The Ohio State football program has been working hard to flip some recruits in the 2026 recruiting class in the last few weeks. They have been keeping an eye on players from Penn State, LSU, and Florida after the firings of all of the head coaches running those programs.
With Hugh Freeze getting canned, you can bet the Ohio State Buckeyes are going to take another run at Bralan Womack, too. With all of the attempts they are making to flip recruits, the Buckeyes did end up losing a commit up front. Three-star offensive lineman Aaron Thomas decided to de-commit from Ohio State.
Normally, this would be something that's distressing. Losing recruits is usually not something that Ohio State loves to have happen. In this case, there's something else that could happen that would be beneficial to them in this scenario. They might be getting a better offensive line recruit instead.
The Ohio State football team might get a better recruit than the one they lost
With Thomas now out of the class, the Buckeyes have four offensive linemen committed to them in 2026. Tyler Bowen seems content to grab as many offensive linemen as he can to fill out this class. They are trying to add numbers up front after a couple of years of down classes.
Ryan Day has made an emphasis over the last few years on building up the trenches in terms of the depth they have. They needed that depth last season in their run to the national championship after they had multiple offensive linemen go down with season-ending injuries.
With Thomas leaving, the Buckeyes very well could have told him to start looking elsewhere in anticipation of adding another lineman instead. Perhaps Kevin Brown, who visited this past weekend for the Penn State game, is the lucky recruit. Perhaps it's someone else.
Regardless of who it is, there's a strong chance that the Buckeyes replace Thomas sooner rather than later in that class. Adding that player gives Ohio State another strong guy up front who has the potential to be a multi-year starter, which is what they want.
Ohio State has been winning on the field nonstop. They want to start winning on the recruiting trail again. Winning games on the field has certainly helped their chances of adding another quality offensive lineman who can protect Julian Sayin and the other quarterbacks on the roster.