Ohio State’s 2027 class has plenty of star power, but no commitment matters more than DJ Jacobs.
The five-star edge rusher from Blessed Trinity Catholic in Roswell, Georgia, sits at No. 1 nationally at his position and No. 1 overall in 247Sports’ rankings. At 6-foot-5 and 240 pounds, Jacobs has been committed to the Buckeyes since Dec. 29, 2025, when he picked Ohio State over Miami, Georgia, Tennessee, Notre Dame, Texas A&M, Oregon and Alabama.
The ranking fits the production. Jacobs has spent his high school career wrecking games, not just flashing upside.
As a junior in 2025, he piled up 102 tackles, 24 tackles for loss and 16 sacks in 11 games, and he added two blocked kicks. His sophomore year was just as loud: 116 tackles, 31 tackles for loss and 11 sacks.
Through his first three varsity seasons, MaxPreps lists him at 298 tackles, 68 tackles for loss and 33 sacks, with two games already in the books this season.
That kind of resume is exactly why Ohio State views him as so critical. He is not a development bet.
He has already proven he can take over football games, and that makes him a potential foundation piece for Larry Johnson on the edge as the Buckeyes continue building their defensive line with the future in mind. Long, explosive, and disruptive, Jacobs has the kind of profile that could eventually point him toward stardom at the college level and, down the line, a first-round NFL conversation.
Ohio State won him once because Jacobs felt the program lined up with what mattered to him most: coaching stability, education, culture and life after football. He specifically pointed to Ryan Day and Johnson when explaining why he chose the Buckeyes. But that decision has not shut the door on the rest of the sport.
Jacobs is still being pursued, and that is the part Ohio State has to manage carefully. He was back in Columbus for the Sept. 5 season opener against Ball State, and he was one of the biggest recruiting visitors in the stadium as the Buckeyes rolled to a 56-3 win. That trip mattered, and so does the fact that he reportedly plans to return to Ohio Stadium three times during the 2026 season, even though the specific games have not been made public.
Still, the Buckeyes are not operating in a vacuum. Miami has continued to push hard for a flip and was widely viewed as the favorite before Jacobs committed to Ohio State.
Jacobs himself said this summer that he was extremely solid with the Buckeyes while also noting that “nothing is ever final.” Tennessee also remains in the mix after being heavily involved in the original recruitment, which adds another layer of pressure for Ohio State fans watching this play out.
There is also the family piece. Jacobs’ father, David, played defensive line at Georgia, and his younger brother Dawson is already a highly regarded 2028 defensive line prospect. That keeps the Jacobs family firmly tied into the recruiting landscape across the Southeast, where attention from SEC programs has never really gone away.
Ohio State does not need to panic every time Jacobs shows up somewhere else. But it does need to understand exactly what is at stake. Losing the No. 1 player in the country is not something a program shrugs off.
The Buckeyes already have a strong 2027 defensive line group with Jacobs, five-star Marcus Fakatou and four-star Wyatt Smith. Even so, Jacobs is the one who can define the class. He is the centerpiece, the headliner, the commitment that changes how the whole group is viewed.
Ohio State has already landed him once. Now the challenge is to hold off Miami, Tennessee and whoever else keeps coming, all the way to signing day.
If the Buckeyes do keep him, they are not just preserving an elite pledge. They are protecting the heart of what could become one of the best defensive classes in the country.
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