Ohio State’s class of 2027 has nineteen pledges and still no running back. On Saturday, for the Kent State game, the one uncommitted running back on this board is coming back to Columbus, and this time it is an official visit.
Jordan Hall of Princeton High School in Cincinnati is the back. Garrick Hodge of Bucknuts, 247Sports’ Ohio State site, reported it on Thursday morning:
“Bucknuts can confirm Jordan Hall will take an official visit to Columbus on Saturday, his second trip to campus within the first three weeks of the regular season.”
Hodge writes that Hall told 247Sports’ Tom Loy he will be in Columbus for the weekend, and that a separate source confirmed the trip to Bucknuts. The rest of Hodge’s piece is behind the paywall and we have not read it.
The first trip is the one this site has already told. Hall decommitted from Miami of Ohio on September 3, came to the Ball State opener two days later, and left with an Ohio State offer. Saturday is the return trip, and it is the kind Ohio State pays for.
One prediction is in, and only one outlet has one
On3’s Steve Wiltfong published his own visitor report at 13:00 UTC on Thursday, under the headline “2027 RB locks in Ohio State official for this weekend, No. 1 CB & No. 1 LB also visiting Buckeyes.” The readable part of it is one sentence and does not name the back. On3 files the piece on Hall’s own profile.
Seventeen minutes later Wiltfong logged a prediction. On3’s predictions page for Hall, read on Friday, lists exactly one insider pick: Wiltfong’s, dated 9/17/26 at 9:17 AM Eastern, for Ohio State, at 60 percent confidence. The same page prints On3’s industry consensus across 18 schools as Ohio State 95.5 percent and Miami (Ohio) 3.6 percent.
Two things about that are worth saying plainly. A prediction is not a commitment, and 60 percent is the forecaster telling you he is not certain. And the other major service has not moved: Hall’s 247Sports player page, read the same day, still says “No Crystal Ball predictions at this time.”
Who he is, by the numbers we carry
The 247Sports Composite rates Hall 0.8744, No. 847 nationally, No. 60 among running backs and No. 32 in Ohio. The national number is the one the board has printed since September 4, and Friday’s read did not move it. His team has not lost this season: Princeton is 4-0 by the MaxPreps schedule this site reads, with wins over Moeller, Middletown, Colerain and Sycamore, and it plays Lakota West at home on Friday night, the night before the visit.
The other back on the board is still Alabama’s
Hall is one of two running backs on the board’s target list. The other is Nigel Newkirk of Gainesville, Georgia, who has been committed to Alabama since the spring and has been on this site’s flip board since August.
On Thursday afternoon Bama247’s Olivia Sayer published a conversation with Newkirk’s mother, Menyuna Cooper, under a headline that quotes her: “It’s still Roll Tide.” The interview is behind 247Sports’ VIP wall, so the headline is the only line of hers we can print. The free opening frames it this way:
“But while the Peach State native is locked in on the Crimson Tide, other programs are still vying to win his services. That includes Ohio State, who missed out on five-star running back David Gabriel Georges over the summer.”
Sayer’s opening also says Newkirk committed during an official visit to Alabama and later told Bama247 he was shut down. His 247Sports page still reads “Hard Commit,” and it carries no Crystal Ball predictions. One note on stars, because two readings of him are now in print: Bama247 calls him a three-star, and the four stars on this board come from Eleven Warriors and the 247Sports Composite, which rates him 0.9180, No. 226 nationally and No. 16 among running backs.
David Gabriel Georges, the back Sayer names, chose Tennessee in July and is on the board’s list of misses.
What this changes
Nothing on the board’s commit count. Hall stays an open target, Newkirk stays a flip target, and the Saturday visit goes on the board’s timeline as a dated move. The empty running back room is still empty. If Hall commits, it will be the first running back in this class, and it will be on the board the same day.
