The Buckeyes have added another critical in-state piece to their class of 2022 with the commitment of linebacker Gabe Powers earlier today. The 6-foot-4, 220-pounder out of Marysville (Ohio) had long been considered to be an Ohio State lean but that had not stopped other programs from coming in to see if they could lure Powers away.

In the end, they were unsuccessful as Powers has opted to stay close to home with the in-state power.

Powers is already rated as a high-four-star by Rivals.com in their early 2022 rankings and is a shoo-in to be a member of the Rivals100 when the list is updated later this summer.

The Buckeyes were very aggressive in their recruiting of the talented linebacker and Powers has already developed a solid relationship with his future position coach, Al Washington.

"We just talk about life outside of football and just football, stuff like that,” Powers told BuckeyeGrove during a June interview. “I'm very close with him and the things he says about me, he constantly reminds me that they're very high on me.”

Powers, as with many in-state players has had the opportunity to check out Ohio State in-person and was on campus last season to see the Buckeyes take on Penn State.

"You get to see the love and the brotherhood between everybody," Powers said of his previous visit to Ohio State in that June interview. "That was really cool seeing how they're there for one another and the brotherhood in there couldn't get much better. The bond between the players and coaches is very well."

Ohio State’s class of 2022 is now sitting at four players, all from the state of Ohio with three of them on the defensive side of the ball as Powers joins CJ Hicks and Jyaire Brown as defensive players in this class with Tegra Tshabola checking in as the lone offensive player to date.

We will have more on this big pick-up here soon at BuckeyeGrove.