The recruitment wins just keep coming for Ryan Day. He just made two major blue-chip additions to his WR room—the Mater Dei duo of Chris Henry Jr. and Kayden Dixon-Wyatt. Day is sitting pretty at the No. 3 position in the 2026 recruiting class. His national championship-winning team is no longer with the program, with some key players now in the NFL. Naturally, he zeroed in on finding some prime targets to make up for those gaps, and he’s scoring big time.

Ryan Day already managed to onboard the fierce Mater Dei pair, ending his drought of landing players from the school. But his defense will undergo an overhaul now that Jim Knowles is also away at Penn State. In the spring game, the Buckeyes’ defense saw flashes of talent in a few names. Sonny Styles, Aaron Scott Jr., and Inky Jones all made their mark. However, depth was starting to become a nagging problem. Day lost Elbert Hill to USC. But just 10 days later, he found a big win in a 4-star cornerback.

The Buckeyes now have the commitment of 4-star CB Jordan Thomas, Hayes Fawcett announced. Thomas joins a star-studded list of 13 commits and will be a part of Tim Walton‘s secondary. Day beat out players like Michigan, Notre Dame, Alabama, and many more to get the blue-chip prospect on board. In fact, Ryan Day had more than 40 competitors to fend off to win Thomas. The CB comes with a total of 105 tackles from his prep career of three years, 14 defended passes, and 1 fumble recovery.

“I felt very thankful and honored to be blessed with the opportunity to play at The Ohio State University. I would say the development is the most appealing part of potentially playing at OSU,” Thomas told Eleven Warriors when he was made an offer in 2024.

Thomas is open to playing both as CB and a DB, depending upon his ability and evaluation from coaches. “They see me as a versatile defensive back,” he said earlier. “That can play on the outside at corner but also on the inside, at star or nickel. They also see me playing right and left, boundary or field, as well.” In fact it is this very versatility that Day was targeting for such a long time.

“Coach [Matt] Patricia has a plan for me fitting into his defensive scheme, and the more I speak with Coach Day and Coach Patricia and see them in person, the better our relationship gets,” he told Buckeye Huddle. Even though Day got lucky with Thomas, he looks slated to suffer a recruiting blow in the same class, that too in his loaded WR room.

Ryan Day misses out on key WR target to rival

Despite boasting one of the best WR rooms and coaches in the country, this is the second WR prospect Day is losing his grip on. To make that loss more sore, that target is headed to an OSU rival. Steve Wiltfong made a prediction that Hampton is going to Oregon. On3 currently displays a 78.3% chance of Dan Lanning recruiting the 4-star talent. His prep career consists of 2,209 all-purpose yards and 21 receiving TDs.

It’s likely that Hampton would’ve been pushed down the depth chart in the room. Shadowed by the phenomenon of Jeremiah Smith and returning starters Carnell Tate and Brandon Inniss, the room looks very crowded. And not to forget, the Mater Dei duo. The young WR is looking for programs with more space, which can guarantee him some playing time and longevity. That is what OSU can’t offer to Hampton, despite being one of the most elite WR rooms in CFB.

Oregon seems to have sold its pitch to Hampton over the weekend when he paid Lanning a visit with his family. “High-level football, education, and success after football,” the WR told On3 as his top priorities in his future program. “And that’s all the things I’m looking for.” It looks like Day, despite sitting No. 2 in the Big 10 conference in the 2026 class, will miss out on a key talent. That position is not bad for a team that won the National Championship last year. He will not always see success in recruiting but can stand to see some surprises in targets like Jordan Thomas.