Ohio State football losing in-state recruits to TTUN is troubling

The Ohio State football program has made it a point of pride to keep elite in-state recruits in the state of Ohio. Both Jim Tressell and Urban Meyer made it a point to build a fence around the state to keep other programs from swooping in and poaching the elite talent.

Ryan Day has talked about doing that but hasn’t done it well enough. Yesterday was just the latest example of that. He let a four-star top-100 recruit go elsewhere. What’s even more troubling is the fact that this recruit picked TTUN ahead of Ohio State.

Jordan Marshall is a running back out of Archbishop Moeller High School in Cincinnati. He had Ohio State and Michigan in his final two schools. The class of 2024 recruit picked Michigan over the Buckeyes despite even saying that his entire family is made up of Buckeye fans.

This is extremely troubling. If Ohio State starts losing one-on-one recruiting battles for in-state kids to their arch-rival, things will go south very quickly. Day needs to make sure that he can get the best recruits in his own state and keep them from leaving.

To be fair to Day, he has his eye on a higher-ranked running back in this class. James Peoples, a four-star running back out of Texas, is high on Ohio State’s list. He is the 69th-best prospect in the country and is ranked almost 100 spots higher than Marshall.

Even if that’s true, Day should want to keep getting homegrown talent to come to the Ohio State football program. You always want kids from the state of Ohio to dream to come to Columbus. I’m sure Marshall did when he was growing up. Instead, he picked the enemy.

This is something to keep a close eye on moving forward with Day. More Ohio kids usually mean better results for the Buckeyes.