Premier defensive line target Caden Curry commits to Ohio State
COLUMBUS – Ohio State has landed one of its key targets in the Class of 2022: Caden Curry has committed to the Buckeyes.
Even though he plays his high school ball just three hours away in the Indianapolis area – therefore making him an in-state recruit for all intents and purposes – this was a national battle, and the value of winning the Curry recruitment cannot be overstated for the Buckeyes.
That is not just because Ohio State beat out Alabama – the other team that Curry was making his final decision between – alongside Indiana, Clemson and Oregon as the others in his top five.
Curry, a four-star defensive lineman out of Center Grove High School, has been Ohio State’s No. 1 target at defensive line – and one of its top-three targets regardless of position – in the Class of 2022 for more than a year and a half. That started officially all the way back in May 2020 when Buckeyes coach Ryan Day and defensive line coach Larry Johnson offered Curry to give a jump start to the process.
Ohio State battled Curry’s home-state Hoosiers throughout the summer and early fall of 2021. But the Buckeyes emerged as the true leader in his recruitment following his official visit during the weekend of the Oregon game. Alabama then came charging hard in the fall as the biggest threat to land Curry, especially after an official visit for the weekend of the Crimson Tide’s game against LSU in early November.
But Day and Johnson were able to stave off the Tide, essentially closing this recruitment out with a three-hour in-home visit two weeks ago. Alabama, meanwhile, did not make an in-home visit with Curry after originally planning to do so, and the writing was on the wall from there on out.
Now, the Buckeyes bring in a player who Johnson went out of his way to compare to Nick Bosa, one of the best players Johnson has ever coached. That is the type of ceiling that Ohio State has brought into its program with the decision from Curry.
He is a 6-foot-4, 245-pounder who instantly brings prowess as a potential All-Big Ten performer down the road. Curry gives the Buckeyes the third piece in their vision of a “Big Three” of defensive ends alongside five-stars J.T. Tuimoloau and Jack Sawyer.
“They’re two great defensive ends there, and they see a rotation of us of being like a Big Three in the defensive line room. He can definitely do a lot with all of us,” Curry told Lettermen Row. “They’re really good defensive ends. He loves all of us being able to work on our craft together and just being good at the game. I’m not worried about the playing time. I know we’ll all get our snaps in. So I’m not worried about [playing time] at all.”
The Buckeyes will not be short on high-end talent in this 2022 class. Stacking Caden Curry and Kenyatta Jackson Jr. – plus the potential of adding Hero Kanu and Omari Abor – on top of a 2021 class that featured Sawyer, Tuimoloau, Tyleik Williams and Mike Hall would give Ohio State one of its best two-year runs at defensive line in the last decade.
