COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Resetting Ohio State's 2018 recruiting class after a string of commitments in the last week; and a look at what's still ahead for the Buckeyes.
4 commitments in 7 days
If you missed it on Tuesday night, Ohio State added two more commitments to its 2018 class:
* WR Kamryn Babb commits to Ohio State
* DT Tommy Togiai commits to Ohio State
That brings the Buckeyes up to 21 commitments in this class, which is still ranked No. 1 in the country by 247Sports. Babb and Togiai join four-star defensive back Tyreke Johnson and three-star quarterback Matthew Baldwin, who both committed last week.
Babb's commitment wasn't a surprise. That was a long time coming, and he decided to publicly pull the trigger on Tuesday. Togiai's pledge was more out of the blue. Urban Meyer and Larry Johnson had an in-home visit with the four-star defensive tackle in Idaho on Tuesday, and locked up the commitment.
Positional breakdown
You can get a full look at Ohio State's 2018 recruiting class here. This is what the class looks like when broken down by position:
* Quarterbacks (2): Emory Jones; Matthew Baldwin.
* Running backs (3): Jaelen Gill; Brian Snead; Master Teague.
* Receivers (2): Kamryn Babb; L'Christian Smith.
* Tight ends (1): Jeremy Ruckert.
* Offensive line (2): Matthew Jones; Max Wray.
* Defensive tackles (3): Taron Vincent; Tommy Togiai; Antwuan Jackson.
* Defensive ends (0): None.
* Linebackers (3): Teradja Mitchell; Dallas Gant; K'Vaughan Pope.
* Cornerbacks (2): Tyreke Johson; Sevyn Banks.
* Safeties (3): Jaiden Woodbey; Josh Proctor; Marcus Hooker.
But not all of this is set in stone.
The Emory Jones question
Will the Buckeyes actually end up with two quarterbacks in this class? Jones continues to make things interesting. I thought by this time we'd have an answer one way or the other with Jones. Either a reaffirmation of his commitment to Ohio State, or a formal announcement that he's opening things back up ahead of his expected Dec. 20 signing date.
But there hasn't been a peep out of Jones, other than some minor social media posts in the last week. He welcomed Johnson to the class with a Tweet last week, then used an emoji to suggest some confusion over the commitment of Baldwin. On Tuesday night he welcomed Babb to the class in a now deleted tweet. What does that all mean? Who knows. It's a kid on Twitter.
Jones decision will not come down to what's tweeted or not tweeted, liked or not liked on social media. I get the sense that maybe he's not 100 percent sure what he's going to do just yet. I also think Ohio State, in accepting Baldwin's commitment already, has told us it has made peace with the idea that it might lose Jones to Alabama or Auburn.
The Jaiden Woodbey question
Jones' commitment is the most uncertain in this class. And beyond that I don't think there's much for Ohio State to worry about. Except for maybe five-star safety Jaiden Woodbey.
Like Jones, who's from Georgia, Woodbey is a long-committed player from far away (he's from California) who could be having some second thoughts about his pledge. USC or Oklahoma would love to have him. And there was an interesting development on Tuesday. After tweeting something about Florida State never offering him, an offer came through from new Seminoles coach Willie Taggart.
Does that mean Florida State is suddenly a player for Woodbey? It feels a little too late in the game for that, especially considering Woodbey is expected to enroll early. But he played the offer up on Twitter, for whatever that's worth, retweeting one his own tweets from July 2016 in which he said he wants to be the next Jalen Ramsey, the former No. 5 overall pick from Florida State.
Again, probably just some Twitter fun. But losing Woodbey I think would be a rather substantial blow to Ohio State's 2018 class. Just given the timing of things, I think Woodbey probably ends up a Buckeye still. But he's one to watch over the next few days if you want to feel uneasy about something.
The defensive end question
Oho State director of player personnel Mark Pantoni tweeted this shortly after the commitment of Togiai:
You may have noticed the "none" next to defensive ends above. It hasn't been all good news for Ohio State in the last week or so. The Buckeyes lost a commitment from five-star defensive end Brenton Cox last week, leaving them without a pass rusher in this class.
Ohio State probably needs to add two pass rushers in this class. Yes, having Nick Bosa, Chase Young and Jonathon Cooper back next year is a great starting point -- really great -- but you also need depth. And those three at the moment are the only defensive ends scheduled to be back next year, if you think Sam Hubbard is going to the NFL. He is.
The Buckeyes hosted three-star prospect Casey Rogers last weekend, but he left Columbus without an offer, which strongly suggests that the former Syracuse lacrosse commit is for now a fallback candidate for Ohio State.
The Buckeyes have offered UCLA defensive end commit Abdul-Malik McClain, who's tentatively scheduled to take an official visit to Ohio State in January.
And of course Ohio State is after four-star prospects Tyreke Smith and Jayson Oweh, both of whom will decide in January at the Under Armour All-American Game. Beyond that, the Buckeyes could look to circle back with some in-state prospects to fill their defensive end needs.
But with none of the above mentioned players likely to sign next week, this is a question that will drag out into January. That gives Ohio State time to figure it out.
Projecting the finish
If I was projecting the finish to Ohio State's class two days ago, I probably wouldn't have pegged Togiai to be in. But things are changing fast with this early signing period. With 21 commitments, here's who I think Ohio State will add to get to 25 by February (assuming all currently committed players stick with the Buckeyes):
* Jackson Carman, five-star offensive tackle: Just my gut feeling that Ohio State will be able to keep the top in-state prospect home, even after visits to Clemson and USC in these final weeks before the early signing period. Carman is expected to sign next week. I think he picks Ohio State.
* Cameron Brown, four-star receiver: Babb's high school teammate. I thought he was going to flip to Ohio State in the summer when he decommitted from Nebraska. He's back committed to the Cornhuskers, but coming off an official visit to Columbus. I think Ohio State pulls off the flip.
* Chris Oats, four-star linebacker: I think we're basically beyond the point of Ohio State keeping a couple of spots for late in-state adds, but Oats fits the mold of one of those guys. The Buckeyes are chasing higher-profile linebackers, but I don't think they'll get them. This is less about adding another linebacker, and more about adding a potential future defensive end. The 6-foot-4, 215-pound Oats has a frame that could be molded into a pass rusher.
* Jayson Oweh, four-star defensive end: I put him last because I feel the least confident in this prediction. This is giving Ohio State the benefit of the doubt when it comes to not striking out on all of its top defensive end targets. Right now Penn State is considered the favorite to land both Oweh and Smith, but it's also the favorite to land five-star defensive Micah Parsons. Can the Nittany Lions really afford to take all three when they already have 20 commitments and some other needs? Seems unlikely. So I'll say Penn State gets Parsons and Smith, and Ohio State ends up with Oweh. That's by no means a consolation prize. Ohio State would love to have Oweh. It's just that the Buckeyes appear to playing catch-up for Smith and Oweh, and it might be Penn State that decides whether or not the Buckeyes are left in a position to salvage something.