Karlos May committed to Ohio State on Saturday, July 18. He announced Saturday afternoon on Rivals’ official YouTube channel, per Auburn Wire, and he did it as the recruit Ohio State could least afford to lose.
The four-star defensive tackle is 6-foot-3 and 305 pounds out of Ramsay High School in Birmingham, Alabama. Saturday Tradition puts him at No. 135 overall in the 247Sports composite, No. 15 among defensive linemen and No. 5 in the state of Alabama; Eleven Warriors gives the same national and position numbers. He is the 19th pledge in the 2027 class and, per Eleven Warriors, the 10th on defense.
He says he was going to Georgia
May told Rivals, in comments carried by Buckeyes Wire, that the visit is what moved him.
“That official visit to Ohio State changed everything,” he said. “Before that, I was going to Georgia. That visit made me realize exactly where I wanted to be. As soon as I got down there, I knew I was going to pick up and retain a lot of good information that would help me be successful.”
He named the position coach directly. “Some things I like most about Coach Johnson are how he was able to produce as many guys as he did and the way he was able to do it,” May said. “I get to be around one of the best to ever do it.”
The outlets do not fully agree on who was still in it at the end. Auburn Wire puts Auburn and Georgia on the other side of the table; Eleven Warriors adds Florida State. Saturday Tradition frames the field more broadly still, naming Alabama, LSU, Michigan and Texas among the programs he chose against. What every one of them carries is Auburn and Georgia, and what May himself says is Georgia.
The hole he fills is the only one this line had
Ohio State’s 2027 defensive line was already the story of the cycle. Per Eleven Warriors’ Dan Hope, writing on July 7, the Buckeyes are one of only two schools with two five-star defensive linemen in the class and one of only two with three top-100 defensive linemen, and it is the first time they have done both since the 2021 class that produced JT Tuimoloau, Jack Sawyer and Mike Hall Jr.
What it did not have was a true defensive tackle. DJ Jacobs, the No. 4 player in the country as of July 19, and Marcus Fakatou, the No. 26, are the headliners. Wyatt Smith is the third top-100 name. All three of them make their living on the edge or on the outside shoulder of a tackle, and the interior of the line was empty.
Hope wrote on July 7 that landing May would take the group from great to “an A+ for the cycle”. That is the position Ohio State is in this weekend.
The comparison to 2021 is not a compliment the staff handed itself. It is the last class that had this many high-end linemen at once, and it is the one Ohio State’s coaches keep being asked about. The 2021 blueprint is on this site in full: four linemen, two of them top-five nationally, and a defensive front that took three years to arrive and then won a national title. The 2027 group is being built on the same premise, and until Saturday it was being built without a nose.
What the board looks like now
May is the 19th commit and, in the composite order the board is kept in, he slots into the top half of the class. With him, Saturday Tradition has Ohio State No. 7 nationally in the composite team rankings, and Auburn Wire has the class No. 2 in the Big Ten.
The class is still built in the trenches: six offensive linemen, the first six-lineman class since 2020, and now four defensive linemen counting the edge players. Ten of the pledges play defense.
What is still open
The board does not empty out with him. David Gabriel Georges, the five-star running back, chose Tennessee on July 22 over Ohio State and Ole Miss, and the class still has no running back at all.
The receiver spot on that list closed the day before May’s announcement, and not the way Ohio State wanted: Monshun Sales picked Indiana on July 17, so he is a miss on this board, not a target on it. Benny Easter Jr. is the flip target left at the position. So is cornerback Gabriel Osborne Jr., at a spot where, per Hope, this class has no top-100 player for the first time in five years.
And there is still no tight end, and no target at the position.
The full class, every rank sourced to the outlet that reported it, is on the 2027 commit board. What the class still needs is on the needs page.
