The Hurry-Up: Larry Johnson Offers 2025 Four-star DL Andrew Maddox, 2025 LB Nathaniel Owusu-Boateng and 2025 RB Isaiah West Will Visit Ohio State This Weekend

By Garrick Hodge on May 10, 2024 at 5:30 pm
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It’s been a busy few days for Ohio State recruiting.

OSU coaches have been tenacious in recruiting on the road, offering four new players recently and making key visits to other prospects of note that already hold OSU offers. On top of that, an intriguing visitor group is coming to Columbus for the second weekend in a row and one of the Buckeyes’ quarterback targets in the 2026 class could be eyeing a summer commitment.

We’ll start with the newest offers.

Andrew Maddox

OSU defensive line coach Larry Johnson has made it a point to make a Southern swing of late (more on that in a bit). Johnson continued expanding Ohio State’s defensive line recruiting board for the 2025 class on Thursday, extending an offer to four-star Mississippi defensive lineman Andrew Maddox. 

Per 247Sports’ composite rankings, Maddox is considered the No. 138 prospect and the 17th-ranked defensive lineman in the 2025 cycle. He’s picked up more than 20 Division I offers, including Ole Miss, Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Colorado, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Indiana, Louisville, LSU, Mississippi State, South Carolina, Southern Miss, Tennessee, Texas and Texas A&M.

Maddox recorded 99 tackles, 12 tackles for loss and two sacks in his junior season.

Maddox’s brother, AJ, was a four-star quarterback recruit in the 2024 class who signed with Ole Miss. Things could pick up with the younger Maddox if the 6-foot-3, 265-pound prospect schedules an official visit to Columbus in June.

Nassir McCoy

The Buckeyes had some luck recruiting Buford High School (Buford, Georgia) last season, landing five-star defensive end Eddrick Houston. Houston’s former teammate, four-star 2026 cornerback Nassir McCoy, earned an offer from OSU this week. 

McCoy is ranked as the No. 256 prospect and the No. 23 cornerback in the 2026 class and holds 17 Division I offers. Schools that have offered McCoy include Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisville, LSU, Miami, Michigan, Missouri, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M and UCF.

As a sophomore, the 6-foot-2, 180-pound cornerback racked up 38 tackles, three tackles for loss, two interceptions and a pass deflection.

Immanuel Iheanacho

Offensive line coach Justin Frye identified another top offensive tackle prospect in the 2026 class earlier this week, offering four-star Maryland offensive tackle Immanuel Iheanacho. 

The 6-foot-7, 340-pound Iheanacho is the No. 92 prospect and the No. 9 offensive tackle in the 2026 class. Per 247Sports’ individual rankings, Iheanacho is the No. 3 overall prospect and No. 1 offensive tackle in 2026.

His offer list consists of more than 20 schools, including Tennessee, Alabama, Auburn, Boston College, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Miami, Michigan State, Ole Miss, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Texas, Texas A&M and Virginia Tech. He’s the eighth offensive tackle the Buckeyes have offered in total for the 2026 class.

Jamarion Phillips

Linebackers coach James Laurinaitis made a stop in Dallas on Friday to offer three-star 2026 Texas linebacker Jamarion Phillips. Phillips is ranked as the No. 427 prospect and No. 32 linebacker in the 2026 cycle. He has earned 15 Division I offers including Arizona State, Arkansas, Baylor, Colorado, Missouri, Purdue, SMU, TCU, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Toledo, UCF, UTEP and UTSA. 

The 6-foot, 220-pound prospect had a standout sophomore season, recording 95 tackles, 23 tackles for loss and 14 sacks en route to helping South Oak Cliff (Dallas, Texas) to its third straight state title game appearance.

Owusu-Boateng, West visiting this weekend

Last weekend brought a small yet intriguing list of visitors on campus with 2025 prospects David Sanders Jr., Trey McNutt, Zion Grady and Malik Autry. The Buckeyes’ visitor list this weekend won’t feature quite as much star power, but there’s still no shortage of storylines.

Earlier this week, we wrote about 2025 offensive lineman Andrew Stargel, 2025 offensive tackle Jackson Lloyd and transfer safety Jaden Mangham making their way to Columbus on Friday. 

Two other notable prospects, four-star 2025 linebacker Nathaniel Owusu-Boateng and three-star 2025 running back Isaiah West, will also be on campus this weekend.

Owusu-Boateng is an option for the Buckeyes’ third and potential final linebacker spot in the 2025 class, along with Riley Pettijohn and a few others. This will be Owusu-Boateng’s first visit to Columbus and if all goes well, Ohio State will look to get him scheduled for an official visit this summer.

West arrives on campus without an Ohio State offer to his name, but that could change shortly if new running back coach Carlos Locklyn likes what he hears from West this weekend. The 5-foot-11, 208-pound West has been committed to Kentucky since March 1, so the Buckeyes will need to flip him from the SEC school if they want to win his recruitment. It’s no secret OSU wants a three-man running back class for 2025, with Bo Jackson and Jordon Davison ideally taking up the first two spots. It’s possible West could emerge as the third priority target after this trip.

OSU visits Shekai Mills-Knight, Jahkeem Stewart

As mentioned earlier, Johnson spent a lot of time in the South this week, also stopping in Louisiana to see five-star defensive tackle Jahkeem Stewart. As you’d expect for a player of Stewart’s caliber, Johnson wasn’t the only coach in attendance Thursday, when LSU defensive line coach Bo Davis also stopped by St. Augustine’s (New Orleans, Louisiana) spring practice. Stewart is the No. 1-ranked defensive lineman in the 2026 class, but is considering reclassifying to the 2025 class. 

Locklyn made a stop in Tennessee on Thursday to see one of the players he offered last month, Shekai Mills-Knight, another candidate to be the third running back in Ohio State’s 2025 class. A former high school teammate of incoming freshman tight end Max LeBlanc, Mills-Knight has established a rapport with Locklyn since the Buckeyes’ new running backs coach was at Oregon, and could be a candidate to visit Columbus in the near future.

Dia Bell considering summer commitment

One of Ohio State’s 2026 quarterback targets is getting close to making a decision. 

Four-star Florida signal caller Dia Bell told On3 this week he’s considering making a summer commitment, either in June or July. Five schools in the mix for Bell’s services include OSU, Penn State, LSU, Texas and Miami. 

Bell was offered by OSU in March after visiting campus for a spring practice. He’s been to campus numerous times over his recruitment, including for a game last fall and a recruiting camp last summer. 

“Coach Day and coach Chip Kelly told me they watched my film and they referenced it back to basketball, they said I played like a point guard,” Bell told Eleven Warriors after getting his offer. “Coach Day referenced back to last year and said he saw me at camp and that he’s very comfortable extending the offer right now. I was very excited.”

Dierre Hill commits to Oregon

One running back in the 2025 class with an Ohio State offer came off the board Friday when four-star Illinois prospect Dierre Hill committed to Oregon, giving the Ducks their seventh commitment of the 2025 cycle. 

Hill hadn’t been recruited by OSU long, with Locklyn only recently extending an offer last month. In the modern era of recruiting, a commitment doesn’t rule out a potential flip, but for now, it appears unlikely Hill will be in Columbus next year despite having a good relationship with Locklyn dating back to his time as Oregon’s running backs coach.

By the way, considering the combination of recruiting and transfer portal success over the past few years, Oregon is shaping up quite nicely to compete in the Big Ten moving forward, eh?

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