2025 4-star defensive end Zion Grady commits to Ohio State football
Colin GayOhio State has landed a top defensive end in the 2025 recruiting class.
Four-star Alabama defensive end Zion Grady committed to Ohio State Monday. He picked the Buckeyes over programs such as Auburn, Florida State, Miami, Tennessee and Georgia.
Grady, a 6-foot-4, 235-pound athlete out of Enterprise, Alabama, is the No. 66 player in the 2025 class per 247Sports' composite rankings. He's also the sixth-best edge rusher in the country.
Grady earned an Ohio State offer in February after recording 87 tackles, 24 tackles-for-loss and 11 sacks during his junior season at Enterprise, per 247Sports. Grady was on campus for a visit May 3-5 and has an official visit with the Buckeyes June 21-23.
Grady is Ohio State's third defensive lineman committed in the 2025 class along with four-star Zahir Mathis - the No. 5 edge rusher in the class - and four-star interior lineman London Merritt.
Grady is one of 10 defensive players in the Buckeyes' top-ranked 2025 class along with Mathis, Merritt, five-star cornerbacks Devin Sanchez and Na'eem Offord, four-star linebacker Tarvos Alford, four-star safety Faheem Delane, four-star safety DeShawn Stewart, three-star safety Cody Haddad and three-star linebacker Eli Lee.
Zion Grady commitment analysis: What it means for Ohio State
Ben Blackmon has not known Grady for long, having just taken the football coaching job at Enterprise High School. But he could see through film why Ohio State was interested in a player like Grady.
“If you have a kid who can dominate the line of scrimmage, he is very explosive,” Blackmon said in May. “He is an edge setter type of kid… he’s versatile. Big, strong, physical, runs well. Has a real good understanding of leverage.”
But Grady also gives the Buckeyes another example of something they have not done historically. Grady is the second Alabama player to commit to Ohio State in the 2025 class along with Delane.
Heading into the 2024 season, Ohio State has two Alabama natives on its roster: running back Quinshon Judkins and center Seth McLaughlin. However, both Judkins (Mississippi) and McLaughlin (Alabama) joined the Buckeyes via the transfer portal.
If he signs his letter of intent, Grady would be Ohio State's first scholarship player out of Alabama to join the roster out high school since defensive tackle Donte Wheat in 1981.
To Blackmon, that's not something he sees in Ohio State, going into Alabama "and trying to steal one." But to him, it shows how highly regarded Grady is as a prospect.
"They’re going hard, putting a full-court press on him," Blackmon said.