COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio State’s win on the recruiting battle can serve as another example that the program still has the juice regardless of who it’s going up against.
Jaylen McClain wasn’t even on the Buckeyes’ radar when he put out a top 10 in February ready to cut down his list of schools. But all of that went out the window the moment he got an offer in March. He followed that up with an unofficial visit in April, immediately setting up an official visit in June and now he’s OSU’s first commitment of the summer as the program attempts to get its defensive recruiting going.
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Ohio State is one of those programs who shear presence can flip where a recruitment is headed and it doesn’t have to always apply to just in-state recruits. This is the second time in this cycle that it’s done so with a defensive player and the fourth time overall that a player has ended up committing within the first six months of earning an offer.
Four-star quarterback Air Noland was the first to do so even if his overall relationships with the coaching staff had been going on for two years. He was officially offered on April 1 during an unofficial visit then committed seven days later.
Linebacker Payton Pierce followed that up four days later even if his relationship with the Buckeyes didn’t really take off until James Laurinaitis was hired as a graduate assistant and shifted all of the four-star’s momentum from Notre Dame to Columbus. He earned an offer in January, took an unofficial visit in March and was committed by mid-April.
Four-star tight end Max LeBlanc closed out a seven-day run for the Buckeyes — as part of a loud spring in general — when he became Keenan Bailey’s first commitment just moments before the 2023 Spring Game kicked off. He too was offered in January before taking an unofficial visit in March before committing in April.
Each of those players was ready to pull the trigger after unofficial visits in the spring. It’s the only place McClain differs from this group as his spring visit sparked his interest allowing the June official visit to finish the job. Now he joins Pierce and Garrett Stover as defensive players in the nation’s No. 4 recruiting class.
The run of defensive commitments was always going to have to wait until the summer to truly take off. The only question coming into June would be who would kick things off. OSU now has a guy who has probably been a target for the least amount of time to make that happen. It also gave the program a chance to once again show off its ability to quickly win a recruiting battle, even if they weren’t in it for too long.
To see Ohio State’s full 2024 recruiting class, click here.
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