Despite the snow on the ground in Columbus, spring is quickly approaching for Ryan Day and the Ohio State football team. With the changing of the season quickly approaching, things are about to heat up in more ways than one for the Buckeyes.
Spring is a pivotal time for the college football landscape. Ryan Day and his staff will soon be hard at work preparing this year’s Buckeyes for the upcoming season, one where Ohio State is looking to find more postseason success than it had last yet.
However,
this will be far from the only task on Day and the coaching staff’s plates, as they will also be playing host to many of the nation’s best recruits. Ohio State currently holds claim to the No. 3 class in the country, and in the coming months they will look to add to this already impressive group.
A name Buckeye Nation should be familiar with is five-star wide receiver Monshun Sales (Indianapolis, IN / Lawrence North). Ohio State offered Sales in May of last year and since the offer, he has found his way on campus numerous times, with the last unofficial visit being in January.
However, dues to Sales’ high prestige, nearly every college football program is interested in him so the Buckeyes will need to continue making him a priority. Fortunately, Sales plans to make another return visit to Ohio State as he announced some his official visit schedule Monday and Ohio State made his list.
As was mentioned above, Ohio State is not alone in its pursuit of Sales, and while this list isn’t an official “top schools” list, it does provide an insight into those schools he is most interested in. Therefore, Alabama, Miami and home-state school Indiana are the biggest competition for the Buckeyes right now, who will host Sales on June 12.
Monday’s news is great news for Ohio State, as Sales is the No. 1 WR in the 247Sports Composite rankings, he is also the No. 8 national recruit. Wide receiver has long been a position Ohio State was able to dominate at, both on the field and with recruiting.
That was before Brian Hartline packed his bags for a well-deserved head coaching job at South Florida. Not that Cortez Hankton has anything to prove, but earning a commitment from the top WR prospect in this class would help quiet any concerns Buckeye Nation may have with Ohio State’s new WR coach.
However, even if Sales chooses to spurn Ohio State in favor of one of the other schools he is interested in, Hankton and the Buckeyes’ WR room is in good shape. The Buckeyes already hold a commitment in five-star Jamier Brown and will also host fellow five-star WR target Eric McFarland on an official visit the same weekend as Sales.
If Hankton can add both Sales and McFarland to this class alongside Brown, this could be the best recruiting haul at the position for Ohio State, and that is certainly saying something.
Sales was not the only blue-chip recruit to announce an upcoming visit with Ohio State as 2027 four-star offensive tackle Kweli Fielder (Carrollton, GA / Carrollton) also announced a visit to Ohio State. Fielder has not yet scheduled his official visits, but he is planning to take an unofficial one to Ohio State this spring.
Fielder is another of the nation’s top prospects and like Sales, could basically go to any school of his choosing. While the upcoming visit to Ohio State means the Buckeyes are still contenders in his recruitment, he also has visits scheduled with Florida, Tennessee, Auburn, Virginia Tech, Georgia and South Carolina. Fielder also attended a recruiting camp at Florida State back in January.
Offensive line has been a priority group for Ohio State in the 2027 class. The Buckeyes already hold commitments from three-star OTs Mason Wilt, Brody McNeel and Kellen Wymer and have identified multiple other blue-chip prospects that they would like to add to this group, including Fielder and five-star OL Maxwell Hiller, five-star OT Mike Matthews, four-star OT Cameron Wagner, four-star OL Jackson Roper and many others.
Fielder’s visit to Ohio State will not be his first, and hopefully for the Buckeyes, it will not be his last. He last visited with the Buckeyes last season for their game against Penn State and Ohio State would love to get him back on campus later this year for another game day visit.
Fielder is the No. 4 OT in the 247Sports Composite and he is the No. 31 national prospect. He is also the No. 3 recruit out of the talent-rich state of Georgia.
Quick Hits
Ohio State continues to identify talent in the 2027 recruiting cycle that the coaching staff believes could make for future Buckeyes. On Monday, the Buckeyes identified another blue-chip prospect when they presented four-star tight end Mason Oglesby (New Palestine, IN / New Palestine) with an official scholarship offer.
Interestingly, the offer comes just days after Oglesby announced his top six schools which included Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Purdue, North Carolina and USC. While it may be late in Oglesby’s recruitment for Ohio State to be just now entering, there is no denying the Ohio State offer comes with a certain level of prestige that Oglesby would be tough to ignore.
Ohio State has its work cut out in this one, if it is going to jump some of his other finalists, but Ryan Day and the Ohio State coaching staff have pulled off crazier things.
Oglesby is the No. 19 ATH in the 247Sports Composite and he is the No. 344 national recruit. He is also the No. 8 recruit out of Indiana.
