4-star DE Noah Potter signs with Ohio State

The Ohio State Buckeyes added another blue-chip defense end to its roster today as the four-star strong-side DE Noah Potter signed his National Letter of Intent.

Over 20 offers poured in for the 6-foot-5 ¹⁄₂ Mentor native including from the likes of Alabama, Boston College and Cincinnati. However, it was the recruiting of running backs coach Tony Alford and the rest of the staff that helped put Potter’s pen to paper.

According to the 247sports composite rankings, the Mentor High School standout is graded as the ninth best prospect in the Buckeye State, the 24th SDE, and the 331st best overall recruit in the 2019 class.

Originally, was for both Noah and his brother, Micah, to be on OSU varsity teams, but in the days leading up to the start of his junior season with the Buckeye basketball team, Micah announced that he would transfer — eventually ended up at the University of Wisconsin.

Some fears around the recruiting world emerged that Noah would decommit and go elsewhere once a) his brother wasn’t at Ohio State and b) Urban Meyer wouldn’t be the football team’s head coach. However, none of those played a big enough role for him to go someplace else.

Noah is a talent on defense. Take a look at the scouting report Land-Grant Holy Land’s Patrick Mayhorn wrote when he first committed to the program back in April.

Noah Potter is a bit of a throwback. No, he’s not one of the massive defensive ends of the 80s and 90s that relied on power and helmet slapping to get the quarterback, but he is a different breed of defensive end than what Ohio State has become accustomed to in years past. Potter isn’t your traditional speed rusher, your Chase Young, Jonathan Cooper, Sam Hubbard, even the Bosa brothers. He isn’t the athlete that those guys are, and frankly, he’s too big to do what they did.

What he can and will do is bring balance to the line across from a speed rusher, whoever that may be. His strength and technical prowess will only improve further at Ohio State (they’re already very good), and he’ll serve not only as a power rusher but as a valuable asset in run stuffing.

He probably won’t be able to blow past faster offensive tackles, but that isn’t the point. Think of Potter as a third defensive tackle, blasting through weaker linemen and drawing attention to himself, be it in the form of guard, tight end or running back help to keep him from demolishing the tackle across from him. It’s not as pretty to watch as Chase Young’s pure speed, Jonathan Cooper’s length or Nick Bosa’s technical acumen, but Noah Potter will be able to consistently get the job done at Ohio State. - Patrick Mayhorn

Recently, Potter added a highlight clip against St. Edward High School. Take a look and see for yourself at what this Mentor, Ohio, native will do for the flagship football program in the state.