Favour Akih weighing official visit options, examining decision timelines

Welcome to the Inside Stuff, the semi-regular Ohio State recruiting notebook exclusive to Buckeye Huddle. The latest news, notes and analysis of Buckeyes football recruiting from Marc Givler and Birm.

Favour Akih still waiting to make college decision

After making a handful of visits to Ohio State this past spring, Favour Akih is still sorting through his college options but even he’s a little surprised there’s been no commitment yet.

“Yeah, a little bit, I’m surprised,” Akih said. “It’s just about talking to coaches and seeing how I feel.”

How Akih feels is an interesting subplot to his recruitment. Miami and USC are still sniffing around the 5-foot-11, 185-pound athlete from Hayes (Delaware, Ohio) High School. Some days the path to a Buckeyes commitment feels inevitable. Other day, he’s interested in listening to what the Hurricanes and Trojans have to offer. There’s one month left before the country’s No. 14-ranked running back starts his official visits—Ohio State will kick off the visits on June 6-8—but how many of them he’ll actually take remains up in the air.

“It’s a good feeling to get to campuses and see what the cultures are of these schools,” he said. “Learning what these schools really stand for. But we’ll see what happens when the time comes.”

As mentioned, Ohio State has hosted Favour Akih and his family many times. When he gets to campus next, it’ll be an opportunity to see even more of the school as he and his parents seek a final answer.

“The education piece is big for me and my parents,” he said. “They want to see the day-to-day life and how the coaches operate behind the scenes.”

Carlos Locklyn and Ryan Day have each been integral in the recruitment of Akih to this point. Day’s leadership continues to capture his attention and Locklyn’s personal touch is a difference maker heading into decision day, month, whatever.

“I just like how Coach Day approaches the game of football,” he said. “It’s always in a professional manner. He pays attention to the small things that others overlook, and that’s really a difference between Ohio State in my big three.

“And then there’s Coach Lock. He just is much more personal with me than before. We’ve gotten really close.”

Ohio roots still matter for CJ Sanna

There are fewer and fewer recruits that the “old school” stuff still matters to.

CJ Sanna is definitely one of those recruits. The Olentangy (Lewis Center, Ohio) linebacker was offered by Ohio State and committed to the Buckeyes in March. He’d grown up dreaming of playing for the Scarlet and Gray and saw no reason to risk giving up that opportunity.

“You grow up here, and yeah it’s going to mean something a little more,” Sanna said. “That’s the dream school. If you grow up with a passion for Ohio State, that’s where you want to play and be developed.

“People leaving the state, that’s up to them, but home is home. Go where you feel better off. But Ohio State has the best coaches in the nation and they’re the national champs. There’s a Super Bowl winning defensive coordinator, the best receivers coach in the country. If someone wants to be the best, then Ohio State is the place to be.”

A year ago the 6-foot-3, 225-pound linebacker had no scholarship offers. He was under no illusion that the Buckeyes would ever come calling. Rather than complaining about it, Sanna just put his head down and went to work.

“Every day I was just trying to learn something new,” he said. “I was either watching film from last year or watching others. I had to transform my body, I lived in the weight room and went from 190 pounds to what I am now.”

Every recruit has a different motivation these days. CJ Sanna grew up watching Ohio State—he says he used to practice Braxton Miller’s famous spin move in his backyard—and that means something to him. Life has changed a lot for him in the last few months but Sanna doesn’t feel that yet. He’s still just a kid from Columbus.

“I really don’t think it’ll truly hit me until I’m on campus there,” he said. “But I understand what I am getting into. I know the hard work and the expectations at Ohio State and nothing is guaranteed until I’m there. There is a lot of work ahead.”

Ohio State and the Jordan Thomas recruitment

The Buckeyes missed out on in-state cornerback Elbert Hill and now Tim Walton et al are days away from finding out if they need to replace another top target on the recruiting big board.

Jordan Thomas, the top cornerback target on the board for Ohio State, will announce his college decision on May 12 at 2:30 p.m. EST at his high school. The Buckeyes hosted the 6-foot-1, 185-pound defensive back twice this spring and have been considered the favorite over the last few months as Michigan, Auburn, Notre Dame, Texas A&M, USC and others have tried to play catch up.

Many of the traditional recruiting adages are out the window in 2025 but Ohio State is a common denominator and that still has some relevance. Texas A&M has been the latest to surge and sources in Aggie-land view Ohio State and Auburn as the top competitors. Some Notre Dame folks think it’s the Irish and the Buckeyes.

If we’re handicapping this one heading into the weekend, we believe Ohio State is the team to beat but it’s risky to rule out anyone else in the NIL-era of college football.