Ohio State football: How Buckeyes landed top Ohio recruit

You know fans are very focused on an upcoming game when the Ohio State football program gets a major commitment and it goes almost unnoticed. A few hours before his team destroyed Purdue, Ryan Day got the news he had reeled in the top 2023 player in the state of Ohio, Pickerington Central’s Sonny Styles.

This is a big one for the Ohio State football program. They didn’t just go head-to-head with Notre Dame for Styles, they went head-to-head with a former Buckeye. Fighting Irish defensive coordinator and former OSU linebacker Marcus Freeman was the lead recruiter of Styles for Notre Dame.

After he got a commitment from Mentor defensive lineman Brenan Vernon in late June and considering Styles has a brother already at that school, many thought Freeman would deliver Ohio’s number one 2023 player to the Irish as well. So, let’s give Ohio State linebackers coach Al Washington, Jr. a lot of credit for winning this battle.

What are the Buckeyes getting in Styles? He’s the number one safety nationally in his recruiting class and the number seven overall player, according to 247 Sports’ composite rankings. Although listed as a safety, I don’t think that’s where he will ultimately end up in his Buckeye career.

Styles is already listed at 6’4’ and 215 pounds, and he is only a junior. He’s going to get bigger over the next year, and who knows how much bigger and faster once OSU strength and conditioning coordinator Mickey Marotti gets ahold of him.

Think former Buckeye Sam Hubbard, who was a safety at Moeller High School before ultimately playing defensive end in college. I can see Styles playing as either a linebacker or defensive end during his time at Ohio State.

He is the son of former OSU linebacker Lorenzo Styles, who played for the Buckeyes in 1993 and ’94, before being drafted by Atlanta in the third round of the 1995 NFL Draft. Sonny Styles becomes just the third player to commit to Ohio State’s 2023 recruiting class.