Ohio State has always been interested in the raw ability of five-star 2022 defensive end Omari Abor.
His billing speaks for itself, with the 6-foot-4, 240-pound edge rusher being rated the 18th-best prospect in the 2022 class and the second-best defensive end, per 247Sports' composite rankings.
For a long time, the thinking was Abor, a Duncanville, Texas, resident, was going to end up at a southern school. That still may be the case in the end. But there’s been some major momentum building Ohio State’s way recently. Abor was given a Crystal Ball prediction to end up with the Buckeyes on Friday, and the highly-touted prospect had no problem giving OSU fans a tease on social media.
— (@BigSmooth___) September 24, 2021
Abor spoke with 247Sports this week, also giving Ohio State fans hope they could make another big splash at defensive end for the second recruiting class in a row after landing Jack Sawyer and J.T. Tuimoloau.
“It’s more like I’m looking at three or two schools now,” Abor told 247Sports. “Ohio State for sure, Alabama is still in there.”
The extended playing time Tuimoloau is getting in his freshman season is certainly something Abor is paying attention to.
“I’ve absolutely watched them on TV,” Abor told 247Sports. “I like how (defensive line coach Larry) Johnson rotates his people in. I like how J.T. is playing a lot. J.T. came in late, but he is still playing. I like that a lot. That really caught my eye.”
Abor visited the Buckeyes on June 4, and put them in a top five he released in August that included Texas, Texas A&M, Ohio State, LSU and Alabama. The defensive standout has attributed his interest in playing for the Buckeyes primarily to defensive line coach Larry Johnson.
No defensive lineman has committed to the Buckeyes in the current cycle. Top defensive line targets for Ohio State in the 2022 class besides Abor include Shemar Stewart, Enai White, Kenyatta Jackson, Marvin Jones Jr., Caden Curry, Hero Kanu, Chris McClellan and Christen Miller.
All of this momentum feels very positive, but Abor is still likely to announce a commitment in January, so a lot can still obviously happen between now and then.
Marshall enjoys visit to OSU
Bloom-Carroll (Carroll, Ohio) standout linebacker Andrew Marshall flashed a smile when he recalled one of his favorite memories of watching Ohio State: Seeing Curtis Samuel lift the Buckeyes, the team he grew up rooting for, over hated rival Michigan in double overtime in 2016.
Last Saturday, the 2023 linebacker took his first visit to Ohio State.
“It went really well,” Marshall told Eleven Warriors this week. “It was very organized and they really cared about the recruits. It was a fun time.”
Bolstering decent size at 6-foot-3, 220-pounds, Marshall is a bit of a late bloomer on the recruiting trail, only holding one Division I offer to this point from, ironically, Marshall. But he’s received plenty of interest from Power 5 schools, including Ohio State, who sent executive director for football relations Tim Hinton out to Carroll to attend one of Marshall’s games earlier this season. While on his visit in Columbus, Marshall spoke with both Hinton and offensive coordinator and tight ends coach Kevin Wilson on his visit, who told him he liked what he saw on film. There’s been no timeline given of when an offer may come.
“I haven’t gotten any indication or anything like that,” Marshall said.
Marshall will visit Purdue this weekend, and also plans to visit Kentucky, Marshall and Michigan later this fall. He added he is also being heavily recruited by Cincinnati and Bowling Green.
Antwi visits Georgia
Ohio State seemingly put the finishing touches on recruiting 2022 wide receivers when it landed the commitment of Kojo Antwi in July.
While all indications are Antwi remains committed to Ohio State, the Buckeyes may need to fend off a late push from Antwi’s hometown team: The Georgia Bulldogs. Antwi visited Georgia earlier this month, but told On3 the Bulldogs have picked up their contact with him in the past few weeks.
There’s a couple interesting things in the article linked above, but the most important thing the Suwanee, Georgia resident said was not ruling out making a switch back to his original second choice.
“There may be is,” Antwi told On3 regarding if there’s a glimmer of hope for Georgia. “We just have to see what happens. Right now, I’m 100% committed to Ohio State. I’m not counting Georgia out, though.”
