Jayden Ballard was a top-100 (inside the top-50 at one point) national recruit, and one of the highest-rated players in Ohio coming out of high school — which is no surprise, given that he set records for the legendary Massillon Tigers. Ballard’s OSU bio lists him as the former #8 WR in the country, while 247 Sports had him ranked 15th. Regardless of overall class rank, Ballard was a unanimous top-5 player in the state of Ohio and committed to Ohio State during the summer of 2019.
Marvin Harrison Jr. committed shortly thereafter, and Emeka Egbuka did so much later in the process, making Ballard the third-highest WR recruit in his team’s signing class.