Ohio
Avery Gach commits to Michigan over Ohio State. Is OSU’s 2025 offensive line class in trouble?
Ohio State seemed to have an idea of what Avery Gach would become.
The Buckeyes offered Gach in the middle of his sophomore season at Groves High School in Birmingham, Michigan, when the 2025 offensive lineman held one offer: Toledo.
Ohio State was first, followed days later by Michigan, months later by Michigan State and Wisconsin, and nearly a year later by programs such as Georgia, Southern California, Oklahoma and Florida State.
“In my mind, (OSU offensive line coach Justin Frye) did a tremendous job of identifying a talent not because everyone else had identified him, which is what happened afterward,” said Groves offensive coordinator Matthew Turner. “But he took the first step to make the identification.”
Ohio State made Gach a priority. But on Friday, Ohio State finished on the outside looking in as the four-star, 6-foot-5, 290-pound tackle committed to Michigan.
“It’s 45 minutes from my house,” Gach said before his Michigan commitment. “They just came off a national champion win. They brought 18 guys to the combine, which no team has done. And my main goal is to go to the NFL … so that just shows that they can do it.”
Per 247Sports’ composite rankings, Gach is the second-best Michigan prospect in the 2025 class behind five-star quarterback and LSU commit Bryce Underwood. Gach is also ranked as the No. 236 player in the country.
Groves coach Brendan Flaherty said Ohio State made Gach feel he was a priority throughout his recruiting process, from impromptu school visits by OSU assistant coaches to a tandem visit with offensive line coach Justin Frye and head coach Ryan Day.
Through multiple camp, game-day and unofficial visits to campus, Gach, Flaherty said, saw firsthand Ohio State’s pitch of how the program would get him better and help him get to the NFL.
“He’s a down-to-earth guy,” Flaherty said of Frye. “Like he’s been open and honest with Avery from the get go. I think one of Justin’s first comments was like, ‘Hey, I’m part of the process. But this is a business. You shouldn’t make a decision on picking a school on just your position coach or one coach. There’s a lot of factors here. I’m going to take care of you. Here’s how I coach, here’s what I do.’ ”
Gach said Ohio State “took a chance” on him as his second offer and that the Buckeyes were always good to his family.
But to Gach, no school provided the relationship Sherrone Moore provided him, having recruited him initially as Michigan’s offensive line coach before filling Jim Harbaugh’s shoes as the team’s head coach.
“There’s not a school that has done that,” Gach said. “I don’t think there’s a head coach that I’ve built a relationship with as well as coach Moore.”
What’s next for Ohio State offensive line recruiting in 2025?
Ohio State has already started its 2025 offensive line class with a prospect it desperately needed to secure.
Carter Lowe, a Toledo four-star tackle and the No. 50 prospect in the country, committed to the Buckeyes over Michigan in February. Lowe said after the OSU spring game he feels “completely at home” with Ohio State.
Of Frye’s eight signees in the 2023 and 2024 classes, five have been from Ohio, including the state’s top option in 2023, Luke Montgomery.
When it comes to out-of-state signees under Frye, one has entered Ohio State as a top-200 prospect: Indiana 2024 four-star Ian Moore. Ohio State finished as finalists for five-star Kadyn Proctor (Alabama) and four-star Olaus Alinen (Alabama) in 2023 and five-star Brandon Baker (Texas) in 2024.
In 2025, with Lowe already in the fold, Frye and Ohio State find themselves in a similar situation.
Ohio State is a finalist for David Sanders Jr., a 6-6, 285-pound five-star offensive tackle out of Charlotte, North Carolina, who is the No. 2 prospect in the class.
Providence Day School coach Chad Grier said Sanders is an NFL shoe-in and already puts up testing numbers that “would have been exceptional at the NFL combine.”
Grier said Ohio State has “done a great job” recruiting Sanders.
“The program speaks for itself,” Grier said. “David knows that and surely knows the pedigree of the guys that have come out of there and the guys that coach Day has been a part of producing.”
But Ohio State is one of six finalists vying for Sanders’ services along with Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee.
“It was no small feat to cut a list from 130 to six,” Grier said. “He left some really great programs and coaches he cared about off that list. But the final six were thoughtful and deliberate, and Ohio State earned the right to be on that stage with David.”
Sanders may be at the top of the list. But he’s not the Buckeyes’ only offensive line target in 2025. He’s joined by four-star Micah DeBose, four-star Douglas Utu and five-star Josh Petty, each of whom are top-100 linemen from outside of Ohio.
In the days leading up to Gach’s commitment to Michigan, Ohio State’s offensive line offer list grew to include Fort Worth, Texas, three-star Henry Fenuku and Roswell, Georgia’s Andrew Stargel, who is not ranked on 247Sports’ composite rankings but holds offers from Kentucky and Cincinnati.
Like Sanders, Ohio State was “on that stage” for Gach. The Buckeyes were there at the beginning, but came up short and will instead have to face him for the next three to four seasons.
Missing Gach is not the end-all, be-all of Ohio State’s 2025 offensive line recruiting class. But Gach is another miss on a list of highly-coveted misses, one that can only end with a highly-coveted out-of-state offensive line recruiting win.
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MIDDLEFIELD, Ohio (WKBN) — The Ohio State Highway Patrol’s Chardon Post is investigating a fatal plane crash that killed three people around 3:30 p.m. Saturday.
According to a press release, about one mile east of the Geauga County Airport, a Piper Comanche 250 crashed into a field.
The plane sustained major damage — killing three Ohioans who were identified as Thomas A. Cunningham, 76, of Rome, John W. Taipale, 71, and Alexander C. Taipale, 40, both from Geneva.
OSHP was assisted by the Geauga County Sheriff’s Office, Geauga County Coroner’s Office, Geauga County Emergency Management Agency, Middlefield Fire Department and Community Care Ambulance.
The Western Reserve Port Authority, Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport’s executive director, Anthony Trevena, reached out to our team with a statement regarding the crash.
“We were heartbroken to learn that members of our extended YNG and Youngstown aviation family, were victims in today’s crash in Geagua County. Our deepest condolences go out the Cunningham and Taipale families. We ask that their privacy please be respected during this difficult time. The FAA and NTSB are leading the investigation to determine the cause and will provide any updates as information becomes available.,” Trevena said.
The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board were notified of the crash.
The crash remains under investigation.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX) — As concerns have grown over the impact of social media on young people, lawmakers are pushing to keep protections in tact to keep children safe online.
This week the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Ohio’s law, the Social Media Parental Notification Act, requiring parental consent for children under the age of 16 to use social media must be restored. Gov. Mike DeWine signed the act into law in July 2023.
Netchoice, the trade group that represents Tik Tok, Snapchat, Meta and other tech companies contested Ohio’s law in 2024, arguing that it was overly broad, vague and represented an unconstitutional impediment to free speech.
“An unconstitutional law protects no one, and we remain focused on ensuring the First Amendment rights of Ohioans are protected,” Paul Taske, NetChoice Litigation Center Director said.
Cincinnati-based Sixth Circuit’s panel does not agree with this view point, determined that the law is not unconstitutional and had the block on the law’s enforcement vacated.
“At bottom, the Act imposes a parental consent requirement,” Judge Eric Clay wrote. “That requirement constitutes a marginal burden that precisely targets the multi-faceted problem that Ohio has identified: Children’s unsupervised assent to terms and conditions for use of platforms that take advantage of and harm them.”
The Social Media Parental Notification Act is a way to protect children’s mental health against the “intentionally addictive” nature of social media, according to U.S. senator Jon Husted.
The law requires companies to get parental permission for social media and gaming apps and to provide their privacy guidelines so families know what content would be censored or moderated on their child’s profile.
Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson says the ruling is “a win for Ohio families.”
“The court agreed that parents –- not social media companies –- should get a say in what kids see online,” he said in a statement. “We have an obligation to keep our children safe, and today, the most dangerous place for our kids is the internet. This decision gives parents the tools to be involved and provide oversight.”
LICKING COUNTY, Ohio (WCMH) — When you think of wild animals in central Ohio, a black bear likely isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. That’s why one Licking County family said they couldn’t believe their eyes.
It was an average afternoon drive home for father and son, Justin and Aaron Rhodes, when something walked into the road in front of them.
“I didn’t even think it was real at first, so that’s why I had to do the double take,” Justin said.
Aaron said he thought it was “just a weird looking dog”.
To their disbelief, it was a bear. The sighting comes just one year after the animal was spotted in Licking County for the first time in more than two decades.
“It’s kind of hard to believe that they’re even around this area,” Justin said. “I’ve lived in this area for about 24 years now, so it’s been quite a while, and I’ve never seen one before.”
These sightings are becoming more common. The Ohio Division of Wildlife said the black bear population is growing in the state, and they expect those trends to continue. Ohio saw a record number of confirmed sightings in 2025.
Lindsey Krusling, a wildlife communications specialist with the Ohio Division of Wildlife, said they are seeing more breeding females establish homes in the state, signaling the species is returning. Experts said the work restoring natural forest land is a big reason why.
“We’re starting to get some black bears coming in from neighboring states like Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Kentucky,” Krusling said. “They’re naturally crossing those state borders and coming back to Ohio because we have more of that habitat available to them, especially those forested areas.”
As the black bear population grows, the Division of Wildlife is expanding its research. They are putting radio collars on some bears they find in the state to help track data, such as if the bears are staying here, how far they’ve traveled and if they’re successfully having cubs.
“We’re trying to get quite a bit of data from these bears, and we’re super excited to see where this takes us,” Krusling said.
The research is in the beginning stages, but they expect population growth to continue, Krusling said.
Sighting reports can be submitted here to help the Division of Wildlife track black bear populations throughout the state.
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