If there’s any drawback to taking vacations, it’s that the first day back to work can be a brutal affair as you scramble to catch up with everything that you’ve missed.
So, what have we learned over two weeks? Well, teams apparently don’t even have to be in a kids’ top schools list anymore to land the player and the College Sports Commission and collectives are already beefing over what should and shouldn’t be approved as NIL deals. Also, when yours truly first started covering recruiting, more often than not, recruits usually knew what school they were going to when they set a commitment date. Now, it often seems that when an athlete sets a decision date, that’s when the major recruiting really begins.
Seeing this happen in waves can understandably be pretty frustrating to follow, but we’ll all probably learn pretty quickly how strictly the House Settlement’s rules will be enforced and whether or not we could see a flurry of decommitments from prospects in November and December as some are forecasting if it turns out the revenue sharing deals some athletes were offered were a tad overzealous. So, it’s best to take a wait-and-see approach before making definitive statements on what the House Settlement will or won’t do for college sports.
In the meantime, I maintain college football is still the greatest sport in the world and we’re just a little more than a month from the part the majority of our readers care about: The return of games on the field and a break from the very important, yet tedious, business side of the sport.
And of course, regardless of whatever the optics may be from an industry standpoint, Ohio State is still involved in some pretty important recruitments, some of which will be decided pretty soon.
Jerquaden Guilford sets new commitment date
Ohio State’s top remaining wide receiver target Jerquaden Guilford thought he’d be committed by now, considering his original decision date was June 27. Guilford, who was largely seen as a Buckeye lean at the time, postponed that commitment because Ole Miss was surging late in that race and the Indiana wideout wasn’t ready to choose between the two quite yet.
Two weeks later, Guilford has a new announcement date lined up and plans to choose between OSU, Ole Miss, Indiana, Michigan and Tennessee at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, per On3's Steve Wiltfong. A few days out from the decision, there’s reason to like where Ohio State sits, if nothing else because you can never count out Brian Hartline. But the Rebels will certainly go down swinging, so Friday could be an interesting day.
“They say it’s Wide Receiver U for a reason. Stats don't lie,” Guilford told Eleven Warriors after his first visit to Ohio State in June. “People lie, girls lie, everybody lies, but the numbers don't lie.”
Darius Gray puts OSU in his top five
Five-star offensive lineman Darius Gray is arguably the most talented prospect left on the Buckeyes’ recruiting board. The Virginia standout put Ohio State in his top five schools over the weekend, along with South Carolina, Clemson, LSU and Tennessee.
BREAKING: Five-Star IOL Darius Gray is down to 5 Schools, he tells me for @rivals
— Hayes Fawcett (@Hayesfawcett3) July 13, 2025
The 63 285 IOL from Richmond, VA is ranked as the No. 1 IOL in the 26 Class (per Rivals)
Where Should He Go? https://t.co/IzBo6ymbmE pic.twitter.com/H5HOgpbWKA
Gray took an official visit to Columbus earlier this summer and has had a longstanding relationship with new OSU offensive line coach Tyler Bowen. Though he likely won’t commit sometime in-season, I’d lean the field over OSU for this one as it stands. But as we’ve seen often recently, things can change very quickly. Texas Tech wasn’t seemingly a serious player for Felix Ojo until the last minute. Nonetheless, LSU is the likely choice as of now.
Deuce Geralds committing Aug. 2
Four-star Georgia defensive tackle Deuce Geralds has been a coveted target by Ohio State throughout his recruitment. The top-75 prospect recently announced a commitment date for Aug. 2 and will choose between OSU, Oregon, Michigan, LSU and Ole Miss.
NEWS: Four-Star DL Deuce Geralds will announce his Commitment August 2nd, he tells me for @rivals
— Hayes Fawcett (@Hayesfawcett3) July 9, 2025
The 62 275 DL from Suwanee, GA will choose between LSU, Michigan, Ohio State, Ole Miss, & Oregon
Where Should He Go? https://t.co/Mq9DixCbDZ pic.twitter.com/x7wRSBnynR
Much like the Gray situation, you can never say never anymore here. But it’s a safer bet Geralds heads to either Oregon or Michigan rather than his other three finalists. We’ll see how the next few weeks play out.
