Ohio State has opened the 2027 recruiting cycle on a high note with two early commitments, but the process is still in its early stages. For high school juniors, the next milestone is locking in fall gameday visits — and the Buckeyes continue to draw top talent to Ohio Stadium.
Five-star edge rusher Chris Whitehead is the latest to schedule a trip to Columbus, reportedly planning to be on hand for Ohio State’s Week 1 showdown with No. 1 Texas. The matchup, a rematch of last year’s College Football Playoff semifinal at the Cotton Bowl, is expected to be one of the season’s marquee games — and Whitehead will be among a long list of elite prospects watching from the sidelines.
Chris Whitehead a Priority Target for Ryan Day in 2027
Rebuilding a defensive line is never simple — and it’s even tougher when you’re replacing four NFL Draft picks. That’s the challenge facing Ryan Day and his Ohio State staff this offseason and beyond, following the departures of Jack Sawyer, JT Tuimoloau, Tyleik Williams, and Ty Hamilton from last year’s national championship squad.
In the short term, Day and new defensive coordinator Matt Patricia will look to emerging talents like Eddrick Houston, alongside veterans Kenyatta Jackson Jr. and transfer addition Beau Atkinson, to fill the void. Long term, though, the Buckeyes need to reestablish a pipeline of elite edge rushers.
Houston, a member of the 2024 class, was the last five-star defensive lineman to commit to Ohio State — and the only composite five-star the Buckeyes have landed at that position since Tuimoloau and Sawyer in 2021. For a program renowned for producing stars like the Bosa brothers and Chase Young, that’s a notable drought.
Enter Chris Whitehead. The Chesterfield, Virginia native is ranked No. 21 nationally in the 2027 class by the 247Sports Composite, a five-star prospect and the fifth-ranked edge rusher in the cycle. At 6-foot-5 and 210 pounds, Whitehead combines explosive speed with the power to collapse pockets, and his closing burst allows him to chase down quarterbacks from anywhere on the field.
As he continues to grow into his frame and refine his technique, Whitehead projects as the kind of game-changing defender who can tilt the field in his team’s favor. In 2025, Ohio State may lack a true edge presence of that caliber — the sort of player who forces offenses to adjust protection schemes on every snap.
One of the driving forces behind last year’s playoff dominance was the late-season surge from Sawyer and Tuimoloau, which turned the defensive front into a game-wrecking unit. The current roster isn’t built to replicate that right away, and it could take multiple recruiting cycles for Day and his staff to fully restock the trenches.
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