2022 Iowa Safety Xavier Nwankpa Includes Ohio State Among Top 3 Schools

One of the nation’s top-rated safeties is down to the Buckeyes, Fighting Irish and home-state Hawkeyes.

Altoona (Iowa) Southeast Polk four-star safety Xavier Nwankpa included Ohio State in his top three on Saturday afternoon alongside Iowa and Notre Dame.

The 6-foot-2 and 190-pound Nwankpa, who is considered the third-best safety and No. 45 prospect overall in the class of 2022, has long been a top target of the Buckeyes, as he landed an offer from defensive coordinator Kerry Coombs and secondary coach Matt Barnes back in September 2020. 

Nwankpa was unable to take visits until June due to the recruiting dead period, but then took official visits with the Buckeyes and Fighting Irish that month. He also checked out Texas A&M, but the Aggies ultimately did not make the cut on his trimmed-down list.

Nwankpa is scheduled to take his official visit with the Hawkeyes for next weekend’s game against Penn State and then return to Columbus for an unofficial visit for the Oct. 30 game against the Nittany Lions, which indicates a decision among the three schools could come soon thereafter.

That said, Ohio State already holds a commitment at safety from Florida three-star Kye Stokes but hopes to close out the class with Nwankpa and Las Vegas Bishop Gorman four-star Zion Branch.

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Andrew Lind
ANDREW LIND

Andrew Lind is an Ohio State beat writer and photographer at BuckeyesNow, founder of The Ohio State Uniform Database and the NCAA and NFL writer at SportsLogos.net.