Carnell Tate walked onto the practice field of the Woody Hayes Athletic Center Tuesday as an Ohio State Buckeye.
Flanked by senior advisor to the head coach Keenan Bailey, the 2023 five-star wide receiver wasn’t expected to do anything, taking a tour of his home for the first time after making his intentions known that he wanted to move in.
Approaching the garage door that led out to the turf fields, Tate saw a 6-foot-3, 215-pound quarterback with a goofy grin on his face.
Dylan Raiola, the four-star quarterback out of Chandler, Ariz. approached the No. 1 receiver in the 2023 class, dapping him up and relaying the simple phrase that echoed throughout the facility all day.
“Hey Carnell,” Raiola beamed, “back-to-back.”
Tate’s commitment quickly became old news as Ohio State secured a commitment from the No. 2 receiver in the 2023 class: Brandon Inniss, a 6-foot, 189-pound five-star out of Plantation, Fla. — the Buckeyes’ sixth commitment from Florida in the class.
After his first ever workout on campus for head coach Ryan Day, it’s all Raiola could think about, having already seen the program he’s about to join bring in three receivers in the 2023 class in Tate, Inniss and four-star Bryson Rodgers out of Wesley Chapel, Fla.
But Raiola’s excitement wasn’t about what Ohio State did in 2023. It was about what the Buckeyes could still do.
“Carnell yesterday and Brandon today, me being the future quarterback at Ohio State, it means a lot just to bring in weapons like that,” Raiola said. “Good people, people I want to be around.
“And we have one more receiver we want in 23 in Noah Rogers. We’re waiting for him. Maybe we’ll go three in a row, who knows?”
In the six weeks that Raiola’s been committed to Ohio State, he’s quickly become synonymous with players like CJ Hicks and Luke Montgomery: relentless peer recruiters building up the class that they want to see when they first arrive on campus.
In 2024, Raiola said he has a lot of targets: four-star wide receiver Jeremiah Smith, four-star wide receiver Joshisa Trader, four-star safety Peyton Woodyard, four-star athlete KJ Bolden and four-star running back Stacy Gage, who’s already felt the 2024 quarterback’s presence on the recruiting trail.
“I always want to build a program, make sure the team is good before I come,” Gage said. “Dylan, he recruiting me. He texting me almost every day. He texted me before I landed here. With him being here, it’s a good thing.”
But Raiola’s not only talking with Day and quarterbacks coach Corey Dennis about who Ohio State should target.
The 2024 four-star quarterback said he’s had conversations with wide receiver coach Brian Hartline and the other coaches on the offensive and defensive coaching staffs to see what guys they want brought in and what players they want his help to secure.
“I take a lot of pride in it, just having the guys around me,” Raiola said. “It really falls on me who I want to bring in, and my goal is to bring in the top class in 24 and maybe even 23. Build both and try and bring a championship back to Columbus.”
Raiola’s passionate about Ohio State. But it’s just a product of how he was introduced to his future home when he first visited at the end of March.
“I knew once they opened the doors, they weren't fake,” Raiola said. “It was a family, it was a brotherhood and I could see it was evident with the players, with the coaches, how they ran practice. I knew there was no place like it and it was special. It was an opportunity I couldn’t miss out on.”
And it’s an opportunity he doesn’t want others to miss out on too, saying that he already feels that love, that brotherhood from the program despite being a member of the 2024 class.
It’s something he saw from Day working with him on the practice field for the first time, soaking up everything he could and leaving eager to return and learn more.
Raiola wants the top players in the country to experience what he gets to experience.
“He just kept proving his point on why I came here and why I did it so early,” Raiola said of Day.
