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Ohio State pursuing flip of Kansas EDGE commit Deshawn Warner

hunterby:Hunter Shelton•10/09/23•

HunterShelton_

Deshawn Warner
(Drew Schott/On3)

Ohio State‘s 2024 recruiting class just about has it all. With a pledge list consisting of 21 names, 12 of whom are top-200 prospects, the Buckeyes check in at No. 2 in the On3 Industry Team Recruiting Ranking.

There’s still a position that Ryan Day and Co. would like to add to the fold, however. OSU is still without a commitment at the EDGE position this cycle. On Monday, the Buckeyes offered Goodyear (Ariz.) Desert Edge three-star EDGE and Kansas commit Deshawn Warner, he announced.

The offer is Warner’s 20th at the Division I level and perhaps his biggest, alongside Michigan, Oregon and Texas. Kansas, Texas, Oregon State and Washington all received official visits in June, but it was the Jayhawks that won out when he pledged on July 1.

“It’s been a difficult decision,” Warner told On3 ahead of his announcement. “I feel like I really need to sit down and have a talk with my coaches and my mom and weigh out all my options and really see where I’m going from there.”

Warner took his official visit to Lawrence alongside two of his teammates —  three-star cornerback Aundre Gibson and three-star linebacker Jonathan Kamara — both of whom are also committed to Kansas. Special teams coordinator and defensive ends coach Taiwo Onatolu and defensive backs coach Jordan Peterson led KU’s recruitment.

“They’re telling me that they want me,” Warner said. “They want me to make an impact early, they want me as a person there, not just for football. They’re telling me that that’s the place where I need to be.”

Head coach Lance Leipold also played a part in the Jayhawks beating out the likes of the Longhorns down the stretch.

“It was great talking to him, great connecting with him,” Warner said of Leipold. “He’s very hands-on and active in what everybody has going on. Of course he holds himself to higher standards than everybody else, but you could tell that he’s not the guy that just tells people what to do. He’s got a mentality of getting the job done himself… You can tell he genuinely cares about the people that he’s around.”

Kansas’ 2024 recruiting class ranks No. 43 in the nation and No. 4 in the Big 12. Warner is currently the third highest-ranked pledge for the Jayhawks, behind Katy (Texas) four-star EDGE Dakyus Brinkley and Hazel Crest (Ill.) Marian Catholic three-star CB Austin Alexander.

Warner does not currently have an On3 NIL Valuation. The On3 NIL Valuation is the industry’s leading index that sets high school and college athletes’ projected annual value (PAV). 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.