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Dan Hope and Andy Anders of Eleven Warriors bring you inside the Ohio State beat every Wednesday with a podcast covering everything you need to know about the Buckeyes.
Note: This transcript was AI-generated and has not been edited for errors.
[Dan Hope]
Welcome into Real Pod Wednesdays. I'm Dan Hope, joined as always by Andy Anders, and also joined this week by Garrick Hodge, our recruiting analyst slash national college football analyst slash photographer. Garrick holds a lot of hats for us over at 11 Warriors, but he is joining us today to talk about Ohio State's 2025 freshman class.
Because the national signing day, as we know it, actually happened in December. That's when Ohio State signed its entire 2025 recruiting class. Andy and I were, of course, busy talking about actual football games at the time.
I think that the day signing day happened was also Ryan Day's first press conference after the Michigan game. And so I wouldn't say that recruiting was the top topic of discussion for us that day. We did cover it a little bit, but with today being the traditional national signing day, it's not going to be a busy day for Ohio State, at least on the signing players front.
But for those who have followed recruiting for some time will remember that up until a few years ago, this first Wednesday in December, first Wednesday in February, rather, was national signing day. It was the day where all the schools signed all their recruits for the year. And so this used to be a really big day on our calendar.
Not so much anymore because that excitement has moved to December. But we thought it would be a good day to have Garrick on to talk about that class that Ohio State signed a couple months ago and some of the players that we think are going to be stars from that class, as many of them have already started their Buckeyes careers. Many of them enrolling at Ohio State last month.
Many of them had the opportunity to be on the sidelines for those college football playoff games. And now they are starting their career as first semester freshmen at Ohio State, getting ready to participate in spring practice, which we now know will start a couple weeks later than usual, but mid-March. So we're about six weeks away from spring ball as we sit here today.
Not starting the first week of March this year. We'll start after spring break as Ohio State looks to give its players a couple more weeks of rest after a 16-game season that ended in mid-January. If you're coming to us looking for coaching, search, talk, not going to get into too much of that today because everything's still so in flux.
You will find on our YouTube channel, 11 Warriors, press coverage videos that Andy and I did over the weekend talking about both the departures of Justin Frey and Chip Kelly. We will certainly talk more about the coaching staff changes here on Real Pod Wednesdays after the new hires are made, but not a ton more of what we've already said right now as things remain in flux. We're sitting here recording on a Tuesday afternoon.
We could say something today, and by the time you see this on Wednesday morning, something could have changed completely. So not a whole lot of sense in getting too deep into coaching, search, talk today. We'll see how all that unfolds here in the days to come.
But to get to the discussion about the 2025 class, Garrick, I'll start with you. As somebody who covers recruiting year round, as you look at this incoming class of freshmen, what are your overall thoughts on the class?
[Garrick Hodge]
Well, first, I was today years old when I realized that it's the actual signing day in February. I completely forgot about that because it's so irrelevant at this point besides maybe like one or two. I think there was maybe one signing that I saw today publicly, and then I was like, oh, yeah, that is today, isn't it?
Hmm, interesting. Okay. But to answer your question, Dan, I think that this class is pretty similar to some of the recent classes that we've seen for Ohio State produce over the past couple of recruiting cycles.
They finish around four or five seemingly every year. And even we were kind of joking about it, you know, before we started recording, it seems like Ohio State's recruiting cycle goes in waves every single year. Before we get to the spring, there's always kind of a who are they going to get?
There's only a couple of commits in the cycle and then spring and summer come and then just they get a slew of commitments and they look well positioned to secure the number one recruiting class. Then things just kind of stall in the fall. Then there's some couple flips.
Maybe they get a flip or two of their own and they finish around four or five. And well, that's more or less where we ended up here today is they're ranked number five in the country. I still think it's a very talented, very deep recruiting class.
It's a little lacking on the offensive line in terms of elite caliber prospects, not saying that there isn't one or two that could blossom into one of those eventually. But you know, there is some high profile misses that we've discussed ad nauseum over the past couple of years. You know, David Sanders, anyone brings up his name, you automatically get PTSD around Columbus.
But yeah, overall, I mean, there's some premier talent at the top. There's some developmental prospects that probably aren't being talked about a lot right now that could blossom into very talented players and contributors in the future. And overall, I think it's, you know, another great class that could be positioned to compete for a national championship again in a couple seasons.
[Dan Hope]
It really does feel like deja vu every year with how the cycle seems to kind of go for Ohio State. You always have, you know, kind of that bonkers run in the summer. And I mean, I remember having you on in the summer and we talked about it and, you know, I said, you kind of got me believing there for a little bit, but they were actually going to get the number one class last year.
But I was I was I kept telling myself, like, don't buy into it like we have this conversation every year. It never happens. Believe it when you see it.
So I'm certainly going to remind myself of that going into this 2026 cycle. And we'll talk about 2026 for a few minutes at the end of the show. But to do a quick run through the class to refresh everybody on who Ohio State did sign in the 2025 class, 2026 total high school recruits.
This doesn't include any walk-ons that Ohio State will get. It did just get one earlier this week, Jason Gwynn, who's actually an Ohio State legacy son of former Ohio State defensive back Anthony Gwynn and nephew of late former Ohio State defensive end Jason Gwynn. He'll be joining of a quarterback room as a walk on.
But 26 scholarship players who signed Big Ten scholarship agreements with Ohio State back in December, those are five star quarterback Tavian St. Clair, running back trio of Anthony Turbo Rodgers, Bo Jackson, and Isaiah West. Four wide receivers starting with five star Quincy Porter, joined by Philip Bell and Bod Penn Miller and Desi Jones. Two tight end class of Nate Roberts and Brody Lennon.
Three offensive linemen, Carter Lowe, Javon McFadden, and Jake Cook. Two defensive ends, Zion Grady and Epi Satanale. Three defensive tackles, Jarquez Carter, Trajan Odom, Maxwell Roy.
Three linebackers, Riley Pettijohn, Tarvis Alford, and Eli Lee. Two cornerbacks, five star Devin Sanchez, joined by Jordan Woods. And three safeties, Faheem Delane, Cody Haddad, Deshaun Stewart.
Andy, when you hear that list of names, who are just a few guys who really jump out in your mind?
[Andy Anders]
I mean, the two obvious ones are going to be the five stars, the big names, Tavian St. Clair and Devin Sanchez, right? I mean, you talk about Tavian, the story of his recruiting journey going from a guy who was, you know, he had some attention as a quarterback, but really blossomed as a prospect later in his high school career. Didn't have that five star billing until really after Ohio State heavily involved, he commits, and he's a late riser in the recruiting world.
And you look at the guy and his physical development over that time, and it makes a lot of sense because he went from looking, you know, like this kind of gangly kid to now looks like a prototypical five star quarterback prospect. I mean, the dude is built like that caliber of player. And I think Devin Sanchez, you know, Jeremiah Smith is a phenomenon unto his own.
I'm not sure you're going to see many freshmen ever at any school come in and make that big an impact, be that big a star immediately year one. But I think Devin Sanchez at corner has some of that same, he could be a real contributor right away. Now, Ohio State's in a place at cornerback where he might not get that starting opportunity right away like Jeremiah did.
But to me, I think Devin Sanchez is of that caliber where he could be too good to keep off the field year one. And that's saying something at corner, which tends to be a little more developmental than receiver I think. So those are the two names that I think you have to start with.
But I want to say Fahim DeLayne too, I think could even get involved in the safety competition. And this was a great defensive back hole for Ohio State, even with the loss of name offered on signing day, early signing day. So I think those are the three players that topped the list for me.
[Dan Hope]
Yeah, you mentioned Devin Sanchez, it's going to be really interesting to see how that cornerback battle plays out. Because, you know, you assume Davison Igbenos and Jermaine Matthews are going to be those starters on the outside. But I do think, you know, there's a chance that Devin Sanchez comes in and he's so good that they have to find a way to get him on the field right away.
Maybe that's as the number three corner. Maybe that's moving one of those guys inside and somebody's playing nickel. We'll see how that ultimately plays out.
But I do think he's certainly the guy who stands out when you look in this class of a guy who could force his way onto the field right away and play a major role as a freshman. I mean, we saw Denzel Burke do it four years ago. Now, granted, I don't think that cornerback room was as strong as this one will be going into 2025.
But Devin Sanchez certainly has that kind of talent to be that kind of guy. Going back to Tavion St. Clair, I know, you know, Garrick and I have both watched a lot of Tavion St. Clair. We've both been to his games.
We've both seen him at camp after camp. Andy, I think you're in that boat as well of seeing him at a lot of camps. To Andy's point, this is a guy that it's been really cool to watch his development over the last three years.
Because I remember the first time I saw him, I think it was at a seven-on-seven camp when I think he was going into his sophomore year of high school. And you could see that he had ability. You could see that the developmental traits were there.
But he wasn't quite there yet. And you wondered, was he going to be one of those in-state quarterbacks who was good but not quite Ohio State good? And then going into his junior year, which is when he got that Ohio State offer and ultimately committed to the Buckeyes, you could really start to see him maturing and becoming that Ohio State-level quarterback.
And then as a senior, you saw him become one of the best quarterbacks in the country where you saw, okay, this is a guy who looks like Ohio State's quarterback of a future. Now he's coming in at Ohio State at an interesting time because Ohio State is going to have a quarterback competition this year. Tavey and St. Clair's going to be a part of that quarterback competition. I don't think he's going to be the starting quarterback as a freshman. I think Julian Sane is going to be the frontrunner in that competition. But it's going to be interesting to see how quickly Tavey and St. Clair can make a push there. Now I think one of the challenges is it's a big jump from Bell Fountain to Ohio State. He wasn't playing the most elite competition in high school. So I think there's going to be an adjustment there.
But I think one thing that's going to really help Tavey is this guy's been around Ohio State a lot. I mean, it almost felt like he was already part of a team the last two years because he was at every game. You go to spring practice, he's always there.
So he's got a ton of familiarity with this Ohio State program. And you'd think that's going to make for a really smooth transition for him this spring.
[Garrick Hodge]
Yeah, I've gone back and forth a lot on how fast Tavey could ascend or compete for the starting quarterback. And I've always tried to be a lot more cautious than most people about expectations for five-star players because fans naturally get excited because they're these naturally talented kids that are so athletically gifted that have dominated any time they've ever touched the field. And it looks like they can't be beat.
And then, you know, they get around their peers and even some of them have been privately, man, I thought I was really good. But then I got around a bunch of other guys that are really good and realized they had to work a little bit harder. And I don't think, you know, Tavion necessarily had that moment.
But like you said, Dan, the last game he played was in Division Four Ohio high school football. And not that I don't think Tavion is going to be a very good player one day, but asking him to go from that to playing Texas August 30th is a very, very tough ask. It's just night and day.
That would be like, I don't want to go too far off the deep end on hypotheticals, but there's a lot you could do with that if we had a lot more time on this podcast. But no, I mean, if Tavion is in the running to be your starter August 30th, that means one of two things have happened. One is amazing and one is a disaster.
One is that Tavion has far surpassed any coaches and fans expectations and has learned the system and is just delivering dime after dime in practice. And he's performed so well that it would be a disservice and an insult to the locker room not to play him. The other is that either Julian Sane or Lincoln Kingholes is hurt or severely underperforming.
And they feel that their best chance is that they have to throw a freshman in there that may not have the full grasp of the offensive system, whatever offense they're going to run. We don't know what, you know, the coordinator, even though we have a grasp of Ryan Day's offense by now. But, you know, that they don't trust Julian Sane or Lincoln enough, or one of the two of them is hurt, and then they have to put Tavion in there against Texas.
So I would be surprised, to put it bluntly, if Tavion is actually under center. But I guess it's not out of the realm of possibility he could be on the two deep by the end of the year. I mean, Julian Sane got on three deep before the end of the year was over, and some were arguing that he should have been the backup behind Will Howard.
So it's not out of the realm of possibility, especially when you don't have an established starter and a quarterback that has not started a single college football game before. And like you said, Dan, we all expect Julian Sane to be the frontrunner. We don't know.
Like, we won't know until he's getting reps with the ones consistently, what that looks like, what Lincoln looks like when he takes the ones, and then, hey, maybe Tavion's far more advanced and Division Four football is a lot more competitive than I think he is, and he just blows us all away. It's one of the more fascinating spring football quarterback competitions I can remember in a couple years, but I'm just excited to see how it plays out.
[Dan Hope]
You make a very good point about the jump from Bell Fountain to starting against Texas in week one. That would be quite a big jump. So I agree with you.
I mean, I think the ideal scenario for Ohio State is you hope Julian Sane is what you think he is. He becomes a star for the next two years. He goes off to the NFL, and then you have Tavion St. Clair with two years of development who's ready to be that next guy up. I think if everything goes according to plan, that's probably the trajectory of what Ohio State's quarterback room is going to look like over the next three to four years. But I think, you know, regardless of what his role is this year, I think Tavion St. Clair is a guy who's just an awesome addition to this room, because you're talking about a guy who's all in as a Buckeye. I mean, we were talking off air before about how much recruiting has changed these days, and it's very different than it used to be.
And it's not as much about relationships anymore as it is about NIL and all that. But you talk about a guy who was just all in being a Buckeye from day one, who is coming to Ohio State because he loves Ohio State. Tavion St. Clair is right at the top of that list, and I think that makes him the perfect guy to come into this quarterback room, develop over the next year or two, and then hopefully become that next-star quarterback in the room after Julian Sane, Lincoln Kienholz, or whoever ends up leading the Ohio State quarterback room this year. And really, Devin Sanchez had a lot of that as well. I mean, Devin Sanchez, this was a guy who loves Tim Walton. His family loves Tim Walton.
That was a big reason why he came to Ohio State as well. So certainly, I'm sure both those guys are being well compensated on the NIL front. But those are two guys who relationships really did matter for those two guys in terms of becoming Buckeyes.
Those guys, two of the three five-star recruits in this class, Quincy Porter, a guy who I feel like kind of flew under the radar his entire recruitment, but he actually ended up becoming a five-star late in the cycle, had a really good performance at the All-American Bowl that boosted his final rankings, and I think he's a guy that hasn't gotten Jeremiah Smith-level attention, as Andy said, few do. I think even compared to other recent five-star wide receivers in that room, he's been a little bit overlooked.
But another guy who's bringing elite talent to an Ohio State wide receiver room that's going to be full of it once again in 2025. I mean, you're going to have three five-star recruits in that room, and Jeremiah Smith, Brandon Innes, and Quincy Porter. Another guy who probably should have been, or actually four, Mylon Graham in there as well, another guy who probably should have been in Carnell Tate, another guy they really like in Bryson Rogers.
So, Quincy Porter, a guy they're probably not going to need him to play a lot as a freshman the way Jeremiah Smith did, but certainly a guy that I think is going to push for a spot on that two-deep right away with the talent that he's bringing in to Ohio State. Andy already mentioned Faheem Delane as a guy he really likes. Garrick, who's a guy who wasn't a five-star that you really like that you think is going to end up being a star out of this class?
[Garrick Hodge]
I think I'm going to go with Zion Grady, and I'm kind of calling my shot here because he's kind of one of my sleepers to be on the two-deep right away as a freshman. And I think because, of course, Ohio State would have loved to hold on to the commitments of Zaheer Mathis and London Merritt, would have loved to retain them, obviously, but college football being what it is, it got to a point to where they weren't comfortable going with other opportunities that they had, if you catch my drift. But Zion Grady was a guy they did not want to lose because they really believed that with his curtain build, he'd be able to compete right away.
And I don't think that they were set on that with Zaheer in London. So I think that I could kind of see Zion Grady being like what Edric Houston kind of was this year. Maybe not a guy that starts right away, but gets more and more playing time as the year goes on.
I expect him to probably stick at defensive end. We'll see where it goes. But you know, me, like I'm sure you and Andy are, Dan, I'm high on Kaden Curry and Kenyatta Jackson Jr. too, but they haven't started in their college careers, even though they've played a lot of meaningful snaps. So a lot of snaps at the edge open for grabs this year. And I'm pretty excited to see what Zion Grady can do. I'm projecting he'll probably be on the two deep by the end of the year, probably kind of play in that role that Kaden and Kenyatta played the first couple of years and get some snaps in meaningful situations, even though he's not necessarily a full-time starter.
And then by year two or year three, I expect him to kind of take that leap and become a pretty good player for Ohio State.
[Dan Hope]
I think another guy for me and not going out on a huge limb here, because he was a five star at one point, ended up finishing, you know, just below five stars, a high four star. But Riley Pettijohn, I think, is a guy who has all the tools to be an excellent linebacker for the Buckeyes. You think about the future of a middle linebacker position for the Buckeyes.
Arvell Reese probably going to be the next man up there this upcoming season, replacing Cody Simon. But I think Riley Pettijohn is a guy that can develop behind Arvell Reese over the next year or two and become a really good middle linebacker for the Buckeyes. So I think he's a guy who really has all the traits you look for in that middle linebacker position.
And I think he's a guy that, you know, by the end of his career is going to be a fantastic leader for that Ohio State defense and a very productive tackler in the middle of the defense there. Andy, anyone else who really jumps out to you that you want to highlight?
[Andy Anders]
Oh, you know, I got to talk about an offensive lineman. So I think Carter Lowe has an amazing physical build for the offensive tackle position. And it's going to take a year or two for him to get there.
It does for most offensive linemen. You know, it's one of the rarest positions to come in and make that impact right away. But I think Carter Lowe, when he does develop, is going to be a really, really good player in this offense.
It's, you know, offensive line recruits, like you talk about, Justin Frye's misses over the time of his Ohio State career and part of why he's off to the NFL maybe. But, you know, this is one of the successes and he's landed a couple of good in-state prospects, Luke Montgomery being another who we saw make an impact in the playoff run. I think Carter Lowe brings a lot of things to the table to be excited about an offensive tackle with that length, that build, that athleticism.
And then he's a guy that I'll be watching closely his Ohio State career for sure.
[Dan Hope]
We talked about it. I think we'd probably all agree that, you know, out of all these guys, the guy who's probably the most likely to play a major role as a freshman is Devin Sanchez. As Andy mentioned, Faheem Delane, a guy who could certainly factor in in the safety competition.
You know, I think Riley Pettijohn's a guy who could certainly contend for a spot on Vatutti quickly at linebacker. Zion Grady, as Garrick mentioned, I think there's certainly opportunity there at defensive end. Quincy Porter, again, I don't know how many snaps are going to be available to him as a freshman at receiver, but certainly I think a candidate for Vatutti.
I think another position group you would circle as there being an opportunity to play as a returning running back on scholarship for the Buckeyes is James Peeples. They brought in CJ Donaldson from West Virginia, and you expect that those two guys are probably going to take the bulk of the carries this upcoming season. But those guys also aren't Travion Henderson and Quenshawn Judkins.
And so at least not yet in terms of James Peeples. So I think the opportunities there for a third guy to potentially push for more carries than we saw James Peeples get as a freshman. Garrick, as somebody who's covered these guys, is there one of those three running backs in particular who stands out to you as someone who you think could push for playing time as a freshman?
[Garrick Hodge]
Yeah, I think both Bo Jackson and Turbo Anthony Rogers could. I would probably go and say Bo Jackson outright, but I'm a little hesitant to do so because he suffered a season-ending knee injury pretty early in his high school senior season. I did talk to Carlos Laughlin at the Rose Bowl Media Day, and he said that Bo should be good to go and have no restrictions in the spring.
And I'm going to take him at his word. So I'm just going to, let's say for the sake of argument, that's true. But Bo's a very explosive runner, and if he's the same after the knee injury or whatever season-ending injury it was, I think that he could be a very great player for Ohio State and a very explosive player that could fill the James Peoples role this year.
Or if maybe James doesn't take that next step that we all expect him to, maybe Bo slots in as that number two running back behind Donaldson. But I think Turbo's kind of interesting because you can put him in a lot of different spots. One of Dan's favorite Buckeyes that he's covered, I'm sure, is Xavier Johnson, and Anthony Rogers kind of fits that same role, where I think you can put him in the slot, you can put him in the backfield, you can have him run reverses.
He's used to doing that all the time for his high school. In high school, he played a lot of receiver, he played a lot of running back. A term that Dan hates with all his heart is Swiss Army Knife, and he stabs us in the heart every time we write it in an article.
Just kidding. But that's a fair description of him because he wears a lot of different hats, and he moves a lot of different places around the field. And when you have a guy like that that has the athleticism and quickness, and he's not a very tall guy.
He's around 5'9", 5'10", somewhere around there. But when you have a guy that's that explosive and can play so many different places, it kind of makes you wonder, well, if he can do a lot of different things, then you have to think that they're going to get him on the field at some point if he's got the goods. So between Bo Jackson and Anthony Rogers, I wouldn't be surprised if at least one of those emerges as a pretty significant player for Ohio State in 2025.
[Andy Anders]
We're talking about snaps at running back and C.J. Donaldson. We mentioned defensive end earlier and the snaps that could be up for grab, and I think Lodegan George is also in that conversation. Derek, I was going to ask how you feel this transfer portal class has supplemented what Ohio State did in the recruiting trail?
Because obviously that's a huge part of the modern era of college football. The offensive lineman that they brought in, Max Clair, I feel like is a huge add in the tight end room. Just get your thoughts on the transfer portal there.
[Garrick Hodge]
Yeah, I think that's a good point, Andy. I think that the two offensive linemen they brought in via the transfer portal helps really mitigate maybe the low numbers on the offensive line, as you suggested, and especially since both of them are front runners to start at each tackle position between Ethan and Phillip. I think a lot of scouts are very high on Ethan in particular with only one year eligibility that he may be one of the better left tackles in the country.
And that's pretty good considering that, again, we're going to keep harping on it for the next couple months, but you play Texas that has one of the best pass rushers in the nation coming at you week one. So you'd like to have a little bit of stability there on both tackles since both of them are gone after the season. But yeah, Phillip's a little bit more on the raw side coming from Minnesota.
Started the Gophers last four games, will have three years remaining, the cousin of Parris Johnson, I believe. And I mean, all the potential in the world, guy was made to be a Buckeye, grew up a Buckeye fan. And so, you know, once he got in the transfer portal and heard Ohio State was interested, it was a pretty short recruitment from there.
But that's only part of the puzzle. Like Max Clair, I think, is a legit receiving weapon. We talk about all these other guys that Ohio State has, you know, the Cardinal Taits, the Jeremiah Smith, of course, Brandon, it's all these guys.
But Max Clair had 600-something yards on one of the worst Big Ten teams I've ever seen in my life. It's like, this guy is a fantastic talent over the middle and is going to just make linebackers' lives miserable, especially if whoever the new offensive coordinator is utilizes him properly. You know, Lorton George is a guy that's kind of hard to put a gauge on because, you know, he played at such a small school.
It's hard to get a real measuring stick on how he's going to step up against, you know, guys that are on his level. But like you said, he's going to be in that competition for defensive end. And yeah, C.J. Donaldson, like you mentioned, Andy, a big bruising running back from West Virginia. Carlos Laughlin was really excited about him when we spoke. I think James Peeples was also really excited about him when I talked to him before the National Championship. And I think in particular, he has a very bruising-style running technique and James is more the sleeker kind of side, even though he's also capable of putting the hurting on someone.
And I think their running styles complement each other very well. I think when you get down to the goal line, you're going to see a lot of C.J. He's going to be the guy that's going to punch it in a lot in short-yarded situations. So they will have a lot of options to hurt you in the backfield, for sure.
But overall, to answer your question, this transfer portal class is pretty good to patch their holes, if you will.
[Dan Hope]
When we think about long-term prospects in this 2025 class, you just talked about Max Clair. I think another tight end coming in that I'm really intrigued by is Nate Roberts. I think he's a guy who's maybe more college-ready than a lot of tight ends are coming in.
Now, I don't think he's going to play a lot as a freshman because they added Max Clair. They have Will Kasmerich coming back. They have Bennett Christian coming back.
They have Jelani Furman coming back. So a lot of depth there at tight end don't necessarily need. Either Nate Roberts or Brody Lennon to play much as a freshman, but he's a guy I'm really intrigued to watch his development.
I think he has all the tools, you know, year two, year three, to be a guy who really emerges as an excellent tight end for the Buckeyes. I'll go to you two guys, starting with you, Garrick, who's a guy in this class we haven't talked much about yet, who you think is going to really prove to be a gem in this class?
[Garrick Hodge]
How far do I really want to call my shot here? Screw it. I'll have some fun.
We'll go with Bod Penn Miller, just because the camp that I saw him at, the guy's too good of an athlete not to be good somewhere. For those that don't know, Bod Penn was a high school quarterback his entire football career. This 6'4 guy that appears out of nowhere at Ohio State recruiting camp, none of us really have him on our radar.
The guy works out at receiver with Brian Hartline and just kind of blows Hartline away. I remember Hartline kind of walking in to go evaluate what he'd just seen at the first camp Bod Penn did. He was really just kind of talking to himself like, man, I really want to offer this kid, but I don't think he was planning on it.
He's like, I got to see this kid again. Then he saw him again and he's like, ah, screw it, I'm offering this kid. Sure enough, you just watch him compete in the seven-on-seven like we all did.
For a guy that's only been playing wide receiver for four months, I just want to know how much better he's going to be in four years. It's a very developmental call your shot and he's not going to be on the field anytime soon for sure. He's very raw to the position, has a lot to learn, but I think this could be a guy that in maybe seven years from now, you're like, wow, what a fun story this was.
[Andy Anders]
For me, and sticking with the big boys here, I think defensive tackle, we haven't really talked about this position much. Dark Eyes Carter might be the highest rated of that group. To me, I think Trajan Odom is pretty intriguing.
I think the length that he has at 6'4", and when you talk about a guy that's already 285 pounds or at least listed as that on 24-7 in his recruiting profile, he's a guy that you add weight to that kind of long frame and you can get a lot of stuff done on the defensive line. To me too, he's ranked outside the top 400 in the composite, but I always like to put more stock into who's offering a kid, especially when you're talking about a four-star, three-star and that sort of range. He's got a guy who had offers from USC, took a visit there.
Oregon took a visit there. Alabama, a lot of powers in college football. Georgia offered.
This is a guy who had a lot of national recruiting attention, even if he wasn't as highly ranked. And again, I think with that length-size combo, he could bring a lot of intriguing things to the three-tech position when you talk about having the ability to extend on an offensive guard and get that separation to shed a block and make plays in the running game. Long arms are very helpful, obviously, for pass rushing.
So to me, Trajan Odom is one that I think might be a little slept on as far as this defensive line haul goes.
[Dan Hope]
I will say, I think out of all the players in this class, probably the one that I'm personally rooting for the most to be that hidden gem is Bodpen Miller because he just has such a cool story. I believe Ethiopia is where he was born and was adopted, came over to America. And then, as Garrick talked about, he's been a high school quarterback his entire career.
Brian Hartline, you're talking about a program that has its pick of a litter at wide receiver pretty much every year because Brian Hartline's got such a great reputation. So many top wide receivers want to come to Ohio State and be a part of his program. Brian Hartline makes a bet on a guy who doesn't even play wide receiver in high school because he sees these traits.
I think a guy who everybody you talk to is just a really high-character kid, somebody who I think is going to probably be a future leader of the program with just the kind of qualities that he brings in. Certainly a guy who qualifies as a project for Ohio State because of his inexperience playing the wide receiver position. But with a couple years of development, if he stays for the course, I'm really intrigued to see the kind of player he becomes.
And I agree with Garrick, but I think he's a player who in the long run could very well prove to be a hidden gem of this class for the Buckeyes. Lots of talk there about the 2025 class. Before we wrap up today's show, I also want to get Garrick's thoughts here on the 2026 class because now that the 2025 class is signed, of course, the 2026 class now becomes the priority for Ohio State in recruiting.
And the Buckeyes currently have just four commits for 2026, those being five-star wide receiver Chris Henry Jr., headlining the class, along with cornerback Jacob Weatherspoon, tight end Corbin Fordham, and wide receiver Jaden Ricketts. As we talked about at the beginning of the show, not necessarily a big cause for alarm, but Ohio State only has four commits so far because these things tend to happen in similar cycles. You're most likely going to see a lot more activity in terms of commitments after spring practices start, and then especially in that June-July window after official visits.
So, Garrick, as you start looking ahead to the spring and summer, who are some of the top names that Ohio State fans should know about? Who are some of the guys that you think could be on commitment watch when that time comes?
[Garrick Hodge]
Well, I can tell you I'd feel a lot more confident in this answer if Justin Frey hadn't left to go be the Arizona Cardinals offensive line coach. Whatever. It's a state of the industry and we all have to adjust as such.
I still think Maxwell O'Reilly is on commitment watch in the spring. When you're openly down to two schools, Ohio State and Clemson, you're pretty close to pulling the trigger, right? He probably could have made a decision this month or at the latest, early next month.
He might take a little longer than that now because obviously he's going to want to develop a relationship with Ohio State's new offensive line coach, whoever that may be, and kind of feel that out before he probably makes a decision about his future. Sam Greer is another offensive lineman I feel pretty good about for Ohio State. I think Adam Guthrie is also another guy, in-state guy, that is very high on their list.
But like Max, Clemson is going to be a very tough competition for them there. Well, I don't think he's on commitment watch this spring, but I really feel good about Micah Champ-Smith, mostly because he's an out-of-state O-lineman. Ohio State has to get one of these premier out-of-state O-linemen one of these years, and he might as well be in-state with how often he's visited Columbus over the past year, even though he had a very good relationship with Justin Fry.
Let's see. Albert Hill is a guy that could pop at any time, a five-star cornerback, Ohio kid. But again, a lot of big players want him too, and you're going to hear the name Oregon a lot, and it's going to be really annoying over the next couple cycles with Phil Knight money.
So anytime Ohio State wants a player, and it's a high-caliber player, there's a good chance they're going to be battling Oregon for his commitment. So I said a lot of O-linemen there, which makes not a whole lot of sense, because they don't have an offensive line coach right now. Before Justin Fry left, that was kind of where I was leaning toward for guys wrapping up their minds pretty quickly.
So I guess maybe somewhere in there, if they establish a connection with the new Ohio State offensive line coach. But Albert Hill could be a guy that has said that he might pull the trigger before he gets to official visit season two. So I don't think it's out of the question that Albert Hill could commit to Ohio State or somewhere else by the end of the spring.
[Andy Anders]
You mentioned you talked about the offensive line. Obviously, that's been a priority the last several cycles for Ohio State. It seems that we have this conversation kind of entering every recruiting cycle of, you know, they need to hit on some big offensive linemen, and then they don't get as many as they were hoping for, and then we're right back at this starting point.
But what are some other positions you feel like that are going to be a priority to address going forward in this 2026 cycle for the Buckeyes?
[Garrick Hodge]
I don't know if I'd call this one a priority, but it's definitely really interesting to me to see what they do. And that's quarterback, because Ohio State's in a very peculiar position with quarterback recruiting for 2026, because we've talked about Tavian Sinclair a lot. Julian Sane's also a young guy to where if he's good, he's going to be your starter for two years.
And then if Tavian's good, he's the natural successor there. So that's a three-year plan. Plus, Brady Edmonds is a five-star caliber guy in 2027 that's already committed.
So it's a pretty crowded room already on paper. But Ohio State still wants a big fish. You know, Jared Curtis, he committed from Georgia.
I would probably take the field over Ohio State for him right now, even though he's been very complimentary of Ohio State in a couple of interviews. But there's a couple different variety of ways that could go there. They've offered like three new guys over the past week.
You know, Bo Bentley out of Texas is an interesting prospect. Just off the top of my head, that could be one. So yeah, I'm kind of interested to see what they do at quarterback.
And I mean, there's a couple others too, right? You know, tight end is a position that Keenan Bailey is just going to take two tight ends until they can't anymore. Dan and Andy are old enough to remember when Ohio State would just take one tight end to cycle.
And then all of a sudden, that would just be it, no matter how many times they've tried to add two. And now they can't stop adding two to recruiting cycles. So they've already added Corbin Fordham, who I think is going to be a pretty good all-around tight end.
But I think they're going to take another shot at tight end. And you know, offensive line is the obvious answer to this one. But I already went on a launch spiel about them.
So defensively...
[Dan Hope]
I mean, you got to get some numbers on the line, I think, especially defensive end. Because with Curry and Jack, I mean, Jackson does have an extra year of eligibility, but I think they're going to need to replenish those defensive end numbers.
[Garrick Hodge]
Yeah, I mean, basically the trenches, right? Tackle depth, defensive end. And I'd also argue make the strength of strength at cornerback.
You know, like they may have a variety of wealth options if they land Albert Hill. That, you know, a Victor Singleton, a top 70 prospect that's right in your backyard, goes to Illinois. And while maybe it would have been nice to have him, you may not miss him a whole lot if you get an Albert Hill and a Jacob Weatherspoon spark to your cornerback room for 2026.
So there's a lot of moving parts. There's a lot of dartboards out there. And we'll probably learn a lot more of what specific players they're targeting in the spring once we get a complete coaching staff.
Because that probably has a lot of part of it too, you know, what's the defensive coordinator going to emphasize? What's the offensive coordinator going to really try to implement in Ryan Day's scheme? And of course, the offensive line coach is probably going to have a lot of input on the offensive lineman that he's going to want in his room.
So it's fun to guess about it right now, but we're probably going to have a lot more clarity on that in particular in a couple weeks.
[Dan Hope]
Yeah, the quarterback situation is interesting because, you know, you think back to a weekend ago, Chip Kelly goes out and visits Brady Smigel, or I think that's how you pronounce it. He goes out and visits him. Brady decommits the next day, and you're thinking like, oh, this is a good sign for Ohio State.
And now Chip Kelly is off to the NFL. So obviously, much like you talked about the offensive line, the quarterback situation is going to depend some on filling out the rest of his offensive staff and, you know, building those relationships with the staff. But that 2026 class, it honestly kind of reminds me of a few years ago when Quinn Ewers had been committed for the following year.
And it was kind of like it was just going to be hard to get that top guy in that class because guys saw the writing on the wall of it's going to be tough for me to come in here and win the starting job. And I think they're kind of in that same boat of 2026. Now, we obviously saw what happened with Quinn Ewers.
He reclassifies, leaves after a year. So the best laid plans don't always work out the way you want. So that's why you still got to go after Jared Curtis.
You got to go after Brady Smajor. You've got to go after these top quarterbacks because you always want to have contingency plans because as much as we might think, hey, Julian Sands is going to be great for two years. And then Tavian St. Clair is going to be great for a year or two. And then Brady Edmonds is going to be up next, especially in today's world of college football with the transfer portal. So many different things can happen that even if they seem unlikely to change right now, there's so many different things that can happen from one year to the next that you got to keep taking bites of that apple. You got to try to build elite recruiting classes every year because you never know what's going to happen from one year to the next.
And so that's certainly going to be the goal in 2026. As we discussed 2025, maybe not a perfect recruiting cycle for Ohio State. Certainly they had that goal of finishing with a number one recruiting class.
They're disappointed that they didn't get guys like David Sanders Jr. and Naeem Offord. But still a lot of exciting talent in that class that we're certainly going to be excited to watch when spring practice begins and then going into not just the 2025 season, but the entirety of their Ohio State careers. Garrick, we appreciate you joining us on today's show to help break it down.
As always, we'll have a lot more to come on 11warriors.com, especially as we continue to follow the coaching search as Ryan Day ultimately makes decisions to fill out his staff. We'll have lots of coverage of that to come over on 11warriors.com and our 11warriors YouTube channel as well. So we thank you for joining us once again for another episode of Real Pod Wednesdays, and we'll catch you next time.