Ohio State gets four-star linebacker for 2024

The Ohio State football team has not had a lot of defensive commitments for the 2024 class. In fact, of the nine commitments they have for the class, eight of them were on the offensive side of the ball. That changed today after the Buckeyes got another defensive commit.

They were able to land four-star linebacker Payton Pierce. Pierce hails from Lucas, Texas, and is listed as the 15th-best linebacker in the country. He chose Ohio State over Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Notre Dame. He had some big boys after him.

Pierce stands at 6’1 and 225 pounds so he has good size for a linebacker. He also plays the highest level of football in the state of Texas so you know he’s pretty good at what he does. He becomes the second defensive commit and the second linebacker to commit in this class.

Jim Knowles knows that he needs to improve the defensive side of the ball. He helps coach the linebackers as well, so this is someone that Knowles recruited himself. Pierce joins a linebacker room that is suddenly getting crowded with talent despite only two linebackers playing at one time.

I do like Pierce as a prospect watching his tape. I also hope that the Buckeyes are able to get some commits in the secondary soon too. That’s the area of highest need for the Ohio State football team based on what we’ve seen for the last three seasons.

With this commitment, the Buckeyes jump up to second in the recruiting rankings for the 2024 class. The only school that has a better class right now is Georgia. The Buckeyes also only have 10 commits to Georgia’s 12, so that has time to change too.

Ryan Day and his staff should get more commitments next weekend during the Spring Game too. We’ll keep an eye out for that.