The No. 5 safety in the 2026 class has already set two gameday visits to Ohio State for this season.
Four-star Maryland prospect Jireh Edwards told Eleven Warriors following a camp workout in June that he’ll be on campus for the Buckeyes’ games against Purdue and Michigan in November and looks forward to seeing OSU in action.
Edwards is considered the No. 48 prospect and No. 5 safety in the 2026 class and last visited Columbus in June for the chance to work out with Tim Walton and Matt Guerrieri.
“I wanted to bond with the coaches and learn different ways I can be a way better ball player,” Edwards told Eleven Warriors about why he wanted to camp with OSU despite already having an offer.
The 6-foot-1, 194-pound prospect has visited campus at least four times already and has started a strong bond with Guerrieri.
“I make sure I call coach Matt Guerrieri almost every day,” Edwards said in June. “We call and it’s always a good conversation. I’m checking up on him, he’s checking up on me.”
With high-caliber prospects like Faheem Delane, Devin Sanchez and Na’eem Offord already committed to OSU for the 2025 class, Edwards has taken notice of the high-caliber players the Buckeyes are recruiting and said he would embrace being part of a talented defense back corps.
“It means a lot,” Edwards said. “Learning from the older guys and seeing how they’d translate so quickly from high school to college would be nice to learn from them.”
Edwards said OSU is “definitely up there” in his recruitment and has heavy interest in potentially suiting up for the Buckeyes someday.
“The brand,” Edwards said about OSU’s most appealing factor. “What I can get out of the school, the things I can learn at the school and stuff like that.”
Edwards isn’t in a rush to make a decision and said it could come down all the way to Signing Day in December of 2025. Other programs in contention include Oregon, Georgia, Alabama and Maryland.
Zavion Griffin-Haynes says OSU is currently his No. 1 team
A top-150 prospect in the 2026 recruiting class has shared glowing reviews of Ohio State.
Per On3, four-star North Carolina defensive end Zavion Griffin-Haynes has said OSU is currently the No. 1 team in his recruitment right now, partly because of defensive line coach Larry Johnson.
“Ohio State is No. 1 on my list at this moment,” Griffin-Haynes told On3. “The history behind the program makes Ohio State stand out. It is such a great program. Coach Larry Johnson is a big reason too. He has coached great players that play my position, so I can definitely trust him with my future.”
Griffin-Haynes visited OSU in June and earned a Buckeyes offer following an impressive recruiting camp and workout in front of Johnson. He’s considered the No. 130 player and No. 11 edge prospect per 247Sports’ 2026 composite rankings. The 6-foot-6, 220-pounder is likely going to make a decision sometime next summer, but the Buckeyes are off to a roaring start here.
A quick David Sanders Jr. note
As many of you already know, five-star offensive tackle David Sanders Jr. is finally set to announce his decision at 12:30 p.m. Saturday.
Sanders is down to four finalists: Ohio State, Tennessee, Georgia and Nebraska. That said, it’s primarily been an OSU and Tennessee race for a while now.
On Monday, we shared a small update that while OSU is aware of the national perceptive that Sanders is trending to Tennessee, the Buckeyes believed they were still in the recruitment. We even handicapped the odds at 55-45, with 55 percent that Sanders committed to Tennessee, 45 percent he went to OSU.
As the week played out, optimism from my end waned on that percentage. I’d put that number lower now on OSU's chances. At this point, things are certainly trending toward Tennessee landing the standout tackle. We’ll know for sure on Saturday and stranger things have happened at the eleventh hour, but all signs point to the Vols here.
