The Ohio State football team's 2026 recruiting class started out so promising. After landing several highly-touted recruits, they looked like they were en route to having one of the best classes in school history. Unfortunately, momentum on that front has slowed significantly.
A lot of that momentum has been slowed on the defensive line. The Buckeyes need to build more depth up front, but have failed to land enough recruits to really help fix that issue. Larry Johnson is at the crux of the issue, as is an NIL approach that is not competitive.
Johnson has struck out on a number of key defensive end recruits in each of the last two recruiting cycles. He hasn't been able to connect with recruits as well as he used to. It has Ohio State football fans tearing their hair out. They have started to get very frustrated.
Poor recruiting on the defensive line has Ohio State football fans frustrated with Larry Johnson
Losing recruits wouldn't be such a big deal if the Buckeyes already had a stable of great DEs on the roster. That's not the case, however. They had to go into the Transfer Portal to get Beau Atkinson to make sure that they had a reliable pass rusher after the Spring Game showed they were severely lacking at that spot.
Johnson is running out of time to find recruits to fill up this class. In the 2026 recruiting class, the Ohio State Buckeyes have just one true defensive end. They only have three defensive linemen in general, which is far below what they need. Ideally, they would bring in five or six guys in this class.
Johnson is waiting on a couple more recruits to make their decision, which could really help them up front. Unfortunately for him, it looks like they are going to lose out on those guys, too. He should be recruiting at a much better clip with this team coming off a national championship.
The Buckeyes don't really have a succession plan behind Johnson, which is a bigger issue. That will have to be remedied next season.