Four-star Ohio State safety target to commit this week

Spring is always one of the busiest times for the Ohio State football team. The program is in the heart of its spring practice schedule, coming off the student appreciation practice this past weekend. The environment showcased the Buckeyes’ on-field talent in front of a group of students, as well as a large group of blue-chip prospects.

Coach Ryan Day spoke with the media Monday and said it was, “a great recruiting weekend” and that, “We’re going to see the next couple of months a lot of good stuff come our way.” Sounds like the weekend was as successful as possible and the Buckeyes are expecting some commitments to the program in the short-term.

2023 four-star safety to commit tomorrow

The Ohio State football team is expecting the next couple months to be busy when it comes to recruiting, but they may not have to wait that long. 2023 four-star safety Malik Hartford announced last week that he will be committing to his school of choice this Wednesday afternoon at his high school Lakota West in West Chester Ohio.

While Hartford was not in attendance last weekend for the student appreciation practice, the Ohio native is very familiar with the Ohio State football program. He was also able to visit the program early last month and appeared to have a great time.

Since his visit to Ohio State, Hartford has taken just one more unofficial visit — a visit to Michigan State completed just days after his visit to Columbus. Despite his most recent visit being to East Lansing, the Buckeyes are still viewed as favorites to land his commitment tomorrow.

Five predictions have been made in the 247Sports Crystal Ball Predictions, and all favor the Buckeyes with an average confidence level of six. Predictions have been cast by pretty much the who’s who in the college football recruiting landscape, especially Ohio State. Both Allen Trieu and Steve Wiltfong cast predictions in favor of Ohio State late in March, and Bill Kurelic of BuckNuts cast his predictions a couple weeks earlier.

While nothing is a guarantee when it comes to recruiting, when there is smoke there is usually fire. Because of this, if Hartford were to spurn Ohio State tomorrow, it would come as a big surprise.

Hartford is the No. 11 safety in the 2023 class and is the No. 4 ranked prospect from Ohio. He is also the No. 154 overall prospect in the 247Sports Composite Rankings.

Quick Hits

• Ohio State learned Monday that it would be playing host to another blue-chip prospect next weekend. This time it will be 2024 defensive back Jacob Oden of Harper Woods, MI. Oden is set to arrive in Columbus this Friday.

• Switching gears from the gridiron to the hardwood, the Ohio State men’s basketball program has quite an impressive recruiting class coming in for next year. The haul is ranked at No. 5 in the 2022 247Sports Class Rankings with a total of five commitments. Included in that handful is four-star point guard Bruce Thornton, who was named Mr. Basketball for Georgia.

However, Thornton is not the only incoming freshman to hold the title of Mr. Basketball. This is because four-star small forward Brice Sensabaugh was named Mr. Basketball for Florida on Monday.

• As is well-known by now, Ohio State’s football team is playing host to top-end recruits seemingly every week. Because of this, reactions to those visits are also coming on a near daily occurrence. On Monday, multiple more reactions were made on Twitter by recruits who recently visited with the team.