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4-Star and No. 2 LB Payton Pierce Commits to Ohio State Buckeyes
The Ohio State Buckeyes football recruiting run is showing no signs of slowing down.
Yet another blue-chip talent has announced his intentions on playing for Ryan Day's program next year in Texas native and four star linebacker recruit Payton Pierce, who went public with his college commitment on Tuesday evening.
The Lucas (Texas) Lovejoy standout, listed at 6-foot-2, 220 pounds or so, picked Ohio State over Notre Dame, Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma and Tennessee among the listed finalists. Some 40 total programs offered the rising-senior recruit, ranked as high as the nation's No. 2 inside linebacker by ESPN.
The Buckeyes emerged as the favorite for Pierce's services after a late March unofficial visit to Columbus.
"They are the team to beat," Pierce told SBLive some two weeks before the commitment. "Everything they do is elite and they check all of the boxes. There are a lot of things they do that they are really good at that are appealing to me. I think I'd fit into the program really well."
Relatively recent Buckeye hire and on-field great James Laurinaitis has helped OSU with the Pierce recruitment as much as any coach during the final stretch before the pledge. The two developed a relationship dating back to the coach's time at Notre Dame.
"I've kept a steady relationship with him, and he went to Ohio State," Pierce said. "That was pretty big-time for me because it was probably the closest relationship I had with a coach."
As a junior in 2022, Pierce flashed on Friday nights to the tune of 131 tackles, including 21 for loss and six sacks in addition to five forced fumbles. Before that campaign, he ended last spring with a state of Texas Class 5A wrestling championship at 215 pounds.
Pierce joins the class of 2024 recruiting haul as the 10th verbal commitment to date, the fifth in the month of April alone in joining class headliners and five-star wide receiver duo Jeremiah Smith and Mylan Graham along with quarterback Air Noland and many others.
The defensive side of the ball isn't as well represented on the commitment list, with Pierce becoming just the second projected defender in the fold to this point -- though several defensive targets are worth tracking moving forward. Even more Buckeye targets will be in town for this weekend's spring game, too.
With the pledge, Ohio State is now in top-five position on every major recruiting outlet's class ranking. On3 has the Buckeyes No. 3 at this time, the highest in the industry thus far.
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