The Buckeyes are the trendy pick for a 2025 DL originally predicted to land with the Wolverines.

Ohio State is on one heck of a run on the recruiting trail right now, adding seven new commitments to its 2025 class since the start of June. Altogether, the Buckeyes have 10 top-100 players in this cycle thus far, per the 247Sports Composite rankings, with six being top-50 nationally. Ryan Day and his staff have to be thrilled with how things have gone to this point, but they are not nearly done.

On Tuesday, the tide seemed to have turned in a positive direction with another big target, as a flood of new Crystal Ball predictions in favor of Ohio State came in for four-star defensive lineman Maxwell Roy. These latest predictions come after Roy was previously pegged towards Michigan earlier this month.

Roy, the No. 19 DL and No. 152 player nationally per 247Sports, took official visits to both Ohio State and Michigan this month, with the Wolverines hosting him in Ann Arbor this past weekend. It appears as though things have changed dramatically coming away from that TTUN visit, as the industry consensus has now fully flipped in the Buckeyes’ favor. Four different 247Sports Crystal Balls were logged for Ohio State on Tuesday, including from Michigan insider Sam Webb, as well as a pair of On3 RPM’s.

Roy, a Pennsylvania native, plays his high school football at St. Joseph’s Prep, the same program that produced both Marvin Harrison Jr. and Kyle McCord as well as current Ohio State running back commit Isaiah West. The 6-foot-3, 270-pound defensive lineman has around 20 offers to his name, but cut his list down to six schools back in February, including the Buckeyes and Wolverines alongside Duke, Oregon, Rutgers and Wisconsin.

Should Roy decide to commit to Ohio State, which could be some time in the not-so-distant future, it would add to an already impressive haul for position coach Larry Johnson that already includes four-stars Zahir Mathis and London Merritt in addition to the latest four-star commitment, Zion Grady. The Buckeyes also remain the favorites to land Justin Hill and Mariyon Dye, and are seemingly in good standing with current Auburn commit Malik Autry, who is very close with Grady.

Flipping to the other side of the trenches, Ohio State received more good news for a different prospect also named Maxwell — this time in the 2026 class. That would be offensive tackle Maxwell Riley, who included the Buckeyes among his top seven schools on Tuesday.

Riley is one of the best offensive linemen in the country in the junior cycle as the No. 6 OT and No. 35 overall prospect in the 2026 class, per 247Sports. The No. 1 player in Ohio has cut his list down from nearly 30 offers down to just seven programs, with Ohio State making the cut alongside Alabama, Clemson, Florida State, Michigan State, Missouri and Oklahoma. The Buckeyes have both Crystal Ball predictions for Riley on 247Sports and Rivals, each of which were logged last year.