Ohio State prepares for early signing period, potential flips

Ohio State is now 12-0 following another impressive victory, this time against its rival Michigan. The weekend win was massive for this year’s Ohio State players, but also for Ryan Day and the Ohio State coaching staff, despite the humble demeanor presented by the team afterwards.

The Buckeyes will now prepare for this weeks matchup, the Big Ten Championship game versus Indiana. A win would complete a second-consecutive goal for Ohio State that it was not able to obtain last season. The final one would be to win the College Football Playoff again.

Because of the big implications surrounding this weekend’s game, many of the headlines surrounding this Ohio State football team will focus on the task at hand. However, Ohio State will also be making the recruiting headlines this week.

The early signing period for this year’s college football recruiting cycle opens on Dec. 3, and Ohio State is hoping most if not all of its verbal commitments in this class will sign this week. However with recruiting, there are always surprises at the last second.

Trying to look into the future for what some of these surprises may be, there are a few bread crumb trails that can provide a small glimpse into what could change between now and when the early signing period opens. The most pressing and most discussed topics revolve around Ohio State’s incredible haul at the wide receiver position.

The Buckeyes currently hold verbal commitments from elite WR teammates Kayden Dixon-Wyatt (Santa Ana, CA / Mater Dei) and Chris Henry Jr. (Santa Ana, CA / Mater Dei). The pair make up a large piece of Ohio State’s class and keeping them in it is crucial, but it may also be the biggest hurdle for the coaching staff to overcome.

Both Dixon-Wyatt and Henry Jr. have been committed to Ohio State for months and have not mentioned a word about flipping. In fact, in recent weeks both have made statements doubling-down on their commitments to the Buckeyes. But that hasn’t stopped teams from recruiting them, mainly USC with Dixon-Wyatt and Oregon with Henry Jr.

Both the Trojans and the Ducks have greatly increased their efforts in recruiting the duo and reports also hint that they have also greatly increased their NIL offers. This has gotten the rumor-mill running at full force and there have been rumblings hinting one, if not both, could flip come the signing period.

In fact, many insiders have recently submitted predictions for Dixon-Wyatt to flip to USC.

The main reason for the change is due to the strong relationship between Dixon-Wyatt and the USC coaching staff as well as the impressive class USC has built in the 2026 cycle. Ohio State’s class sits at No. 6 but USC has the top-ranked class according to multiple recruiting outlets.

These predictions are far from guarantees, but they do offer a great glimpse into how a recruit is feeling, and because of this it is certainly reasonable to assume Dixon-Wyatt is strongly considering flipping his commitment at the last second.

Henry Jr. is garnering a lot of attention from Oregon and specifically head coach Dan Lemming. There have long been rumors of Henry Jr. considering flipping his pledge to Ohio State to Oregon, but Henry Jr. has always shut those down publicly. In fact, he shut down his recruitment in April of this year and canceled his official visits to USC and Oregon.

Ohio State and wide receiver coach Brian Hartline are going to do everything possible to keep both Dixon-Wyatt and Henry Jr. in the class, and Hartline is great at earning commitments from wideouts he wants. That being said, keeping the commitments of both could be his biggest recruiting challenge to date. Especially with his name being floated around in the college football coaching carousel.

Of the pair, Henry Jr.’s commitment seems to be the stronger of the two.

The Matter Dei duo aren’t the only wide receiver commits rumored to be looking elsewhere, as four-star WR commit Jaeden Ricketts (Pataskala, OH / Watkins Memorial) took an official visit to West Virginia this weekend while Ohio State was beating its rival. This seemed to be Ricketts just ensuring he was going to the best school at first, and there doesn’t seem to be much reason for worry for Ohio State.

That being said, it is blatantly clear Ohio State’s wide receiver commits are the talk of the town leading to the early signing period.

Ohio State looking to flip Clemson safety

When it comes to flips in the 2026 recruiting class, Ohio State has mainly been on the positive end of things. While the above could very well change that feeling, the Buckeyes are also working on one last flip to join their 2026 class. Three-star safety Kaden Gebhardt (Lewis Center, OH / Olentangy) has seen an uptick in attention from Ohio State recently and the Buckeyes hope the Ohio native will be their next flip.

The Buckeyes were involved in his recruitment early on, and he even took an official visit with Ohio State back in June. However, following his official visits, he decided to commit to Clemson instead of Ohio State, Penn State and others. The Ohio State coaching staff has increased their contact with Gebhardt and the work looks to be paying off as multiple recruiting insiders have released predictions now favoring the Buckeyes in his recruitment.

Again, as was noted above, these predictions are far from guarantees, but this likely mean Gebhardt is strongly considering becoming a late-addition to Ohio State’s class. He is the No. 44 safety in the 247Sports Composite and is the No. 545 national recruit. He is also the No. 30 recruit from Ohio.

Make sure to follow Land-Grant Holy Land this week as we will keep you updated on all things Ohio State recruiting with the early signing period on the doorstep.

Quick Hits

With Ohio State’s 2026 recruiting class all but wrapped up, the Buckeyes have also been increasing their efforts recruiting the best prospects in next year’s cycle. On Monday, Ohio State learned good news when one of its top cornerback targets in the class, four-star CB Xavier Hasan (Raleigh, NC / Cardinal Gibbons) listed Ohio State in his updated list of top schools.

Alongside Ohio State, Hasan included the following schools in his top six schools: Notre Dame, South Carolina, Tennessee, North Carolina and Florida State. Of this group, Notre Dame seems to be Ohio State’s biggest competition for Hasan to date.