Beating Akron wasn’t Ohio State’s only win on Saturday. The Buckeyes also received a commitment from Mission Viejo, Calif., four-star wide receiver Phillip Bell (6-2, 195) the same day, adding to their top 2025 recruiting class.
Bell is ranked the No. 184 player in the country, the 19th-best at his position and the 16th-best player in the state of California.
The Buckeyes were able to come out on top of Bell’s home-state USC Trojans in the recruiting battle for the four-star, pulling him away from his home-state school which was considered to be a favorite to land him earlier in the cycle.
“I really love the coaching staff,” Bell said about Ohio State after his game on Aug. 24. “Coach (Brian) Hartline has produced multiple first-round picks at receiver the last three or four years and that’s exciting. Ryan Day is a great head coach, an offensive-minded head coach and they always have great quarterback play at Ohio State. You know every year there they’re going to have a five-star quarterback running the offense and that’s big for me.”
Despite the fact that the Trojans were the more local choice for Bell, Hartline was able to add to the Buckeyes class which includes Oradell (N.J.) Bergen Catholic four-star Quincy Porter (6-3, 190), Wayne (N.J.) DePaul Catholic four-star De’zie Jones (6-0, 180) and Mansfield (Ohio) Ontario three-star Bodpegn Miller (6-4, 180) at the wide receiver position in addition to Bell.
While he did miss out on the No. 3 player in the country, Duncanville, Texas, five-star wide receiver Dakorien Moore (5-11, 182) – who committed to Oregon over Ohio State on July 4 – Hartline has still been able to put together yet another strong wide receiver class, keeping up his impressive stretch in recruiting.
