Larry Johnson was a busy man on Monday night.
Ohio State’s defensive line coach offered three new defensive line prospects, one in the 2024 class and two from the 2025 cycle. We’ll break all three new offers down below, starting with the one closest to arriving on a college campus.
Deshawn Warner
Johnson and the Buckeyes aren’t content to sit at three defensive line commits in the 2024 cycle, even if Eddrick Houston and Justin Scott are five-star prospects and Eric Mensah could be an underrated find. OSU has identified four-star Florida defensive end commit Amaris Williams as a target for its current cycle, and on Monday, Johnson offered another potential flip target in three-star 2024 Arizona defensive end prospect Deshawn Warner.
After a great conversation with @R2X_Rushmen1 @SpiceBoy408 @CaliBloodLine81 I am blessed to receive my 20th D1 offer from @OhioStateFB ! @DEdgeFootball @AZcoachHenri @papirican21 @vollon_golden pic.twitter.com/6KUQJmnn4J
— DESHAWN WARNER (@DeshawnWarner15) October 10, 2023
Warner, who is currently committed to the Kansas Jayhawks, is a true edge prospect at 6-foot-4, 225 pounds. He has been scouted by OSU over the past few weeks. Per 247Sports’ composite rankings, Warner is considered the 486th-best prospect and the 33rd-ranked edge player in the 2024 cycle.
He committed to the Jayhawks on July 1 and also has offers from Michigan, Oregon State, Texas, Washington, Arizona, Arizona State, Iowa State, Nebraska, Oregon, San Diego State, UNLV and Washington State.
Warner could take an official visit to Columbus for the Buckeyes’ game against Penn State next weekend, which is supposed to be the biggest recruiting weekend of the fall for OSU. If he doesn’t make the Penn State game, the Michigan State contest on Nov. 11 is an option.
Six games into his junior season, Warner has racked up 33 tackles (11 for loss) with an impressive 10 sacks and five forced fumbles.
Ari Watford
Ohio State has entered the recruitment of one of the top defensive ends in the 2025 class. The Buckeyes extended an offer to top-40 prospect Ari Watford Monday.
#AGTG I am extremely blessed to receive an offer from Ohio State University!! #GoBucks @R2X_Rushmen1 @dyrri_mccain @MauryCommodores pic.twitter.com/E2rvRTb4ki
— Ari Watford (@ari_watford) October 10, 2023
The 6-foot-5, 220-pound prospect has no shortage of impressive offers. In addition to picking up the offer from the Buckeyes, the Virginia product holds offers from Clemson, Duke, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Kentucky, Miami, Michigan, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Penn State, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas A&M and USC. He’s considered the 36th-best player and third-ranked edge rusher in the 2025 class. Only Nasir Wyatt holds a higher composite ranking than Watford among edge prospects who have been offered by Ohio State.
Watford also plays tight end for Maury High School (Norfolk, Virginia), but he’ll be exclusively a defensive end at the collegiate level. In his sophomore season, Watford racked up 12 sacks and made the MaxPreps Sophomore All-America second team. He only appeared in two games as a freshman due to injury, but had five sacks in those two contests.
Max Granville
Watford wasn’t the only highly-coveted defensive end prospect Johnson offered on Monday. OSU also extended an offer to four-star prospect Max Granville, a 6-foot-3, 215-pound player out of Sugar Land, Texas.
Ohio State offered! pic.twitter.com/UdRqFWpW6P
— Max Granville (@max_granville13) October 10, 2023
While Granville is seen by some within the industry as a linebacker, Johnson is Granville’s lead recruiter, and it’s possible Granville could play on the edge at OSU. He’s considered the 125th-best prospect and the 16th-ranked linebacker in the 2025 cycle and has more than 30 Division I offers. Some of his other offers include Alabama, Auburn, Baylor, Cincinnati, Duke, Georgia, Kansas, LSU, Miami, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Ole Miss, Penn State, Tennessee, Texas, Texas Tech, USC and Wisconsin.
So far this season, Granville has recorded 13 tackles (1 for loss) with six quarterback hurries, one pass deflection and one fumble recovery.
Granville has an older brother who plays linebacker for Illinois State (Zion Granville) and is the son of Billy Granville, a former Duke linebacker who played in the NFL from 1997 to 2001 for the Cincinnati Bengals and Houston Texans.
Ohio State football staffers react to Leroy Roker’s commitment
In case you missed it on Wednesday afternoon, Ohio State added another commitment to its 2024 class in three-star safety Leroy Roker. Roker is the 22nd overall member and the second safety in Ohio State’s 2024 class, joining four-star New Jersey safety Jaylen McClain. So far this season, Roker has recorded 27 tackles, one tackle for loss, two interceptions and five pass deflections for Bishop Verot High School (Fort Myers, Florida).
Following the commitment, several OSU football staff members took to social media to celebrate the addition of the Florida prospect. We’ve included some of their reactions below.
COMMITTED!!! @OhioStateFB pic.twitter.com/YyTjSOMKpp
— Leroy (@LeroyRoker10) October 11, 2023
BM#BIA#GoBucks pic.twitter.com/2Jc56KZqJD
— Perry Eliano (@Coach_Eliano) October 11, 2023
— urph (@N_Murph) October 11, 2023
BM#BIA #SilverBullets pic.twitter.com/sQGCamTiHG
— Sam McGrath (@CoachMcGrath22) October 11, 2023
— Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) October 11, 2023
