The Ohio State Buckeyes are enjoying some well-deserved R&R this week after beating the life out of Luke Fickell’s Wisconsin. The Buckeyes are ranked No. 1 in the country and look borderline impossible to beat. All props to Ryan Day. Despite the bye week, the hustle doesn’t stop. Day and his assistant coach took a recruiting trip down to good old Tennessee to win some hearts on the trail.

On October 25th, Ohio State insider Mick Walker hopped onto X and spilled the recruiting tea: “Ryan Day and Carlos Locklyn stopped by Baylor School in Chattanooga, Tennessee today to see top running back target David Gabriel Georges.” He also reposted a picture of Ryan Day in his casual suit alongside RB coach Carlos Locklyn.

Looks like Ryan Day is in full-on recruitment mode. When the head coach of the No. 1 program in the country shows up himself, you know you’re a legit baller. And it’s only a matter of time before programs come after you. And it’s not hard to see why Ryan Day traveled 452 miles to see Georges.

Gabriel’s been putting every head coach and scout on notice. During the 2024 season, he racked up over 1,100 rushing yards and scored 14 touchdowns. What’s even more impressive is that he did all that on just 114 carries, giving him an insane average of 9.7 yards per carry. Just look at some of his standout games: he went off for 280 yards and three touchdowns against McCallie, and had another monster game against Ensworth with 205 yards and two scores.

Ohio State isn’t the only school chasing Georges, though. He’s also hearing from other big-time programs like Tennessee and Georgia. But the Buckeyes have a little secret weapon: Coach Locklyn. Their relationship goes way back to when Locklyn was coaching at Oregon, and they’ve built a great connection. Also, earlier this year, Georges visited Ohio State and worked with Coach Locklyn at a camp. He practiced ball security, cutting, and pass blocking. The way things are going, it looks like it will be an Ohio State’s commitment barring any major twist. However, the Buckeyes are having a hard-time recruiting, all thanks to Fox Big Noon Kickoff.

How Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff Is Affecting Ohio State Recruiting

The Ohio State football program has been unhappy with so many noon kickoffs. They even tried to move their opener against Texas to a primetime game, but Texas said no. In the end, it didn’t hurt Ohio State on the field. Still, the Buckeyes don’t like having big games played in the middle of the day because it makes the atmosphere less exciting for fans and causes other problems, like making it harder to host recruits.

GM Mark Pantoni recently spoke about how noon games can hurt recruiting. He said, “They do — when FOX doesn’t handcuff us with these noon games, as we have another one next week (against Penn State) But no, next weekend we will have a lot of kids coming in, a lot of 27s and 28s to start building that relationship with.” He said that when kids visit for games, it’s tough for them to travel. They usually have to leave after Friday night games, then fly or drive to Columbus for the noon kickoff.

This can give other schools an advantage because they can schedule visits at more convenient times. Pantoni jokingly blamed FOX, which often schedules the Buckeyes for these noon slots as part of the Big Noon TV package. Right now, Ohio State doesn’t have much control over the schedule.

The Big Ten has a huge TV deal with FOX, which usually picks Ohio State for its noon games. The network’s money helps fund the team, pay for facilities, and support the roster. So even though fans and the program would like more primetime games, it’s unlikely the schedule will change anytime soon.