The hits keep on coming for Ohio State.
Four-star 2023 tight end Ty Lockwood decommitted from Ohio State on Tuesday, bringing the Buckeyes down to 18 commits in the current class. His decommitment comes after he received an offer from Alabama and visited Tuscaloosa this past weekend. He committed to the Crimson Tide on Tuesday.
Jeremiah 29:11 #RTR pic.twitter.com/EpSxe5UeAD
— Ty Lockwood (@TyLockwood7) August 2, 2022
Lockwood becomes the second player to decommit from Ohio State's 2023 class, joining four-star Florida cornerback Dijon Johnson, who decommited from the Buckeyes on Saturday.
Ohio State had been vocal about its desire to take two tight ends in the 2023 cycle and thought it would enter signing day with two top-10 prospects at the position after Jelani Thurman committed to OSU on July 17. But the Buckeyes will have to now go back to the drawing board if they'd like to still take two tight ends in 2023. The only remaining uncommitted tight end prospect that holds an OSU offer in the cycle is five-star Arizona prospect Duce Robinson.
Lockwood became Ohio State's first member of the 2023 class when he committed to the Buckeyes on Aug. 19, 2021. Up until Luke Montgomery committed to OSU in February, Lockwood was the Buckeyes’ most vocal peer recruiter in the class; he remained an adamant peer recruiter for the Buckeyes on social media right up until he received his offer from Alabama.
Lockwood rose in the recruiting ranks over the past few years after establishing himself as a reliable pass-catching tight end and is considered to be the 141st-best prospect and the ninth-best tight end in the 2023 class per 247Sports' composite rankings.
He had been to Columbus numerous times both before and after his commitment. The 6-foot-5, 225-pound tight end last visited Ohio State on June 7 for a camp and had a private workout with Ohio State assistants Justin Frye and Kevin Wilson alongside OSU commits Austin Siereveld, Joshua Padilla and Montgomery.
“It was good," Lockwood said of the workout in June. "I’ve been talking to those guys a whole lot, got a couple group chats with them. So it’s good to get out there with them and compete, see what they’re like, see what I’m like and kind of match our speeds and get closer to each other,” Lockwood said.
Ohio State thought it had its most highly touted pair of tight ends over a few recruiting cycles locked in. Now, it will have to reevaluate whether or not it wants to pursue another tight end in the 2023 class or attempt to take two in 2024 instead.
