Ohio State offers four-star DE

Ohio State’s football team is in the heart of the offseason. With that, the Ohio State coaching staff has been busy traveling across the country visiting with the top talents of next year’s recruiting class. This has resulted in a wave of new offers, which continued Monday. If you missed Ohio State making the recruiting headlines Monday, as always Land-Grant Holy Land has you covered.

Ohio State offers four-star DE

Throughout the month of January, the Ohio State football team has dished out dozens of offers to the best recruits in the 2023 recruiting class and beyond. This has already resulted in success, as the Buckeyes earned their fourth member of next year’s class when Ohio State legacy defensive lineman Will Smith committed to the Buckeyes this past weekend.

The staff started this week right where they left off last week, as they offered one of the nation’s top defensive ends on Monday.

Four-star DE Damon Wilson (Venice, FL / Venice) took to Twitter Monday to show off his Ohio State offer.

While it is still early in Wilson’s recruitment, the Buckeyes already have some stiff competition to beat out if they are to earn his commitment. Prior to receiving his Ohio State scholarship offer, Wilson has received offers from the likes of Alabama, Florida, Clemson, Florida State, Miami, Penn State, Michigan State, Illinois, Louisville, USC and a handful of others.

Wilson is already viewed as one of the top recruits in next years class. He is the No. 8 DE and is the No. 103 overall prospect in the 247Sports Composite Rankings. He is also the No. 21 recruit from the talent-rich state of Florida.

Ohio State makes Top 8

The Buckeyes made the top schools list for one of their bigger linebacker targets in next year’s class when four-star LB Josiah Trotter announced his top eight schools on Twitter Monday.

Usually when Ohio State makes the top schools it is good news, and the Buckeyes being among Trotter’s top eight is good for them. However, what makes this different is that Trotter is actually expanding his recruitment. Back in June of last year, Trotter released his top four schools, which consisted of Ohio State, Penn State, Clemson and South Carolina.

All four of those schools remain in the mix, however they are no longer alone as Texas A&M, Notre Dame, West Virginia and Virginia Tech have now been added to his top schools.

While Ohio State is still in good standing with Trotter, the addition of four new schools shows he may not be as certain in the direction he was once considering. Trotter will look to visit with these schools before making a decision, although he has already been active making unofficial visits.

Trotter visited with Ohio State on June 7, and left Columbus with a scholarship offer. Quickly following the visit, Trotter released his top four schools. He has also unofficially visited with all four of the original top four, but will likely wait to commit until he has visited with the new additions. He may also try and visit with the original group one more time before making a decision.

Trotter is the No. 24 LB in next year’s cycle and is the No. 264 overall prospect. He is also the No. 7 prospect from Pennsylvania.

Quick Hits

• Ohio State 2022 DL commit Hero Kanu will be making another visit to the school this weekend.

• Recent Ohio State four-star athlete offer Malik Hartford has seen his recruitment explode as of late. Hartford received an offer from the Buckeyes over the weekend following an unofficial visit. On Monday, he received offers from the likes of Michigan, Notre Dame and Tennessee.
• Rivals.com released its updated five-star prospects for the 2022 recruiting class and Ohio State commits C.J. Hicks and Sonny Styles both made the cut.
• Fellow recruiting database On3.com released its final rankings for the 2022 class, including their five-star prospects. While Hicks was left off their list of five-stars, Styles was listed among the group. Styles was not alone in the On3 list of five-stars, as DE Kenyatta Jackson also made the cut as did Ohio State QB commit Devin Brown, who was listed as the No. 1 overall recruit in this cycle.