Ohio State Buckeyes recover from recent setbacks in r………

Ohio State Buckeyes recover from recent setbacks in recruiting with a significant commitment..

Over the weekend, the Ohio State Buckeyes’ outstanding 2025 recruiting class got much better.

Ryan Day of Ohio State has had very few misses in his recruiting career, but the head coach of the Buckeyes had a difficult week this past week. The commitment of 4-star McKinney, Texas linebacker Riley Pettijohn, the #48 recruit in the class of 2025 according to the ESPN 300, gave the Buckeyes some good news on Saturday afternoon. In the past week, Ohio State has come dangerously close to signing top-100 linebacker Justin Hill (Alabama) and #1 wide receiver Dakorien Moore (Oregon).

Riley Pettijohn had about thirty Power 4 offers to select from. He visited Ohio State, USC, Texas, and Texas A&M as his final four options before deciding on one of them. The recruitment efforts of Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles and linebackers coach James Laurinaitis were a major factor in the versatile linebacker’s decision to enroll at Ohio State. He has experience playing both on the edge and in the center of the defense.

Between 2005 and 2008, James Laurinaitis was Ohio State’s standout linebacker. He won two Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year awards and was selected three times to the Big Ten First Team. Six months after joining Ryan Day’s staff, Laurinaitis has already been instrumental in bringing in two 4-star linebackers, Tarvos Alford and Eli Lee, who will enroll at Pettijohn in 2025.

Riley Pettijohn hopes to have a career just as successful in Columbus as his linebackers coach did nearly two decades ago, and given his pedigree, it’s reasonable to believe that there’s a chance he could approach what Laurinaitis accomplished. A track star as well as a standout linebacker, Pettijohn is fast and athletic, and was initially used as an edge rusher before moving to middle linebacker ahead of his junior season. He finished his junior year with 125 tackles — 11.4 per game — along with 8 tackles for loss, 3 sacks and an interception. Gabe Brooks of 247 Sports writes that Riley Pettijohn, “possesses the physical and athletic traits to become a multi-year high-major starter who could develop into a coveted NFL Draft candidate.”