Ohio State and Miami fans who follow recruiting closely will see plenty of familiar names playing for their opponent when the Buckeyes and Hurricanes go head-to-head in next week’s College Football Playoff quarterfinal at the Cotton Bowl.
While the Buckeyes and Hurricanes haven’t met on the football field since 2011, they’ve clashed on the recruiting trail many times in recent years as they’ve battled for some of the nation’s top prospects. Most notably, Ohio State went into Miami’s backyard and beat out the Hurricanes for the No. 1 overall prospect in the 2024 recruiting class, Jeremiah Smith, leaving many a Hurricane fan wondering what could have been as Smith has established himself as one of college football’s biggest superstars over the past two seasons.
If his X post shortly after Miami punched its ticket to the Cotton Bowl with its win over Texas A&M on Saturday was any indication, Smith is excited to go head-to-head with his hometown team.
— Jeremiah Smith (@Jermiah_Smith1) December 20, 2025
“I'm very excited to play the guys from back home,” Smith said. “It's like a second home for me. I'm from there. I had a good relationship with all the coaches (from recruiting), a lot of the players on the team. A lot of people I played with in high school.”
Smith – a native of Miami Gardens, Florida, where Miami’s home stadium is located – isn’t the only key player for the Buckeyes from Hurricane country. Starting defensive end Kenyatta Jackson Jr., a teammate of Smith’s at Chaminade-Madonna College Preparatory School, is also from Miami Gardens. Another starting wide receiver, Brandon Inniss, grew up in Hollywood, Florida, another Miami suburb. Both of them were also recruited by the Hurricanes, and Inniss acknowledged earlier this year that there were plenty of people back home who told him he should stay home and play for The U.
“They don't like it, because they want us to go to Miami so bad,” Inniss said when asked in August what people back home think about him, Smith and Carnell Tate – who also played his high school football in South Florida at IMG Academy – being Ohio State’s starting wide receivers, adding that he caught flack from people in his community for choosing the Buckeyes over the Hurricanes.
On the other side of the matchup, Miami’s roster includes three former Ohio State commits – running backs Mark Fletcher Jr. and Jordan Lyle, and defensive tackle Justin Scott – as well as numerous other players who were also recruited heavily by the Buckeyes during their high school careers.
Ahead of Ohio State’s Cotton Bowl clash with Miami, we’re taking a closer look at some of the players on both sides who the Buckeyes and Hurricanes once battled over as recruits.
Ohio State WR Jeremiah Smith
Unquestionably, Smith is the player on Ohio State’s roster whom Miami most wanted as a recruit.
While Smith committed to Ohio State more than a year before he ultimately signed with the Buckeyes in December 2023, the Hurricanes – who were the first team to offer Smith in February 2021 – never stopped fighting for his commitment all the way up until signing day. Their efforts came close, as Smith brought a Miami hat to his signing ceremony before ultimately putting on an Ohio State hat. Even then, Miami didn’t give up; Cam Ward, Miami’s incoming transfer quarterback at the time, called Smith in a last-ditch attempt to convince the No. 1 overall prospect to become a Hurricane, and Smith considered it strongly enough that he didn’t officially submit his paperwork to Ohio State until after 10 p.m., nearly 10 hours after publicly announcing he’d sign with the Buckeyes.
Fortunately for Ohio State, Smith stuck with his pledge to the Buckeyes. His first two years as a Buckeye have been everything Ohio State thought they would be and more, as Smith – a unanimous All-American this season – has caught 156 passes for 2,401 yards and 26 touchdowns through 28 games in scarlet and gray.
“When you have an opportunity to coach somebody like Jeremiah, it's special, because we knew in high school what he was, and everything that we talked about in recruiting, you're seeing happen,” Ryan Day said this week. “And I think that's the most important thing is when you say you're going to do something for somebody and they're going to come in and they say they're going to do it at your school, when that all comes together as one, it's testimony. And he's done it, and he and his family are special, and they mean a lot to this program, and I know this game will be important to him.”
Although his program came up short in recruiting Smith, Miami coach Mario Cristobal praised Smith this week both for who he is as a player and for how he handled the recruiting process.
“Elite player. Great family. First class in the way he handled every part of it,” Cristobal said.
Ohio State WR Brandon Inniss
Smith isn’t the only highly touted receiver recruit the Buckeyes have pulled out of Miami’s backyard in recent years. The Hurricanes made their best efforts to land Brandon Inniss, too, offering him all the way back in 2019 – when he hadn’t even started high school yet – and hosting him on 10 unofficial visits over four years, including one during his senior year just weeks before signing day after he had already committed to Ohio State.
Ultimately, though, Miami lost the battle for Inniss not once but twice, as he initially committed to Oklahoma in 2021 before decommitting later that year and committing to the Buckeyes in June 2022.
Inniss, who was ranked as a five-star for most of his recruitment and finished as the No. 5 wide receiver in the 2023 class, hasn’t been as productive as expected in his first season as Ohio State’s starting slot receiver, catching 32 passes for 237 yards and three touchdowns. But playing against his hometown team would be a great time for the junior captain to make a bigger impact, and it would give Ohio State’s offense a big boost if he can.
Ohio State DE Kenyatta Jackson Jr.
As with Smith and Inniss, Miami was one of the first schools to offer Jackson, doing so during his sophomore year of high school in November 2019. The Hurricanes had the advantage of not only proximity to Jackson but also family ties; his uncle, Rudy Barber Jr., is a former Miami offensive lineman.
Despite that, Miami didn’t end up being a major contender in Jackson’s recruitment down the stretch. The No. 60 overall prospect in the 2022 recruiting class, Jackson made official visits to Alabama, Oklahoma and Florida State, but the Buckeyes received his last official visit and closed the deal to land his commitment from there.
That said, Jackson said he watched the Hurricanes often growing up and has been hoping for the opportunity to play Miami for his entire college career.
“I watched a lot of Miami games. I went to a couple of Miami games as well. My family is huge Miami Hurricane fans; I don't know about now, but they were,” Jackson said this week. “Down there, the Miami Hurricanes are pretty big, and it means a lot going against them. I've been wanting to go against them for the longest, and here we are.”
In his first year starting for the Buckeyes, Jackson has gotten better and better as the year has progressed, recording 11 tackles for loss with 6.5 sacks, with nine of those tackles for loss coming in Ohio State’s last eight games. He’ll play a crucial role in Ohio State’s efforts to get after Miami quarterback Carson Beck in the Cotton Bowl.
Miami RB Mark Fletcher Jr.
A teammate of Inniss at American Heritage School, Fletcher originally committed to Ohio State in April 2022 – two months before Inniss committed to the Buckeyes – and helped recruit Inniss to become a Buckeye. Ultimately, however, Fletcher decided he wanted to stay closer to home. The Fort Lauderdale native decommitted from Ohio State in November 2022, then made official visits to both Florida and Miami the following month before signing with the Hurricanes.
“I'm from this area, and I just felt that if anything were to go not necessarily wrong, not planning for failure, but I just felt that I would just be most successful if I just stayed home and played for the Hurricanes,” Fletcher said Tuesday. “And everything just worked out for me that way.”
Had Fletcher signed with Ohio State, he might well have been in line to be the Buckeyes’ starting running back this season following the departures of TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins. Instead, while Bo Jackson has emerged as an immediate star as Ohio State’s starting running back, Fletcher has been the starting running back for Miami, leading the Hurricanes with 857 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns on 158 carries.
Fletcher is coming off the best game of his career in Miami’s first-round matchup with Texas A&M, in which he rushed for a career-high 172 yards on 17 carries.
Miami DT Justin Scott
The No. 10 overall prospect in the 2024 recruiting class, Scott originally committed to Ohio State in July 2023 after making official visits to both Ohio State and Miami (as well as Georgia and Michigan), but flipped his commitment from the Buckeyes to the Hurricanes in late November.
Scott, who would have been a candidate to start alongside Kayden McDonald or at least see significant playing time in Ohio State’s defensive tackle rotation this season, has started each of Miami’s last six games after beginning the year as a top backup. Part of a loaded Miami defensive line, the five-star sophomore has recorded 21 total tackles with 6.5 tackles for loss, one sack and one forced fumble.
Scott was just one of four Miami defensive line signees in the 2024 class who were recruited heavily by Ohio State before becoming Hurricanes. The Buckeyes also pushed hard for defensive ends Marquise Lightfoot and Booker Pickett and defensive tackle Armondo Blount before each of them chose The U over OSU. Lightfoot and Blount have each seen regular playing time in Miami’s defensive line rotation this year; Lightfoot has recorded 20 tackles with 3.5 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks, while Blount has tallied 15 tackles with 2.5 sacks.
Miami defensive tackle Justin Scott originally committed to Ohio State before signing with the Hurricanes. (Photo: Jerome Miron – Imagn Images)
Miami RB Jordan Lyle
Scott wasn’t the only player in the 2024 class to decommit from Ohio State and sign with Miami. Four-star running back Jordan Lyle followed the lead of Fletcher one year earlier by flipping from the Buckeyes to the Hurricanes rather than joining Ohio State’s running backs room, which was coached by current Michigan running backs coach Tony Alford at the time.
Lyle committed to Ohio State in April 2023, but the writing was on the wall for a potential flip months before Lyle’s ultimate decommitment from the Buckeyes two days before the December signing day. The No. 11 running back in the 2024 class, who would have been part of a three-man RB class with James Peoples and Sam Dixon at Ohio State, made several visits to Miami during the 2023 season before stepping away from his commitment to OSU.
Lyle entered this season as Miami’s starting running back, but was injured in the Hurricanes’ season opener and has played only sparingly since. Now fourth on Miami’s running back depth chart, Lyle has rushed for just 108 yards and one touchdown on 35 carries after running for 400 yards and four touchdowns on 54 carries as a freshman.
Miami WRs Malachi Toney, Joshisa Trader and Chance Robinson
Toney, Miami’s breakout star this season, was offered by Ohio State as a high school freshman at American Heritage in 2022. Given that Toney was teammates with Inniss at the time, Ohio State was viewed as an early frontrunner for Toney, who was originally one of the top wide receivers in the 2026 recruiting class. But Toney ended up committing to Miami in August 2023, then ultimately reclassified into the 2025 class to join the Hurricanes a year early. Even though he should still be a senior in high school, Toney has been the nation’s top freshman receiver, catching 89 passes for 992 yards and eight touchdowns.
Trader, a second-string wide receiver for the Hurricanes, was also heavily recruited by the Buckeyes. For much of their respective recruitments, there was a thought that Trader would end up at the same school as Jeremiah Smith, as they are close friends who played together for Chaminade-Madonna College Preparatory School and the South Florida Express 7-on-7 team.
Trader, who finished his high school career at American Heritage and ended up as the No. 9 wide receiver in the 2024 class, decided to stay closer to home while Smith headed to Columbus. But Smith said this week that they’ve dreamed of the opportunity of playing against each other in college.
“It's something me and JoJo talked about since we was the age of 11 years old,” Smith said. “And for us to be on this stage right now, going against each other in the Cotton Bowl, is something that we dreamed of. I can't wait to see him after the game and say what's up, take a couple pictures with him, see his family and stuff like that. So I'm very excited for me and JoJo.”
Trader has caught 11 passes for 168 yards and one touchdown this season.
Ohio State also made a run at Robinson as a potential late addition to its 2024 recruiting class. After Robinson committed to Miami in April 2023, Ohio State made a push to flip the four-star receiver from St. Thomas Aquinas High School late in the cycle, hosting him for an official visit in November. But Robinson, a reserve receiver who hasn’t caught any passes for the Hurricanes this year, ended up staying loyal to his Miami commitment.
Additional notes
- Samson Okunlola, a five-star prospect in the 2023 class, was one of Ohio State’s top offensive tackle targets in that cycle but committed to Miami. He’s been a backup for his first three years as a Hurricane, but has rotated with starting left guard Matthew McCoy throughout this season, playing in all 13 games off the bench for a total of 392 snaps.
- Ohio State running back CJ Donaldson, who transferred to Ohio State last offseason after three years at West Virginia, was offered by Miami as a high school prospect but signed with the Mountaineers despite being from the city of Miami.
- Ohio State freshman defensive linemen Jarquez Carter and Zion Grady both made official visits to Miami before committing to Ohio State last summer.
- Miami freshman tight end Luka Gilbert, the Hurricanes’ only player from Ohio, was offered by the Buckeyes but committed to Miami without making an official visit to OSU. Nate Roberts committed to Ohio State just five days later, and the Buckeyes later added a second tight end in the 2025 class in in-state tight end Brody Lennon.
- Ohio State was one of many schools that Miami beat out for five-star offensive tackle Jackson Cantwell, the No. 1 OT in the 2026 recruiting class, who will join the Hurricanes next season.
