The Hurry-Up: Ohio State Set to Welcome 10 Official Visitors to Columbus This Weekend and 2026 Quarterback Will Griffin Earns an Offer from the Buckeyes

By Garrick Hodge on June 16, 2023 at 5:30 pm
Eddrick Houston
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Two official visit weekends at Ohio State have come and gone.

Two more remain, both equally critical, starting this weekend.

There will be no shortage of premier prospects on campus starting Friday, with 10 official visitors in total making the trip to OSU. Eight of them are defensive players. Four of the 10 recruits visiting are five-star prospects: safety KJ Bolden, defensive lineman Eddrick Houston, defensive end Dylan Stewart and cornerback Kobe Black. Of those four, Ohio State is only considered the favorite for Houston entering the weekend and will have plenty of work to do if it wants to convince the other three to suit up for the scarlet and gray next year.

Other defensive prospects visiting are cornerbacks Corian Gipson and Zabien Brown and safeties Peyton Woodyard and Jordon Johnson-Rubell. Similar to three of the players above, OSU isn’t considered the consensus favorite in the recruiting industry for any of the four, though it’s not impossible to forecast the Buckeyes doing enough to eventually flip Woodyard from his Georgia commitment or make progress with Brown or Johnson-Rubell.

Tim Walton, Perry Eliano and Larry Johnson will have their hands full convincing the prospects visiting Columbus that Ohio State is the best fit for them, but they’ll receive a collaborative effort from the OSU football staff toward that very purpose. 

The lone uncommitted offensive prospect visiting this weekend is offensive tackle Guerby Lambert, a top-50 prospect in the 2024 class. Lambert and Brandon Baker, who visited OSU last week, are the top two remaining uncommitted offensive tackle targets for the Buckeyes in the cycle. Last weekend’s visit with Baker went well by all accounts, and offensive line coach Justin Frye is hoping for more of the same with Lambert as the Buckeyes compete with Notre Dame, Boston College and Penn State to land the promising Massachusetts tackle. 

There will be one OSU commit on campus this weekend, and it’ll come less than 24 hours after he finishes participating in a national competition. Four-star Georgia quarterback Air Noland has performed well at the Elite 11 through two days in California, with OSU’s QB commit sitting at third in the Elite 11 quarterback rankings entering the final day of competition behind only Julian Sayin and Dylan Raiola. Noland will fly directly to Columbus after the Elite 11 wraps up and will be counted on as a peer recruiter with so many talented prospects being courted at OSU. 

2026 QB Will Griffin earns an offer

It should come as no surprise considering how well he performed at Ohio State’s recruiting camp on Thursday, but Florida 2026 quarterback Will Griffin announced he picked up an offer from the Buckeyes on Friday. 

Griffin adds Ohio State to a list of numerous prestigious offers that already includes Michigan, Auburn, Florida, Florida State, Miami and Pittsburgh. In his freshman season at Jesuit (Tampa, Florida), Griffin completed 106 of 187 passes for 1,653 yards with 18 touchdowns to nine interceptions. Griffin also ran for 124 yards with two touchdowns. 

The 6-foot-3, 215-pound signal caller is the third quarterback offered by OSU in the 2026 cycle, joining Julian Lewis and Jared Curtis. 

“That would be amazing,” Griffin said Thursday of potentially receiving an offer from OSU before Ryan Day delivered the news to him. “This would probably be one of the biggest offers that I’ve gotten so far. It’s just amazing that a big program believes in me and trusts me. I’m looking forward to building a relationship with them.” 

2025 TE Nate Roberts to commit Saturday

Four-star 2025 tight end Nate Roberts is ready to make his college decision after a slew of visits. The 6-foot-4, 230-pound prospect announced he’ll commit at 1 p.m. Saturday from a group of finalists that includes Ohio State, Notre Dame, Oregon, Georgia, Baylor, Clemson, Miami, Penn State, Michigan, Oklahoma, Auburn and Wisconsin.

While Roberts took a visit to OSU earlier this month, the Buckeyes are not projected to be the team the Oklahoma resident picks in the end. Notre Dame is seen as the likely winner in this recruitment. 

Jaime Ffrench will commit July 22

One of 2025’s top wide receivers has also set a commitment date, as five-star Florida wideout Jaime Ffrench will choose his college on July 22.

Ffrench hasn’t officially narrowed down a final top school list, but Ohio State, Alabama, Florida State and Penn State are all thought to be in the running. The 6-foot-1, 175-pound prospect was supposed to be in Columbus for a visit this week, but couldn’t make it to campus because of flight issues, he told Eleven Warriors. Ffrench could still return to campus before making his decision. 

Ffrench picked up his offer last June after an impressive camp at Ohio State. 

"The coaching really feels like family," Ffrench told Eleven Warriors last summer. "Coach Hartline told me (of the offer) first, then I had a meeting with coach Day. Coach Day basically told me that he just wanted to extend the offer. It was very exciting."

Jakob Gude puts out top five, sets commitment date

A 2024 Ohio State safety target has narrowed his recruitment down and has set a commitment date. Four-star Georiga safety Jakob Gude released a top five this week consisting of Ohio State, Alabama, Florida, Oregon and UCF and will choose from those five on July 6. 

Gude visited OSU earlier this spring, but has yet to take or schedule an official visit to Columbus, so unless that changes, it’s likely he’s headed elsewhere. 

Reggie Powers commits to Michigan State, Vaboue Toure chooses Penn State

Two of Ohio State’s other safety targets in the 2024 class are off the board. 

Three-star Ohio safety Reggie Powers shut down his recruitment on Wednesday and committed to Michigan State. While Powers was scheduled to make an official visit to Columbus later this month, it appeared Powers would be the odd man out for OSU’s 2024 class following the commitment of four-star New Jersey safety Jaylen McClain earlier this week, as the Buckeyes focus on other targets such as Woodyard, Johnson-Rubell, Bolden and Brandon Jacob. 

Another safety with an Ohio State offer, four-star New Jersey product Vaboue Toure, committed Friday to Penn State, giving the Nittany Lions their 17th commit in the 2024 cycle. Things had been quiet on the Toure front with OSU for months, so it’s not a surprise Toure is headed elsewhere.

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