Ohio State football: The impact of losing the only RB recruit in 2023

The Ohio State football team lost the only running back recruit that they had for the 2023 class last night when Mark Fletcher decided to de-commit. I wouldn’t say that this news is shocking, but it certainly still stung to see him do it. Now the Buckeyes have no running back in that class.

Fletcher had been committed to the Buckeyes since April of this year and hails from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He’s a four-star back that is listed as the 15th-best back in the country. He originally had chosen Ohio State over Florida and Miami.

It now looks like Fletcher will end up picking the Gators. There are rumors that it is linked to NIL. If that is true, that’s not a good look for Ohio State considering they have the athletes making the most NIL money in the country. There are rumors that Florida will offer him NIL money up front and OSU won’t do that.

What is the Ohio State football program left to do now?

Regardless of why he de-committed, the impact will be felt in this 2023 class. Now that he’s gone, the Buckeyes don’t really have a good option to take his place in this class. All of the really good running backs have already committed to other programs.

Ohio State does have Dallan Hayden as a true freshman that has played well so far this year so it’s not like they don’t have any young running backs. Evan Pryor has an extra year of eligibility left after tearing his ACL before the season started as well. But they really should get someone in this class.

So who is left for Ohio State to land? Not much. Every running back ranked in the top 50 is already committed. They may just have to get someone in the transfer portal. The Buckeyes are supposed to be adding recruits to this class at the end of the year, not losing them.