Ohio State's process fails as David Gabriel Georges picks Tennessee

The five-star running back picked Tennessee over the Buckeyes on Wednesday.

Five-star running back David Gabriel Georges committed to Tennessee over Ohio State on Wednesday. (Photo courtesy of Rivals)

COLUMBUS — Ohio State’s top overall target in the 2027 recruiting class, a player whose recruitment was handled by OSU both publicly and privately unlike any other in the NIL era, has chosen Tennessee.

David Gabriel Georges, a five-star running back from Canada who plays his high school ball in Chattanooga, Tenn., picked the Vols on Wednesday evening. It wasn’t surprising. Recruiting analysts around the country started flipping their predictions from Ohio State, long considered the favorite for the No. 9 overall player and No. 2 running back in the class, to Tennessee earlier this week. The buzz for the Vols had been building since Georges took his official visit to Knoxville on the first weekend of June.

A multi-year push from Ohio State, in which the staff attempted to make clear to Georges that he was its most important prospect, regardless of position (and in some ways, regardless of class), has ended in failure.

Georges is a fantastic running back prospect. There have only been seven running backs to earn five-star designation since 2022, and he’s one of them. The nature of his position means that he could have been an instant contributor and potential star at whichever school he chose. He has all of the tools to one day be the best running back in college football. If the scouts are correct about his skill set, he would’ve played a lot as a freshman at Ohio State. It’s also true that Ohio State will more than likely be OK without his services. The Block O is bigger than any one recruit. The firm foundation of OSU’s program doesn’t crumble because of one mere recruiting loss.

That’s also not what this is about.

This is about a failure of process.