Update, October 11: Johnson was still expected two days before the game. Dan Hope of Eleven Warriors listed him on Friday, October 9, among the prospects due at Ohio Stadium for Maryland, alongside 2028 defensive end Cassell Cruickshank of North Carolina, 2028 wide receiver Madoxx Davis of Georgia, 2028 running backs Jayshawn Mitchell of San Antonio and Xander Edwards of The Bolles School in Jacksonville, and 2028 offensive linemen Josiah Eney of Maryland and Joshua Evans of Georgia. Hope’s list also carries three 2029 names, Georgia offensive lineman Landon Ghea, Indiana tight end Max Hopkins and Kolton Wymer, the younger brother of 2027 commit Kellen Wymer. On Hall, Hope cited Rivals’ Steve Wiltfong, who reported Friday that Hall would visit Kentucky that weekend instead. We have not read a bylined report that Johnson made the trip: the post-game recruit reactions we found are behind a paywall.
Update, October 8: Kellan Hall is no longer due for Maryland. Caleb Houser of Land-Grant Holy Land reported Thursday that Hall “has reportedly pushed his trip back” to Ohio State’s regular-season finale against Michigan, which the school’s schedule has in Columbus at noon on November 28. That change has its own story. Houser’s report says nothing about Jamarcus Johnson, whose October 10 visit stands as reported below.
Ohio State’s homecoming game against Maryland on Saturday, October 10, now has two of the top five defensive linemen in the class of 2028 on its visitor list, by the 247Sports Composite.
The new name is Jamarcus Johnson, a defensive lineman at Toombs County High School in Lyons, Georgia. Mick Walker reported on October 1 for Lettermen Row, On3’s Ohio State site, that Johnson had scheduled a visit for the Maryland game. Dan Hessler of Land-Grant Holy Land listed him on Tuesday as “one of the bigger recruits to announce an upcoming game day visit” for the weekend.
The other is Kellan Hall of Christian Academy of Louisville, whose October 10 date this site reported in September. Hessler’s preview has him still scheduled for the same game.
For readers following the 2027 board: neither report names an uncommitted 2027 player. This is a 2028 weekend, the same shape as the Illinois game two weeks ago.
The numbers, read off each man’s own page
Johnson’s 247Sports page, read Wednesday, lists him at 6-5 and 308 pounds. The Composite has him at 0.9859, No. 29 nationally, No. 5 among defensive linemen and No. 4 in Georgia. 247Sports’ own analysts have him at 91, No. 34 nationally, No. 5 at the position and No. 3 in the state. The page counts 17 offers, no commitment and no Crystal Ball predictions.
Hall’s page, read the same night, still has him at the top of the position: Composite 0.9988, No. 2 nationally, No. 1 defensive lineman and No. 1 in Kentucky, and 95 and sixth nationally on 247Sports’ own board. His offer count is 30, one more than when we read the page on September 3. He has no Crystal Ball predictions either.
The two outlets that reported Johnson’s trip do not agree on his stars. Hessler calls him a five-star. Walker calls him a four-star and a top-50 prospect. The ratings and ranks above are what his own page prints, so those are the numbers this story uses, with the board named each time.
What the reporting says about his recruitment
Hessler lists offers from Alabama, Auburn, Clemson, Florida State, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Ole Miss, Oregon, Tennessee and Texas, “and many others,” and reads Tennessee, Alabama, Auburn and Georgia as “Ohio State’s biggest competition early on.” His conclusion is blunt: “regardless it will be difficult for the Buckeyes to pry him out of SEC Country.”
He also writes that the weekend “could go a long way for Ohio State’s chances in becoming a leader in his recruitment.” Both lines are an analyst’s read, printed here as one. Nobody has reported where Ohio State stands with Johnson, and his page carries no forecast.
Hessler ties the trip to a pledge already on the 2028 board: Jameer Whyce of Trotwood-Madison, committed since October 2025. Adding Johnson “alongside him would make for an excellent pairing,” Hessler writes.
Hall and his fall schedule
Hall released a game-day visit schedule late in the summer, Hessler writes, with Ohio State on it alongside Oregon, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Georgia, Texas A&M, Michigan, Texas, Notre Dame and Tennessee. Of the schools he has seen, “no one team has separated themselves from the pack,” and the Oregon, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Georgia and Texas A&M trips “have all seemingly gone well already too.”
His read on Ohio State is that a good Saturday “could” make the Buckeyes “the early favorites.” That is a conditional, and it stays one here.
What we did not read
The X posts embedded in Hessler’s article, one on Johnson’s visit and one from Rivals on Hall, were not opened and are not cited. Walker’s Lettermen Row story is for subscribers, and only its free opening paragraph was read. Nothing beyond that paragraph is attributed to it.
Neither man goes on the 2028 board’s pledge list, which admits commitments and nothing else. Johnson’s date joins Hall’s there as reported coverage: an event somebody published, not a claim about where he lands. If either man says anything about the visit after Saturday, it will be added here with the outlet that reported it.
