Buckeyes predicted to land major defensive line transfer target
COLUMBUS — Ohio State hosted former North Carolina EDGE Beau Atkinson on Monday. Now the Buckeyes are in great position to land the defensive end and add to their roster.
On3 national experts Pete Nakos and Steve Wiltfong both put in Recruiting Prediction Machine picks for the Buckeyes to land Atkinson from the transfer portal. Both set their confidence level at 60 percent.
The 6-foot-6, 265-pound Atkinson played in every game for the Tar Heels last season. He had 24 tackles and seven sacks last year for the Tar Heels. But after a coaching change from Mack Brown to Bill Belichick, Atkinson hit the transfer portal Wednesday.
In addition to visiting the Buckeyes, Atkinson visited Georgia on Friday but left Athens without committing to the Bulldogs. He then made his way to Columbus for that visit.
Ohio State has been discussing needing help on the defensive line in the transfer portal all spring, including Saturday when Buckeyes coach Ryan Day discussed that potential need in the portal for both edge rushers and defensive tackles.
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“I think we’ve got to take a hard look at it,” Day said Saturday. “I don’t think I have the answer right now, but we’ve got to look at it. It seemed to me like there was just a lot of knock-back on the offensive side of the ball here, but then again, I don’t want to make any judgements until I watch the film.”
The Buckeyes defensive line help because it lost all four starters on the defensive line, Ty Hamilton, Jack Sawyer, J.T. Tuimoloau and Tyleik Williams, and then also lost key depth piece and potential starter this season Hero Kanu, who entered the transfer portal and ended up at Texas. Now the Buckeyes are replacing all five of them, and while spring showed progress in that room, it wasn’t good enough to not peek into the portal in April.
Ohio State likes projected starters Kenyatta Jackson, Caden Curry, Eddrick Houston and Kayden McDonald but needed to see more from Jason Moore, Will Smith Jr., Tywone Malone and freshman Jarquez Carter to feel better about its tackle depth. The Buckeyes also liked what spring brought from EDGEs Logan George and C.J. Hicks. Now the program will need to dip into the transfer portal and find some help up front.
That now includes a huge EDGE prospect who is in the transfer portal. Beau Atkinson visited Ohio State on Monday and is now predicted to pick the Buckeyes.
