COLUMBUS — After a sleepy morning, National Signing Day delivered a boom for the Buckeyes early in the afternoon when California quarterback C.J. Stroud announced he will sign with Ohio State.
Stroud is the No. 2 pro-style quarterback in the country per 247Sports Composite rankings and the No. 83 prospect overall.
He is the second quarterback in the 2020 class for Ohio State, joining four-star Jack Miller of Arizona.
Coach Ryan Day is set to meet with the media at 1 p.m. to talk about the class.
Ohio State football: 5 takeaways from Ryan Day's latest update https://t.co/6G69MYoqVX
— Marcus Hartman (@marcushartman) December 17, 2019
MORNING RECAP:
The early signing period for college football recruits got off to an uneventful start for Ohio State on Wednesday morning.
By 11 a.m., coach Ryan Day and his staff had received all of the national letters of intent they were expecting at that time.
>>RELATED: 7 things to know about National Signing Day
Some suspense remained, however, as two long-time commits and one final decision were yet to finalize their plans.
At 12:30 Eastern, four-star quarterback C.J. Stroud is set to announce his college destination. Ohio State and Georgia are considered the favorites according to 247Sports.
I will be announcing my commitment and signing my NLI on Wednesday December 18th at Rancho Cucamonga High School’s auditorium at 9:30 am, it will be open to the public, and it will be on ESPN U...
— S7VEN (@CJ7STROUD) December 16, 2019
Clark Phillips III, a four-star cornerback from California who verbally committed to Ohio State last summer, is set to make his announcement Thursday while Muskegon, Mich., three-star athlete prospect Cam Martinez has decided to delay his signing until February according to Rivals.com.
Stroud is reportedly down to Ohio State, Georgia or Michigan.
Phillips and Martinez both are taking extra time to finalize their decisions after the somewhat sudden and unexpected departure of Ohio State assistant coach Jeff Hafley, who was introduced as head coach at Boston College on Monday.
While Phillips still lists himself as an Ohio State commit, he visited Utah over the weekend.
Three other defensive back prospects who were set to play for Hafley have signed with Ohio State, a key development with the secondary potentially needing four new starters next season.
