The Ohio State football program locks up four-star defensive lineman

The Ohio State football team has a lot of recruits committed for the 2025 class. It’s the best class in the country and they still have room to add a couple of five-star recruits to the class next month. They were able to add another recruit to the class on Thursday when they landed a four-star defensive lineman into the fold.

Jarquez Carter, a four-star defensive lineman from the state of Florida, chose the Buckeyes on Monday. He chose Ohio State over Miami, Florida, UCF, and Penn State. He becomes the sixth defensive lineman for this class. While that is a lot of defensive linemen for one recruiting class, the Buckeyes needed the added depth up front.

A four-star defensive lineman chooses the Ohio State football team

Adding Carter is another win for defensive line coach Larry Johnson. Johnson has been getting negatively recruited against for years about his age. Other programs have tried to use his age to tell recruits that he won’t be at Ohio State much longer. The fact that he’s been able to land six recruits in just this class alone is remarkable.

It’s also a sign that Johnson may not be slowing down. There hasn’t been any public talk about him retiring in the next few years, even if it would be a reasonable thing to talk about. He won’t coach forever and he’s 72 years old. Ryan Day does need to start thinking about the future. Getting someone who can take over the defensive line would be nice.

As far as Carter is concerned, he’s a solid defensive tackle. While he doesn’t have elite strength or speed, he uses his hands well and he’s strong enough to do what he needs to do in order to get to the quarterback and also take down running backs going up the middle. He has a good motor too, so he keeps going until the play is done.

Carter won’t see playing time in the first couple of seasons he’s a Buckeye, but he could in his junior year. He’s a player the Ohio State football team is happy to have.