Ohio State Buckeyes: 4-star recruit flips to Indiana for family connection

A football recruit.

While the Hoosiers have enjoyed a steady rise in profile and success over the past 10 years under head coaches Kevin Wilson and Tom Allen, they aren’t likely to start signing top 10 recruiting classes anytime soon.

Ohio State, which has signed the No. 1 class in the Big Ten in 10 of the last 11 years and had a top 10 national class in all of those years but one, probably hasn’t worried about the Hoosiers on the recruiting trail much lately and isn’t likely to in the future, either.

But this was a special case.

Dasan McCullough had more than football on his mind when he decided to flip from Ohio State to Indiana.

This move was about family.

“First off, I would like to thank Ohio State for the amazing opportunity they gave me,” he wrote in a message posted on social media. “Being a kid from Ohio, it was a true blessing. Special thank you to (linebackers coach) Al Washington for believing in my abilities as a player. With that being said, I have de-committed from Ohio State.”

In the same message, he announced committing to Indiana.

“I’m staying home,” he wrote. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity I refuse to pass up.”

That opportunity?

Playing for his father, Deland McCullough Sr., and brothers Deland Jr. and Daeh.

“The chance to play under the main I looked up to my whole life is truly amazing along with the opportunity to play with my best friends,” Dasan continued. “Daeh, who has the chance to be special and I get the opportunity to watch and play with, and my older brother, Deland, simply the reason I wear ‘1’ on my jersey and continue to play the game.”

If McCullough is a familiar name to football fans in Southwest Ohio, it should be.

Deland Sr. is among the best running backs in the history of the MAC and has become a respected coach. He graduated from Miami University as the league’s all-time leading rusher and put together a strong run at making the Bengals roster before suffering an injury late in training camp.

He later coached high school football in Cincinnati and spent a season as an intern at Miami before joining the staff at Indiana, where Wilson was the head coach.

The eldest McCullough became a rising star in the industry and went on to USC for a year before moving to the pro ranks. He was the running backs coach for the Kansas City Chiefs for the past three seasons before accepting an offer to return to Indiana in February as associated head coach and running backs coach.

Daeh McCullough is a four-star prospect in the 2023 class and the No. 6 safety in the country per 247Sports.

Deland McCullough Jr. was a three-star “athlete” prospect and the No. 13 player in Kansas when he signed with Miami two years ago. He played in one game and redshirted in 2019 and saw action in two of the RedHawks’ three games last fall.

Dasan McCullough is a four-star prospect who committed to Ohio State late last summer. He is the nation’s No. 50 player in the 247Sports Composite rankings and set to be the top prospect in Indiana after moving with his father.

Aside from being a talented player, he joined Alter linebacker C.J. Hicks as one of the leaders in the class helping to recruit other future Buckeyes for the past few months.

Hicks shared McCullough’s status update on Twitter along with the message, “Love you bro,” and then tweeted he is still firmly a Buckeye-to-be.

“For those who are asking, I am an OSU lock not going anywhere, and I wish nothing but the best for my brotha,” Hicks posted, adding hashtag-Buckeyes.

Dasan McCullough is just the second player to commit to Indiana for 2022. He joins Fayetteville, Ark., linebacker Kaiden Turner, a three-star prospect who committed last month.

Ohio State’s class remains No. 1 in the Big Ten but dropped to third in the country in the 247Sports Composite behind Georgia and LSU.

Hicks is a five-star prospect, the No. 1 player in Ohio and the No. 2 outside linebacker in the country.

Ohio’s No. 2 prospect, Gabe Powers of Marysville, is the No. 3 outside linebacker in the country and also an Ohio State commit, but linebacker appears to be a need in this class as three of the Buckeyes’ eight scholarship linebackers on the 2021 roster could graduate this year.

Not all the news regarding the Buckeyes’ 2022 class was negative.

Quinn Ewers, a quarterback from Southlake Carroll High School in Texas who is rated the No. 1 player overall in the country, told TexasFootball.com he remains firmly committed to head coach Ryan Day’s program.

“It’s all Ohio State,” Ewers said, adding other programs have pretty much given up trying to pry him away.

“They kind of stopped calling,” he said.

Ewers committed to Ohio State in November.

He had been headed to hometown Texas, and the decision to flip was viewed as another indication then-UT coach Tom Herman was in trouble.

Herman, who ironically first became nationally known as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the Buckeyes from 2012-14, was fired Jan. 2 and replaced with Steve Sarkisian, who had been offensive coordinator at Alabama.

That move created speculation Sarkisian could lure Ewers back to the Longhorns, but apparently Day and his staff have forged a strong enough relationship with him to prevent that.

“They are always competing for a national championship,” Ewers said. “Those are the main things: Relationships and competing for championships.”