Jordan Hall committed to Penn State on October 24, 2026. He announced it on Saturday evening, telling Hayes Fawcett of Rivals, whose post Onward State carried, and StateCollege.com reported that he picked the Nittany Lions over finalists Ohio State and Missouri. Dan Hope of Eleven Warriors and Garrick Hodge of Bucknuts on 247Sports both had the news on the Ohio State side at 5:35 p.m. Eastern, and his 247Sports page now reads “Hard Commit” to Penn State, dated October 24.

Hodge reported that Ohio State “valued Hall as their No. 1 remaining running back target in the high school ranks.” He counted it as the second time in this class that Ohio State has missed on its top running back option, after David Gabriel Georges chose Tennessee in July.

The Cincinnati Princeton running back named Missouri, Ohio State and Penn State as his final three on October 1, when he told Rivals he would decide on October 23, as Hunter Shelton reported that night and we reported then. On October 22 he moved it one day later, to Saturday. Ohio State had offered him on a game-day visit on September 5, as Alex Harrison of the Cincinnati Enquirer reported that afternoon, and hosted him officially for the Kent State game on September 19, which Garrick Hodge of Bucknuts reported the same day.

The forecast said Ohio State, until that morning

On3’s predictions page, read on October 19, gave Ohio State 92.6 percent in its industry consensus across 19 schools. Penn State was second at 3.6 percent, and Missouri was not in the top three. The page carried one insider prediction, Steve Wiltfong’s for Ohio State, filed September 17 at 60 percent confidence. 247Sports’ page carried no Crystal Ball prediction at all.

The consensus missed. The insider pick did not: when we re-read the page after the announcement, Wiltfong’s one prediction read Penn State, stamped 9:29 a.m. on October 24, still at 60 percent confidence, and On3 now marks it correct. A reader going by the 92.6 percent had no warning from it. A reader watching the visits had several, and Brian Dohn had already called it “a battle between Ohio State and Penn State” on October 12.

What the warning signs were

Brian Dohn of 247Sports reported on October 12 that Hall “was at Penn State’s last two home games, including an official visit,” while Ohio State “continues to push after he made a pair of visits there last month.” Our decision-week read laid out both schools’ visits five days before he chose.

Hodge added two details from the final weeks. Ohio State running backs coach Carlos Locklyn watched Hall play the day before his official visit, and Penn State head coach Matt Campbell was at Hall’s game on Friday evening, the night before he announced. Bucknuts was also told, Hodge wrote, that the Nittany Lions pushed hard on Hall being able to play early at Penn State, “while OSU wasn’t able to make that same promise, but offered a promising developmental track.”

For Penn State, StateCollege.com’s Joel Haas reported that Hall takes the 2027 class to 22 commitments, a class that ranks in the 247Sports composite’s top 25. Onward State’s Oscar Orellana reported that he is the second running back in it, after three-star Chukwuma Odoh.

The class does not change, and that is the problem

Ohio State’s 2027 class stays at 20 commitments with no running back in it. The Buckeyes had already watched Jayden Miles go to Florida State in June and David Gabriel Georges go to Tennessee in July, both backs they recruited in this class. Hall was the last uncommitted back on the board. The gap is the one this site laid out in August, and tight end is still empty too.

Every running back left on this site’s watch list is committed to another school. Kingston Allen is pledged to Wisconsin, and Ohio State offered him at the Maryland game on October 10. Nigel Newkirk is pledged to Alabama. Both 247Sports pages, re-read on October 24, still say so. Hodge reported that Ohio State still wants a pair of backs in this class and will keep after Allen, Newkirk and Miles, and Hope listed the same three as its top flip targets.

One back Ohio State is still recruiting is not committed anywhere. Hope reported that the Buckeyes are a finalist for Florida three-star Tranard Roberts, who picks on Monday from Georgia, Miami, North Carolina and Ohio State, but that they “are not expected to be the choice.” Roberts is not on this site’s board, and Eleven Warriors is the only outlet we have read on him. Hodge also wrote that it “wouldn’t be a surprise” if Ohio State looked to the transfer portal for a back.

The full class, every rank sourced to the outlet that reported it, is on the 2027 commit board. The running back room is on its own page, and Hall stays on the board as a player who chose elsewhere, with the reporting that says where he went.