What three vital decisions mean for Ohio State football’s recruiting efforts: Buckeye Talk Podcast
Stephen Means and Andrew Gillis discuss Ohio State football's recruiting. On this episode of the Buckeye Talk podcast, Stephen Means and Andrew Gillis discuss the implications of losing four-star wide receiver Jayvan Boggs to Georgia and where Ohio State will next focus on its 2025 recruiting class. They also discuss the potential for four-Star linebacker TJ Alford to join the team, which still has seven commits in the 2025 class, ranked fifth nationally. Gillis discusses the potential impact of this decision on the future of four-term linebacker TJ alford. The podcast also discusses where the team will focus next after losing out on its top 2026 quarterback target, Jared Curtis.
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COLUMBUS, Ohio -- On this episode of Buckeye Talk, Stephen Means and Andrew Gillis discuss Ohio State football’s 2025 recruiting class.
They start by discussing the implications of losing four-star wide receiver Jayvan Boggs and who the other potential targets are. Then they discuss where OSU pivots to next after losing out on its top 2026 quarterback target Jared Curtis who committed to Georgia over the weekend. Then they wrap things up by previewing the decision of four-star linebacker TJ Alford and the Buckeyes’ chances of landing him.
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.
Welcome back to Buckeye Talk. I’m Stephen Means and that’s Andrew Gillis and it’s another recruiting pod for you. It’s just a lots of been happening in the recruiting space for Ohio State. They still have seven commits in the 2025 recruiting class ranked fifth nationally. Obviously it’s headlined by I think two five stars Devin Sanchez and Naeem Alford, but take it St.
making his way up the rankings, man. I think that kid might end up being a five star by the time we get to Sunday. But right now the two cornerbacks still leading the way in terms of Ohio State’s commencing its 2025 recruiting class. I said seven because it was eight and then we’re recording this pile on Wednesday. So Tuesday night, kind of unexpectedly, Javin Boggs, the number 189 player, the number 24 wide receiver out of Cocoa, Florida, who had committed to Ohio State back in October. And we had talked about that at Great List, Andrew, about how big of a deal it was to get Javin Boggs in that.
early and why it was such a big deal. He decides after six months, he’s going to reopen his commit or his recruitment there. And so now he’s back on the market, putting no house, a back at seven commitments, no wide receivers yet in this class, which is a little kind of out there in terms of right heart lane typically has at least one or two guys. And so right now he has none. Andrew, what is the implications of the JV bogs, the commitment and where’s Ohio State go from here?
Well, yeah, I mean, the implications I think are actually maybe, you know, everybody sees the number one 89 player and goes, ah, well, who cares? You know, it’s Ohio State. We can find somebody else. And I think that that’s on the one hand, true. You know, I do think that Ohio State can go get whoever they want. I mean, we, Stephen, we were joking about this offline the other day. They had a top 50 recruit decommit on signing day and Jeremiah McClellan.
And it felt like nobody really cared because Ohio State had Mylan Graham and Jeremiah Smith in the class. And that’s just the way that Ohio State recruits receiver, but. Javin Boggs was, you know, a really, really significant player. I think that was kind of continuing his rise up the rankings as you were kind of alluding to, I mean, this is a guy who Ohio State, when they recruited him, I mean, he was in, you know, the four hundreds of the recruiting rankings. You know, he’s, he’s like listed at six foot one 80.
that’s probably about as big as he’s gonna get. But one of those things that everybody pointed to was with the size and with the recruiting rankings, lot of comparisons to the Jackson Smith and Jigba. And you heard that from him, that was what the coaching staff told him, that was what the coaching staff was kind of saying in private, that was what they thought that Javon Boggs could be and would be when he got to Ohio State. So you lose that type of guy, that’s significant.
I mean, Jackson Smith and Jigba was a first round pick, right? And he was a first round pick with without having played much of the 2022 season. So, you know, this is a guy who Ohio State saw the potential in Boggs very early. Brian Heartline got in on him early. And and this was a big deal, right? You know, this was a guy who Ohio State thought could really be a contributor in this room because typically you’re not going to if you’re Ohio State, you’re not going after, you know, the number 300 ranked receiver because
you need to fill out the room. You’re going after that guy because you think he can play. So he commits in early October. But since then, he had an offer from A&M. He got an offer from Miami. I think he visited unofficially to Miami in January, got an offer from Georgia, got an offer from Notre Dame, got an offer from Arkansas. Teams were prodding at him. Teams were keeping this up, which is just the way that recruitment works.
And he decided that it would be best to reopen his commitment. So, you know, it is a loss for Ohio State. I don’t think you could paint it as any other way that, you know, ah, well, you know, they’ll find somebody great because I’m sure they will. But Javon Boggs is a really good football player too. And if you thought that he was going to be really good in that slot role, you do need to find somebody else that can be really good in that slot role. So, we’ll kind of see what Ohio State does.
at receiver and there’s a couple of names that you want to keep an eye on. De’Corian Moore, he’s the number three player in the country right now, the number one overall receiver. Ohio State has done pretty well in terms of recruiting number one receivers in the class. They just got one out of Florida. Now they’re going to try and get one out of Texas. The problem with De’Corian Moore is that he is currently committed to LSU. So he was recently on a visit in the last week or so to Ohio State.
He’s narrowed down his commitment to four teams. Ohio State is in that mix, obviously. But again, he is committed to LSU. So you do have ground to make up. And you do have ground to catch up. I know there are people in this class that are really, like, Ohio State’s trying to flip him. I know Devin Sanchez is really working hard on trying to get him into this class. There are guys that are really trying to get to Corey Moore. So we’ll just kind of see how that recruitment goes.
Uh, so, and then there’s another five star in the class, Jamie French. Um, he decommitted from Alabama a little while ago. He’s the number 16 overall player, the number three receiver in the class. Um, he’s another player that I think would be, you know, I, I mean, even if you don’t get to Corian more, if you add a Jamie French, which by the way, if you ever read my writing about Jamie French and I spell French with two F’s at the beginning of it,
It’s not a typo, that’s just how it’s spelled. I feel like every time I type in French, I get like a little auto correct that says, did you mean, no I did not, two Fs. So it’s not a typo, I know what I’m doing. But Jamie French, I mean, he would be the headliner of the class, like even if you don’t get to Corrie more. I mean, he’s a really, really talented player. A little bit smaller, you know, he’s not that like six four kind of body type. And then there’s, you know, a few other four stars that Ohio State kind of has on the list right now. Vernal Brown, he’s number 102.
Andrew Marsh, he’s number 61. Philip Bell, he’s number 129. You know, there’s just a handful of guys that Ohio State is interested in and is, you know, you would have to imagine now that Boggs has decommitted, we’ll turn up this interest in. So again, kind of caught a lot of people by surprise, caught me by surprise. If you saw my tweet, I was at Jersey Mike’s when that happened. But it was a bit of a unique decommitment. And I’m curious to see where Ohio State goes from here, but...
I think two things can be true. Number one, it can be a loss and you can’t paint it any other way. Javon Boggs is a really talented football player. He’s got great ball skills, really good route runner. Ohio State’s gonna have to find a guy to replace him. But I also, I think, so I think that could be true, but I also think Ohio State has the track record to prove that, okay, they probably can find some other players at the receiver position that are pretty dang good.
So there’s the update in the latest news regarding Ohio State commitments. We’re going to take a quick break here and then we’ll get into some other decisions around the country that have maybe impacted where Ohio State wants to go recruiting. And it’s going to be a quarterback conversation based on the top quarterback to the 2026 class and the decision he made and how that’s resetting the book guys quarterback board for the future. And we’ll get more into that when we come back here on book guys off.
Jared Curtis is a number nine player in the top quarterback in the 2026 recruiting class. He’s at a Nashville, Tennessee. He was probably at the top of Ohio State’s board for the 2026 recruiting class. Obviously, they’re already set in 2025 with Tavian Sinclair, who right now is number 48 player in the country, but gradually making his way up, as I mentioned earlier, is probably going to end up being a five star recruit by the time he gets the signing day in December. But getting Tavian Sinclair locked in so early in the process as an in-state kid has allowed Ohio State
to move forward into his 2026 class and how they were going to recruit that quarterback position. Andrew, he chose Georgia over the weekend. Is that, am I getting that correct in that situation?
Indeed. Yeah, a kid at a Nashville Christian School. He was originally scheduled in January to take an Ohio State visit. And then there was coaching state, it was coaching change. Perhaps you, dear Buckeye Talk listener, have heard Bill O’Brien was once the offensive coordinator of this football team. How will you remember the Bill O’Brien era? It was a fun two weeks that we had. But when that happened, there was a lot of turnover going on. I remember there was some bad weather or something like that as well. And Jared Curtis put off that visit.
So that was a couple of months ago, but obviously Georgia was always kind of figured to be the lean there. You know, really talented player and yeah, he’ll be a Georgia Bulldog. So Ohio State, like Ohio State was interested in him. They were trying to keep that decision going, but he is now committed to Athens, Georgia.
That was one of the few, I guess, consequences for a lack of a better way of putting it.
to moving on from Corey Dennis as a quarterback’s coach, because Corey did do a lot of the leg work with the quarterback recruiting, even if Ryan Day is still the reason a lot of these guys are coming here. Corey Dennis, he deserves a lot of credit too for being the guy on boots on the ground with some of that stuff. And when he decided, when they moved on from Corey Dennis, I think it kind of changed the Jared Curtis trajectory in terms of Ohio State. So with that off the board, that was probably plan A. And we’ve seen Ohio State have to pivot off of plan A at quarterback in the past, but typically that’s a guy who commits
and then something crazy happens, right? With Jack Miller in the 2020 class, he commits, but then obviously injuries maybe disrupted his development as a quarterback and it put Ohio State in a position where they felt like they needed to add another quarterback in that 2020 class and end up with CJ Stroud. Justin Fields being here to begin with was a result of multiple years of weird quarterback recruiting with Matthew Baldwin in your 2018 class, Tate Martell in your 2017 class. Even Dwayne Haskins was not originally the plan there at quarterback.
them from Maryland late after some other things have fallen through in that situation. In 2021, it’s pretty normal. Comma Corps commits 18 months before signing day, makes it to...
Signing day and it’s been three years in the program as a starter in 2023 and then obviously transfers to syracuse So even then, you know to an extent you had to go find a plan b in 2022 You have quinn ewers as a top player in the country who then Maybe like a month before you start fall camp NIL kicks into place and so because of nil he reclassifies at 21 shows up and plays for you that year I put plays in Quotations because it’s not he didn’t really play like three snaps for you that year
the 2022 quarterback, they end up with Devin Brown and 2023. They just kind of recruited the position a little bit differently. And they ended up with Lincoln Keynes-Holts on signing day, but they, before that had a, I can’t remember his name right now, but he ended up flipping to Auburn. But they were looking for a specific type of quarterback that Lincoln Keynes kind of fit that build of a guy who.
understands that this is going to be a long development process. This wasn’t going to be like what we saw with CJ shroud, where in year two, you’re competing to win a job. But what we saw with Devin Brown the same way, year two, you compete for a job. Or even with Kyle McCord, where he comes in as a true freshman and is immediately thrown into a quarterback battle. This was going to be a long term thing. And then in twenty four, they start off with Dylan and Rayola. Rayola spends eight months in the class and then flips and then decommits. I think he decommitted the day after Jeremiah Smith committed, which is
Hindsight it’s funny. It’s fun. It is funny cuz I think I had a tweet up at that point because oh how I stayed at One point had the number one and number two players in the country committed to them with Dylan Raiola and Jeremiah Smith Obviously things that moved around and mate in rankings in that situation. They still got the number one player with Jeremiah Smith
They pivoted to Julian Sand, who made it very clear that he was not flipping from Alabama. And so they pivoted to Aaron Nolan, who ends up making it to signing day. Nick Saban retires, and now Julian Sand’s also a Buckeye as well. And then in 2025, as I’ve mentioned, Tavon Sinclair, probably going to be the most normal recruitment you’ve had since Kyle McCord. He committed about 16 months before his signing day, and there’s no reason at all to believe that they’re going to have to be looking for a new quarterback in 2025, because that’s an in-state guy
out of it. But that brings us to 2026, Andrew, with Jared Curtis off the board, it does seem like Ohio State is having to maybe reassess their quarterback board. I know they sent out a couple of offers already, but who are the options? As we talk about this in March in a situation where we’ve seen them get quarterbacks early, we’ve seen them get quarterbacks late. This might be somewhere in the middle of both of those situations.
Yeah, so it is unique because the quarterback board is not like overly extensive for Ohio State right now. You know, they were like if we were to talk about, you know, receiver like we hear, like we just did. We just, you know, I just kind of ran through a few names. Those are not all the names that we kind of read the receiver, right? Like every position has got like dozens of players that they’re keeping tabs on or they’re interested in and quarterback is not that. So the number one guy that I mean, at least according to the rankings.
Brady Smygle is a kid out of Newberry Park, California. 6′5, 205, he’s the number 47 overall player in the class. When you look at his recruitment, Smygle, it’s a little bit of a newer recruitment. He got offered like five, six weeks ago. He got offered in February. I mean, obviously teams are not, I mean, teams do not just start conversations with you when you get offered, but I mean, this is a guy who just got his offer a few weeks ago. So this recruitment still is a little new.
I do think that is something to monitor. I mean, you go back, I mean, over a year, I mean, Michigan offered him last January. Georgia offered him last January. Notre Dame offered him last May. Oregon offered him last May. Miami offered him in this January. Like, like he’s had some big offers that came before Ohio State. And then Ohio State kind of jumped into that mix, jumped into that fray. So Smygle is a guy that I would keep an eye on. Then there’s Will Griffin.
Kid out of Tampa, Florida. Again, I mean, this is a guy who has a lot of really significant interest in a lot of different schools. He’s taken visits to USC, UCLA, to Oregon. He’s got a lot on his plate, but Ohio State has offered him 6′3″, 225. When you look at where he’s at, I mean, he’s the number 55 overall player in the class, the number four quarterback. He’s a really talented kid.
And then the two new kids, you know, these are a little bit kind of brand new. Jonas Williams, he reported an offer this past weekend. March 23rd, he got that offer. He is currently unranked. I do not anticipate that staying, I do not anticipate it staying that way. You know, especially when you talk about situations that are so far in advance, because it is important to remember the kids that we are about to talk about and that we are talking about right now.
They’re in their second semester of their sophomore year high school. They are not halfway done with high school yet. And you’re trying to project kind of what they are going to be physically. So size and weight, like, I mean, if you’re already like, Jonas Williams is six, three, one 85. He’s out of Illinois. That’s a big deal. You know, that’s, that’s a kid who’s going to grow a little bit. You would expect kind of grow into his body. Um, but I mentioned unranked. I mean, he’s got offers from Michigan. He’s got offers from Tennessee. You know, he’s got a couple other big 10 offers, Michigan state, Purdue, Minnesota.
Northwestern Nebraska. Like I would anticipate now that Ohio State is offered, I would anticipate a lot of other kinds of people get their, you know, get their butts in gear, so to speak, and really kind of start to press on him. Uh, and then there’s Diabell 62195. He’s out of Fort Lauderdale. He’s also unranked. He also just reported an offer March 21st, a couple of days before that, Texas month before that LSU a couple of weeks before that, Colorado, Washington, Utah, Ole Miss, Wisconsin, Arizona, Auburn. Like.
Like this is a kid who has really kind of started to pick up steam in these last couple of weeks. If you’re an NBA fan at all, he’s the son of Rajabel, which I did kind of think was cool. And then I thought, oh God, I’m getting old. Rajabel was on those like really good, like mid 2000s sons teams. It was a Sean Marion. And I think that was the Shaq years with Steve Nash. And yeah, we’re gonna turn this into basketball talk. But yeah.
Rajah Bels, his kid is currently a 2026 high school prospect. So the thing to kind of wrap this all up, which I did notice, this Jared Curtis was 642.25. He’s committed to Georgia. But listen to this. 65205, 63225, 63185, 62195. Those are the heights and weights of these kids that are listed that are A, second semester of their sophomore year. That’s why I brought that up earlier. And B,
Some of these like two, four, seven rankings are a little bit outdated sometimes, or at least like measurements, because they’re high school kids, man. Like they grow all the time. If you have a high schooler or like no high school boy, all they do is grow for four years. So a lot of these kids are probably a little bit maybe bigger than this as the time of recording. So Ohio State clearly has a type. They clearly like size. You know, Ryan Day mentioned mobility is something that was really big for him with these kids.
So yeah, it doesn’t even have to be mobility as like, we need Lamar Jackson. It just has to be mobility to be able to run the ball and be a running threat. So the board is kind of small, but those are the four guys that are, that are really kind of on the board. And I mean, truthfully, I mean, it’s look, it’s college football recruiting. In the year of our Lord, 2024, I would anticipate Ohio state keeps tabs and keeps, keeps on Jared Curtis at least a little bit until he kind of gets shut down there because he’s the number nine overall player in the country.
He’s the number one quarterback in the country. And it’s 2024. That kid’s not going to sign for another 18 months or give or take. So you know, probably actually a little longer than that, like 20 months. So a lot can happen in that recruitment. But those are those are kind of the guys that Ohio State has on their 2026 board right
Diabell goes to the same high school that Brandon is. Comes from current second year wide receiver at Ohio State. I’ve seen Diabell and Will Griffin in person. They actually camped last summer and I thought both of them were pretty impressive. Will Griffin looks 63, 225. At the time he was going into his sophomore year and he looked like he was getting ready to be a senior in high school and he’s got a live arm on him. And Diabell had a pretty quality day as well. I think some of these offers are a result of both of those guys coming off of their first years of varsity football and getting film on these guys. And so you are seeing an abundance of offers.
coming in the situation. We’ve touched on that Andrew in the past. I know you’re new to this but you’re right on where we’ve talked about things is what does Ohio State look for in a quarterback? What’s the style? What’s the physical makeup? And I mean if you look at Justin Fields, what was he when he was here? 6′3″, 220. What was CJ Stroud? 6′3″, 215, 220. What was Kyle McCord? 6′3″, 215, 220, right? Will Howard is Devon Brown even 6′3″, 215, 220. Will Howard’s kind of the outlier here just because he is such a bigger human being at 6′4″.
What like 225 something like that? But this is right when you’re talking about what the NFL looks like in quarterbacks most of the time It is around six foot two six foot three six four anywhere from 210 pounds 230 pounds Those are the styles of quarterbacks at Ohio State is typically going after and to your point all of these guys even as sophomores And I mean the weight may fluctuate like you said some of these may be a little bit outdated But they’re already around that size that Ohio State is looking for
camps this summer, because I do wonder, you’re always wondering if somebody new is going to emerge, right? The first time, you know, we saw, uh, Jaden Davis, who obviously is at Michigan now, the first time he popped an Ohio State’s radar was around this time in his, in his career, after a sophomore year, when he showed up at a camp and had a pretty impressive day. And from that point on, it felt like he was going to be the Ohio State’s quarterback. And for a while, it felt like he was going to end up being the commitment. And things obviously fell apart elsewhere, but it’ll be interesting in June, especially since you’re not worried about your.
2025 quarterback per se. It’s going to be interesting to see what names pop up this spring and this summer as that board continues to grow along the way.
Yeah, I mean, exactly. Like there’s a kid out of Ashland, Nathan Bernhard. He’s the number 91 overall player in this class as well. He’s 6′5″, 227. You know, I mean, you look at some of the offers that he is getting, I mean, Akron, West Virginia, Michigan State, Duke, Iowa State. And I’m not saying, I’m not reporting anything by saying this or anything like that. I’m just saying that like, there’s a top 100 kid in your backyard and-
he could go nuts this summer, right? Like he could come to camp or go to a camp somewhere else and go nuts and things can really kind of change and things can really kind of fluctuate. So yeah, and I think especially with this, what you’re looking for with size, like if you’ve ever like heard the phrase, I’m sure you have or like said the phrase like, what do you like in a quarterback? Stand tall in the pocket. Like you’ve probably heard that, that’s kind of not a thing. Well, yeah, you can’t stand tall if you’re five five, but it’s also kind of not a thing anymore.
Because no offensive coordinator at any level of high school football, college football, or pro football loves to have their quarterback just drop back and then just be a statue, right? You need to have your quarterback move around a little bit. It’s not take a six-step drop, take a five-step drop in 2003, and then just deliver a bomb 30 yards down the field because you could see the whole field because you’re a tower. That’s not the way that this thing works. But it is early.
And it is important to note that, that look, there are kids who might pop up that are currently committed to another team. I mean, I would have to go look at the list. You know, like maybe there’s a kid committed to, you know, a lower level P4. You know, there’s a kid committed to a UVA, a kid committed to an Iowa state. And all of a sudden this kid goes nuts and then Texas starts knocking at the door and Florida starts knocking at the door and Ohio State starts knocking at the door and then that kid goes.
Huh, interesting. Like things can happen. And like, you know, I got an email this morning from somebody asking me not to use the word commitment when talking about kids that are committed to Ohio State because they’re, and while I disagree, I get the notion. Like I get the notion that these kids are, you know, it’s really not official until it’s official. You know, we can do whatever we can. And, you know, for example,
So that’s why we go, that’s the difference between a commitment and a signee.
Exactly, exactly. And like, you know, we’ll do what we can and try to, you know, explain however much we can to see you guys with whatever, like, for example, like, I feel very confident that David Sinclair is going to end up in Ohio State’s class. You know, so like, there are just, it just varies, but these recruitments can change, these kids can change. And, and I’m just curious to see kind of what, what are Ohio State pivots if some of these things don’t work out, like, you know, if smigel
decides that he wants to stay in California or something like that. Or if Griffin decides that he wants to play for Oregon, where do you pivot? Do you feel confident with Jonah Williams? Do you feel confident with Diabelle? Do you try to go roster plucking for somewhere else? There’s just a lot that can happen. And as these kids evolve and change, things are gonna evolve and change with us too.
So right now, obviously, Ohio State’s 2026 class has one player in it, and that’s Chris Henry, who was living in Ohio for a while, but obviously has since transferred to modern day high school. I don’t think that has an impact on the recruitment. I think that’s gonna be a similar situation where what we saw with Jeremiah Smith this past year as a top receiver in that class, where as long as Brian Hart lines at Ohio State, Chris Henry will be coming to Ohio State. He’s the number two player in that class, number one wide receiver now at modern day high school, which could probably help Ohio State
targets they have at modern day high school. We’re gonna take one last break here and we are going to get to somebody whose decision is coming up over this weekend and what Andrew thinks about Ohio State’s chances of getting potentially the first linebacker of the James Laurinatus era of Ohio State football and we’ll come back here and we’ll talk more about that on Buckeye Talk.
Ohio State’s 2025 class right now has one linebacker in it. And he’s from Ohio. His name is Eli Lee. He’s a number five, 56 player, number 63 linebacker out of Akron, Ohio from Archbishop Hoeven High School. He committed back in October as well. October commitments. So technically speaking.
James Laurinaitis does not have his first commitment as Ohio State’s official linebackers coach. Now the guys in the room will tell you he’s just been the linebackers coach even if Jim Knowles held the title. But Eli Lee, in-state guy, and we’ve talked about Andrew how it felt like James Laurinaitis could be what we see Brian Hartline being, what we see Tim Walton being for the cornerbacks and the wide receivers as these former players who turn into these elite recruiters and elite developers at their positions.
the same. Tarvis Alford, number 63 player, number eight linebacker is expected to make a decision this weekend. For starters, when is he making that decision? And then before I get your take on whether or not you think Ohio State will win that recruitment because you have to make predictions to it’s part of being a recruited guy. If Ohio State gets this guy, what would they be getting in TJ Alfred?
Yeah, so TJ Alford is making his commitment on March 30th. That is Saturday evening. I believe that’s at like 6.30. I would have to go check the time, but it is Saturday evening. So stay tuned for that. We will obviously have that for you. Get the text. Like I will send, the first thing I will do is send a text out whenever we know with TJ Alford. So go enjoy your Saturday night and then just kind of find out what’s going on.
But yeah, TJ, so he’s a really talented player. And he visited Ohio State this past weekend. He’s got an official scheduled later in the summer. I technically think it’s the spring because it technically would be May. So he’s gonna visit Ohio State at some point in a couple of weeks officially. He also has official visits scheduled to Florida State and Miami. So the number one thing I want people to know about this recruitment is that
If TJ Alford commits to Florida State, I don’t know, hypothetically, just I’ll give you my prediction in a minute. If he commits to Florida State, it’s not gonna be over for Ohio State. They’re going to keep on this guy and they’re going to keep trying recruiting him. If he commits to Ohio State, it is not over. The Florida schools are still gonna try to keep him and try to flip him into that class. So, I mean, he’s a really talented player, 6′2″, 210.
He can fly the number 63 overall player in the class, the number eight linebacker. This is where Ohio State’s linebacking recruiting has kind of been focused on for a little bit now. I mean, he’s a really, I mean, physically impressive player. He is a track athlete, very physical at the point of attack. Like, I actually, the other day, I was talking with one of the other recruiting guys and I just got curious and I went and I kind of looked at his, I looked at his highlight tape and you just see a guy who’s willing to,
What does Ryan Day say? Like put your face in the fan. Like that is what TJ Alford does. And I think he’s really impressive. So, you know, he visited Ohio State in over the weekend. A day later, he posted a picture that he was at Tennessee today as we record this podcast on March 27th on Wednesday, posted a picture of Florida State football. Like this is a recruitment that is going down to the wire. So,
It’s whether or not he, wherever he commits, I’ll say that. It is not going to be a commitment that is just, ah, shucks, we missed. He’s committed to blank now. This is gonna be one that goes down.
So let’s have it then. Let’s have your first official, well not official, I mean we did a whole recruiting class 1.0 thing, but your first official prediction on a guy who’s going to be committed, ask people who listen to this, about 48 hours after you’re listening to this, TJ Alford, which will Ohio State have another T. Alford associated with the Ohio State football program by the end of the weekend, yes or no, Andrew?
I’m gonna say no. I know there are predictions out there everywhere for him. So I wanna be clear. I know I’m kind of covering my tracks here, but I’m genuinely not meaning to do this. I would not be surprised by a couple of decisions that he makes, but I don’t think he’s gonna commit to Ohio State. I think he’s gonna commit to one of the Florida schools. I would probably...
Probably lean Florida right now if I had to guess but again Miami or Florida like Miami, Florida, Florida State They are all in the mix for this kid I mean, this is a thing that you know, they are very much trying to get this kid to stay within state lines That is an area that Ohio State has recruited well at certain positions hint-hint receiver And that is an area that Ohio State has Work to do in terms of their recruiting in terms of getting a guy in the class and keeping them there hint-hint running back
as many of you guys are well aware of. So I just think that the poll of Florida for one of the Florida schools, I’ll say Florida now, I think that the poll is going to be a little bit too much. But again, the way that this recruitment has gone, man, like it is so up in the air. Like I think that, I mean, it’s just really hard to do. Right. I mean, think about it, it would be like a kid from Cleveland, you know, considering
You know, our kid from Toledo considering Ohio State, Michigan, and then like Miami or then like Florida and then Florida State. Like, it’s hard to pull kids out of their home territory. And I think it’s going to be really hard for Ohio State to pull TJ Alford out. I don’t think that Ohio State would have done anything wrong if they don’t land his commitment. I don’t think Ohio State would have, ah, you know, what is James Lennonitis doing? I just think you’re going to lose sometimes. Ohio State’s already got a really good class building on defense. You know, they’ve already got.
you know, they’ve already got a really solid class with like Devin Sanchez and he offered and see your math is like you’re already got a lot of talented players and you’re gonna lose. Eventually you’re gonna lose. You’re gonna you’re gonna fight and you’re gonna lose. And I just think this is one of those times where TJ is going to stay in the state of Florida. So I’ll say he commits to Florida. But again, this is one of those commitments where he could put on that Gator hat and do the chomp and do that whole song and dance.
And it is not over for Ohio State. They will keep on this guy until he either tells them no or he puts pen to paper to sign wherever he’s going.
So as we talked about with Janser and the potential that could be there with him as a recruiter
Should we be judging him off of the same criteria then with Brian Heartline and Tim Walton, at least in this cycle, where we’re not TJ Alfred, obviously, a top 70 recruiting situation. We’re talking about Brian Heartline. You’re talking about Tim Walton, the guy who would be ranked 63rd in their situations might be the third best player that they get in a class on a given year. Right. But also it’s a different position. You’re talking about positions like cornerback and safety where their NFL premium positions, wide receivers, the NFL premium position.
linebacker, both in the way Ohio State Scheme is run, but then also the value of it in the NFL, there’s probably not always going to be top 50 five star recruits, at least not a large surplus of them to where we’re going, Hey, James, how come we didn’t get any, how come you didn’t get any of those guys? So how would you, let’s put, let’s put a number on it. Let’s say James Ornitis gets two linebackers in this class, one of them already being Eli Lee, who’s an in-state player.
describe who that profile of what that second linebacker would need to be for you to say this was a successful first cycle for James Ornitis.
Yeah, that’s a really good question actually. I think, I don’t mean actually as if I was surprised that you asked a good question. I think the profile would be a really talented player. You know, like we’re talking like a top, you know, a top 150 guy, a top 100 guy, but a guy that can run. You know, cause Eli Lee, how many times, you heard this a lot, how many times have we heard this a lot just kind of around and what Eli has told, you know, the recruiting writers and told me and told everybody that.
Tommy Eichenberg was a comp that got thrown around a little bit, right? You know, Tommy Eichenberg was a guy that they viewed, oh, like that, hey, they think Eli Lee can be Tommy Eichenberg. Well, here’s the thing with Tommy Eichenberg. He had a pretty good linebacker playing next to him in steel chambers, right? Like he had a really solid, they fit well together and their needs kinda complimented one another. So I think the guy that you would look for would be that type of player. Obviously you want, you know, the best linebacker you can get.
I think that TJ kind of fits that mold to a T, which is obviously why they would push for him. But yeah, I think that’s, you know, that would be the type of player that you can look for. They’re in on Riley Pettigon. He’s a kid number 57 overall. He’s out of Texas. They’re in on Madden Fermo. We’ve talked about him. He’s number 111 player out of California. You know, they’re in on Elijah Barnes. They’re in on Elijah Melendez. I know he’s a Miami commit right now, but they’re like...
There are guys that Ohio State is after that would make some sense. Jaden Harmon, he’s out of Georgia. He’s a linebacker, number 218 in the class. There are guys that would make sense. And I don’t, I’m not trying to give James Lornaidis a pass here, but I think you can get away with not recruiting the best linebacker in the country every year, right? I think you don’t need to recruit at a level like...
Brian Hartline or like Tim Walton to be deemed a success or a failure. You know, I think that especially when you look at the linebackers, like, you know, as I do this right now, there’s six, there’s eight, there’s eight linebackers in the top a hundred. There’s like, there are other positions that are a little bit more chock full of talent, especially because linebackers such a unique position to recruit. Sometimes you recruit a linebacker that.
I mean, you recruit a guy who plays safety in high school because he’s the fastest guy in the field, but he has to play linebacker in college because he’s bigger and he’s just not going to be able to keep up with speed and receive. Like, linebacker is a unique position to recruit, so I think you need to find, obviously, a talented player. I mean, you obviously want that guy to be within some semblance of the rankings. You need him probably like a top 200 player. You’re not trying to recruit a two-star, three-star player and they’d be like, we did it! Hey, congratulations, everyone.
That’s not where you want to be, but you do, I think, need a will in this class. And I think if you leave this class with Eli Lee, who another guy, I know I said it’s not a commitment technically, it’s, you know, it’s one of those situations where you never know until you know. I think you feel pretty good about Eli Lee staying in this class, especially as long as James Laurinaitis is employed by Ohio State. You had a will in this class, like a guy, you know, even if it’s like a guy like Madden
You know, I mentioned borderline top 100 player, like that can just be a really, really nice one, two punch for James Ornates and linebacker. And when you stack it up with the rest of the, with the rest of the class, DB, uh, D line feeling pretty good.
All right, so that’s TJ offered who will be committing on Saturday, March 30th. We’ll see if, see if Ohio State can get back to eight and it’s 2025 recruiting class right now. They’re at seven, the number five class in the country. Get the text six one four three five Oh three one five. When TJ commits, that’s the first place you’re going to hear about it from us. Andrew’s going to be texting that number two week free trial through 99. After that, as quarterback stuff is happening, that’s where you’re going to hear it first is literally any recruiting thing is happening. That’s the first place we’re going to go with it before we go anywhere else. Plus.
Saturday’s gonna be a pretty busy day, man. You got TJ Offer committing. You’ve got Ohio State having their second scrimmage of the spring, and we’ll be in there to watch the entire scrimmage, so we’ll get our eyes on that. So get the text, 614-350-3315. That wraps up another recruiting policy for Andrew Gillis. I’m Stephen Means, and that was Buckeye Talk.
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