One commitment is all it took
The pressure was building, and it was getting to some members of the Ohio State coaching staff.
It was more than midway through September, and a rebuilding program with at least six scholarships to give for the upcoming season was sitting at zero commitments. With the early signing period fewer than two months away, the Buckeyes were in on more than a dozen recruits but hadn’t been able to close the deal on any.
So Chris Holtmann told his staff, “Hey. The dam’s about to break, and we’re going to get rapid-fire commitments.”
What happened next, though, even took him by surprise. About a week later, the Buckeyes landed a commitment from fourstar power forward Jaedon LeDee from Houston on Sept. 19. The next day, they got another from three-star guard Duane Washington. Four-star guard Luther
Muhammad followed suit two days later, and threestar small forward Justin Aherns completed the barrage with a commitment two days later.
The final tally: four commitments in six days for a class just on the outside of a national top-10 ranking.
“Now, did I expect that number in a week? No,” Holtmann said. “You feel it when you’re in it and when you’re having conversations with family members and recruits that good things are going to happen. Certainly our staff had built relationships with these young men.”
The prevailing sentiment was that it was going to take just one to get things started. That came in the form of LeDee, who took an official visit to campus Sept. 9 and then an official visit to Texas A&M on Sept. 15 before picking the Buckeyes.
Ledee said the visit to Ohio State just felt like home, and that the chance to be the first commitment in the class didn’t weigh on him.
“I didn’t even look at it like that,” he said. “I just looked at it like that’s the best spot for me and my family moving forward. I didn’t even look at it like, ‘Oh, I’m the first commitment.’ It was like, maybe that’s not the right spot for them, but that’s the right spot for me.”
Ohio State’s class of 2018 once had three Ohioans on board. Darius Bazley de-committed while Thad Matta was still coach, and both Dane Goodwin and Ahrens followed suit after Matta was fired.
Holtmann landed a commitment from three-star guard Torrence Watson from the Whitfield School of St. Louis during the summer, but both sides mutually agreed to let him withdraw his commitment. He has since committed to Missouri.
Now 247Sports ranks Ohio State’s class as No. 11 in the nation and Rivals has it at No. 13. College coaches can’t comment on recruits until they have officially signed national letters of intent, but assistant coach Terry Johnson alluded to Ledee getting things started.
“All it really took was one,” he said. “It took the right guy to do it and then everybody else followed suit. (Recruits) know who they think are good players and who they don’t think are good players. The kid from Texas started it all, and they just fell through.”