5-star DL Daevin Hobbs to visit Ohio State this weekend

Concord (N.C.) Jay M Robinson five-star defensive lineman Daevin Hobbs received an offer from Ohio State on Thursday.

The 6-foot-4, 270-pound senior will visit Columbus along with his sister, Ella Hobbs, a 2024 basketball prospect who has an offer from Ohio State as well. This visit will be unofficial and it will come one week after Hobbs took an official visit to Tennessee.

He is ready to check out Columbus for the first time.

“I heard the atmosphere there is crazy,” Hobbs told On3. “That has my attention and I like how they have defensive ends that went to play in the NFL. I watch clips all the time Chase Young, and the Bosa brothers.”

Hobbs is the No. 130 overall prospect and No. 13 defensive lineman in the 2023 cycle, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He is also a four-star recruit and the No. 2 player in North Carolina.

He was planning to take an unofficial visit to Auburn this weekend. Those plans have changed. Hobbs still has official visits to Alabama (Oct. 22) and Georgia (Nov. 5) scheduled. He took official visits to Auburn and North Carolina in June.

On3 rates Hobbs higher than other recruiting services, according to the Industry Comparison. Per the 2023 On300, he is a five-star prospect, the No. 23 overall prospect and No. 3 defensive lineman.

Can Ohio State join the race for Daevin Hobbs?

According to the On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine, it is a close race for his commitment. The Tar Heels currently lead for Hobbs’ pledge at 57.1%, while the Crimson Tide have the next-best odds at 38.6%.

RPM was released to the public in December. The On3 engineering group teamed up with Spiny.ai to create the industry’s first algorithm and machine learning-based product to predict where athletes will attend college. 

It factors in machine learning, social sentiment, visits and historical trends. However, expert predictions are still a big piece of the RPM equation.

Ohio State’s 2023 recruiting class currently includes two defensive linemen in Fort Washington (Md.) DeMatha Catholic four-star Jason Moore and Dublin (Ohio) Dublin Coffman three-star Will Smith Jr. The Buckeyes’ group is No. 3 in the 2023 On3 Consensus Team Recruiting Rankings and No. 1 in the Big Ten.

Daevin Hobbs On3 Scouting Summary 

The following is the On3 Scouting Summary for Daevin Hobbs:

“Nimble jumbo athlete who makes big plays as a tight end and defensive end, likely projecting along the defensive line long-term. Has good size, measuring at 6-foot-4.5 and in the 250-pound range with a wing-span close to 6-foot-10. Shows dominant tendencies as a two-way star at the high school level. Finished with 20 tackles for loss and 8 sacks as a junior. Moves well at his size. Shows the athleticism to run down plays in pursuit. Has the closing speed to finish plays behind the line with authority. 

“A big threat down the seam at tight end and is talented enough to play on offense in college. Extends and elevates to come down with grabs over the middle of the field. A long-strider in the open field with speed to score on long receptions. A very good high school basketball player who was the MVP of a state title team as a junior. Throws down emphatic dunks in transition. Unrefined technically as a defensive lineman and should see improvement on that front once he focuses on the position at the next level. May need to adjust to the level of competition coming from a lower classification in high school.”

Hobbs has an On3 NIL Valuation of $112K. The On3 NIL Valuation is an index that looks to set the standard market value for both high school and college-level athletes. The NIL valuation does not act as a tracker of the value of NIL deals an athlete has completed to date. It rather signifies an athlete’s value at a certain moment in time.