With a busy June now in the rear-view mirror, BuckeyeGrove is back with our first summer edition of Recruiting Roundtable.

Since it's been a few weeks that we've released a piece like this, there is a lot to talk about when it comes to Ohio State football recruiting.

Down below, Carson MacRae and Joseph Hastings share their thoughts on the success Ohio State has enjoyed on the trail over the past few weeks. They also predict who could be next the commit for the program, as well as what their 2022 defensive line class may look like.

MacRae: Personally, I think the Buckeyes have come out as expected. Originally, I think both Joseph and I had projected between 4-6 commits coming from the June visits in favor of the Buckeyes. Obviously, the commits did not all make their pledge to the Ohio State staff in June. We've seen a couple of them trickle into July but that was to be expected.

Just to quickly recap so far, we have seen Ohio State land Kaleb Brown, Dallan Hayden, Terrance Brooks, Kojo Antwi, and, of course, J.T. Tuimoloau following the start of June. I think this is a tremendous haul so far and I do not believe it is going to slow down any time soon.

I mentioned in last week's Skull Session that I needed to see a couple more boxes checked after receiving positive information on five-star Kam Dewberry. The day after, I submitted my FutureCast for the Buckeyes to land Dewberry as I was informed he would be looking to commit soon rather than later and I’ve had the Buckeyes leading following that visit.

I think we're officially on commit watch with Dewberry as well as Chris McClellan. So, in terms of how I would rate the recruiting level of Ohio State following the dead period, I would have to give them a 9 out of 10 right now.

Hastings: It’s hard to imagine things going much better for Ohio State than it has since the dead period ended.

They’ve been able to host over 200 total visitors on campus, 44 of them being official visitors. Of these official visitors (not counting their commits), a dozen of them are members of the Rivals100, while another dozen are Rivals250 prospects outside of the top-100 overall.

The Buckeyes made inroads with a multitude of 2022 and 2023 recruits throughout the month and in the week since June ended. They became the leader for Rivals100 defensive linemen Chris McClellan and David Hicks Jr., dished out offers to over 20 rising juniors and, according to some analysts and publishers on Rivals.com, are expected to land elite safety Zion Branch.

Also, we have not even mentioned that they earned commitments from five prospects. Three of those are top-70 recruits overall in Kaleb Brown, Terrance Brooks and J.T. Tuimoloau, with Tuimoloau being labeled as the No. 6 prospect in the 2021 class.

The other two were Dallan Hayden and Kojo Antwi, the program’s top remaining targets at running back and wide receiver, respectively.

So, Ohio State wound up winning a tough battle for one of the longest recruitments in recent memory, wrapped up running back, cornerback and wide receiver recruiting, and they’re keeping themselves on track to secure their first-ever No. 1 class.

Another small, but significant note, is that five-star quarterback Quinn Ewers took two visits to Columbus in the span of less than a couple of weeks. The second one, which was an unofficial, included a tweet from him saying, “got homesick.”

If there was any doubt before the dead period ended that Ewers was not 100 percent locked in with the Buckeyes, then those concerns were resolved in June.

Overall, while I felt a commitment from Branch or Xavier Nwankpa would have made this the perfect scenario for Ohio State, there’s no denying that they’ve had arguably the best five-week span of recruiting in the nation.

MacRae: This question will more or less piggyback off of the last other one, but I am going to go with Kam Dewberry as my source who is close to that recruitment informed me Dewberry is looking to move his commitment date up following some “recent movements”.

Those movements I believe are in line with him becoming a Buckeye as he made it very aware that he was blown away and his Ohio State visit surpassed his expectations.

The other obvious answer would be Chris McClellan as he seems to have Ohio State in his driver seat of the recruitment. The toughest part about predicting McClellan right now is he has essentially shut down all of his recruiting updates.

If you follow McClellan on Twitter, you will see he made a tweet yesterday informing the media that he is taking a break from recruiting right now to focus on his school work and track. You have to commend him for such a humbling decision, although it does make things a little bit harder for us to analyze. With McClellan focusing on track and school for now, I have to assume we're more than a few weeks out at the minimum of a commitment.

Hastings: This is a difficult one as, to our knowledge, no prospect trending toward the program has released a date for their commitment.

Treyaun Webb is indeed set to commit on July 17, but we are hearing that he’s likely to wind up giving a verbal pledge to Oklahoma. Jaylen Early and Markeith Williams will announce in early August, but we’re expecting them to wind up elsewhere at the next level.

That leaves me with a few contenders in the 2022 class, all of whom officially visited Ohio State last month: Chris McClellan, Kam Dewberry and George Fitzpatrick.

Starting with McClellan, the Rivals100 defensive tackle labeled the Buckeyes as his leader after officially visiting Columbus the last weekend of June. McClellan was taken aback by his time with Larry Johnson, the plan that he has for him in college, the possibility of playing early, and his overall experience while at the school.

I would have been inclined to say McClellan, but he recently tweeted that he is taking a break from recruiting to pay attention to his fast-track classes. So, while I expect Ohio State to land him, I don’t believe he will be the next to commit as his focus is elsewhere at this time.

Moving over to Dewberry, both Carson and Kevin Noon have submitted FutureCasts in favor of the Buckeyes to land the five-star offensive lineman. I also heard that the program is trending for him, and I think this one could come down to Texas A&M and Ohio State.

What makes me hesitate here, however, is that Dewberry still has two official visits left to take. Although tOSU seems to be trending for him, Dewberry could absolutely hold off until the fall to take his officials before making a decision.

Finally, we arrive at George Fitzpatrick. I had previously heard that Ohio State could be as high as No. 1 on his leaderboard, but it’s important to note that he has not come out and said this himself.

Also, we are hearing that it is possible Fitzpatrick could decide soon, which benefits the program greatly if they are indeed in the lead for him. If he does commit in the near future, I’d give the Buckeyes a good shot at landing the four-star offensive lineman out of Colorado.

While this is a tough one to answer since we don’t know commitment dates for any prospects trending toward Ryan Day’s program, I think I will go with Fitzpatrick for this response. If he does wrap up his recruitment and what we’ve heard about Ohio State’s possible standing with him is true, then he may be the next one to join this 2022 class.

MacRae: Larry Johnson is the best of the best. After the Tuimoloau news, I was starting to think this could stray top 2022 edge rushers away from the Buckeyes as Ohio State is in on a few of them right now. For starters, the priority target for Johnson in 2022 has been Omari Abor and I believe the Buckeyes have remained in a good position following the Tuimoloau commitment.

Tuimoloau, for those who also do not know ,has started to do some recruiting of his own on Omari Abor via Instagram.

I think the Buckeyes are in great shape to land the highly coveted edge rusher and the Buckeyes continue to grab the top talent out of the state of Texas.

Furthermore, I recently got tipped off about some news towards another top-level edge rusher in Enai White. After some digging, I can confirm Ohio State is still very much in the race for White. I know there has seemed to be some murky water when looking into White’s recruitment as many thought he would leave the state of Pennsylvania destined for SEC country.

However, I think the Buckeyes are in a three-horse race with Georgia and Alabama. Could the Buckeyes do it again? I think it’s very realistic, and what a win that would be for Ohio State to beat Alabama on the trail once again after getting Tuimoloau to cancel his visit to Tuscaloosa.

With saying that, I will not put White in my defensive line class prediction yet, but I definitely do think they end up with Abor, McClellan, Caden Curry, Hero Kanu, and Kenyatta Jackson. Jackson would be subject to change if the Buckeyes are able to land White.

Hastings: There are a lot of ways I can see Ohio State’s defensive line class playing out. As such, it is difficult to make a definitive prediction at this time since there are so many possible combinations and they’ve yet to receive a commitment from a prospect in this position group.

But we’ll take a crack at answering this question.

First, I’ll start with the one player I think is closest to joining this class: McClellan. Even though his focus is on his schoolwork, I believe Ohio State is on the path of adding him to the fold. It may take a few weeks, but the Buckeyes are in the driver’s seat here and are rightfully viewed as the favorite.

Next, we’ll go to Enai White. I’m hearing the staff feels really good about their chances of landing him. White is slated to announce his top four soon, and I expect the Buckeyes to make the cut.

I also heard from one of his coaches that he believes J.T. Tuimoloau committing to Ohio State would have no impact on White’s consideration of the program. This may come down to Alabama and Ohio State but, as things stand today, I will go with the Buckeyes.

Staying on the topic of d-ends, I’m going to go with Omari Abor in this class as well. This also may come down to the Buckeyes and Crimson Tide, but I believe Larry Johnson will put tOSU over the top in a similar way to how he propelled them to a victory for Tuimoloau.

Omari’s family was sold on Ohio State following their official visit the first weekend of last month, and Johnson made sure to prioritize them by spending essentially the whole weekend around the Abors. This is going to be a close one, but I envision Johnson working his magic yet again.

That leaves me with three more names, though I have a feeling the Buckeyes may land just two of them: Caden Curry, Kenneth Grant and Hero Kanu. Curry is versatile enough to slide along the d-line, Grant is your traditional, massive interior d-lineman who will be a zero-tech in college, and Kanu will be a three-tech with immense potential.

I’m going to go with Curry and Grant, but I would not rule out Kanu whatsoever. I just think it’s a little too early in his recruitment to say anything definitive as I see his officials in the fall playing a huge factor here.

So, to answer the question posed above, I see Ohio State adding Abor, Curry, Grant, McClellan and White to this 2022 defensive line class. This would be a solid group as Curry and McClellan both have position flexibility, Abor and White will be dominant pass rushers after putting on some more weight, and Grant will be a solid run-stuffer in the middle of the trenches.

Stay tuned to BuckeyeGrove.