Ohio State’s fight to keep Brady Edmunds out of UCLA’s reach is looking better by the day.
For a while there, the Buckeyes had real reason to sweat. UCLA pushed hard to flip the quarterback, and the noise around Edmunds had Ohio State fans wondering whether Ryan Day might lose a major piece of the future. That scare is over now, and Edmunds is backing up the Buckeyes’ confidence with a senior-year opener that turned heads immediately.
In his 2026 debut for Huntington Beach High, the 6-foot-5, 220-pound quarterback delivered a night that barely looked real: 446 passing yards, which set a new school single-game record, and six touchdown passes. Rivals High School noted that Edmunds also threw six touchdowns in Huntington Beach’s win. If that’s any kind of preview of what Ohio State is getting, the Buckeyes have plenty to be excited about.
The road to keeping him in the class wasn’t exactly smooth. In early June, Edmunds took his official visit to Westwood, and the possibility of a flip hung over the recruitment. Bob Chesney and his staff kept pressing to keep him closer to home, and the pressure on Day was obvious.
Then came June 19, when Edmunds made another trip - this time to Columbus - and that visit ended up mattering a whole lot. Ohio State treated it like a crucial weekend, and the Buckeyes made sure the full-court pitch was on display. Edmunds came away impressed after meeting with Billy Fessner and Arthur Smith, and Day wrapped things up by laying out what life would look like at Ohio State.
That did the trick. Edmunds shut things down again and told UCLA no. He still has his senior season to finish, but when he arrives in Columbus, he’ll do so as a four-star prospect and the No. 17 quarterback in the nation according to 247Sports.
Edmunds’ offer sheet showed just how coveted he was. Along with Ohio State and UCLA, he landed offers from 21 other programs, including Georgia, Auburn, Florida State, Oregon and more.
His big performance also matters for another reason: it saved Ohio State from having to get creative with its 2027 quarterback plans. Reports had surfaced that Day might have gone after Nebraska commit Trae Taylor if Edmunds had delivered bad news. Instead, Edmunds stayed locked in, and the Buckeyes avoided that scramble.
For Ohio State, the recruiting drama ended the right way. Edmunds remains committed for the long haul, and while he’ll have to wait his turn before taking over the offense for Day and Smith, the early signs are impossible to ignore. The Buckeyes kept the quarterback they wanted - and he’s already making a case that they were right to hold on.
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