One of the Buckeyes' safety targets in the 2025 class was back in Columbus late last month for his second visit to Ohio State.
Connecticut prospect Ethan Long attended the Buckeyes' SummerFest recruiting event on July 28, traveling with his high school teammate, 2025 offensive tackle Matty Augustine.
“Ohio State is a great place to be,” Long said after the visit. “They always make you feel great when you come back. Building that relationship with coach Ryan Day, coach Perry Eliano and coach Justin Frye, it’s a big thing for Matty and I to come back. We love it.”
Augustine and Long, both former teammates of Ohio State freshman offensive lineman Miles Walker, received their Ohio State offers together after both impressed at a Buckeyes recruiting camp in June.
“Going through (the recruiting process) together is great. Having someone that works just as hard as you and wants it just as bad and having a friend to help guide you, it’s a great experience,” Long said.
Long didn’t set an exact timetable for his recruitment but mentioned several schools were starting to stand out from the attention being shown to him. He said Ohio State is one of those schools. Speaking with the Buckeyes' coaching staff, Long said he appreciates how Day, Eliano and other coaches put players first and strive to compete daily.
“The difference (with this visit compared to the last) is they were more hands-on, it was more like trying to get to know each other rather than going on the field and getting coached,” Long said. "Coach Eliano and my relationship is getting stronger. We laugh all the time. He loves to get me better, and he knows how to coach me. That stuck out to me a lot because he knows what an All-American player looks like, and he knows what it takes to get me there.”
Long said he hopes to return to Ohio State for a visit sometime this season, but it will likely be for an early season contest since his high school plays a good chunk of their games on Saturdays.
Zaquan Patterson to take official visit to Columbus this fall
One of Ohio State’s top remaining safety targets in the 2024 class plans on taking an official visit to Columbus later this fall.
Four-star safety Zaquan Patterson told 247Sports he will visit Ohio State officially sometime this season but is unsure of a specific date. The 6-foot, 185-pound prospect visited the Buckeyes in March and laturned for an unofficial visit in June.
On April 23, Patterson narrowed his recruitment down to five schools: Ohio State, Miami, Florida State, Michigan and Auburn. He plans to take an official visit to each program and make a decision sometime in September.
Patterson has certainly moved up the priority list for Ohio State since the Buckeyes missed on their top target, five-star KJ Bolden, on Saturday. The Florida prospect is the former high school teammate of Ohio State defensive end Kenyatta Jackson and cornerback Ryan Turner at Chaminade-Madonna Prep. He is also the current teammate of Buckeyes wide receiver commit Jeremiah Smith.
Peter Langi picks up Ohio State offer
Ohio State has offered another offensive lineman in the 2025 class, as three-star California prospect Peter Langi earned his Buckeyes offer on Sunday.
Blessed to receive an offer from The Ohio State University! #GoBucks pic.twitter.com/NvhN6NnAXf
— PETER LANGI (@PETERLANGI50) August 6, 2023
The 6-foot-5, 330-pound Langi doesn’t hold a 247Sports composite ranking but is considered the 22nd-best interior offensive line prospect in the cycle per the network’s individual rankings. Langi has nearly 30 Division I offers, including Arizona, Arizona State, California, Colorado, Kentucky, Louisville, LSU, Michigan, Mississippi State, North Carolina, Ole Miss, Texas A&M, USC, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin.
