it means for Ohio State as it heads into its first week of official visits. We’ll do a later pod where we’ll preview.

this first week of official visits here on Buckeye Talk. Get the text 614 -350 -3315. Andrew, where do you want to start though? I mean, there’s a, probably a long list of things we can get into in terms of what’s happened over the past two weeks here. Where do you want to start in terms of things that impact Ohio State in the 2025 recruiting class?

Andrew (02:48.814)

Phew.

Andrew (02:57.966)

Well, I think maybe the easiest place to start would be everything that I missed. So let’s go with Decorian More. I think that that would be a good place to start. I don’t know how you feel about that, but I think that that would be a nice place to go.

Stephen Means (03:11.941)

Okay, so Decorah Moore, the number one wide receiver in the country, the number three player in the country, long time committed to LSU. Obviously he decommits from LSU. And it just feels like right now, I mean, he said an official visit for Ohio State in the coming weeks here, but it just feels like this is gonna be a what, an Ohio State Texas battle?

Andrew (03:32.302)

That’s the way it sounds right now. Oregon’s also involved. He’s got an official visit there, but he’s got a visit this weekend, this upcoming weekend, May 31st weekend to Columbus. Two weeks later, he’s going to go to Texas. A week after that, he’s going to go to Oregon. Unsure of a decision there. Like I said, he recently decommitted from LSU and it was kind of funny. I texted Stephen. Stephen has...

Stephen Means (03:41.445)

Okay.

Andrew (03:55.534)

gotten to a point where he could text me whenever commit text at an ill time time and will just kind of make fun of me whenever it happens at you know 11 in the morning or something and we’re I think it was the spring game and Nate Roberts committed or something like that and I felt bad because I I went on vacation or as Steven said live your life go go do what you want to do and I was down in Key West and right at like 11 o ‘clock.

Decorian Moore decommitted from LSU and Stephen was left to pick up the pieces. So I do appreciate Stephen doing that. If you read his story, you should have. It’s a big deal for Ohio State because LSU was the school that was kind of the placeholder. And I think committing today definitely feels very much like one or two things where it’s, hey, this is...

the school where I’m going to go, like unless something changes, this is where I want to go play football. And for other kids, it’s this is what’s in the lead. This is the number one program right now. And you kind of wonder if that was the way that the Decorian Moore thing shaped out with with LSU. You know, but you know, this is a big is a big time prospect, right? Like this is the number one receiver in the country. This is a guy who.

For all that we talk about Ohio State having great receivers and even if they don’t get this guy, they’ll be fine. And if they lose Jeremiah McClellan on signing day and they’ll be fine. This is one of those guys where it would be a big deal if Ohio State misses out on him. Brian Heartline’s been after him for a while. He’s from Duncanville, Texas. He’s a really, really good football player. And just for comparison sake, 247 compares him to Chris Alave.

You know, they talk about him as an athlete. They talk about him that, you know, as a guy that can just go up and make some plays. And when you’re playing in that level of high school football, that’s different, right? And we talk about this all the time. You know, I think we talked about this a lot, maybe with Lincoln Tienholtz, Steven. I think that that might be the best kind of example we use for like, hey, look, here’s a guy who’s not playing in this high level of high school football, with all due respect to the Dakotas.

Andrew (06:11.694)

we’re talking about a different breed here, right? Like this is Texas high school football and he played for the state champions. So this is a guy who could theoretically come in and contribute immediately if you needed him to, you would think because of the talent that he has. But not only that, the level of competition that he has, he’s not going to show up and say, look, here’s this guy who’s going to play in the NFL and be scared by that because he’s going up against a couple of guys.

that are going to be playing in the NFL in Texas. So yeah, De ‘Korian Moore being uncommitted now is a big deal. There are a few crystal balls to Texas. If you look that up, there’s a couple of people that have logged him to be a Longhorn. I don’t have a feel for this one yet. I think you want to wait till maybe the visits are over, and especially this weekend. I think if this weekend doesn’t go well, then you’re probably on the outside looking in.

But if this weekend does go well and does do what Ohio State wants it to do, then I think they’ve got just as good a shot as anybody. And that would be Oregon, Texas and LSU. So yeah, Decorane more big deal. We’ll we’ll have to see where this recruitment goes.

Stephen Means (07:23.621)

The good thing is this isn’t going to be the first time he’ll be here in the last couple of months. He was here a couple of weeks ago. But I think it’s interesting the way you describe the LSU recruitment because I mean, when we’re talking about wide receiver development, they’re just as.

qualified to have this conversation as Ohio State is, right? I mean, Malik neighbors was just the top 10 draft pick. Jamar chasing Justin Jefferson were just a few years back and they’re two of the 10 best receivers in the NFL right now. LSU just had a Heisman Trophy winning quarterback and they’ve got the number one player, Bryce Underwood committed in their class. And so essentially you’re the number one wide receiver in the country. You just told a school who has shown, I mean, you can go back to OBJ and, and, and, and.

Andrew (07:39.566)

for sure.

Andrew (08:05.262)

Jarvis Landry.

Stephen Means (08:05.893)

Jarvis Landry really, I mean, they have a history as well there. The number one wide receiver in the country essentially just told the number one quarterback in the country in a school that’s known to produce high level wide receiver play, whether the offensive production is there or not, the overall right, because that was a thing before Jamar chasing Justin Jefferson. It’s like, hey, you’ve got these really good receivers, but they plan this old school offensive system that doesn’t really showcase them the right way. You just told all of that, no. And now as you’re saying, Texas is in the conversation. I mean, Texas just.

How did Fairshare wide receivers get drafted? Quinn, yours is there. They got Arch Manning coming up behind him. Ohio State obviously has got Will Howard or Devin Brown this year. You’ve got Julian Sand coming up and down the pipeline with Aaron Nolan. You’ve got Jeremiah Smith and Cardinal Tate and Brandon. I mean, I can list off a million different names here, but you told one school that’s proven it can develop wide receivers. No. In favor of two other schools who have also proven to be able to develop wide receivers. I want to bring in.

Jamie French into this conversation as well, because we’ve had this conversation a couple of times, Andrew, about what we think this 2025 wide receiver class was going to look like for Ohio State. Obviously, Javin Boggs was the first guy to commit. He’s up to 190 and 22 now amongst wide receivers nationally. He ends up decommitting within like weeks after that. They get Desi Jones out of New Jersey, number 312 player, number 43 wide receiver. And maybe we were wondering, could we see a repeat of 2022?

Andrew (09:04.654)

Mm -hmm.

Stephen Means (09:30.052)

Right? Where was it a bunch of five stars and top 50 recruits in the class because of what you did the two previous years in 2020 and 2021? Well, in 2023, you just brought in Cardinal Tate and Brandon Ennis and Noah Rodgers and Bryson Rodgers. Noah Rodgers has since transferred back to North Carolina State, but you still got the other two. And then in the class after that, you’ve got Jeremiah Smith and you’ve got Mylon Graham, even if, you know, Jeremiah McClellan ended up flipping the organ. But still, that’s a pretty loaded group. So maybe 2025,

isn’t as loaded simply because the room is so loaded. But there’s also a chance it could be as loaded when you’re talking about Decorian Moore, the number one wide receiver in the country. And then Jamie French, the number three wide receiver in the country who decommitted from Alabama a few months back after Nick Saban decided to retire. So now that you’re seeing things unfold and both of these guys, I believe, have official visits, you said that Decorian Moore’s is this weekend. I mean, which way are you leaning in the extremes of?

Andrew (10:24.174)

This weekend, yep.

Stephen Means (10:29.349)

this being just another loaded Ohio statewide receiver class versus maybe a less stellar group and not because Brian Hardline is losing it. It’s just at some point, a loaded room is going to recruit against you, especially if you feel like in 2026, where you’ve already got Chris Henry Jr. You’re already on the path of having another loaded group.

Andrew (10:47.918)

Thanks for watching!

Andrew (10:52.43)

know if it’s the loaded group is recruiting against you. One of the things that I always kind of noticed and one of the things that, you know, when you look when I was covering the NFL, sometimes whenever you would hear this a lot, I covered the Ravens and the Bengals, you hear this a lot. Some guys would go, man, they got they get paid to like when and they would always get they would always get annoyed when when people would say something like, yeah, man, like, you know, I can’t believe this or you know, whatever.

you know, and, you know, it was like, yeah, man, like they got, they got really good players too. Well, some of these other schools, they got, they got good programs too. so. You know, I don’t know if it’s the room recruiting against itself. The thing that I would, the thing that I would say is, with French, you, I, I saw this right as we were sitting down. So, for those of you that have our texts, 6 1 4 3 5 0 3 3 1 5, you’ll see this.

by the time you’re listening to this pod, they are in, you know, an NIL elites or an on three elite series thing. And there was a report just as I sat down and I saw that Jamie French has Texas one LSU two and Miami three. Nowhere did I say Ohio State, which I, which I found interesting. You know, I thought that that was really interesting. You know, there was, I mean, that was a guy that it felt like everybody had a.

you know, like a crystal ball to or everybody was like, like he’s 100%. You know, he’s going to be a Buckeye or whatever. I mean. That that’s just not the way that it sounds right now. Pete Nacos, who also works for it for on three. You know, he tweeted out on on this morning, on on Tuesday morning, that Jamie French told on three, because again, they have that whole elite on three series that.

His dream NIL deal is with a Lamborghini dealership and multiple Texas players have signed with a Lamborghini Austin dealership. And then he’s got a French or a French has an official visit to Texas in June. Like, you know, he’s got a lot of schools in there, Ohio State and Tennessee kind of being the two that are not listed there. He said he wants to make a commitment in August, but judging off of that, you would assume that, you know,

Andrew (13:15.246)

that something’s not right with Ohio State with him. So yeah, you would probably say that they’re on the outside looking in for French and then with Decorian Moore, who knows? Like, who knows? Decorian Moore thing, that feels very much like a toss up right now. So maybe something that we all thought, Ohio State’s gonna get at least one of these five star receivers. They have to. I don’t know if that’s a given right now.

Stephen Means (13:39.909)

play devil’s advocate with the Jamie French thing, just to come from a different perspective, because it’s, there’s always two sides, right? And the truth is always somewhere in the middle, especially when you’re talking about recruiting, where one side of it is like, the kid is probably just not as interested in the program anymore, right? And then the other side is like, the program is just kind of falling back, right? And depending on who you talk to, that’s the story you’re going to get, right? If you’re talking, so you got to meet somewhere in the middle of all that. So maybe I’ll provide this perspective of things.

We all watched how the Jeremiah Smith thing played out, right? I mean, that was not always fun if you’re the team who’s already landed him to feel like now you have to spend 12 months holding on to him. I think that’s a fair thing. But Jeremiah Smith is Jeremiah Smith, right? It’s one of those things where your overall value decides what you’re allowed to get away with. When you’re Jeremiah Smith, you can still take visits and...

be committed, but not really kind of act like a committed person, still kind of explore things and whatnot. And then we get there in spring practice and it’s like, that’s why they let him do all that. Were they cool with it? No, of course not. They would rather you, every coach in the country would rather you commit and never visit anywhere else that isn’t your campus. Right. Right. You would rather, so no, they’re not okay with it, but it comes with the territory of, of trying to,

Andrew (14:54.478)

They want to lock you in a room and throw away the key until signing day, yeah.

Stephen Means (15:04.549)

sign a player who is not only the number one player in the country, but is also considered the best player, best prospect at his position and maybe a decade. This comes with it. So you tolerated with that. Not even tolerates, maybe not the right word, because that might be too harsh. You put up with it. You know what comes with those circ*mstances. Maybe you bring a guy like J. Vin Boggs into this conversation where it was clear he still wanted to take visits. You don’t, right? You’re just like, no, you’re not. You’re not that. You don’t get to do that.

And I’m just wondering, just to play devil’s advocate here, Andrew, maybe that’s happening with guys in general in the 2025 class, where this might be another example of that, where to your point, Jamie French might be exploring other options for sure, but is there a case that maybe it’s on both sides, that both people mutually have walked away from the table and they both have their reasons for doing so?

Andrew (15:56.974)

I think it’s possible. Again, I don’t know about the French and more conversations I think are interesting because, you know, like you said, it’s, you know, the players that are this good can do this. They can, you know, kind of kick their recruitment down the line a little bit, you know, because there are a lot of schools where, you know, they, you know, they’ll have a policy where it’s, you know, hey, you’re committed to us. If you take an official visit, we’re going to start looking elsewhere.

Like we’re going to start looking at other options and you might lose your spot if we find a kid that we like better. So, you know, if you’re that level of good, you can do this. So I mean, I guess that that’s a possibility. I just, you know, when, when you’ve got two players that are this good, I mean, you’re obviously going to be interested in both of them. So, I’m, I’m, I’m curious to see kind of how this plays out and, you know, kids normally want to commit before their, their senior year begins, because again,

Stephen Means (16:23.173)

Right.

Andrew (16:53.07)

with early signing day now, for some of these kids that like, if you like the Texas high school state championships, they go through December, right? Like if, if you’re going to commit to a school and you have aspirations to win a state championship, like a lot of kids in Texas and a lot of kids in a lot of these other places around the country do, there’s just not a lot of time, right? Like you’re, you’re kind of running your season right into signing day.

And you don’t really get to break down your recruitment. And the last thing you want to do is commit somewhere. And then a week before signing day, be like, my God, I want to go visit these four schools again. I don’t know what I’m going to do. And then you’re in trouble. So you wonder if the summer will be indicative in that regard, in regards to your question of just, maybe they just want to see how these, maybe we just see how things play out. Maybe they want to see how things play out. I’m not sure yet.

But I mean, both these players are really good and Ohio State obviously very much wants both of them. I don’t think they’re gonna get both of them at this particular time.

Stephen Means (17:57.701)

If you had to and we’re going to do a projecting 2 .0 at the end of June after we’ve gone through official visits. Yeah, we did the first one. I said we’re going to do those that three times going to do it. We did one and I think February will do one at the end of June and we’ll probably do one maybe at the midpoint of the season as well before before signing day kicks off here. So between those two.

If you had to say more likely to end up in Ohio State, but I was where things are standing right now, you would put the core in number one and Jamie number two. Yeah.

Andrew (18:30.638)

Yeah, as we sit here late May, I think that that would probably be the most sensible thing. I think that that would probably be the easiest one, because again, with Jamie, it’s LSU, Miami, Tennessee, Texas are in the mix. There’s one less school for DeCorey and Moore. I mean, if you just want to use it as a math problem, because it doesn’t sound like LSU is off the table for DeCorey and Moore. It still sounds like they’re going to keep trying. It still sounds like that’s a possibility for him. But yeah, I think you hit it on the head earlier. I don’t know if it’s a

two horse race between Ohio State and Texas. I think it might be a three horse race. But again, Oregon has his last visit. So maybe that means something. Maybe that last visit to Oregon will kind of sway him there. But yeah, I think to T ‘Chorea, number one, he’s the most likely and then it would be Jamie.

Stephen Means (19:17.669)

That is always a wonderful question of who has the best advantage. The guy who goes last or the guy who goes first or guy who goes in the middle. That’s always interesting to see. We’ve seen Ohio State try to be last. We’ve seen them try to be first and everywhere else in between. Okay, let’s go here next. Blake Woodby, number 73 player, number seven corner in the country out of Baltimore, Maryland. He decommitted a couple of weeks ago. He was actually the first corner to that’s actually not true. He was not the first corner.

commit the first corner to commit to Ohio State was John T Gilbert, who is five star at the time. He’s now one 10 and 12 amongst cornerbacks out of Georgia. He has since moved on with his recruitment. Doesn’t look like Ohio State still in that one. Like what people’s number two. And then he ends up decommitting. What do we make of that? Andrew for starters, how big of a deal is it that Ohio State lost a top 100 cornerback? That’s let’s start there. How big of a deal is it actually to lose Blake would be six months before signing day.

you still have the top two cornerbacks in the country committed to you.

Andrew (20:21.07)

It’s a good question because it depends. Sorry to not give you a real answer there, but it depends because Blake Woodby is a really good football player. He’s number 73 overall player in the country, number seven overall player at his position at corner. You will hear me talk about this a lot. If you’ve listened to Buckeye Talk since I’ve got on here, one of the things that I think is very important is quality of competition in high school.

He plays for St. Francis Academy in the Baltimore area. And I’m no, I’m not just saying that as a homer. St. Francis Academy does play a lot of really good schools. They have a lot of really good talent. That’s a good program. And you might not think of Maryland as kind of this beacon of high school football. It’s not Florida, it’s not Georgia, it’s not Texas, it’s not California. But St. Francis Academy does do very well. I know kind of the operations of how that place works. And...

You know, they have a lot of talent that comes through their Ohio State’s recruit and a couple other guys, you know, from that school. So big deal to lose Blake Woodby in a vacuum. Very much, though, I think it’s easy to look at the rankings and say. I have Jeremiah McClellan vibes from this because it’s man, would have really liked having Blake Woodby. He’s a good football player. He’s can he can help us win. He’s a top 100 recruit.

But we still got Devin Sanchez and Naheem Offord. We’re chilling. We’re good. We’re all right. We’re chilling. We’re good. We don’t have to worry about this. I get that. I get that. I get where you’re coming from. However, there’s no way to talk about Blake Woodby without pairing Naheem Offord into this conversation. Devin Sanchez has shut his recruitment down. Devin Sanchez, unless something crazy happens.

is going to be a Buckeye when he has to put pen to paper in December. That’s going to happen. So Devin Sanchez, the number five overall player in the country, the number one player in his position. They have flip -flopped so many times it’s not even worth saying he’s number one or number two because it’s Nahim or it’s Devin, it’s one or the other. But he’s going to be a Buckeye in a couple of months, in seven months. Nahim offered Ohio State’s going to have to fight to keep because Nahim offered

Andrew (22:48.27)

has he was just in a visit to Oregon. He has an official visit that last weekend of June, the last possible weekend that you could visit of June, June 21st weekend. He’s going to visit with Devin Sanchez. He’s going to visit with some other other heavy hitters, which we can get to here in a minute. But it’s impossible to talk about the offered or the would be thing without mentioning offered because offered, you got to hang on to this guy.

Because if offered goes, then the would -be commitment looks, or decommitment looks a lot worse, right? Then you’re feeling a lot worse about that. When we did our Ohio State, Michigan kind of pod, where we talked about recruiting Steven, one of the players that I mentioned as potentially a battleground was Mark Zachary. And one of the reasons that I had him on that list was Mark Zachary, I think he’s like 130, 140, something like that.

He just committed to Notre Dame, but Michigan was right there. You can assure that they’re not going to back off. And I was like, Ohio State, I got, you know, just talking to people. One of the things that I heard was like, in a couple of years, you know, and every couple of years, this is a kid that does end up in Ohio State. It’s just that it didn’t work out for the Buckeyes in this cycle because they had two really good players. They had Devin, they had Naheem, and then they had Blake Woodby as the third. So like,

You wonder if like you have to get back into the Zachary game and you try to flip him from his Notre Dame commitment. Like you wonder what happens if if offered goes to so right now they have him right now. There doesn’t seem to be any major pressing concern about, you know, he’s going to decommit tomorrow or anything like that. But I think it is notable when a kid does take visits. I don’t think that that’s crazy to say when a kid takes visits, you got to take note of that. So.

The would -be thing, it’s a big deal and it’s a much bigger deal if Naheem Alford does change his commitment elsewhere because then you only have one corner in the class and I get it’s the number one corner in the country and I get Devin Sanchez has every single possible check mark of future NFL corner. I get it. But you don’t want to be in that place, right? Would you rather have three top 100 guys who aren’t five stars?

Andrew (25:10.574)

you know, like a couple of years ago where they had Calvin Simpson Hunt, Jermaine Matthews and everything, or would you rather have, you know, the one five star guy and then a guy you’re chasing in the two hundreds or three hundreds, you know? That’s not where you want to be. So you have to kind of pair offered and would be together. And I think that that’s probably the way to look at it, where if you keep offered, the damage is minimized and, you know, you can go after another guy and we can get to that in a minute. Actually, we’ll get to that right now. Dorian Brew.

is gonna make an official visit on June 21st. He was from the Dayton area. He was from Kettering. I believe it was Fairmont or Northmont. One of those two high schools. I forget, I would have to look up which one. But I went and saw him play. I saw him play against a triple option team. Oops. I saw a quarterback play against a triple option team earlier this year. But I was glad I did, you know, cause a couple of weeks later he moves down to Texas, Conroe, Texas, you know.

This is a guy who, again, freak athleticism, you know, really good athlete, has the size, has the speed, you know, good head on his shoulders. He’s a good kid. And you look at his background. His mom is in his mom ran track at Ohio State like the Buckeyes are in his blood. And you start to wonder like. Could Ohio State just trade would be for Dorian Brew? Like, is that possible?

Like what could that be their three Sanchez offered in brew? And you wonder about that. You wonder, would brew, could he play some safety too? There’s a lot of kind of permutations here with this, but, you know, with Dorian brew, I think that that’s kind of something that I’m monitoring here over these next couple of weeks because, you know, Hey, losing Blake would be like, would be a really, really good football player. And, you know, one of the things that, you know, you want to take note of is when guys decommit, but.

If you flip it around and you’re like, hey, we lost this four star guy and we’re going to get a guy who’s a five star now. Okay. I think that’s a trade that everybody would feel pretty comfortable making, especially if you’re going to end up with Sanchez and all.

Stephen Means (27:22.693)

I think the Jeremiah McClellan comparison is the perfect one for Blake would be words like it’s a big deal until you realize that you held on to the two five stars in that class. I think like we were talking about with Jeremiah Smith there a minute ago. I think that’s I think Naim Hoffer just might be Tim Walton’s version of that. We saw Brian Hartline have to deal with that last year where it’s like, OK, you got him.

And now the battle is just, can you hold on to him for a year? It’s not going to be quite a year because Neem Offer committed in February, but the same concept, right? He’s a kid from Alabama where he’s locked in right now, but he’s not as locked in as maybe Devin Sanchez is where he shut things down and you’re only expecting him to come to Columbus or be in Texas or you’ll be doing showcases all over the place. You’re not worried about it the same way. But with Neem Offer, that’s a kid from SEC country. And it’s like, okay, what if Alabama’s good? Right? What if?

Kailin DeBoer shows this isn’t going anywhere. There’s still going to be one of the five best programs in college football. Maybe he rethinks some things. Or to your point, maybe Oregon gets involved. Maybe Texas gets involved. Georgia. I mean, we can list off a number of programs until a kid comes out and says, hey, I’m done, unless something ridiculous happens. Then with a guy like me, maybe you are still a little bit more open to that. And it might end up being a similar situation to what Jeremiah Smith was, where Jeremiah was still operating, but.

the message always seemed like this was a security blanket. I’m taking these visits just in case Brian Hartline is not in Columbus because I’m out. If Brian Hartline is not there, I’m not coming. And if Brian Hartline leaves, maybe I leave, right? That was always a security blanket. So maybe Nahim is the same way. If Tim Walden’s not there, I’m not coming. I’m going somewhere else and this is a security blanket. And that’s what you have to do. I actually get that more.

in this world where there’s unlimited transfers, right? And there’s a bunch of movement. I get that. But it does mean that Tim Walton’s fight right now is no longer, can he add guys to the class? I know you’re mentioning Dorian Brew. Maybe they add him. Maybe they don’t. I don’t know if they have to add another cornerback when you look at what the room already is with Aaron Scott and Bryce West and Jermaine Matthews and Calvin Simpson Hunt, right? Yeah, they’ve got a pretty loaded room there. If they get another, kudos, but I don’t know if.

Stephen Means (29:40.933)

If they only have two cornerbacks in this class, I don’t know if we’re going to look at this class and go, man, you’re missing a cornerback there. But I think now Tim Walden’s situation is less about who can he add and can he just, is he ready for the fight for the next six months to your point to hold on to the number six player and the number two cornerback in the country in a situation where these two, I mean, could very easily be their starting cornerbacks by 2026, the way things are shaping out in that situation. So those are probably the two most important things. Not the only things.

that have happened over the last couple of weeks with Ohio State. But those are two more supporting things. We’re gonna take a quick break here. We’ll come back, talk more about Ohio State’s recruiting efforts and where things stand here.

Stephen Means (30:20.389)

And we’re back here on Buckeye Talk. It’s Stephen Means. It’s Andrew Gillis. We’re talking Ohio State football recruiting. We talked about De ‘Corey and Moore’s latest decision. He’ll be back this weekend for his official visit after taking a couple unofficials during the spring. And we talked to Blake Woodby who eventually left the class. He’s the third member of Ohio State’s recruiting class who has left, the others being Jontay Gilbert and Javin Boggs. Get the text 614 -350 -3315 when this news and stuff is happening. I know we’re getting to a pod later than it’s happening, but this stuff, we texted it.

as it was happening in real time. So get the text 614 -350 -3315. Andrew, what’s next? What’s the next thing that’s happened over the last couple of weeks? This is the last time we really sat down and talked to Ohio State football recruiting.

Andrew (31:03.31)

man, it feels like a million years ago, doesn’t it? I think the next thing would be maybe you start to notice that the running back room comes into a little bit of a clearer picture. So a couple of weeks ago, this was May, May 13th, Isaiah West, well a couple of days before, Isaiah West, he visited Ohio State unofficially.

And a couple of days later, he decommits from Kentucky, picks up an Ohio State offer on that day. You don’t want to force anything. You don’t want to say, hey, this is what this means and whatever. But whatever kid visits and then decommits from that school on the same day he gets an offer from another school. Use some context clues like like like let’s use our common sense here of maybe where that kid’s head is.

But Isaiah West, he’s the number 511 overall recruit in the 247 Sports Composite, the number 44 running back, 16 player in Pennsylvania. He goes to St. Joseph Prep in Philadelphia, which is for those of you that studied your study guides before this podcast, that’s where Kyle McCord and Marvin Harrison Jr. went. So, Heart State does have familiar with that school. Carlos Loughlin is looking for his first running back commit in this particular class and first running back commit since he arrived in Columbus.

I mean, when you look at this guy, I mean, he’s a big kid. He’s 5 ‘11″, 205. That’s, I mean, that’s college numbers right there. You know, he’s a big time back, you know, really, really physically impressive. You know, I think that this is a guy who, you know, you might be scared off a little bit by the rankings. I think that that’s something that, you know, I would expect that to rise a little bit as his recruitment goes, but you know, he’s scheduled for an official visit with Kentucky.

not this upcoming weekend, May 31st, but June 7th. I am unsure if that’s going to happen. I don’t know. I don’t know the answer to that question. I do know that he is scheduled for an Ohio state visit on June 14th. He will be back in Columbus for his official, you know, and I think that this is noteworthy because of a couple of different things. You know, you start to wonder, okay, well, if West is going to commit, that could mean a couple of different things.

Andrew (33:29.934)

Could mean that Ohio State wants three running backs in this particular class. Because look at the scholarship chart moving forward. It’s not insane to say that, I don’t think, right?

Stephen Means (33:40.452)

Just for the sake of it, they’re at 81 I believe by my count right now, so they’re already under to your point Andrew. So like I mean, it’s not like they’re you know, fishing for spots.

Andrew (33:46.926)

Mm -hmm.

Andrew (33:51.406)

Right, and it’s not insane to think that they, so you mentioned that and then it’s not insane to think that they could use some extra running backs because I think you have to prepare for a scenario in which both Travion and Quinchon are gone. Quinchon Judkins can stay for another year. I don’t know if that’s likely. So if Judskins and Henderson leave, that leaves you with a depth chart, especially after Dallin Hayden just left, that leaves you with a depth chart of.

of James Peeples and Sam Williams Dixon. And that’s it. There’s two guys. I’m sure some of you thought I was going to say another name. That might be it. So Ohio State, I don’t think it’s crazy to think maybe there’s some attrition there. Maybe you want three running backs in and you just go really young. You know, Sam Williams Dixon, they don’t even know if he’s going to play running back full time. That’s just kind of where he’s starting at. So.

We’ll see, you know, where is Ohio State a year from now? I don’t know. Maybe they can go into the portal and grab a more veteran guy. But, you know, Steven has kind of made the case on this pod before that he thinks James Peebles does fit that mold of a guy who could be that that perfect number three running back, that dude who plays a little bit more than you might think. And then going into next year, he’s just the unquestioned starter. And you’re like, well, yeah, of course you’re going to play James Peebles. Why wouldn’t you? He’s the starter. He’s got the most experience. This, that and the other. So, you know,

You wonder if three is an option for them. And the reason would be because you have Isaiah West, Jordan Davison, who’s scheduled for an official visit here in the next couple of weeks. He’s on the list as well. He’s the number one running back on their board. He’s a top 100 recruit, number 98 overall, number seven running back out of modern day in California, Ohio State. I’m sure they would like to get that kind of locked up. There’s Byron Lewis.

He’s a kid out of American heritage that, you know, he’s visiting June 14th. He’ll be here that third weekend of official visits. You know, he’ll be here that same weekend as Isaiah West. So, you know, you wonder if maybe they take three and it’s Davis and Lewis and West. Maybe that could be your running back room. You know, that could be a possibility as well. You know, Bo Jackson, he’s going to take a visit.

Andrew (36:12.59)

Which is very funny, by the way. We were talking about this, some of the other writers, and there was a camp up in Canton a couple of weeks ago that we talked about. And his name is Bo Jackson, which is obviously amazing to be named Bo Jackson as a running back, but his real first name is Lamar. So, easy. I mean, either way, it’s Lamar Jackson or Bo Jackson. It’s impossible to find this guy on Twitter or Google if you want to search Bo Jackson or Lamar Jackson.

So you wonder how Ohio State’s trending there. Are they moving away from that? Are they moving away from him? Is he moving away from them? Like there’s a lot of different kinds of permutations there, but the running back room, I think, you know, maybe got a little bit more solidified and it’s kind of where their heads are at with with with Isaiah West offer because they feel good about where they’re at with Davidson, but with Bo Jackson and you know, you’re like, all right, maybe that’s maybe that’s not going the way that you want or.

you know, maybe, you know, whatever you got, if you get Davidson and then you get Lewis and you get West that I think you could, you know, talk a lot of people into that being a pretty quality recruiting class, especially with, you know, having a top a hundred recruit in that fold from California. So yeah, I, you know, the running back room is interesting and, we’re gonna have to see where it goes here over the next couple of weeks.

Stephen Means (37:28.741)

What’s more important in this cycle, right? Because we’ve seen cycles where Ohio State adds guys who are depth and maybe for the future. When you look at a guy like Dallin Hayden, he was expected to necessarily be that. You’ve got Mayan Williams who was like that in 2020 versus what Trevion Henderson was in 2021. What J .K. Dobbins was in 2017. Guys were like, as true freshmen, you need those guys to be ready to go.

Those guys might end up being your starter as true friend. What’s more important in this class where you might need both, right? You might need the depth, but you also might need just a guy who’s ready to take over the room, which is more important in this conversation Andrew.

Andrew (38:10.446)

That’s a good question because I think they might be trying to do both. I think that that might be the reason that you would take three because you take a guy who’s the number one and then you take a guy who’s depth. There are people that do that and there’s nothing wrong with that. There’s nothing wrong with taking a kid and going, you know what? He’s going to be a special teams guy for us for three years and then if he transfers, he transfers. There’s nothing wrong with that. There’s nothing wrong with having a guy commit and then saying like,

There’s no one else that we can take on the offensive line. I guess maybe the offensive line might be a touchy subject, but there’s nobody else that we could take at, you know, on the defensive line that we think can start in this class. But we do think that this guy could be a really good rotation piece. And so I would probably say, probably say that you want to swing for the fences at running back because I think you could probably find.

some depth pieces across the board that, hey, you’re gonna be the number two running back at.

Maryland, you know, you’re gonna be the number two running back at West Virginia at You know Michigan State I mean even at a bigger program like Oklahoma State or I mean they just did it with Ole Miss like You wonder if hey, you’re not gonna have a starting role there What if you had a starting role here? I think you could maybe fill that out a little bit better because I think Ohio State fans might have gotten spoiled a little bit by this transfer portal because I

Julian saying, I know he’s technically, I know it’s easy to classify him as a recruit, but he was technically portal. Julian saying Caleb Downs and Quinchon Judkins are not gonna happen every year. I don’t think you’re gonna get a five star quarterback who I understand that like there was some mitigating circ*mstances, but you’re not gonna get a five star quarterback even if it’s a year into his career. You’re not gonna get maybe the best defensive player in college football and then you’re not gonna get a two time thousand yard rush around the SEC every single year.

Stephen Means (39:54.821)

I don’t know, I don’t think we’re good enough.

Stephen Means (40:06.853)

Well, I mean...

Stephen Means (40:11.301)

Well, the collection of it probably not, but just individually, I’m here to say, because individually, this is the second time they’ve gotten the five -star quarterback out of the transfer form since Ryan Day’s taken over the program. I want to get into that on a later pot, so I’ll save a lot of my thoughts for later this week when we talk about some of this stuff. But I don’t know if this is that crazy. I think it’s crazy because it’s new, right? Just like when Justin Fields did what he did, it was probably like, you’re not going to get a five -star quarterback.

Andrew (40:14.798)

That’s what I’m saying.

Andrew (40:19.694)

Right, right, that’s what I’m saying.

Stephen Means (40:38.597)

You know, well, you might, right? Because this is the world we live in now where guys are just kind of transferring all over the place. So I’m not gonna say never, but I’ll save my thoughts on it. Let’s stick it to the point you were trying to make there. I’ll save my thoughts on the transfer.

Andrew (40:54.638)

What point was I trying to make?

Stephen Means (40:58.565)

Something, just recruiting running backs and yes, and whether or not you’re gonna also need to explore the portal at some point.

Andrew (41:01.902)

Yeah, we’re at the, the upside, the upside, yeah, so.

Yeah, I think you, I mean, like I said, I think they’re trying to do both because I think that, you know, you would take Davison and you would map that out and say like, all right, like Davison might be 2025 James Peeples. Like if James Peeples is what you think he is and what Ohio State thinks he could be and everything like that, where it’s man, this guy just might start in 2025. And this guy just might be a really good third running back to have in 2024. Like you wonder if Davison is that option. So.

I think that that might be like, if you do get Davis and I think that depth would be important because I’m still conflicted with Ohio State’s running backs as to whether they got Quincheon Judkins to be like, let’s party, let’s have some fun. Let’s throw creativity as much as we can into this offense and let’s just be wild. Or if they just got Quincheon Judkins to keep one guy fresh and they’re not really going to change up much.

And we’ve talked a lot about two running backs and they’re just like, you know what? We’re guaranteeing ourselves that we’re going to have one really, really good running back and we’re just going to rotate these guys in like crazy. And so, you know, if like, all right, as peoples and Davison, could they be the next grouping? I’m not saying that they’re going to be as good as, you know, I’m not saying that they’re going to be as good as, as Judkins and Henderson are going to be because I mean, those are two, those are two guys that.

two top 50 picks maybe, two top 40 picks maybe. Those are really good running backs. I’m not gonna put those expectations on Davison and on peoples, but you wonder if that’s the next tandem. And I think it’s a heck of a lot easier if you do have that tandem or if you do have a tandem that you really like to find a third, to find a guy who can come in and play a specific role. Maybe it’s a player like a Sam Williams Dixon where it’s a scat back type of guy or a guy that can play a specific role. Hey, he’s a really good pass block.

Andrew (43:02.478)

So he’s going to come in or hey, he’s a really good, you know, pass catcher and he’s going to come in on third downs or, you know, he, hey, he’s six foot tall and he’s 237 pounds and he’s going to be like, you know, like Audrick estimate or whoever I’m trying to think of other big running backs, like big running, like, you know, the rumbling, bumbling, stumbling kind of running backs. Like you, you wonder if you can find a guy that can fit a specific role, I think easier than you can find a guy who is your number one. And I know that sounds dumb.

considering they just got Quinshawn Judkins, but I just don’t think that that’s gonna happen every year. I think you could find one maybe, maybe every couple of years, but just every year, that’s too far -fetched.

Stephen Means (43:47.109)

So anything else that we maybe need to touch on on this pod? Obviously, like I said, we’re saving the talk about official visits for later this week, but anything else we maybe need to catch up on that’s happened over the last couple of weeks while we were focused on the game 2024.

Andrew (44:01.326)

Yeah, you know, nothing. I’m trying to think, you know, I was looking through my list, you know, nothing really. I don’t think is any any news that that we don’t need to talk about like as is, you know, hey, it’s going to happen this week. So we have to talk about it. I think the official visit season is pretty big. You know, one of the things that I do want to mention with the with the OVs, I think June 21st is probably the biggest weekend for Ohio State. So keep in mind that official visits do start this weekend.

Steven, you would obviously be able to speak to this better, but things are going to change pretty significantly for some of these guys. You’re going to see the Florida State site because a kid’s going to take an OV there. hey, this guy loves Florida State or whatever. hey, this school is really interested in this kid and this kid loves it, whatever. Things are going to go up and down because of this process. So keep that in mind over these next couple of weeks, especially with Ohio State having that June 21st weekend, like I mentioned, that’s really big. You’ve got David Sanders.

the offensive tackle number two overall in the class. He’ll be here that weekend along with Devin Sanchez. You can probably bet that that’s planned, that you want Sanchez with Offord and Brew. You want those guys together. Jordan Davison will be there that weekend as well. There’s a big couple of weekends coming up here. Fahim Delane is another guy to keep an eye on.

One of the things that he told me, which I thought was really interesting now, and now he’s taken an official visit to Maryland this upcoming weekend, he mentioned to me that he is from Maryland. He’s from right outside DC. He plays in a really great league in the WCAC. And he mentioned to me that Maryland, their recruiting pitch is basically like, man, if we kept everybody home, we’d be really good. And that like...

Stephen Means (45:52.164)

That’s been their pitch since, for like a decade now and it has yet to work.

Andrew (45:54.126)

Right. Right. And well, we’ll see because they have him for an OV. Blake Woodby is taking an OV to Maryland as well. I know Blake Woodby is not in the class anymore with Ohio State, but you know, you wonder like, okay, what’s going to happen with Fahim Delayne? Because it felt like there was a lot of smoke and, you know, Steven, you could probably agree with this too. Felt like there was a lot of smoke about Fahim Delayne committing a couple of weeks ago, a couple of months ago. Felt like Ohio State, man, this is close. This is really, really close.

And it just felt like that got moved to the back burner a little bit. And, and we’ll have to see kind of why, that might’ve happened. And, you know, it sounds like Trey Mcnu*tt, you know, might not have Ohio state as high on his list as everybody thought. And with that being the case, I think that that does add importance to Fahim Deleon because Ohio state is going to want to take four safeties in this class. I think, you know, we talked about, you know, kind of the mapping out of future rooms and everything like that and where things stand, especially with running back.

you probably need four safeties just with the, the, the way that the room is right now. They already have Cody Haddad. I think that that’s going to be a guy that flies up the rankings in his senior year. I didn’t play a lot in his junior years, three star player, number five, 12 overall. They have Deshawn Stewart, number two 91 overall, 26 safety, four star player. You would think that they would like to add two safeties to that mix.

Fahim DeLayne is the guy that could really kind of make a difference for them. So I’m interested to see what happens with DeLayne this weekend as he goes to Maryland, next weekend as he goes to Ohio State and just kind of his whole process. So I think safety re -herding with the Mcnu*tt News, with DeLayne, I think that that’s something to monitor as well. So yeah, these next couple of weeks, as Stephen can tell you and I’m sure has told you guys on Buckeye Talk, you’re gonna get pretty crazy.

Stephen Means (47:47.941)

I think the Fahim Delayne one is interesting because there’s always that conversation about people who may or may not be silent commits. And for me personally, silent commits don’t mean anything. I mean, I’ve seen kids where they were quote unquote, silently committed and then they end up elsewhere all the time. It happens. So like the silent commitment doesn’t mean anything to me. But if for whatever reason it is a thing or it feels like it’s a thing, like you’re talking about with Fahim Delayne where it feels like.

Andrew (47:57.55)

Yeah, I was gonna say, do they matter? Yeah.

Stephen Means (48:15.942)

that was just a matter of when and not if, well, maybe this official visit is the thing that allows him to close the door. Because what we also have seen since Ryan Day took over the program, this is going back to the 2020 class, is those summer official visits are typically followed by, June official visits are typically followed by July commitments from a lot of kids, not just at Ohio State, but around the country, that’s typically the case. So it’s Fahim Delane amongst that group. Miles Lockhart was like this. This was a guy where it felt like,

I mean, he’s in the class already. It’s just, when’s he gonna make it public? And that’s what he did. He took his official visit. Then a week after his official visit, he committed. Is Behem Delain in that vein? Or is it something like maybe a Marquis Lightfoot situation or anybody else where there are people who feel like he’s silently committed and then he takes his official visit and then we’re going, well, what happened? I thought you had this kid and you don’t end up having this kid. And there’s examples few far in between of both sides throughout the history of recruiting. But it is going to be interesting as we get into these conversations, Andrew.

and we’re breaking down some of these kids where things stand going into their official visit, what this official visit might signal, what it might signify and what could come out of this. And then when we’re looking back on things in mid July, okay, how much success did Ohio State have in terms of building up, which is hilarious. It’s typically the offensive side has already gotten cooking and we’re waiting on the defensive side. It looks like now, okay, the offense is gonna use this summer to maybe get some things going as well. Cause right now you’ve got.

two top 100 recruits in Tavion St. Clair and Carter Lowe. And then kind of that’s it on the offensive side of the ball. And so we’ll see if some things get cooking up there. But get the text 614 -350 -3315. The stuff is happening. That’s the first place we’re going to it. Two week free trial, $3 .99. After that, Ohio State number two class in the country, 12 commits, three five -star recruits. As we mentioned, Devin Sanchez, the Offert and Tavion St. Clair as their five -star commits. And then also Carter Lowe’s the top 50.

recruit as well, get the text 614 -350 -3315, two week free trial, 399 after that, that will wrap up this recruiting pod. For Andrew Gillis, I’m Stephen Means, and that there, that’s bug eye talk, baby.

If you or a loved one has questions and needs to talk to a professional about gambling, call the Ohio Problem Gambling Helpline at 1-800-589-9966 or the National Council on Program Gambling Helpline (NCPG) at 1-800-522-4700 or visit 1800gambler.net for more information. 21+ and present in Ohio. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-Gambler.