Quinn Ewers’ impact on Ohio State recruiting

Congratulations, you made it through Monday! In case your start to the week was as busy as Ohio State’s you may have missed the Buckeyes making the national recruiting headlines. If so, don’t worry as Land-Grant Holy Land has you covered.

Quinn Ewers joins 2021 class

Ohio State may have received quite possibly the biggest recruiting update in program history Monday, when five-star quarterback Quinn Ewers announced he was going to reclassify to the 2021 recruiting class and will be eligible to join the team soon and could play this season.

The impact of Ewers decision will have ripple effects on all aspects of the Ohio State recruiting landscape. For starters, Ewers is now the second five-star prospect to join the class this summer, following the late commitment of five-star defensive lineman J.T. Tuimoloau. The addition of both Ewers and Tuimoloau have Ohio State’s 2021 recruiting class at No. 2 in the nation. However, while the team may not hold the top spot overall, nobody is slighting this haul.

But with this incredible addition to the 2021 class, comes an incredible loss in Ohio State’s 2022 recruiting class. One that has seen two five-stars leave the class in the last week as five-star cornerback Jaheim Singletary decommitted from the program over the weekend and now Ewers has left this class as well. The loss of both blue-chip prospects dropped Ohio State’s ranking in the 247Sports Class Rankings to No. 3 overall, and the class is now No. 2 in the Big Ten as Penn State has jumped them.

Another impact Ewers reclassification has on Ohio State’s recruiting plans is the team now does not have a quarterback committed in its 2022 class, and the program has fallen behind in targeting QB’s in the 2023 class as the coaching staff was not prepared for Ewers to join the team this year. Additionally, what is now a four quarterback room could soon cause one or more current Buckeye QB’s transfer out.

As was mentioned, Ohio State now has no QB’s in their 2022 class. While the Buckeyes could try to secure a last-second commitment in this class, it is more likely Day looks to the transfer portal if he were to need to add more to the team before next season.

What is more likely is Ohio State putting more focus on QB’s in the 2023 and 2024 class. However, the Buckeyes are behind on the big-name prospects in the 2023 class. Five-star QB Malachi Nelson has already committed to Oklahoma, and the chances of Ohio State flipping him now are slim-to-none. Another big name QB in 2023, Arch Manning, is another QB Ohio State could start targeting more. However, it will be incredibly difficult to pry him out of the south, but not impossible.

One to keep an eye on is five-star QB Dante Moore, as he has an Ohio State offer under his belt already and is close to Ohio State in proximity, hailing from Detroit, Michigan. Ohio State has not put a ton of work into recruiting Moore to date, but that will likely change soon. While the team is behind the ball in his recruitment, they can use Ewers’ recruitment as a tool. Ewers reclassified due to the change in the NCAA rules regarding name, image and likeness and it is already being reported that Ewers has offers of more than seven figures on the table. That will be an incredible tool for Ohio State moving forward as only Alabama has been able to match NIL results of the sort.

TLDR: Ohio State will likely look to the transfer portal to fill any needs for 2022 and will increase focus on finding a top-level QB in 2023 and 2024. For more information on the impact of Ewers decision, Land-Grant Holy Land’s own Matt Tamanini has you covered.

Ohio State OL recruiting update

At this point in Ohio State’s 2022 recruiting class, the biggest position of need is on the offensive line. The Buckeyes already have two commitments in four-stars Tegra Tshabola and George Fitzpatrick, however they would like to double this by the time the class comes to an end.

On Monday, the OL landscape became a bit more clear for the Buckeyes as they saw two of their targets commit elsewhere. Both Addison Nichols and Jaylen Early committed to Tennessee and Florida State respectively.

With the above commitments, Ohio State’s focus can be narrowed down to its remaining OL targets in 2022. Look for the Buckeyes to become more aggressive in their pursuit of Earnest Greene and Kam Dewberry. The Buckeyes seem to also still be in play for Dayton, Ohio native Aamil Wagner, who showed off his official scholarship offer from Ohio State this past weekend.

For more information on Ohio State’s perfect finish in the trenches for 2022, Land-Grant Holy Land’s own Caleb Houser has you covered.