4-star Ohio State commit makes it crystal clear he won't flip on National Signing Day

While many, if not all, college football programs are sweating it out heading into National Signing Day, at least the Ohio State Buckeyes do not have to worry about this one player in particular. This is because four-star safety recruit Blaine Bradford has let it be known that he has no intentions of flipping from Ohio State to his hometown LSU Tigers, even in the wake of Lane Kiffin taking over...

Bradford has been committed to Ohio State since the last day of March, but things have changed.

He then shared out this graphic of him on Instagram saying that he is "signing with The Ohio State."

According to the 247Sports Composite, Bradford is the No. 3 player from Louisiana in his class, the No. 7 safety in the country, and the No. 71 overall player nationally in the 2026 recruiting cycle. The Baton Rouge Catholic standout had 30 officials, but only took one official visit back on June. Other teams had been in on him, but it was not until Kiffin took over at LSU was there any thought of a flip.

Let's unpack why Bradford holding true to his commitment is great for Ohio State and bad for LSU...

Blaine Bradford has no intentions to ever flip from Ohio State to LSU

When you are a player of Bradford's caliber, you seemingly have the pick of the litter as to where you want to go play your college football at. Historically, it would have been next to impossible to get a blue-chip prospect out of Louisiana to play anywhere but for the Bayou Bengals. Bradford does play at a catholic school, so Notre Dame always has a chance with players like him. Of course, there is this.

In what is perhaps the biggest indictment of the Brian Kelly era of LSU football is how blissfully unaware he was that he was sitting on a defensive back gold mine in state. It is just different in Louisiana. To be able to go into Baton Rouge and get a top-75 player to come play safety for Ohio State is incredibly impressive for the Buckeyes. Having a star such as Caleb Downs certainly helps.

Overall, this is one of the reasons why Ohio State is arguably the best program in college football history. There are others who can recruit at their level, but even the likes of Alabama, Georgia, Texas and USC have had down periods. Have the Buckeyes ever been bad before? No, and this is why they can go into anyone's backyard and take their top-flight talent if they do not have the stuff together.

Ultimately, it would not have mattered who took over LSU in the wake of Kelly. Kiffin is a lightning rod himself, but at least he knows how to recruit the region. Kelly always stuck out like a sore thumb. LSU could get back to being LSU, but Kiffin and his incoming staff will have to put in the legwork that Kelly never really seemed interested in. Bradford picked Ohio State over eight months ago. He is coming!

While other Ohio State commits could conceivably flip, Bradford made it a point to say he never will.