Tavien St. Clair Wants The Best Recruiting Class In The Nation

It doesn’t always work out this way, but Ohio State head coach Ryan Day likes having a quarterback committed early in a class. That quarterback then helps with the recruiting class and also begins his process of becoming a team leader. Tavien St. Clair has been experiencing the ebbs and flows of the recruiting process first hand.

A five-star quarterback out of Bellefontaine, Ohio, St. Clair committed to Ohio State last June, and since that day he has been working the phones in order to help put together the best recruiting class in the nation.

St. Clair was the second verbal of the 2025 class for the Buckeyes. Though he was soon the only member of the class following the July decommitment of cornerback Jontae Gilbert. But things have picked up over the past 10 months. So much so that Ohio State currently has the No. 1 class in the nation per the 247Sports Composite.

It’s very early in the recruiting cycle and it’s rare that the team with the No. 1 class in April holds on to that ranking all the way through both signing days. But that’s not going to stop St. Clair and the Buckeyes from trying.

“Yeah, I think that’s just the expectation now at Ohio State,” he said. “You want to have the best class with the best team that you can possibly have. So, me kind of committing early and knowing that I was gonna have to be the leader of this class and seeing where it’s going and trending, I think it’s a major blessing to be a part of something like that.”

So who is on St. Clair’s short list right now?

“Really anybody and everybody, but right now I’m working on a lot of receivers,” he said on Sunday. “We got our tight end. Working on the running backs as well. But Jamie Ffrench. Dakorien Moore, we’re working on flipping him, and then for Vernell Brown as well. So you know, just a little list right now. Jordan Davison at running back. Trying to get this class built up even more.”

Ffrench and Moore are five-star receivers, and Brown is on his way up the rankings to join them. Ffrench decommitted from Alabama following Nick Saban’s departure. Moore is committed to LSU, but still talking with Ohio State. Brown is one of the top players in Florida and then No. 3 receiver in the nation per Rivals.

The most recent offensive commitment for the Buckeyes was four-star Oklahoma tight end Nate Roberts, who chose OSU over the in-state Sooners, Oregon, Penn State, and others. It was a commitment that St. Clair was very happy to see.

“Yeah, he’s been my guy for a long time,” he said. “When he came for his visit and made the commitment, I was there with him, actually. So we have a really close relationship. He’s like my brother. I’m just ready to build that bond and see what we can do together in the future.”

St. Clair is doing what he can to help put together a top recruiting class. Fans may ride the ups and downs of recruiting, but they aren’t putting the work in like he has. Building relationships, checking in, but also not trying to push too far. Everybody has to make the best decision for themselves, and he’s trying to show that the best decision is Ohio State.

“I think it’s kind of stressful when you have stuff put into it. Like when you put time into recruiting them and things like that,” he said. “But also knowing, from being a recruit, you want to go out and see the places that you don’t get to see normally, so I totally understand that. I just know that deep down, Ohio State’s the place for them and you’ve just got to continue to show them why it’s the best place in the country.”

Having that understanding of what it is like to be a recruit, St. Clair is able to communicate to other players on a different level than a coach. And it is helping him build relationships — and also one heck of a recruiting class.

“I feel like as a coach, sometimes you can’t really connect with the players as well as a player can connect with the players,” he said. “So I just try and talk to them more about life and then get a close relationship there and then talk about football outside of that.”

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