Matt Tamanini
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Does the No. 3 player in the 2026 class sitting out junior season indicate he could be a Buckeye in 2025?
Matt Tamanini via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Jahkeem Stewart at Ohio State camp | Bill Kurelic | Bucknuts, 247Sports
Probably not, but recruiting is quiet, so we’re going to cosplay as conspiracy theorists anyway.
Since this is an off week for the Buckeyes, Ohio State coaches will be on the road recruiting this weekend, undoubtedly checking out some games under the iconic Friday night lights. However, one target that Ryan Day, Jim Knowles, and Larry Johnson won’t be able to see play this weekend is the No. 3 player in the 2026 recruiting class Jahkeem Stewart. That is because the top-ranked defensive lineman in the junior class, as well as the No. 1 player in the football-rich state of Louisiana, has opted not to play football this season, leading to a lot of speculation.
Stewart has transferred from St. Augustine High School in New Orleans to college prep charter school Edna Karr High School 15 minutes away. Reports indicate that due to Lousiana transfer rules, Stewart will not be able to play this season. However, that might not really matter to the 6-foot-6, 270-pound prospect. Rumors have been swirling for a while that Stewart could reclassify into the 2025, essentially resting on his sophomore season performance — in which he had 85 tackles, 20 sacks, and 33 tackles for loss — and what he was able to show at recruiting camps.
Obviously, the in-state LSU Tigers are the logical choice to secure Stewart’s commitment, but I think — if you really want to — you could convince yourself that by his transfering Stewart has tipped his hand that he will be committing to Ohio State in exactly 12 weeks.
As you read this, I want you to imagine that I am explaining all of this in a dimly lit basement with no windows, and I am standing in front of a bulletin board willed with campus maps, high school class schedules, pages torn out of the NCAA Rule Book, and miles and miles of red yarn.
Now that we’ve got the picture painted for you, let’s start at the very beginning — I hear it’s a very good place to start. The Buckeyes offered Stewart on Nov. 27, 2023, the Monday after OSU’s third-straight loss to Michigan. I bring that up not to open up old wounds but as one push pin in my tangled web of scarlet string; we will return to The Game.
Since then, Stewart has visited Columbus twice, once for the Spring Game in April and once for camp in June. At the time, he was preparing for his junior season at St. Augustine, but, obviously, that has changed.
It seems highly improbable that Stewart would willingly transfer schools, knowing that he would have to sit out his junior season, if there wasn’t a significant reason for him to do so. Perhaps that reason is the fact that St. Augustine does not allow students to graduate early — which he would need to do in order to reclassify — but Edna Karr does.
Perhaps the transfer is completely about academics, and Stewart was willing to sacrifice his junior season in order to get the education that he wants, and he will get back on the field for his senior campaign. But I’m willing to bet that this is the first necessary step to go from the 2026 to 2025 recruiting class.
That all seems pretty logical, and the increasingly popular consensus. So where does this begin to veer off the road of sanity into potentially unhinged fanfic? If Stewart does reclassify, it is extremely likely that he will sign his National Letter of Intent during December’s Early Signing Period, as 90+% of the blue-chip prospects do every season these days.
This year, the Early Signing Period opens on Wednesday, Dec. 4, guess where Stewart plans to be on the Saturday before Signing Day. Did you say Columbus, Ohio? If you did, then you would be correct.
He told Bucknuts’ Bill Kurelic over the summer, “I’ll be there for the Michigan game.”
Of course, plans can change — as evidenced by his transfer — or he could commit elsewhere and still take his official visits (I know I would if people wanted to pay to fly me to the biggest college football games in the country), or he doesn’t have any real interest in OSU at all, and he just wants to witness the greatest rivalry in all of sports. No matter what is going on in Stewart’s timeline planning, there is a reason that schools always want to get the last visit.
Yeah, you risk the player committing elsewhere before they even get to campus, so you never even get your shot, but if you’re reasonably comfortable that the player and his family will hold off on making a decision until their OV, then having the last word can be incredibly powerful.
So, as you can see in a very rudimentary table version of my red-stringmurder commitment board, if Stewart follows through on his plan to be in Columbus for The Game on Nov. 30, and then does what practically every other player of his caliber will do and signs on Dec. 4, there’s not a lot of time for other schools to sway him if his trip to OSU goes as well as his spring and summer visits reportedly have.
So, I know that it is exceptionally difficult to lure a player of Stewart’s abilities out of the South, and my entire tin-foil hate theory is little more than wishful thinking by a lifelong Ohio State fan, but the dates match up. If Ohio State is able to deliver the home run recruiting experience that the program is known for (especially on campus), I think that there is a pretty decent show that the Buckeyes land what could be their fourth top-10 player in the 2025 cycle.
Continue reading...
Matt Tamanini via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Jahkeem Stewart at Ohio State camp | Bill Kurelic | Bucknuts, 247Sports
Probably not, but recruiting is quiet, so we’re going to cosplay as conspiracy theorists anyway.
Since this is an off week for the Buckeyes, Ohio State coaches will be on the road recruiting this weekend, undoubtedly checking out some games under the iconic Friday night lights. However, one target that Ryan Day, Jim Knowles, and Larry Johnson won’t be able to see play this weekend is the No. 3 player in the 2026 recruiting class Jahkeem Stewart. That is because the top-ranked defensive lineman in the junior class, as well as the No. 1 player in the football-rich state of Louisiana, has opted not to play football this season, leading to a lot of speculation.
Stewart has transferred from St. Augustine High School in New Orleans to college prep charter school Edna Karr High School 15 minutes away. Reports indicate that due to Lousiana transfer rules, Stewart will not be able to play this season. However, that might not really matter to the 6-foot-6, 270-pound prospect. Rumors have been swirling for a while that Stewart could reclassify into the 2025, essentially resting on his sophomore season performance — in which he had 85 tackles, 20 sacks, and 33 tackles for loss — and what he was able to show at recruiting camps.
Obviously, the in-state LSU Tigers are the logical choice to secure Stewart’s commitment, but I think — if you really want to — you could convince yourself that by his transfering Stewart has tipped his hand that he will be committing to Ohio State in exactly 12 weeks.
As you read this, I want you to imagine that I am explaining all of this in a dimly lit basement with no windows, and I am standing in front of a bulletin board willed with campus maps, high school class schedules, pages torn out of the NCAA Rule Book, and miles and miles of red yarn.
Now that we’ve got the picture painted for you, let’s start at the very beginning — I hear it’s a very good place to start. The Buckeyes offered Stewart on Nov. 27, 2023, the Monday after OSU’s third-straight loss to Michigan. I bring that up not to open up old wounds but as one push pin in my tangled web of scarlet string; we will return to The Game.
Since then, Stewart has visited Columbus twice, once for the Spring Game in April and once for camp in June. At the time, he was preparing for his junior season at St. Augustine, but, obviously, that has changed.
It seems highly improbable that Stewart would willingly transfer schools, knowing that he would have to sit out his junior season, if there wasn’t a significant reason for him to do so. Perhaps that reason is the fact that St. Augustine does not allow students to graduate early — which he would need to do in order to reclassify — but Edna Karr does.
Perhaps the transfer is completely about academics, and Stewart was willing to sacrifice his junior season in order to get the education that he wants, and he will get back on the field for his senior campaign. But I’m willing to bet that this is the first necessary step to go from the 2026 to 2025 recruiting class.
That all seems pretty logical, and the increasingly popular consensus. So where does this begin to veer off the road of sanity into potentially unhinged fanfic? If Stewart does reclassify, it is extremely likely that he will sign his National Letter of Intent during December’s Early Signing Period, as 90+% of the blue-chip prospects do every season these days.
This year, the Early Signing Period opens on Wednesday, Dec. 4, guess where Stewart plans to be on the Saturday before Signing Day. Did you say Columbus, Ohio? If you did, then you would be correct.
He told Bucknuts’ Bill Kurelic over the summer, “I’ll be there for the Michigan game.”
Of course, plans can change — as evidenced by his transfer — or he could commit elsewhere and still take his official visits (I know I would if people wanted to pay to fly me to the biggest college football games in the country), or he doesn’t have any real interest in OSU at all, and he just wants to witness the greatest rivalry in all of sports. No matter what is going on in Stewart’s timeline planning, there is a reason that schools always want to get the last visit.
Yeah, you risk the player committing elsewhere before they even get to campus, so you never even get your shot, but if you’re reasonably comfortable that the player and his family will hold off on making a decision until their OV, then having the last word can be incredibly powerful.
So, as you can see in a very rudimentary table version of my red-string
So, I know that it is exceptionally difficult to lure a player of Stewart’s abilities out of the South, and my entire tin-foil hate theory is little more than wishful thinking by a lifelong Ohio State fan, but the dates match up. If Ohio State is able to deliver the home run recruiting experience that the program is known for (especially on campus), I think that there is a pretty decent show that the Buckeyes land what could be their fourth top-10 player in the 2025 cycle.
Continue reading...