COLUMBUS, Ohio — In early August, five-star safety, and Shaker Heights product, Trey McNutt stood up and donned an Oregon hat and chain, opting to turn down his in-state Buckeyes to head thousands of miles westward to play for the Ducks.

From the outside, it looked a bit off — a five-star player from Ohio going somewhere other than Ohio State is a relatively uncommon occurrence.

But was that a one-off, or a sign of things to come? And could that be a problem for Ohio State moving forward?

“It just shows you that distance doesn’t mean anything,” McNutt told Cleveland.com at the time. “When you go to a place that makes you feel like home, and you have a good system there, and everybody’s genuine, it shows everyone that it’s OK to leave.”

Since Dan Lanning took over at Oregon, the Ducks’ recruiting has reached new heights — not even accomplished since they reached two national title games in a decade.

The Ducks, in the 2023 and 2024 classes, ranked 9th and 3rd in the 247Sports team composite rankings. And in 2025, while they currently rank 8th, they have the highest average player rating of any program in the country.

And some of those players that have made up, and make up, those classes have chosen Oregon over Ohio State.

“Really just the coaching staff,” five-star Archbishop Hoban 2026 cornerback Elbert Hill said in late September of Oregon’s impression on him. “They really go for guys that they think are some dudes. Me just knowing they’re coming after me, that just boosts my confidence even more. They’re coming after a dude.”

Notably, in the 2025 class, Ohio State was in on five-star receiver Dakorien Moore, McNutt, four-star cornerback Dorian Brew and four-star running back Jordon Davison. And in 2026, four-star quarterback Jonas Williams. All of them committed to Oregon.

So does that mean Oregon has supplanted Ohio State as the Big Ten’s preeminent program, or even recruiting operation? It does not.

But, it shows that the Ducks are always going to be in the hunt for top high school prospects — and that’s something the Buckeyes haven’t had to experience much in the Big Ten. In short, there’s a true adversary to Ohio State recruiting in the conference now.

“He has a relentless approach that is based on his success in the SEC, that goes a long way when he got here coming right off the national championship with Georgia,” said Scott Reed, who covers Oregon for Duck Sports Authority, as part of the Rivals network. “That goes a long way to selling kids on what the vision of the future looks like and that you can achieve it if we do it the right way.”

In the 2023 class, Ohio State placed fourth in the 247Sports team rankings, and the next closest Big Ten competitor was Penn State at 14th. In 2022, Ohio State also placed fourth, while Penn State and Michigan placed at sixth and ninth. In 2021, Ohio State was second, ahead of the next closest Big Ten Team, Michigan, at 13th.

The SEC, and occasionally, Clemson, Notre Dame and USC have presented some modicum of discomfort for Ohio State for individual recruits. But now with conference realignment, the threat of losing on a national recruit — for both Oregon, Ohio State, USC, Michigan and every other Big Ten school — and then seeing them on the field multiple times a season is now on the table.

“The relationship I have with their outside linebackers coach, and he’s telling me and pushing me that they don’t really recruit a lot of people,” 2026 five-star defensive end Zion Elee, from Baltimore, told Cleveland.com in August. “They keep the edges recruiting tight. If I go there, I’ll have a nice spot, is what they’re promising.”

Naturally, there’s the thought that Nike CEO Phil Knight has financed Oregon to a level where players only commit there for the money. Lanning took exception to that narrative back in July.

But even if Knight and the Ducks’ NIL collectives are handing out blank checks, that’s something Ohio State and other Big Ten schools have to combat either way.

“You think about the advertising, people are out there talking about Oregon,” Reed said. “Even if it’s untrue stuff, they’re out there talking about Oregon again. And I think that’s the kind of stuff that the staff and the administration like is, if you’re saying that, if Kirby Smart is saying that on national television, people are hearing about Oregon and they’re hearing about what they have out there and that makes other people get interested in the future.”

There are still issues that Oregon has to work through, though, even with the recent bump in recruiting.

Notably, Oregon is not a talent-rich football state for high school talent, meaning that the coaching staff has to convince players from historic Big Ten and SEC territories to come to the Pacific Northwest. Then, as Scott noted, there’s the issue of offensive and defensive linemen — for whatever reason — usually not opting to stray far from home. That, in part, has led to the narrative in the past that Pac-12 schools aren’t as tough or physical as Big Ten and SEC schools.

But in any case, there’s not much to debate about Oregon’s recruiting operation at the moment. The Ducks have dipped into Ohio, Florida and Texas to bring elite-level talent to Eugene. And they’re going to continue to work those relationships for as long as Lanning and his staff are at Oregon.

“Coach Dan Lanning, he’s different,” McNutt said. “He’s got a different vibe to him. He’s hungry. It’s just the whole team, they’re hungry. The energy there is different.”

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Pick 3

Drawings are held daily, seven days a week, at 12:29 p.m. and 7:29 p.m., except Saturday evening.

Midday: 7-3-0

Evening: 9-9-6

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Pick 4

Drawings are held daily, seven days a week, at 12:29 p.m. and 7:29 p.m., except Saturday evening.

Midday: 4-2-1-9

Evening: 7-1-1-0

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Pick 5

Drawings are held daily, seven days a week, at 12:29 p.m. and 7:29 p.m., except Saturday evening.

Midday: 8-8-2-3-1

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Rolling Cash 5

Drawings are held daily, seven days a week, at approximately 7:05 p.m.

02-27-30-32-37

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Drawings are held daily, seven days a week, at approximately 10:35 p.m.

07-08-26-27-47, Lucky Ball: 13

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It’s probably fair to say that Ryan Day is the first coach in college football history to amass a 61-8 record, yet still have something to prove. And it’s not just nationally, but with his own intense, and occasionally desperate, fan base.

It’s never easy succeeding a larger-than-life legend, a bill that fits Urban Meyer. So Day knew the challenges that came from the advantage of getting the keys to the Buckeyes Lamborghini.

He’s been derided as being born on third base by getting Ohio State as his first head coaching job, but he’s a former New Hampshire quarterback who overcame, at age 9, the death of his father by suicide, to grind his way to the top.

Six seasons in, Day, 45, has succeeded. Well, except for the part where some people point more to those eight losses than those 61 victories.

Day is 1-6 against teams in the top five of the College Football Playoff rankings. He is 1-3 against Michigan overall, including losses in each of the last three years. He is 1-3 in the College Football Playoff.

Ohio State has a reputation for steamrolling weaker opponents. Day has never lost to an unranked team and is unbeaten against every Big Ten team that isn’t located in Ann Arbor. That’s not nothing.

It even can beat the occasional highly ranked team, but the joy seems not to last. In 2020, it took down Clemson in the College Football Playoff … only to get blown out by Alabama in the title game.

Last season, it won late at Notre Dame, which was No. 9 at the time, but no one was overwhelmingly impressed because the Irish rarely win big ones either and Day spent the postgame seemingly challenging Lou Holtz to a fight.

And so, even as Ohio State (5-0) has blown out Akron, Western Michigan, Marshall, Michigan State and Iowa to the tune of 230-34, there remains doubts both in Columbus and across the country.

Sure, the Buckeyes can be bullies, but can they bully a bully? Can this team win it all?

No. 3 Oregon awaits Saturday in Eugene, a seemingly fair fight for the Bucks. It’ll count in the race for a Big Ten title, a playoff berth and playoff seeding. And it will count on the reputation, both near and far, of Ryan Day.

“A lot is at stake this weekend, which is exactly the way we want it,” Day said.

Nothing will be decided on Saturday, but it’s fair to watch and wonder. If not this year, then when? If not with this team, then why not?

The Buckeyes are always talented and Day has proven to be every bit the elite recruiter, especially nationally, that Meyer was. Yet as good as the roster always looks, this year is something else.

During the summer Meyer declared this “might be the best roster in college football in the last decade.” As bold of a statement as that was, nothing it has shown so far suggests Meyer is wrong.

Ohio State followed the Michigan playbook this year in using NIL money to encourage NFL-caliber players to skip the draft and return to campus for a national title run.

That meant guys such as running back TreVeyon Henderson, cornerback Denzel Burke, wideout Emeka Egbuka and defensive lineman J.T. Tuimoloau and Jack Sawyer — among others — all came back from an 11-1 regular season team.

Then Day hit the transfer portal to add quarterback Will Howard (Kansas State) and more running back depth in Quinshon Judkins (Ole Miss).

The Buckeyes’ two best players are actually newcomers — safety Caleb Downs, who arrived from Alabama after Nick Saban’s retirement, and true freshman wide receiver Jeremiah Smith, who Ohio State beat Miami and Florida State to sign last February.

It’s a breathtaking collection. Anything can happen in Autzen Stadium, but one of those “anythings” is a show of force that has the rest of the country sitting up and wondering if Ohio State can be beaten. The Buckeyes are 3.5-point favorites.

So Day walks into another big game projecting confidence. He likes to say it’s about Ohio State, not who Ohio State is playing. Internally, he’s likely correct. Externally though?

“I think you always try to make sure you identify the things that fit the team,” Day said. “You know, all of a sudden you don’t just change because it’s a quote-unquote big game. They’re all big.

“If we say it’s about us all the time, then it’s about us in the games like this, which it is. So we’re going to continue with the same routine.”

Ryan Day has done a great job at Ohio State, just not great enough for some. On Saturday, he’s got the stage to begin to prove himself capable of reaching that final level.

He’s certainly got the team to get there.