{"id":60755,"date":"2024-06-28T12:31:50","date_gmt":"2024-06-28T16:31:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=60755"},"modified":"2024-06-28T15:58:10","modified_gmt":"2024-06-28T19:58:10","slug":"ohio-state-earns-another-top-defensive-line-commit-for-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2024\/06\/28\/ohio-state-earns-another-top-defensive-line-commit-for-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Ohio State Earns Another Top Defensive Line Commit for 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Buckeyes added another top defensive lineman recruit to their 2025 recruiting class on Thursday. In a formal commitment announcement, 247Sports Composite four-star defensive tackle <a href=\"https:\/\/247sports.com\/player\/trajen-odom-46134975\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Trajen Odom<\/a> picked Ohio State. He chose the Buckeyes over the likes of Oregon, USC, UCLA, Colorado, and Georgia. Odom is considered by <em>247Sports<\/em>&#8216; Composite as the 31st-best defensive lineman and seventh-best overall recruit from North Carolina.<\/p>\n<p>Odom joins the Buckeyes class as the 21st commit and fourth on the defensive line, joining<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2024\/06\/24\/top-10-player-zion-grady-commits-to-ohio-states-2025-class\/\" target=\"_self\"> Zion Grady<\/a>, Zahir Mathis, and London Merritt..<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">BREAKING: Four-Star DL Trajen Odom has Committed to Ohio State, 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\u20195 285 DL from Matthews, NC chose the Buckeyes over USC, Oregon, &amp; Georgia<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRomans 12:12<br \/>rockstar modeee!! O-H\ud83c\udf30\ud83c\udf30\u201d<a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/mShc9EbRvM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/mShc9EbRvM<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/OgkFcy6V5w\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/OgkFcy6V5w<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Hayes Fawcett (@Hayesfawcett3) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Hayesfawcett3\/status\/1806719230898815121?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 28, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Four-Star Defensive Lineman Trajen Odom Commits to Ohio State<\/h2>\n<p>Internal defensive line recruiting has been a hot topic in this year&#8217;s class as it&#8217;s considered a bit weaker than previous classes. Despite that, Odom has seen a meteoric rise this offseason.<\/p>\n<p>At Weddington High School in Matthews, North Carolina, Odom has been impressively productive. As a sophomore, Odom accounted for 41 tackles, 11 tackles for loss, and five sacks. Then, last year, he improved with 54 tackles, 22 tackles for loss, and four sacks. Additionally, he forced a fumble.<\/p>\n<p>Odom is considered a high-upside kind of defensive tackle recruit. He is an above-average athlete and actually has some positional versatility. His highlight reel is full of plays where Odom was able to just physically overpower the interior offensive linemen. He often stands them up and can push the linemen into the lap of the quarterback then disengage to make the play. The most impressive play on the sophomore year highlights had Odom beat a double-team, roll out with the quarterback, plow through the running back, and finish the sack.<\/p>\n<p><em>247Sports<\/em>&#8216; scouting has Odom as a player a coach is willing to bring in and be patient with. If the Buckeyes develop him, Odom projects to be a solid contributor in the Big Ten.<\/p>\n<p>According to Bill Kurelic at <em>247Sports&#8217; BuckNuts<\/em>, &#8220;Odom has been high on the Buckeyes&#8217; list of remaining targets for some time. And the feeling has been mutual. Odom has had a strong interest in Ohio State and has been talking to Ohio State defensive line coach <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2024\/05\/08\/all-eyes-on-ohio-states-larry-johnson-in-2024\/\" target=\"_self\">Larry Johnson<\/a> continually for quite a while.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_56467\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-56467\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-56467 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/12\/USATSI_19371816_168400536_lowres-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Jeremiah Smith\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/12\/USATSI_19371816_168400536_lowres-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/12\/USATSI_19371816_168400536_lowres-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/12\/USATSI_19371816_168400536_lowres-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/12\/USATSI_19371816_168400536_lowres-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/12\/USATSI_19371816_168400536_lowres-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/12\/USATSI_19371816_168400536_lowres-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/12\/USATSI_19371816_168400536_lowres-1200x800.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-56467\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo Credit: Adam Cairns-The Columbus Dispatch<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ohio State currently has 21 commits in its 2025 recruiting class. The latest? Rising star on the defensive line, Trajen Odom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4051,"featured_media":56467,"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":[5,2,17,7316],"tags":[7983,33694,73,33693],"class_list":["post-60755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bigten","category-featured","category-news","category-recruiting","tag-big-ten-football","tag-london-merritt","tag-ohio-state-buckeyes","tag-zahir-mathis"],"modified_by":"Drew Crabtree","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60755","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=60755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}