21 Prospects Who Stood Out During Ohio State’s 2023 High School Football Camps

By Dan Hope on June 30, 2023 at 8:35 am
Jordon Davison
6 Comments

Ohio State’s six high school football camps this summer brought top players from all over the country to Columbus to learn from Ohio State’s football coaches and put their skills on display.

Ohio State’s six high school football camps this summer brought top players from all over the country to Columbus to learn from Ohio State’s football coaches and put their skills on display.

After attending all six of those camps and evaluating the top prospects in attendance, I consulted with Eleven Warriors recruiting reporter Garrick Hodge to compile a list of 20 (plus one) of the most impressive prospects we saw work out at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center this summer.

Before we get into the list, a couple of caveats are necessary. With hundreds of prospects working out simultaneously each day, we weren’t able to watch every player who worked out, nor were we able to watch every rep of any prospect. Given that, this is not intended to be an all-inclusive list of the best prospects who participated in Ohio State’s camps this summer – which included five camps for prospects at all positions as well as a 7-on-7 tournament – but rather a look at which players caught our respective eyes the most.

2024 WR Mylan Graham

The only reason Graham didn’t make our list a year ago was that we didn’t know to watch for him then, as he was an unranked prospect with zero offers when he received his Ohio State offer following the Buckeyes’ first camp of 2022. As a five-star wide receiver committed to Ohio State now, we spent plenty of time watching Graham this year, and it wasn’t hard to see why he’s skyrocketed up recruiting rankings since receiving his OSU offer in June 2022.

Graham demonstrated advanced route-running ability for a high school wide receiver, consistently obtaining separation from opposing defensive backs with his quick feet in and out of his breaks. Paired with his length and explosiveness, Graham exhibits the potential to be an immediate weapon in Ohio State’s offense and should only become a more refined route runner once he begins working with Brian Hartline on a daily basis.

2025 CB Devin Sanchez

As the No. 7 overall prospect in 247Sports’ composite rankings for the 2025 class, Sanchez was the highest-ranked player in any class to camp at Ohio State this month. The 6-foot-2 cornerback looked to be everything he’s been billed to be with his performance at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.

Sanchez locked up nearly every receiver he went up against, allowing just one completion during one-on-ones. The 6-foot-2 corner clearly demonstrated the length and athleticism that any team would love to have in its secondary, but what really stood out about the five-star Texan was his technique, as he showed fluid footwork, was consistently in the right position and used his hands well to play the ball.

Sanchez didn’t need to camp at Ohio State to solidify his standing as one of the Buckeyes’ top targets in the 2025 cycle, but his decision to travel to Columbus and his performance while there strengthened the case that he should be Tim Walton’s No. 1 priority in his class.

2025 RB Jordon Davison

Another five-star in the 2025 class (ranked as the No. 31 overall prospect), Davison is another prospect who didn’t need to camp at Ohio State to earn an offer – he got that more than a year ago while he was still a high school freshman – yet chose to camp at Ohio State this June anyway to get some coaching from Tony Alford and demonstrate his talent. He didn’t disappoint.

The 6-foot, 205-pound junior from California backed up his ranking as the top running back in his class with a complete workout in which he showed excellent explosiveness and quickness paired with pass-catching skills out of the backfield.

There were no shortage of talented 2025 running backs on campus this summer, including four others who already had Ohio State offers (Bo Jackson, Marquise Davis, Tory Blaylock and Byron Louis) and two more who earned them (Waltez Clark and Chad Gasper), but Davison’s camp outing showed why he’s the top target on the board for the Buckeyes in the backfield.

2025 LB Tarvos Alford

While Davison made easy work of most of his one-on-one matchups during Ohio State’s June 12 camp, one linebacker who showed he could keep pace with Davison was Alford, a four-star Florida product who made his case for being one of the best linebackers in his class during his workout in Columbus.

The No. 12 linebacker and 102nd-ranked overall prospect in the 2025 class, Alford showed great side-to-side agility for someone of his size (6-foot-2, 215 pounds) and sound technique in both tackling and coverage drills. His instincts and angles to the ballcarrier were consistently sound, allowing him to jump routes effectively and make plays on the ball.

Having already received his offer from Ohio State in April, Alford solidified his standing as one of the Buckeyes’ top linebacker targets for the 2025 class in a camp season where Ohio State did not make any new offers to LBs.

2026 WR Chris Henry Jr.

Already one of the top prospects at Ohio State camp a year ago before he had even started his high school career, Henry stood out once again in his second go-around this summer. While there are no composite rankings for 2026 prospects yet, it became only more clear with his performance in OSU’s first camp of June that he will be a five-star recruit in his class.

Already 6-foot-5 entering his sophomore year at Cincinnati’s Withrow High School, Henry certainly looks the part of a former NFL receiver’s son. He’s a fluid route runner with natural hands, has an elite combination of length, speed and quickness and should only continue to grow in all areas with three more years of high school football to play. Even though he spent most of his time at Ohio State camp going up against DBs with more high school experience than him, he repeatedly won his one-on-one reps.

2025 CB Dorian Brew

While Henry got the best of Brew a couple of times, the near-five-star cornerback from Northmont High School still showed why he is Ohio’s No. 1-ranked prospect in the 2025 class with his performance over the course of Ohio State’s first camp of the month.

Possessing an excellent frame for a cornerback at 6-foot-2 and great athleticism for his size, Brew is being recruited by some schools as a wide receiver but showed during the camp why Ohio State wants him as a defensive back. His physicality and read angles stood out among the cornerbacks who participated in his camp session, and his ceiling looks to be sky-high as he gains more experience playing in the secondary.

2025 QB Tavien St. Clair

St. Clair’s commitment to Ohio State, which came just moments after he led Bellefontaine to the championship game in Ohio State’s 7-on-7 tournament last week, looked increasingly inevitable as he traveled to Columbus to participate in three straight camps in a span of just six days. Watching him throw the ball at all three of those camps made it easy to see why Ryan Day and Corey Dennis chose to go all-in on making him the Buckeyes’ quarterback in the 2025 class.

Far more physically mature at 6-foot-4 and 216 pounds than he was when he participated in the same 7-on-7 camp just one year earlier, St. Clair demonstrated excellent deep-ball throwing ability and accurate passing to every level of the field.

While he made a few poor decisions over the course of the 7-on-7 tournament, resulting in multiple interceptions that likely would have been pick-sixes in a real game, he made up for it with his good throws as he carved up just about every opponent he faced while also showing the ability to throw the ball effectively on the run.

2025 QB Ryan Montgomery

Although St. Clair’s strong camp performances solidified Ohio State’s decision to take his commitment, it was Montgomery – the first quarterback in the 2025 class that received an OSU offer – who left Ohio State’s 7-on-7 tournament as a champion as he led his Findlay High School team to eight straight wins in the tournament, including a victory over St. Clair and his Chieftains in the championship game.

Montgomery was sharp throughout the 7-on-7 competition, looking as good as he ever has throwing the ball with consistent accuracy throughout the day. While St. Clair may have made more wow throws with his big arm over the course of his camp performances, Montgomery showed plenty of arm talent in his own right with sharp mechanics and decision-making, demonstrating why OSU will continue to recruit him even with St. Clair now committed.

Montgomery said before St. Clair’s commitment last Wednesday that he would prefer to be the only quarterback in his recruiting class, so it’s unlikely he will end up at Ohio State now. That said, his camp performance reaffirmed why he holds offers from many of the top teams in college football.

2026 QB Will Griffin

Although he’s only going into his sophomore year of high school, Griffin is already built like a college-ready quarterback at 6-foot-3 and 225 pounds. He throws the ball like one, too, which is why he left Ohio State as the third quarterback in the 2026 class to receive an offer from the Buckeyes.

Participating in a throwing session alongside St. Clair and Montgomery, Griffin went toe-to-toe with both of them, showing the ability to uncork passes with excellent zip for a young quarterback. He wasn’t quite as consistent as Montgomery and St. Clair were from an accuracy perspective, but he made some of the best throws of the day.

With three years of high school football still in front of him, it’s easy to see Griffin’s potential to be one of the elite quarterbacks in his class, making him an early top target for Ohio State as it begins to look forward to 2026 quarterback recruiting now that St. Clair is committed.

2025 QB Ty Hawkins

Another quarterback who participated in the same camp as St. Clair, Montgomery and Griffin and impressed in the process was Hawkins, who was as sharp as any quarterback at any of this year’s camps throwing the ball during one-on-ones. While smaller than the other listed quarterbacks at only 6 feet and 185 pounds, he showed plenty of arm strength as he completed several deep balls and was also accurate as an intermediate passer.

Hawkins didn’t leave Ohio State with an offer, but that had a lot to do with the Buckeyes knowing they were close to landing St. Clair. Hawkins – who was actually the highest-ranked 2025 quarterback in 247Sports’ composite rankings to camp at Ohio State this summer – backed up that ranking with his performance in Columbus and looks to be a great get for TCU, where Hawkins committed just three days after St. Clair committed to the Buckeyes.

2024 TE Damarion Witten

In a camp where he worked out as both a tight end and a wide receiver, Witten put his pass-catching ability on full display at Ohio State’s June 14 camp, proving to be a tough cover for cornerbacks and safeties alike. Witten demonstrated impressive speed and quickness for a 6-foot-4 tight end while also putting his contested-catch ability on display with multiple “groan man” grabs.

Witten is built more like a big wide receiver than a true tight end right now, and the camp setting didn’t offer much of a measure of his blocking ability. But it’s easy to see why Ohio State added him to its 2024 class as a second tight end with what he can do as a pass-catcher and his versatility to potentially line up in multiple spots.

2025 CB Mark Zackery

Zackery doesn’t have the size that Sanchez and Brew do, currently measuring in at 6 feet and 160 pounds, but that didn’t stop him from earning an offer at OSU’s first camp of the summer.

The Indianapolis product was as dominant as any cornerback in one-on-ones across the five all-positions camps, showing tremendous reaction time and ball skills as he consistently shut down opposing receivers. While he’ll need to get bigger before he’ll be ready to play at the next level, his quick feet and coverage ability have earned him offers from many of the top programs in college football, and Ohio State looks to be at the forefront of his recruitment after officially entering the race for the four-star cornerback, who’s ranked as Indiana’s top prospect in the 2025 class. 

2025 OT Matty Augustine

While defensive ends tend to have an inherent advantage against offensive tackles in one-on-one pass-rushing drills, one offensive tackle who more than held his own during his Ohio State camp session was Augustine, who was one of four offensive linemen to earn an offer from Justin Frye for his performance during camp season.

Augustine does not currently hold a composite recruiting ranking, but that’s likely to change after a month in which he also earned offers from Michigan, Michigan State and Notre Dame. Augustine made sure no one could miss him by wearing a shirt with his last name on the back during his camp workout, and the 6-foot-7, 275-pound offensive tackle gave coaches reason to watch as he effectively blocked the top defensive ends in his session and showed high upside as a pass protector with his quickness and length.

2025 S Ethan Long

Augustine wasn’t the only prospect from Connecticut’s Brunswick School to earn an offer at Ohio State’s June 14 camp, where Long had perhaps the best performance of any safety over the course of the month.

Possessing great length and athleticism for a safety at 6-foot-2 and 185 pounds, Long was the only DB to win a one-on-one rep against Witten. He showed great instincts and ability to break on the ball in man coverage, traits that could enable him to play either safety or nickel at the next level.

Like Augustine, Long doesn’t yet have a composite ranking but that should change soon as he too has picked up offers from Michigan, Michigan State and Notre Dame as well as Penn State since May. Of note, both Long and Augustine are former high school teammates of Ohio State freshman offensive lineman Miles Walker.

2024 OT Ian Moore

One year after earning his offer from Ohio State as the top-performing offensive lineman at Ohio State’s 2022 camps, Moore returned to Ohio State for two camps this summer as a Buckeye commit. He did so looking very different physically than he did one year ago, having bulked up to over 305 pounds.

Facing the tough task of going up against two of the highest-rated defensive ends who made their way to Ohio State this summer – top-100 2025 prospects Javion Hilson and Zahir Mathis – Moore had his ups and downs in one-on-ones. But while he appeared to still be adjusting to blocking quicker edge rushers with extra weight, he looked stronger than he did a year ago and as technically sound as any offensive lineman who made their way through a Justin Frye workout in June.

2025 WR Joshua Moore

The standard to receive an offer from Ohio State as a wide receiver is as high as it’s ever been with the talent Brian Hartline has brought in at the position in recent years, but it came as little surprise that Moore earned an offer after his camp outing on June 14.

Outside of Graham and Henry, Moore may have had the best camp of any receiver all month. He consistently won his one-on-one reps, highlighted by a one-handed grab that was as good as any catch made at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center all month, and overmatched opponents with his size and athleticism at 6-foot-3 and 205 pounds, showing crisp footwork despite his size.

Now that the Florida receiver has his offer from Hartline, he’ll be a target to watch for the Buckeyes in 2025 as they look to start building their receiver group in that class. He’s currently ranked as the 36th-best receiver in his class, but he made the case with his camp performance that his talent exceeds that.

2026 WR Brody Keefe

Another wide receiver to earn an offer after his camp performance, Keefe had the distinction of being the only receiver to catch a pass in one-on-ones against the aforementioned Devin Sanchez, beating Sanchez on a slant route on his first rep in the competitive portion of camp.

While he’s slender physically at 6-foot-3 and 185 pounds, he’s already an advanced route runner entering his sophomore year. Pairing his route-running skill with his height and quickness, Keefe demonstrated the upside to develop into one of the top receivers in his class, prompting Ohio State to become one of the first dozen teams to offer him.

Brody Keefe
Brody Keefe was one of two 2026 wide receivers, along with Florida wideout Jabari Brady, to earn an offer from Ohio State with his camp performance this June.

2025 DE Austin Alexander

Alexander makes this list for the second year in a row even though he still hasn’t received an offer from Ohio State yet. Much like when he camped at Ohio State in 2022, Alexander was one of the clear standouts among defensive ends at this year’s camps, consistently winning his one-on-one reps off the edge.

Now much more physically developed than he was a year ago, the 6-foot-3, 243-pound defensive end appears to have the skill set of a high-upside Power 5 edge rusher. The four-star prospect ranked as the No. 1 prospect in Kentucky and No. 275 overall prospect in the 2025 class will continue to be a prospect to monitor for a potential Ohio State offer down the line.

2026 WR Payton Cook

Entering his sophomore year at Archbishop Hoban High School, Cook looked like he could be one of Ohio’s top prospects in his class with his performance at OSU’s June 15 camp. The 6-foot-2, 180-pound receiver gave his opponents problems on both long and short routes, showing the long speed to be a deep threat and the footwork to gain separation closer to the line of scrimmage.

Cook, who has offers from Kentucky, Michigan and Pittsburgh so far, wasn’t among the receivers who got offered this June. But with three years of high school still to go, the Northeast Ohio wideout will continue to bear watching, as he says he’s “always dreamed” of playing for the Buckeyes and has the raw tools to develop into an Ohio State-caliber receiver.

2025 WR Dane Jones

Jones wasn’t on my radar going into Ohio State’s June 15 camp, but I had to find out who he was after watching him carve up defensive backs with his route running and quick feet throughout the one-on-ones at that camp session. Jones got open as consistently as any receiver I saw all month, showing the potential to be a dangerous short-to-intermediate target out of the slot with his explosiveness and lateral agility.

As aforementioned, the standard for receiving an Ohio State offer as a wide receiver is high, which played a part in Jones not getting one despite his impressive camp performance. But the 5-foot-11, 170-pound junior from Texas certainly looked like someone who should have a composite ranking, which he currently does not, and that’s evidenced by the offers he did receive over the course of the past month, including Florida, Kansas State and Pittsburgh.

2025 WR Preston Bowman

Bowman was another receiver who caught my eye this month, both during his skill-camp session on June 15 and in Ohio State’s 7-on-7 tournament. The Pickerington North receiver won most of his reps and ran smooth routes during one-on-ones at his first camp of the month, then made several highlight-reel catches as he helped lead the Panthers to the semifinals of the 7-on-7 showcase.

Showing an impressive ability to go up and get the ball in 7-on-7 competition, Bowman will be one of the top players to watch in Central Ohio over the next two years. He’s only received one Power 5 offer so far from Kentucky, so 247Sports’ 67th-ranked receiver in the 2025 class might still be a ways off from receiving an Ohio State offer, but his performance at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center gave Ohio State reason to continue keeping tabs on him as he continues his high school career east of Columbus.

6 Comments

Across The Field: Indiana Beat Writer Zach Osterman Says This Might Be the Hoosiers’ Most Important Regular Season Game Ever and QB Kurtis Rourke Has Played Well Under Pressure

Kurtis Rourke

Lightning Round: Ryan Day Confirms Seth McLaughlin Tore His Achilles, Says Carson Hinzman Will Play Center and Austin Siereveld Will Play Left Guard

Ryan Day
View 6 Comments