The Hurry-Up: Four-Star 2025 Linebacker Tarvos Alford Impressed by Jim Knowles, Calls Ohio State “One Of The Top Dogs” in His Recruitment

By Garrick Hodge on June 22, 2023 at 5:30 pm
Tarvos Alford
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One of Ohio State’s top linebacker targets in the 2025 class turned heads during a Buckeyes’ recruiting camp earlier this month.

Four-star Florida linebacker Tarvos Alford took a multi-day unofficial visit to Ohio State on June 12, taking in the sights of OSU and also getting an opportunity to work with defensive coordinator Jim Knowles and graduate assistant linebackers coach James Laurinaitis.

“Overall, I loved it to be honest with you,” Alford told Eleven Warriors of his Columbus visit. “It was a great experience seeing what it was like up there. The coaches were great, coach Knowles seems like he’s really smart with his schemes he runs. Most defenses react off the offense, but he wants to make the offense react off of him so he can control the game, which I really like. Coach Knowles told me he really likes my versatility, how I can play either inside the box or outside the box and play with anybody.”

Alford was offered by Laurinaitis in April and is considered a near-top-100 prospect in the 2025 class. He’s often been praised for his ability as a coverage linebacker, as was evident by going against five-star 2025 running back Jordon Davison in one-on-one drills in camp. 

“When I was going against him, I didn’t know that was him, but it was great competing against someone that made me have to work for it,” Alford said. “I’d say my best attribute is coverage to be honest with you, but I can also come down and lay a hit.”

After his visit, Alford is certainly intrigued by Ohio State and plans to return to Columbus sometime in the fall for a game. 

“I’d say they’re one of the top dogs of the top dogs,” Alford said of where OSU sits with him in his recruitment. “They’re always in the cards for the playoffs and have one of the best offenses in the nation. They really are just going to make their defense better, so they won’t have a reason to lose and they can win the whole thing.” 

Reaction to Tavien St. Clair’s commitment

In case you missed it Wednesday, Ohio State landed its quarterback of the 2025 class with the commitment of Ohio prospect Tavien St. Clair. The Bellefontaine product saw his recruiting stock rise tremendously after he gained more than 30 pounds over a year’s span and committed to OSU less than a month after picking up his Buckeyes offer. While St. Clair is only considered a three-star by 247Sports’ composite rankings at the moment, don’t expect it to stay that way for long.

Following the commitment, various Ohio State football staffers and fellow commits took to Twitter to welcome St. Clair to Columbus. Those aside, one tweet in particular was more notable than the rest, as fellow Ohio 2025 quarterback Ryan Montgomery went out of his way to congratulate St. Clair on the commitment.

The tweet was pure class from Montgomery, who also holds an OSU offer. The Findlay prospect could conceivably still join OSU’s 2025 class if he wanted to, but that doesn’t seem likely at this point. 

“Ideally, I would like to be just the only guy,” Montgomery said at OSU’s 7-on-7 camp Wednesday before St. Clair committed. “I haven't really thought about that yet. Obviously, whichever school that I'm going to pick is because that's where I feel most comfortable and if that happens to be a place where there’s two quarterbacks, then so be it. I’m gonna go in there and compete.”

In the meantime, we’ve rounded up several tweets from OSU football staffers, commits and targets reacting to St. Clair’s commitment below. 

Armstrong twins face tough schedule in 2023

By the time Ohio State offensive line commits Devontae and Deontae Armstrong arrive in Columbus next year, they’ll have faced a gauntlet of a high school football schedule in preparation for the next level. 

Per High School Football America, eight of St. Edward’s 10 opponents this season will be against teams that finished in High School Football America’s top 300 teams nationwide last season. 

The most intriguing matchup from an OSU perspective comes in Week Two, when St. Edward hosts Our Lady Good Counsel (Olney, Maryland) and will face four-star Ohio State 2024 wide receiver target Elijah Moore. 

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