As the Ohio State football program continues to build its 2026 recruiting class, they have had a mixture of big wins and big losses. They still have the most five-star recruits of any program in this class, but they have also whiffed big on a few other five-star recruits.
One five-star recruit they have been looking to land is linebacker Tyler Atkinson. Atkinson is someone that James Laurinaitis has been recruiting hard for a while. He is listed as the top linebacker in the country. In the last few weeks, momentum in his recruitment has fallen.
That lack of momentum was confirmed on Wednesday afternoon when Atkinson revealed his final four schools. He left the Buckeyes off that list, officially ending any chance that they have of bringing in a five-star linebacker recruit for the second straight season.
Five-star recruit Tyler Atkinson leaves Ohio State football team out of his final four
Instead of having the Ohio State Buckeyes on his list, Atkinson has Oregon, Clemson, Texas, and Georgia. All of them are elite programs, and he has been predicted to choose Georgia for a while. Still, it would have been nice for the Buckeyes to have some sort of chance.
In the NIL era, anything can happen. We just saw Felix Ojo pick Texas Tech for a massive bag after not having them in his final four schools, so it's not out of the realm of possibility that something happens with Atkinson. However, that's not how the Buckeyes operate.
Ryan Day has maintained that they will not be signing any incoming recruits to absurd NIL deals. That might prove to be the best long-term approach, but it's killing them on the recruiting trail right now. They keep sliding in the recruiting rankings almost weekly at this point.
There are still a couple of five-star players Ohio State is trying to land, as well as some highly ranked four-stars. If they can land a few of those guys, they have a chance to salvage this recruiting class and keep Day's streak of top-five classes alive for at least another year.