{"id":59561,"date":"2024-05-06T18:00:27","date_gmt":"2024-05-06T22:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=59561"},"modified":"2025-09-18T08:44:03","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T12:44:03","slug":"three-big-10-rivals-battling-for-a-top-2025-rb-recruit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2024\/05\/06\/three-big-10-rivals-battling-for-a-top-2025-rb-recruit\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Big 10 Rivals Battling for a Top 2025 RB Recruit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the Big 10, Ohio State and Michigan are often going head-to-head on the recruiting trail. Now the conference is expanding to 18 this year, the West Coast programs are set to compete. This year, some of the top 2025 recruits have a tough choice to make in regard to their future in one of college football&#8217;s superconferences.<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to the services of <a href=\"https:\/\/247sports.com\/Player\/Jordon-Davison-46115512\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jordon Davison<\/a>, the three are enthralled in a battle. He is <em>247Sports<\/em>&#8216; 10th-best running back in the country. Davison, a five-foot-eleven, 205-pound back from Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, California, narrowed his choices down at the beginning of May. The four schools vying for his pledge are Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan, and Oregon.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">NEWS: Elite 2025 RB Jordon Davison is down to 4\ufe0f\u20e3 Schools, he tells me for <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/On3Recruits?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@on3recruits<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The 6\u20190 208 RB from Bay Area, CA is ranked as a Top 5 RB in the \u201825 Class (per On3 Industry)<\/p>\n<p>Where Should He Go?\ud83d\udc47\ud83c\udffd<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/54wZQIRC6m\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/54wZQIRC6m<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/SHjmm2uzUI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/SHjmm2uzUI<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Hayes Fawcett (@Hayesfawcett3) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Hayesfawcett3\/status\/1786892549673640238?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 4, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Ohio State, Michigan, Oregon Courting Top 2025 RB Jordon Davison<\/h2>\n<p>Davison is considered a four-star recruit by <em>247Sports<\/em> but is thought of more highly by <em>Rivals<\/em>. There, he&#8217;s a five-star back and is considered the top recruit out of California. He&#8217;s lauded for his vision on the field and can find extra yardage when it looks like there is none to be had. Davison has been turning heads throughout the process and was even the running back MVP at <em>Rivals<\/em>&#8216; Los Angeles camp.<\/p>\n<h3>Michigan is Undergoing Changes<\/h3>\n<p>The Wolverines are going to look different in 2024. With the loss of head coach <strong>Jim Harbaugh<\/strong> as well as dozens of players who left for the NFL, Michigan is entering a new era. However, they went the route of keeping things in-house with their hire and retained offensive coordinator\/head coach during Harbaugh&#8217;s suspensions, <strong>Sherrone Moore<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The aspect of Davison&#8217;s recruitment that will benefit Michigan is the fact that Ohio State&#8217;s primary recruiter at the position defected north. <strong>Tony Alford<\/strong>, the long-time Ohio State running backs coach, elected to leave and take the same position at Michigan. Alford was a solid recruiter for the Buckeyes in his time and is likely working the same magic for the Wolverines here.<\/p>\n<p>Michigan has a pair of seniors at the top of the position for 2024 and two incoming freshmen. As for their 2025 recruit haul, Michigan has not been quite as dominant. They&#8217;re ranked 36th in the nation and eighth in the Big 10 at this early junction. Securing a player like Davison would give them the momentum they need.<\/p>\n<h3>Oregon and Ohio State Are the Favorites<\/h3>\n<p>Both Oregon and Ohio State are heading into 2024 with guns-a-blazin&#8217;. For 2025 recruiting, Ohio State is sitting atop the Big 10 leaderboard with Oregon a few places behind. In terms of average recruit ranking, Ohio State still leads with Oregon in third. The Ducks only have six commitments to this point whereas the Buckeyes own 13.<\/p>\n<p>Oregon&#8217;s running back room is veteran-laden and they only have one incoming freshman in 2024. As for 2025, Davison would be the first running back of the class. He could even battle for playing time right away.<\/p>\n<p>As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes are crystal-balled by a pair of <em>247Sports<\/em> recruiting experts to land not only one top 2025 recruit at running back but two. Davison is projected to commit to Ohio State and join a running back room that is expected to be <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2024\/02\/14\/a-look-at-the-2024-ohio-state-recruiting-class-offense\/\" target=\"_self\">quite inexperienced in 2025<\/a>. The two top backs in the room are <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2024\/04\/22\/despite-departures-ohio-state-running-backs-will-be-a-strength\/\" target=\"_self\">expected to be NFL-bound<\/a> after this year.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to Davison, Ohio State is expected to add to its recent run of signing NFL legacies. The Buckeyes are projected to earn the commitment of<a href=\"https:\/\/247sports.com\/player\/bo-jackson-46133496\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Bo Jackson, Jr.<\/a> out of Cleveland. The Buckeyes already have a trio of top recruits at the cornerback position in the class. They could double-dip with a pair of potentially elite players at running back as well.<\/p>\n<p>Davison has not yet set a date for his commitment.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_59571\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-59571\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-59571\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/05\/USATSI_22024694_168400536_lowres-300x196.jpg\" alt=\"2025 recruit\" width=\"300\" height=\"196\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/05\/USATSI_22024694_168400536_lowres-300x196.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/05\/USATSI_22024694_168400536_lowres-1024x670.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/05\/USATSI_22024694_168400536_lowres-768x502.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/05\/USATSI_22024694_168400536_lowres-1536x1005.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2024\/05\/USATSI_22024694_168400536_lowres-2048x1340.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-59571\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As expected with the expansion of the Big 10, three of the conference&#8217;s best are locked in a recruiting battle with a top 2025 recruit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4051,"featured_media":59571,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,35574,5,10906,35631],"tags":[35,462,279,73,277,3011,33471],"class_list":["post-59561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-alabama-crimson-tide","category-bigten","category-cfb","category-michigan-wolverines","tag-alabama-crimson-tide","tag-jim-harbaugh","tag-michigan-wolverines","tag-ohio-state-buckeyes","tag-oregon-ducks","tag-sherrone-moore","tag-tony-alford"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4051"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59561"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79640,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59561\/revisions\/79640"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}