If you haven’t seen Ohio State’s expected spring visitor list by now, it’s a pretty impressive list filled with highly touted prospects from three separate classes.
Just glancing at the names involved, there’s no shortage of important visitors coming to Columbus over the next couple of weeks. But some visits are going to be more crucial than others when it comes to landing the commitments of some prospective targets instead of letting them slip away to other schools. So, we decided to identify which prospects’ visits in particular are going to be the most meaningful this spring.
For example, hosting Tackett Curtis, a four-star linebacker from Louisiana, is likely to have a bigger impact on Ohio State’s chances of landing the commitment of that player rather than an in-state target or someone like, say, AJ Hoffler, who despite being from Georgia considers Ohio State his dream school.
Speaking of Curtis, he certainly deserves to be on this list, but he and his family already visited OSU on Tuesday. That visit went incredibly well, and the Buckeyes are surging ahead for their No. 1 priority at linebacker in 2023 now more than ever, though there is still work to be done in the coming months. So that’s good news as far as OSU is concerned.
For each of the following recruits Ohio State will host over the next few weeks, impressing them during their visits could be crucial to the Buckeyes’ chances of landing their commitments.
Brandon Inniss
It’s hard not to feel like Inniss’ recruitment this time around could play out similarly to how things went in the summer of 2021. Inniss took a visit to Columbus in June, seemed to enjoy it, then later committed to Oklahoma when Lincoln Riley was still there.
This time around, a Riley-led school still seems to be the biggest competition for the Buckeyes to land the No. 1-rated wide receiver in the 2023 cycle, only this time at USC. That still seems like where Inniss ultimately ends up.
The good news? You can never count out Brian Hartline for any wide receiver recruit based on his track record, assuming he can get a recruit on campus, which is the tentative plan for Inniss on April 1-3. If OSU is going to gain ground on USC and ultimately eventually land Inniss’ commitment, his scheduled visit seems like the time it’ll happen.
Carnell Tate
Like Inniss, Tate will also visit April 1-3. Unlike Inniss, the Buckeyes could be considered the frontrunner to land the five-star Tate. Landing his commitment is far from certain, though.
Last fall, the vibe around the recruiting industry was Notre Dame and Ohio State were engaging in a two-horse race for Tate. Both schools are still very much in the picture, but Tate has certainly started to consider other schools too, such as Alabama and Tennessee.
Tate coming to Columbus in the spring after already making two game visits to OSU in the fall seems like a great time to remind him how much of a priority target he is. The Buckeyes will hope to land his commitment before the start of his senior year, though OSU will wait on Tate as long as it needs to.
Olaus Alinen
This almost feels like cheating a little bit, mostly because Alinen spent Wednesday in Columbus and will leave to head back to Connecticut on Thursday. But that doesn’t make his visit any less important. The 6-foot-6, 315-pound offensive tackle originally from Finland has been rising quickly up Justin Frye’s board since the pair started communicating in February.
Alinen has set only two of his five official visits thus far to Alabama and Ohio State, the latter coming in late June. It certainly seems like those are the two schools standing out the most in his recruitment.
Seeing how desperately OSU needs highly touted tackles in this class, winning a recruiting battle for Alinen over another college football blue-blood would be a massive win. At least things seem to be moving in the right direction.
ENJOYING OHIO #Gobucks @OhioStateFB @CoachJFrye pic.twitter.com/f8SJTfpKtV
— Olaus Alinen (@alinen_olaus) March 9, 2022
Joenel Aguero/Caleb Downs
I’m going to combine Aguero and Downs here because both are priority safety targets for Ohio State and both are expected to visit in April.
Both have plenty of other suitors, and southern schools certainly have their eyes on the duo. Ohio State would like to take three safeties in the 2023 class, so if it could finish the current cycle with Cedrick Hawkins, in-state safety Malik Hartford and one of Aguero or Downs, that would be a big win for Perry Eliano in his first year at OSU. A strong visit is essential to that becoming a reality with either of them, however.
Lebbeus Overton
This is certainly the biggest long shot on this entire list. Gambling odds on Ohio State would likely be set at +1600 for this one. Even though Ohio State is earning one of Overton’s five official visits on April 16, the Buckeyes are considered to be far behind in the rear view mirror between Georgia and Texas A&M. Overton, who reclassified from 2023 to 2022 in February, plans to enroll at his school of choice in the summer.
The only way it will be at Ohio State? If Overton is blown away by the prospect of playing for legendary defensive line coach Larry Johnson and enjoys his OSU visit during the Buckeyes’ spring game so much that it wins him over.
