Just when Ryan Day appeared set to host one of his most anticipated offensive targets of the summer, the Buckeyes received a disappointing update. Columbus welcomed four new faces for official visits this weekend; the spotlight had already shifted to next week’s visitor list. The list was already short for the OV on June 5; Jayden Miles is now the lone offensive visitor scheduled to be in Columbus.

The long pursuit for WR Eric McFarland III has finally come to an end for Ryan Day. After visiting Texas A&M, McFarland canceled his Ohio State OV, which was scheduled for this week. The Aggies were already high on the WR, though there is no clear explanation for why he canceled; according to Jeremy Birmingham of Lettermen Row, the OV remains canceled.

Ryan Day needs to start pushing harder for the 2027 class. His QB room is already in jeopardy; now the WR room is also slipping away. Before getting out of the mix, OSU was a strong contender for the WR, and it was the WR locker room that helped Day to set an OV with McFarland. This was a total curveball for Day, as McFarland had previously shown a lot of interest in the program, allowing them to raise their hopes.

“It’s Receiver U,” he said. “Ohio State is going to be Ohio State. They’ve got (head coach Ryan) Day there, and Coach Day has been my guy even when Coach (Brian) Hartline was there. And now (wide receivers coach Cortez) Hankton, he was recruiting me a little bit at LSU, and he’s been on me hard since he got to Ohio State. And the new OC, I’ve heard he’s good. It’s a lot of good things you always hear about Ohio State; you never hear about a bad gimmick.”

The country’s No. 6-ranked receiver and IMG Academy standout reclassified from the class of 2028 to the class of 2027. Mike Elko’s program seems to have played all the right cards for McFarland even before his OV. As a WR, McFarland’s choosing the Aggies would make a lot of sense.

“It’s a good relationship I’ve got with them,” he said of the Aggies. “Especially my relationship with (head coach) Elko and (offensive coordinator) Holmon Wiggins, it’s very strong. They’re being 100 percent transparent with me, keeping it real and just telling me about the plan that they have for me at A&M.”

OSU was not the only one pitching hard for the WR. Georgia and Florida were also the schools in the mix for the 5-foot-8 wideout out of Bradenton, Florida.

Other OVs for Eric McFarland

The Georgia Bulldogs conducted their OV with McFarland on May 15–17, and they left quite an impression on the young WR. They showed him a tape of how they manipulate defenses with high-speed slot weapons, comparing his projection directly to college football superstar Zachariah Branch. This was it for him to lock his OV with Kirby Smart’s program.

“It just blew me off the top literally. When I was up there, a little bit of mind-blowing from just being up there, more than what I really honestly expected,” McFarland said after his visit.

“They just had Zech Branch, and they look at me exactly the same as Zech Branch,” he said. “So if they give him the ball so much, they envision the same exact thing for me.

USC Trojans were also in the mix and seemed to hold a strong position after their relationship with the West Coast. They originally planned an official visit for June 5–7, but later shifted it to powerhouse Ohio State. The last in the row for his OV also ended in rejection.

“I might live in Florida, but I’m from the West Coast,” he said. “So there’s that right there. But that’s been going good, especially since they got (inside receivers coach Chad) Savage up there now, and he’s from Nevada. I’d say the relationship is good, especially just because they just had Makai Lemon win the Biletnikoff there, so it shows that they can do with a small-sized receiver and how powerful their offense can be.”