Ohio State Football Recruiting: Updated list of edge rusher offers in the 2025 class

Looking at Ohio State’s current edge rusher offers for 2025

This offseason has been a strong one for Ohio State football.  With multiple transfers coming in as well as multiple stars on both sides of the ball forgoing the NFL draft to come back to the Buckeyes for the 2024 season, hopes are high among Buckeye nation.

Ohio State has also gotten some good news on the recruiting front in the offseason. The Buckeyes wrapped up one of the best 2024 classes in college football by bringing in Julian Sayin, the top ranked quarterback in the class who transferred from Alabama after Nick Saban’s retirement.

The Buckeyes have also landed 2025 class commitments from five-star cornerback Devin Sanchez, and highly rated four-star edge rusher Zahir Mathis in January.

The Buckeyes have offered nine edge rushers in the 2025 class. We’ll walk through each of those using On3 who is one of the top college football recruiting resources that tracks player rankings on all four main websites and provides predictions, insights, and NIL valuations.

Scouts view: What to expect from Ohio State’s latest commit, DE Zahir Mathis

The Buckeyes got a great one in Mathis. #GoBucks

Ohio State football gained a massive commitment on Wednesday when 2025 Pennsylvania defensive end, [autotag]Zahir Mathis[/autotag], joined the class.

The 6-foot, 6-inch, 225-pound pass rusher is one of the best prospects in the country, ranking as the No. 5 at his position and 37th overall according to the 247Sports Composite Rankings. Mathis had a who’s who offer list, showing that the Buckeyes still could recruit the position even though they had missed more than a few of their top targets over the last few cycles.

The skill set that Mathis will bring with him is tantalizing, especially after getting a chance to review his junior highlight film. Here is what to expect from the latest Ohio State commit when he arrives in Columbus.

Ohio State lands 4-star edge Zahir Mathis

Zahir Mathis commits to Ohio State.

Zahir Mathis committed to Ohio State on Wednesday, giving the Buckeyes another big-time presence off the edge.

Mathis, from Imhotep Charter (Philadelphia), is a consensus four-star recruit and another massive pick-up for Ohio State. He is 6-foot-5 and 230 pounds. He is the No. 41 player in the nation according to Rivals, where is also the second-best edge in the class.

Rivals ranks Mathis as Pennsylvania’s top recruit in the 2025 class. ESPN has him No. 48 nationally.

He had offers from Penn State, Alabama, Florida State, Georgia, Ole Miss, South Carolina and Rutgers among others

The class of 2025 recruit had 52 total tackles and five tackles for a loss. He had three sacks during the season as Imhotep went 15-0.

He confirmed his commitment via X (the social media platform formerly known as Twitter):

 

Mathis joins a strong Ohio State class that is now fourth in the nation with six players having given a verbal. The Buckeyes got a major boost last week when David Sanchez, a five-star defensive back, committed to the program during the All-American Bowl.

Ohio State lands high 4-star 2025 Pennsylvania defensive end

A midweek BOOM! for the Buckeyes

Over the course of the last few recruiting cycles, Ohio State football has struggled getting high-level defensive ends.

The tide is looking like it’s starting to turn in the 2025 cycle, as the Buckeyes got a commitment from Pennsylvania star edge rusher [autotag]Zahir Mathis[/autotag]. The 6-foot, 6-inch 225-pound end is ranked as the No. 5 edge and 37th overall prospect according to the 247Sports Composite Rankings, just outside of 5-star range.

The Buckeyes beat out multiple SEC schools like Alabama, Florida and Georgia along with Big Ten foes Michigan, Penn State and USC. It’s a massive recruiting win for Ohio State, considering the misses in the previous cycles.

Mathis is commitment No. 6 for the Buckeyes in the 2025 cycle in what is looking like another banner class for Ohio State.

Contact/Follow @BuckeyesWire on X (formerly Twitter), and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Ohio State news, notes, and opinion. Follow Michael Chen on X.

Ohio State trending to add 2025 defensive end who commits Wednesday

Will there be another BOOM! on Wednesday for the Buckeyes?

Ohio State football has been on a recruiting heater recently, and it looks like the momentum will continue.

[autotag]Zahir Mathis[/autotag] , a 2025 defensive end from Pennsylvania will make his verbal commitment on Wednesday, and it is looking very good for the Buckeyes. Of the three 247Sports Crystal Ball picks, each of them is for Ohio State to ultimately land the No. 5 edge and 37th overall prospect according to the 247Sports Composite Rankings.

This would be a massive recruiting win for the Buckeyes, as they would be going into enemy territory and taking away an elite 6-foot, 6-inch and 225-pound pass rusher in Mathis.

At the current moment, Ohio State has five commits in the 2025 cycle, but none of them on the defensive line. After the last two classes of missing out on top prospects at the position, this would be a huge get for the Buckeyes.

Contact/Follow @BuckeyesWire on X (formerly Twitter), and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Ohio State news, notes, and opinion. Follow Michael Chen on X.

Ohio State among 12 schools remaining for 2025 defensive end

The Buckeyes are moving on with one of the top 2025 defensive ends #GoBucks

It has been an epic struggle for [autotag]Ohio State football[/autotag] and defensive end recruiting, but the show must go on.

The coaching staff must right the ship and hopefully, it starts in the 2024 cycle. There are a few targets the Buckeyes are still in on, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t looking ahead to the 2025 class.

Pennsylvania edge rusher, [autotag]Zahir Mathis,[/autotag] still has more than a year until he can sign, but has already decided he will focus on 12 schools with Ohio State being one. The 6-foot, 6-inch, 225-pound defender is ranked as the No. 5 edge rusher and 42nd overall prospect on the 247Sports composite.

Mathis was on campus this summer, attending a camp session in June as he did with the majority of his top choices. If the Buckeyes can get him on campus this fall for a game, it would put them in a very good position with the four-star pass rusher.

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Penn State in Top 12 of 4-star 2025 edge rusher

Pen State makes latest top schools cut for four-star edge rusher in 2025

Penn State is starting to get to work on their class of 2025 recruiting. With their 2024 class almost wrapped up, they’ll start to shift more of their focus and resources to the younger class.

Three players have already committed to the Nittany Lions in the class of 2025, which is great start. They’ll have to maintain contact and relationships with those prospects as they’ll most likely continue to go through recruitment until they can officially sign.

[autotag]James Franklin[/autotag] and his staff have their sights set on one of the most important targets in the class of 2025.

[autotag]Zahir Mathis[/autotag] is a consensus four-star edge rusher from Philadelphia who is rated as the number one player in the state by the four major recruiting services.

He cut his list of schools down to his top 12 on Monday with Penn State making the list. Other programs included were Michigan, Ohio State, Georgia, Alabama, LSU, USC, Tennessee, South Carolina, Florida State, Florida and Texas A&M.

Everyone knows how much emphasis Franklin puts on keeping the best Pennsylvania players home and playing for Penn State.

He has gotten the number one player in the state to commit to the program three years in a row. [autotag]Nick Singleton[/autotag] started the streak in 2022, followed by [autotag]J’ven Williams[/autotag] in 2023 and [autotag]Quinton Martin[/autotag] in 2024.

On3’s industry rankings have the 6’5″ 230 pound edge rusher as the number eight player at his position and the number 60 overall prospect in the country.

Penn State was the first school to offer Mathis back in May 2021. Since then, he’s visited the campus twice in unofficial capacity. His most recent visit came in mid-April of this year. He spent the month of June visiting multiple schools who made his list.

Right now, On3’s Recruiting Prediction Machine has Penn State in the lead to land Mathis with a 28.7% chance. Ohio State sits second at 13.1% and South Carolina third at 11.3%.

This is a great start in an important recruitment effort that will definitely see a lot of effort and resources put in to secure the top rated player in the state four years in a row.

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Gators make this 2025 4-star EDGE’s top schools list

This big-time EDGE likes what Billy Napier and the Gators are building in the Swamp.

The recruiting grind continues for Billy Napier and the Florida football program despite the dead period ahead of the upcoming 2023 season.

On Monday, four-star edge defender [autotag]Zahir Mathis[/autotag] out of Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) Imhotep in the 2025 cycle released a list of 12 schools on his personal social media account which included the Orange and Blue.

Along with the Gators, the 6-foot-6-inch, 225-pound beast also included the Georgia Bulldogs, Tennessee Volunteers, South Carolina Gamecocks, Alabama Crimson Tide, Texas A&M Aggies, LSU Tigers, Ohio State Buckeyes, Michigan Wolverines, Penn State Nittany Lions, USC Trojans and Florida State Seminoles among his top destinations.

The blue-chip prospect made visits to Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, Clemson and Ohio State this past June, with a visit to Penn State also made during the spring — which was the first school to offer him back in May 2021.

Mathis is ranked No. 42 overall and No. 5 at his position nationally according to the 247Sports composite while the On3 industry ranking has him at Nos. 60 and 8, respectively.

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LSU offers 4-star EDGE from Philly

There are currently no crystal ball projections for Mathis at this time, but the Penn State Nittany Lions are a 55% favorite to land him per On3.

LSU’s recruiting staff has taken another trip to the northeast as they traveled to check out a four-star edge rusher from Philadelphia.

[autotag]Zahir Mathis[/autotag] is a 6-foot-5, 230-pound, four-star edge rusher who plays for Imhotep Charter Institute. The Imhotep Charter Panthers finished the 2022 season 10-3 with a loss to Pine-Richland in the PIAA 5A state championship game.

There are currently no Crystal Ball projections for Mathis at this time, but Penn State is a 55% favorite to land him per On3.

Film Analysis: Mathis uses a great combination of speed and power to get by any offensive tackles that try to stop him.

FILM

Michigan State is latest power five school to offer 2025 DE Zahir Mathis

Michigan State is the latest big-time program to extend an offer to one of the quickly rising 2025 prospects.

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Michigan State is the latest big-time program to extend an offer to one of the quickly rising 2025 prospects.

Zahir Mathis — a 2025 defensive end prospect from Philadelphia — has received a scholarship offer from Michigan State. Mathis announced the scholarship offer on Saturday.

Despite not even being a freshman in high school yet, Mathis has already picked up a ton of interest from power five programs. According to Mathis’ Twitter page, he has now received scholarship offers from Michigan State, Texas A&M, Penn State, Maryland and Boston College.

Mathis is listed at 6-foot-6 and 230 pounds, and appears to be on track to being one of the top recruits in the 2025 class.

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