Ohio State Football: Four-star TE could pick Buckeyes soon

The Ohio State football team isn’t done putting the finishing touches on its 2024 recruiting class, but they are also keeping their eyes on future classes. They already have a few commits for the 2025 class and are looking to score another one in the next couple of weeks.

That recruit is four-star tight end Ethan Barbour from Alpharetta, Georgia. Barbour is listed as the fourth-best tight end in the country and stands at 6’3 215 pounds. He will be making his decision on September 22nd and will choose among his final five schools.

Those schools are Ohio State, Georgia, Alabama, Auburn, and South Carolina. As you can see, the Ohio State football program is the only program that isn’t an SEC school that he is considering. So can the Buckeyes go into Georgia and pluck a Georgia kid away from UGA?

It doesn’t look promising, but things can still change. Barbour is projected to head to Athens to become a Bulldog. If you look at what Georgia has done with their tight ends in recent years compared to what Ohio State has done, you understand why he might lean that way.

NIL changes things though. Perhaps the Buckeyes can sweeten the pot and get a nice deal to sway Barbour to come to Columbus. He would be a really nice addition to a tight end room that doesn’t have a ton of dynamic pass-catchers in it right now.

We’ll find out whether or not the Buckeyes are able to grab Barbour in a couple of weeks. A good offensive performance in the next two games would be nice for him to see. I do expect the Buckeyes to play better this weekend, but we shall see.

Recruiting continues to be important as new programs join the Big Ten. Ohio State needs to keep its recruiting dominance in the conference to compete.