Indiana football raids Ohio for latest wave of verbal commitments

BLOOMINGTON — Indiana football landed three verbal commitments for its 2025 signing class from the state of Ohio over a 36-hour span

It started with Winton Woods defensive back Seaonta Stewart picking the Hoosiers on Monday afternoon.

Princeton linebacker Paul Nelson and Findlay offensive lineman Baylor Wilkin followed suit on Tuesday. They announced their commitments within minutes of each other to give IU 21 verbal commitments in the class. 

Stewart, who also took official visits to West Virginia and Purdue, was the highest ranked player of the bunch. The 6-foot-2, 180-pound defender is the fourth member of the class ranked among the top 750 players in the country (No. 686) per 247 Sports composite rankings. 

According to 247 Sports, the three-star recruit had 19 scholarship offers including ones from Oklahoma, Kentucky, Illinois, Michigan State, Penn State, Pittsburgh and Tennessee. 

It continues a trend of IU’s staff focusing on bulking up the team’s secondary. While Stewart has positional flexibility — he’s listed on recruiting services as an athlete — he’s the fifth defensive back in the class.

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Nelson had verbally committed to Cincinnati in June, but that decision came before he took an official visit to Bloomington. The defender attended Princeton High School that’s located less than 20 miles from the Bearcats’ campus in downtown Cincinnati. 

The three-star defender had 16 scholarship offers including ones from Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Michigan State. He was the No. 1,140 nationally ranked recruit and No. 113 linebacker in the 2025 class. 

Wilkin was a three-star interior offensive lineman with a list of scholarship offers that got a lot longer in June. The Hoosiers offered him along with Cincinnati, Miami (OH), Western Kentucky and Navy over a span of 10 days. 

More: Ranking Indiana football’s 2024 schedule from easiest opponents to toughest: Part 2

All three players fall within the region new Indiana coach Curt Cignetti laid out when he took the job. The Hoosiers has as many verbal commitments from Ohio (four) as in-state prospects. 

“I think most teams across the country, the plan is about the same,” Cignetti said, back in December. “You’ve got to do a great job in your state and the border states, 4 1/2, 5-hour radius.”

Indiana has 12 commitments within a five-hour drive from Bloomington that includes two recruits from Tennessee, two from Illinois and one from Missouri, but the new staff has promised to venture out as far as necessary to land the right mix of talent. 

“Wherever they are, we’ll find them,” Cignetti said. “If we think they’re a good fit and a good match, then we’ll get them on campus.”

Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.