January 7, 2026 • 10 mins
Should the Buckeyes target defensive end Damon Wilson?
After years of pursuit in high school, could the Buckeyes again try to land talented defensive end Damon Wilson? In this episode of the Buckeye Weekly Podcast, hosts Tony Gerdeman and Tom Orr discuss the idea and what it would take to get involved in such a recruitment again.
After years of pursuit in high school, could the Buckeyes again try to land talented defensive end Damon Wilson? In this episode of the Buckeye Weekly Podcast, hosts Tony Gerdeman and Tom Orr discuss the idea and what it would take to get involved in such a recruitment again.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, welcome to the buck Eye Weekly Podcast. I'm Tony
Gerdaman here as always with Tom or Tom.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
How's it going, Tony? We're doing yet another transfer portal show.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
But do you remember like the early days of Facebook
where it was like relationship status and it was like single, married, whatever,
and then there was one that said, it's complicated. This
is the it's complicated version of a transfer portal show
for us.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Yeah, we are talking about Missouri defensive end Damon Wilson,
formerly a Georgia defensive end. Tom And when you mentioned
the Facebook aspect of this, I thought you're gonna have
to say, like we were mark safe from the Damon
Wilson recruitment and all that goes with that, because yes,
there there's been some lawsuits from Georgia and Damon Wilson
(00:52):
back and forth on some unpaid or unpromised or repromised
or repaid or whatever, all of the nil stuff that
you thought I sure would not want to have to
get lawyers involved.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Well they did. But now dam.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Wilson went to Missouri this past year as a junior,
had a very good season, what at twenty three tackles
nine and a half tackles for lost nine sacks thirteen
quarterback Hurries one of the guys that you can continue
to hear about in terms of the kind of pass
rusher that any program could use. And so then the
(01:28):
question becomes, Tom, could Ohio State use a pass rusher
like Damon Wilson?
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Well, it feels like the answers yes, it feels like
anyone could kind of use a Damon Wilson. Does Ohio
State desperately desperately need a Damon Wilson? Why don't you
tell me of Kenyatta Jackson's coming back, and then I'll
answer your question. But you answered my question first because
it's you know, I think Ohio State would love to
(01:59):
have a Aamon Wilson on their team or a Damon
Wilson type certainly on their team if you can bring
in nine sacks.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Sure, like no one is going.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
To say no no to that. But you know this
is not a desperation kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
This this is you know.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
This would be a certainly a very nice to have
for Ohio State. And this is you know, Damon Wilson
has an existing relationship with Larry Johnson where coming out
of high school, Ohio State was you know, a strong strong,
strong contender to land Damon Wilson. And that was that
class with Damon Wilson and Kean Keeley and what's his
(02:39):
name that ended up at South Carolina who you know,
all turned into you know, players of some renown in
the SEC. And it looked at one point like Ohio
State was in you know, at least decent shape for
all of them and ended up getting none of them.
So you know, if you could, you know, if you
could add Damon Wilson to the twenty twenty six Ohio
State defensive line, that would probably improve the twenty twenty
(03:02):
six Ohio State defensive line.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
You mentioned Kean Keeley, he is also in the portal.
Matteou youngle La was another guy in there. Ruben Bain
was the number ten edge in that class as well.
Pretty decent class the South Carolina. I believe that was
maybe the year before, year after year after that would
(03:28):
have been maybe the twenty twenty four class perhaps because yeah,
I'm not seeing that one. And again his name slips
my mind as well. But overall, with Damon Wilson, he's
a veteran and Ohio State is losing one veteran in
Kayden Curry this all just comes down to the unanswered
(03:50):
question right now of Kenyata Jackson. What is Kanyada Jackson doing?
And if he is leaving, then you've got a bunch
of money available. If he is not the and you know,
you don't really need to go get somebody as established
as Damon Wilson. Now what you could do is maybe
go get somebody less established like key On Keiley to
(04:11):
uh to help out. You know, he's not had the
same numbers as everybody else and maybe that's that's a
veteran that you can go bring in a lower price.
But also they've been developing their guys. They want to
see what what they've gotten. Episaitanola. They kind of starting
to see what they've gotten. Zion Grady would love to
see what they've gotten, Carrie Wilder the incoming true freshmen.
(04:34):
But the season is not a time for finding out,
it's the season is a time for knowing. And that's
why I I don't expect Ohio State to explore this,
and to this point there's been no indication that they will.
But at some point, and maybe that point becomes once
(04:58):
they know what Kenyat Jackson's decision is and I'll let
you know. The portal closes on the sixteenth. The the
declaration day for NFL is the fourteenth, so about another
ten days. We're gonna know a whole lot more about
all of this stuff in terms of who's coming, who's going,
(05:19):
who's you know, what the needs are. But if if
it's looking like Kenyanta Jackson is going to go, you've
got to make a move on somebody and a guy
like Damian Wilson, that's probably not what you want to pay.
But at some point Ohio State may have to pay
for somebody, and I'm guessing they That's what happened with
(05:41):
ethan Onianua last year. It's like, well, we've we've got
to pay for somebody, and sometimes I don't. It doesn't
always work out well. But then there's also, oh, well
we also had Philip Daniel. So I wonder if there's
a you overpay for somebody, but then the guy that
you adequately pay for ends up being the guy.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Right.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
I don't I don't know how many shores things.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
There are in the transfer portal, because you know, you
have seen lots of teams sink a lot of money
into very high profile guys, and you know, you go
back to the transfer portal ratings from last year, and
the top player overall according to at least some of
the some of the major systems overall quarterback Nico Iamliava,
(06:21):
which I'm sure meant that UCLA had a great season
and it all worked out, and their coach had a
great season and it all worked out for him, and
so yeah, so lots of guarantees in the transfer portal.
I'm with you in that I don't expect Damon Wilson
to be the guy Ohio State goes after.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
I mean, maybe there's an existing relationship. It's possible. We'll
see what happens with some other people, but I don't
know that.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
I don't know that he's necessarily the guy who I
think would be at the top of the list. I'd
probably have Chas Coleman, you know, ahead of him in
terms of like likelihood that they end up at Ohio State.
I don't think that there is any one guy that
we're talking about with Chas Golmer or Daman Wilson or
any of the other names that you've mentioned. Dylan Stewart,
by the way, was the guy from South Carolina that
(07:06):
we were both trying to think of and he was
a twenty twenty four and not a twenty twenty three.
Turns out, after you know, a couple decades of following recruiting,
some of these classes lend together.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
How about that? Who could have seen that coming?
Speaker 3 (07:18):
But I think rather than they have to get this guy,
it is they need to find someone they need to
They're gonna want to bring in some kind of depth
at defensive end, you know, and if you don't have
Kenyatta Jackson back, well, then it's probably even more important
that you bring in someone who's maybe more of a veteran.
(07:39):
If you have someone who you know, if ken Yatta
Jackson is back, then maybe you have the luxury of
bringing in someone who's a little younger and not necessarily
you know, it doesn't necessarily have the sort of back
of the baseball card stats that Damon Wilson does that
will command command the amount of money that Damon Wilson
will command. So you know, there's there's a lot of
moving parts here which you know I have not I'm
(08:01):
going to assume that the college football player personnel job
is going to age people like the presidency does, where
like you see someone at the start, you know, at
the start of the four year term and they look
one way and then you see them four years later
and it's like, wow, you you got you got old?
How did how did that happen? And the answer is, well,
(08:23):
have you heard of the transfer portal?
Speaker 1 (08:26):
That gives me a great idea because I'm going to
go grab one of your Mark Pantoni photos where you
know he's got the sunglasses on and whether it's all great,
he's on the sidelines or whatever, and have chat gpt
age it by like twenty five years and grade out
and then you know, tweet it out like live look
in at Mark Pantoni right now and see how that goes.
(08:46):
But yeah, if it comes down to Damon Wilson or
Chas Coleman, go get Chas Coleman because there's three years
of him as opposed to one year of Damon Wilson,
and I think the connection is stronger. So yeah, if
it's one or the other, just like with the video games,
always go get the younger guy. That's how we operate.
(09:07):
Just go get the younger prospect, because after all of
this is only just a video game, and younger players
are better than older players. As we all know, Tom,
anything else that you wanted to touch on with the
David Wilson thing before we head out.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
I think we've got it covered for the moment, and
if I think of anything, I'm sure we'll be back
on talking about someone else in the next seventeen minutes,
and then some we'll just talk about.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
It then.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Yet fair point, we'll just talk about we'll cover it
live as always. If you're watching, go ahead into thumbs up.
We'd appreciate it. If you're listening, a five star writing
review would be fantastic. And if you would like to
talk to us on this about about all of this,
you can do so. On the Buckey held a message
board present about Jefferyby's Columbus. You can find that at
bucke huddle dot com. Sign up, see what's going on there.
(09:54):
We are there day and night talking about all of
this stuff, recruiting team stuff, we're hearing stuff, we're seeing
all sorts of stuff, sorts of things like that. So
check it out, find us there. We'd love to see it.
Thank you all for tuning in, and we'll talk to
you all later.
Hey, welcome to the buck Eye Weekly Podcast. I'm Tony
Gerdaman here as always with Tom or Tom.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
How's it going, Tony? We're doing yet another transfer portal show.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
But do you remember like the early days of Facebook
where it was like relationship status and it was like single, married, whatever,
and then there was one that said, it's complicated. This
is the it's complicated version of a transfer portal show
for us.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Yeah, we are talking about Missouri defensive end Damon Wilson,
formerly a Georgia defensive end. Tom And when you mentioned
the Facebook aspect of this, I thought you're gonna have
to say, like we were mark safe from the Damon
Wilson recruitment and all that goes with that, because yes,
there there's been some lawsuits from Georgia and Damon Wilson
(00:52):
back and forth on some unpaid or unpromised or repromised
or repaid or whatever, all of the nil stuff that
you thought I sure would not want to have to
get lawyers involved.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Well they did. But now dam.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Wilson went to Missouri this past year as a junior,
had a very good season, what at twenty three tackles
nine and a half tackles for lost nine sacks thirteen
quarterback Hurries one of the guys that you can continue
to hear about in terms of the kind of pass
rusher that any program could use. And so then the
(01:28):
question becomes, Tom, could Ohio State use a pass rusher
like Damon Wilson?
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Well, it feels like the answers yes, it feels like
anyone could kind of use a Damon Wilson. Does Ohio
State desperately desperately need a Damon Wilson? Why don't you
tell me of Kenyatta Jackson's coming back, and then I'll
answer your question. But you answered my question first because
it's you know, I think Ohio State would love to
(01:59):
have a Aamon Wilson on their team or a Damon
Wilson type certainly on their team if you can bring
in nine sacks.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Sure, like no one is going.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
To say no no to that. But you know this
is not a desperation kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
This this is you know.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
This would be a certainly a very nice to have
for Ohio State. And this is you know, Damon Wilson
has an existing relationship with Larry Johnson where coming out
of high school, Ohio State was you know, a strong strong,
strong contender to land Damon Wilson. And that was that
class with Damon Wilson and Kean Keeley and what's his
(02:39):
name that ended up at South Carolina who you know,
all turned into you know, players of some renown in
the SEC. And it looked at one point like Ohio
State was in you know, at least decent shape for
all of them and ended up getting none of them.
So you know, if you could, you know, if you
could add Damon Wilson to the twenty twenty six Ohio
State defensive line, that would probably improve the twenty twenty
(03:02):
six Ohio State defensive line.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
You mentioned Kean Keeley, he is also in the portal.
Matteou youngle La was another guy in there. Ruben Bain
was the number ten edge in that class as well.
Pretty decent class the South Carolina. I believe that was
maybe the year before, year after year after that would
(03:28):
have been maybe the twenty twenty four class perhaps because yeah,
I'm not seeing that one. And again his name slips
my mind as well. But overall, with Damon Wilson, he's
a veteran and Ohio State is losing one veteran in
Kayden Curry this all just comes down to the unanswered
(03:50):
question right now of Kenyata Jackson. What is Kanyada Jackson doing?
And if he is leaving, then you've got a bunch
of money available. If he is not the and you know,
you don't really need to go get somebody as established
as Damon Wilson. Now what you could do is maybe
go get somebody less established like key On Keiley to
(04:11):
uh to help out. You know, he's not had the
same numbers as everybody else and maybe that's that's a
veteran that you can go bring in a lower price.
But also they've been developing their guys. They want to
see what what they've gotten. Episaitanola. They kind of starting
to see what they've gotten. Zion Grady would love to
see what they've gotten, Carrie Wilder the incoming true freshmen.
(04:34):
But the season is not a time for finding out,
it's the season is a time for knowing. And that's
why I I don't expect Ohio State to explore this,
and to this point there's been no indication that they will.
But at some point, and maybe that point becomes once
(04:58):
they know what Kenyat Jackson's decision is and I'll let
you know. The portal closes on the sixteenth. The the
declaration day for NFL is the fourteenth, so about another
ten days. We're gonna know a whole lot more about
all of this stuff in terms of who's coming, who's going,
(05:19):
who's you know, what the needs are. But if if
it's looking like Kenyanta Jackson is going to go, you've
got to make a move on somebody and a guy
like Damian Wilson, that's probably not what you want to pay.
But at some point Ohio State may have to pay
for somebody, and I'm guessing they That's what happened with
(05:41):
ethan Onianua last year. It's like, well, we've we've got
to pay for somebody, and sometimes I don't. It doesn't
always work out well. But then there's also, oh, well
we also had Philip Daniel. So I wonder if there's
a you overpay for somebody, but then the guy that
you adequately pay for ends up being the guy.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Right.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
I don't I don't know how many shores things.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
There are in the transfer portal, because you know, you
have seen lots of teams sink a lot of money
into very high profile guys, and you know, you go
back to the transfer portal ratings from last year, and
the top player overall according to at least some of
the some of the major systems overall quarterback Nico Iamliava,
(06:21):
which I'm sure meant that UCLA had a great season
and it all worked out, and their coach had a
great season and it all worked out for him, and
so yeah, so lots of guarantees in the transfer portal.
I'm with you in that I don't expect Damon Wilson
to be the guy Ohio State goes after.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
I mean, maybe there's an existing relationship. It's possible. We'll
see what happens with some other people, but I don't
know that.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
I don't know that he's necessarily the guy who I
think would be at the top of the list. I'd
probably have Chas Coleman, you know, ahead of him in
terms of like likelihood that they end up at Ohio State.
I don't think that there is any one guy that
we're talking about with Chas Golmer or Daman Wilson or
any of the other names that you've mentioned. Dylan Stewart,
by the way, was the guy from South Carolina that
(07:06):
we were both trying to think of and he was
a twenty twenty four and not a twenty twenty three.
Turns out, after you know, a couple decades of following recruiting,
some of these classes lend together.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
How about that? Who could have seen that coming?
Speaker 3 (07:18):
But I think rather than they have to get this guy,
it is they need to find someone they need to
They're gonna want to bring in some kind of depth
at defensive end, you know, and if you don't have
Kenyatta Jackson back, well, then it's probably even more important
that you bring in someone who's maybe more of a veteran.
(07:39):
If you have someone who you know, if ken Yatta
Jackson is back, then maybe you have the luxury of
bringing in someone who's a little younger and not necessarily
you know, it doesn't necessarily have the sort of back
of the baseball card stats that Damon Wilson does that
will command command the amount of money that Damon Wilson
will command. So you know, there's there's a lot of
moving parts here which you know I have not I'm
(08:01):
going to assume that the college football player personnel job
is going to age people like the presidency does, where
like you see someone at the start, you know, at
the start of the four year term and they look
one way and then you see them four years later
and it's like, wow, you you got you got old?
How did how did that happen? And the answer is, well,
(08:23):
have you heard of the transfer portal?
Speaker 1 (08:26):
That gives me a great idea because I'm going to
go grab one of your Mark Pantoni photos where you
know he's got the sunglasses on and whether it's all great,
he's on the sidelines or whatever, and have chat gpt
age it by like twenty five years and grade out
and then you know, tweet it out like live look
in at Mark Pantoni right now and see how that goes.
(08:46):
But yeah, if it comes down to Damon Wilson or
Chas Coleman, go get Chas Coleman because there's three years
of him as opposed to one year of Damon Wilson,
and I think the connection is stronger. So yeah, if
it's one or the other, just like with the video games,
always go get the younger guy. That's how we operate.
(09:07):
Just go get the younger prospect, because after all of
this is only just a video game, and younger players
are better than older players. As we all know, Tom,
anything else that you wanted to touch on with the
David Wilson thing before we head out.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
I think we've got it covered for the moment, and
if I think of anything, I'm sure we'll be back
on talking about someone else in the next seventeen minutes,
and then some we'll just talk about.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
It then.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Yet fair point, we'll just talk about we'll cover it
live as always. If you're watching, go ahead into thumbs up.
We'd appreciate it. If you're listening, a five star writing
review would be fantastic. And if you would like to
talk to us on this about about all of this,
you can do so. On the Buckey held a message
board present about Jefferyby's Columbus. You can find that at
bucke huddle dot com. Sign up, see what's going on there.
(09:54):
We are there day and night talking about all of
this stuff, recruiting team stuff, we're hearing stuff, we're seeing
all sorts of stuff, sorts of things like that. So
check it out, find us there. We'd love to see it.
Thank you all for tuning in, and we'll talk to
you all later.
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