Ten sacks. That is what Indiana and Miami combined for against Ohio State in last season’s two postseason losses, and you can draw a straight line from that number to what the staff did in the final week of June.
On Friday, June 26, the Buckeyes landed Caden Moss, a 6-5, 320-pound offensive tackle from Jackson Academy in Mississippi ranked No. 74 overall in the 247Sports composite. Three days later, five-star defensive lineman Marcus Fakatou picked Ohio State over Georgia and Texas. Two trench commitments in four days, both top-100 players.
The numbers behind the shift
The context makes it a strategy, not a coincidence. From 2020 through 2026, Ohio State signed 26 top-100 skill position players but only 5 top-100 offensive linemen. The 2027 class flips that ratio on its head:
- Six offensive line commits: Moss, Kellen Wymer (No. 67, Liberty Center, Ohio), Brody McNeel (Richmond, Virginia), Jimmy Kalis (Pittsburgh’s Central Catholic), Mason Wilt (St. Clairsville, Ohio), and Davis Seaman (Bishop Watterson in Columbus). That is the first six-lineman class since 2020.
- Moss is the program’s first top-100 out-of-state offensive line commit since Donovan Jackson in 2021.
- If Moss and Wymer both sign, it would be Ohio State’s first pair of top-100 offensive line signees in a single class since 2018.
- Only four schools in the country hold two top-100 OL commits in the 2027 cycle: Ohio State, Texas A&M, Notre Dame, and Florida.
The defensive line is keeping pace. Per Eleven Warriors, the Buckeyes are tied with Texas Tech for the most five-star defensive line commits in the cycle and tied with Texas A&M for the most top-100 DL commits.
Ryan Day has signed seven straight top-five classes in the composite. The star power is a constant. What changed is where the stars line up on the field, and that change started in January.