In the era of composite recruiting rankings, Texas is the only school that has ever signed multiple five-star wide receivers in two different recruiting cycles.
Ohio State is now in line to become the second.
With Brandon Inniss’ commitment to Ohio State on Tuesday, the Buckeyes now have two five-star wide receivers in their 2023 recruiting class. Inniss is ranked as the No. 18 overall prospect and No. 2 wide receiver in the class, while Carnell Tate is ranked as the No. 28 overall prospect and No. 3 wide receiver in the class, per 247Sports’ composite recruiting rankings.
It marks the second time in four years that Ohio State has landed two five-star wide receivers in the same recruiting cycle. Brian Hartline and the Buckeyes signed two five-star wideouts in 2020 when they landed No. 3 overall prospect Julian Fleming and No. 29 overall prospect Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
There is a caveat: Since Inniss and Tate won’t sign their National Letters of Intent until December and the recruiting rankings for the 2023 class will not be finalized until after their senior seasons, actually signing two five-star receivers is contingent on Tate and Inniss retaining their five-star status and following through on their commitments. Assuming they don’t drop in the rankings and officially become Buckeyes, however, Ohio State will bring in another pair of five-star pass-catchers next year.
Dating back to 2000, the first year for which composite recruiting rankings are available, a school has only landed multiple composite five-star wide receivers in the same recruiting class nine times. The only school that’s previously done it twice is Texas, and it’s been more than 12 years since the Longhorns accomplished the feat.
| Year | School | Players |
|---|---|---|
| 2023* | OHIO STATE | CARNELL TATE, BRANDON INNISS |
| 2022 | TEXAS A&M | EVAN STEWART, CHRIS MARSHALL |
| 2020 | OHIO STATE | JULIAN FLEMING, JAXON SMITH-NJIGBA |
| 2019 | OKLAHOMA | JADON HASELWOOD, THEO WEASE |
| 2010 | TEXAS | MIKE DAVIS, DARIUS WHITE |
| 2004 | LSU | EARLY DOUCET, XAVIER CARTER |
| 2003 | FLORIDA | ANDRE CALDWELL, CHAD JACKSON |
| 2001 | CLEMSON | ROSCOE CROSBY, AIRESE CURRIE |
| 2000 | TEXAS | B.J. JOHNSON, ROY WILLIAMS, SLOAN THOMAS |
| *Not yet signed | ||
In the past five recruiting cycles alone, Ohio State has now landed six total five-star recruits: Inniss, Tate, Emeka Egbuka, Fleming, Smith-Njigba and Garrett Wilson. No other school has landed more than four wide receivers ranked in the top 50 overall prospects in their class in that same timeframe.
Ohio State has now landed 13 receivers ranked as top-100 overall prospects between the 2019-23 recruiting cycles, six more than second-place Alabama.
