Signed: Brandon Inniss Becomes Ohio State’s Fifth Five-Star Wide Receiver in Five Years

While the five-star wide receiver said in early December that he was considering waiting until February to sign his National Letter of Intent, Inniss decided no such wait was necessary, putting pen to paper and officially becoming a Buckeye on Wednesday.

When those lights come on you know what time it is. The kid from Hollywood, FL is primed and ready to put on a show for the Buckeye faithful by making Big Ten defenses look like a bunch of extras. Welcome to The Brotherhood Brandon Innis.#CHO23N | @brandon5star2 pic.twitter.com/YCEwEbu0u3

— Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) December 21, 2022

Signing Inniss might prove to be the biggest win of Ohio State’s 2023 recruiting class, as Inniss was coveted by just about every major program in college football and looks primed to be the Buckeyes’ next elite wide receiver.

Inniss’ path to Columbus wasn’t direct, as he initially committed to Oklahoma during his junior year. Inniss decommitted from Oklahoma after Lincoln Riley departed for USC after the 2021 season, however, and Ohio State seized its second opportunity to land Inniss, beating out other contenders like USC, Alabama and Miami for the five-star wideout from Florida.

Brian Hartline was a big reason why Inniss chose Ohio State the second time around, as he looks to follow in the footsteps of current and recent Buckeye receiver standouts like Chris Olave, Garrett Wilson, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Marvin Harrison Jr. and Emeka Egbuka.

“Coach Hartline is like no other coach,” Inniss told Eleven Warriors at the All-American Bowl in January. “He breaks down the game to you in a way that no other coach will. It’s amazing to see what their receivers do in and out every single year.”

Inniss becomes the fifth composite five-star wide receiver prospect to sign with Ohio State in the past five years, joining Wilson in 2019, Julian Fleming and Smith-Njigba in 2020 and Egbuka in 2021.

As high as those receivers have set the bar, Inniss can be as great as any of them.

While facing some of the top competition in the country, Inniss was consistently one of the best players on the field during his career at American Heritage High School, catching 73 passes for 1,336 yards and 15 touchdowns during his senior season. He’s a polished receiver who already looks ready for the collegiate level both physically and skillfully, showing the ability to get open on various routes. 

Watch his film, and you’ll see plenty of examples of Inniss beating defenses deep and turning shorter passes into big plays with his open-field running ability. His size and straight-line speed don’t stand out by five-star standards, but he’s exceptionally quick in and out of his breaks and does a great job of playing the ball in the air.

That skill set could enable him to play both in the slot and outside at Ohio State and should allow him to compete for immediate playing time as a freshman. While Harrison, Egbuka and Fleming will all be returning starters, assuming Fleming stays with the Buckeyes for his senior season, the backups behind them remain unproven, leaving the door wide open for Inniss to climb the depth chart quickly and become Ohio State’s fourth or fifth receiver in 2023 before moving into a starting role as a sophomore like Egbuka, Harrison, Smith-Njigba, Wilson and Olave all did before him.

Inniss exudes confidence both on and off the field, so there’s little doubt he will arrive at Ohio State hungry to make his presence felt right away, though he won’t join the Buckeyes until this summer as he’ll be finishing out his senior year of high school rather than enrolling early.

“A lot of people think it’s a lot of pressure, but I’m built for pressure,” Inniss said about being Ohio State’s next five-star receiver in a recent video published by NBC Sports. “I love it, actually.”