Even though Ohio State didn’t sign a running back on Wednesday, the Buckeyes will still have a running back in their recruiting class of 2023.
Willtrell Hartson, a three-star running back from Massillon, Ohio, announced his commitment to Ohio State on Saturday as a preferred walk-on.
Im 100% committed Im staying home cant wait to be apart of the brotherhood. @CoachTonyAlford @ryandaytime @OhioStateFB #gobucks pic.twitter.com/ydUdmvJSlO
— Willtrell Hartson (@x_trell4) December 24, 2022
Hartson chose to walk on with the Buckeyes despite receiving from 10 FBS schools, including one Power 5 school (Boston College) as well as Army, Buffalo, Central Michigan, Georgia Southern, Marshall, Miami (Ohio), Temple, Toledo and UAB.
The 5-foot-9, 200-pound running back had a highly productive career at Massillon Washington High School, where he broke the school’s single-season rushing record with 2,042 rushing yards in 2022. He’s Massillon’s career leader in rushing yards per game (132.8) while he ranks second in school history in career rushing yards (3,983) and rushing touchdowns (53).
Thanks Massillon for everything yall have done for me. Couldnt have done it with out my Offense OL blessed to be MVP and through the Roof offensive player of the year #GoTigers @MTigerFB @DaMilqFootball pic.twitter.com/xo1ke1vyiy
— Willtrell Hartson (@x_trell4) December 16, 2022
Hartson is ranked as the 89th-best running back (No. 1,313 overall) in the 2023 recruiting class.
His commitment to Ohio State comes after the Buckeyes went without signing a scholarship running back during the early signing period.
While the Buckeyes were expecting to sign four-star Florida running back Mark Fletcher until his decommitment in November, they were unable to replace him with any other running back that they deemed worthy of a scholarship offer. Ohio State hosted in-state running backs Trey Cornist and Lamar Sperling on visits after Fletcher’s decommitment, but they signed with Tulane and Buffalo after the Buckeyes opted not to offer either of them.
Since Miyan Williams, TreVeyon Henderson, Evan Pryor and Dallan Hayden are all expected to be back at Ohio State next season and the Buckeyes are considering the possibility of keeping Chip Trayanum at running back, Ryan Day said Wednesday that he felt they could afford to go without a scholarship running back in the 2023 class if they couldn’t land one they really wanted.
“We have pretty decent depth there when you look at Trey and Miyan. And then Chip, we gotta decide if we're going to move him over full-time or not. Dallan, and then Evan Pryor's been hurt,” Day said. “So going into the year, we knew we were already kind of with five guys there, four-and-a-half guys. If we had somebody there that we really liked, we were gonna take him. Didn't feel like we needed to, but we're always going to look to upgrade if we possibly can or add somebody to the roster that we think can help us. So it didn't work out for us this year. But we certainly had a head start (Fletcher), and then we lost the guy.”
That could open the door for Hartson, though, to compete for playing at running back in the future even though he’s walking on. He joins a group of walk-on running backs on the roster that includes TC Caffey, who played in two games for Ohio State this season and ran for a 49-yard touchdown against Toledo before suffering a season-ending injury, as well as Cayden Saunders and Chase Brecht.
