Ohio State has missed out on the state of Ohio’s second-ranked prospect in the 2025 class.
Five-star safety Trey McNutt, the top-ranked safety and No. 19 overall prospect in the 2025 cycle, announced his commitment to Oregon on Saturday.
BREAKING: Five-Star Safety Trey McNutt has Committed to Oregon, he tells me for @on3recruits
— Hayes Fawcett (@Hayesfawcett3) August 3, 2024
The 60 185 S from Shaker Heights, OH chose the Ducks over Texas A&M, Ohio State, USC, & Florida
Ranked as the No. 2 Safety in 25 (per On3 Industry) https://t.co/fdhQL4DV6b pic.twitter.com/zOLjyk2ODa
Ohio State was considered the early frontrunner to land McNutt after offering the Shaker Heights safety in April 2023. McNutt’s father, Richard McNutt, was an Ohio State defensive back from 1999-2002.
It started to become apparent that Ohio State had fallen behind in the race for McNutt, however, when he decided not to make an official visit to OSU this summer while making trips to USC, Florida, Texas A&M and Oregon.
Ohio State could still look to get McNutt back on campus for an official visit this fall, but it would now be tasked with flipping McNutt away from one of its new Big Ten rivals.
McNutt is the second top prospect from Ohio to spurn the Buckeyes recently, joining fourth-ranked Ohioan Justin Hill, who committed to Alabama on July 3. McNutt’s commitment continues a string of recruiting wins for Oregon over Ohio State this summer as the Ducks also beat out the Buckeyes for five-star cornerback Dorian Brew, four-star running back Jordon Davison and five-star wide receiver Dakorien Moore.
Despite those victories for the Ducks, Ohio State remains at No. 1 in the 247Sports team composite rankings for the class of 2025. Oregon is sixth in those rankings behind Ohio State, Alabama, Georgia, LSU and Auburn.
Ohio State is still poised to sign a strong class at safety without McNutt. Faheem Delane, the second-ranked safety in the 2025 class, is one of three Ohio State commitments at the position along with four-star prospects DeShawn Stewart and Cody Haddad. With McNutt off the board, four-star Virginia safety Messiah Delhomme is now the top target to round out Ohio State’s safety class.
Even without Hill and McNutt, Ohio State has eight in-state commits in its 2025 class including three of the state’s top five prospects in the cycle: quarterback Tavien St. Clair, offensive tackle Carter Lowe and running back Bo Jackson.
Still, missing out on McNutt is a loss that’s sure to sting for the Buckeyes given his roots as an Ohio State legacy. Assuming McNutt follows through on his Oregon commitment, he would become just the fourth five-star Ohioan to leave the state in the past decade, joining offensive linemen Tommy Kraemer (Notre Dame, 2016) and Jackson Carman (Clemson, 2018) and quarterback Drew Allar (Penn State, 2022).
