COLUMBUS, Ohio — When five-star offensive lineman Maxwell Hiller put Ohio State in his top four schools, it gave the Buckeyes a chance at something they haven\u2019t done in years.<\/p>\n
Ohio State already has three linemen committed in the 2027 class (Kellen Wymer, Mason Wilt and Brody McNeel), which means that it can now go try and land some of the top-rated players in the country. <\/p>\n
Enter Hiller and fellow five-star, tackle Mark Matthews.<\/p>\n
The Buckeyes signed five offensive linemen in the 2026 class under the first year of line coach Tyler Bowen. Sam Greer, a tackle, was the highest-rated signee of the class. He ended as the No. 52 overall prospect and No. 6 offensive tackle in the class, per the 247Sports composite rankigns. <\/p>\n
Ohio State supplemented with four-star Maxwell Riley and three-stars Landry Brede, Tucker Smith and Mason Wilhelm. <\/p>\n
The only outlier? Smith is from Arizona. Every other prospect was from in-state. <\/p>\n
In 2025, the team\u2019s highest-rated out-of-state signee along the offensive line was Jayvon McFadden (No. 391 overall). In 2024 it was Ian Moore (No. 168 overall), in 2023 it was Miles Walker (No. 501 overall) and in 2022 it was Carson Hinzman (No. 177 overall). <\/p>\n
The last top 100, and five-star, recruit that Ohio State signed from out-of-state on the offensive line was Donovan Jackson. He was the No. 19 overall prospect and No. 1 tackle in the class that year, and part of the backbone of the class that won the program a national title.<\/p>\n
Jackson and Harry Miller are the only top 100 recruits not from Ohio to sign with Ohio State since coach Ryan Day took over the program. <\/p>\n
While it\u2019s generally true that offensive line prospects stick closer to home, Bowen and the Buckeyes can turn their attention to elite prospects with the base of the class put together. <\/p>\n
Hiller, from Coatesville Area, Pennsylvania, is the No. 10 overall prospect in the class and the No. 1 interior lineman. Matthews is from St. Thomas Aquinas in Florida and is the No. 2 overall player and No. 1 offensive tackle. <\/p>\n
Even in a changing recruiting landscape, adding either Hiller or Matthews — considering landing both feels impractical — would be one of the biggest recruiting victories for Ohio State in recent memory. <\/p>\n
Of course, fans can call back to recent near-misses at that level on the recruiting trail, including former five-stars David Sanders Jr., Jackson Cantwell and Felix Ojo. But that won\u2019t stop the Buckeyes from taking their best swing.<\/p>\n
With an extremely veteran offensive line set to return for 2026, there\u2019s likely to be significant turnover for the ensuing season. And adding a potential freshman starter to that unit for 2027 could pay dividends. <\/p>\n
And for what a player of that caliber signing with Ohio State would signify on the recruiting trail, it\u2019d mean a large amount to the future of the roster and the way the recruiting operation is viewed.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COLUMBUS, Ohio — When five-star offensive lineman Maxwell Hiller put Ohio State in his top four schools, it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":744867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[265,7,49,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-744866","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-american-football","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116052339532992553","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=744866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/744867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=744866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=744866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=744866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}