Sting Factor: Four-star LB Dasan McCullough's flip
When a major program loses a key recruit, Rivals.com takes a look at how big of a blow it is to the respective school, analyzing it from a local and national level. To quantify the “sting” of each decommitment we assign a score from 1 to 10, with one being no big deal and 10 being a catastrophic hit.
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THE STORYLINE
This was an opportunity Dasan McCullough could not pass up, refused to pass up.
The high four-star linebacker now playing at Bloomington (Ind.) Bloomington South flipped his commitment from Ohio State to Indiana, a rare recruiting win for the Hoosiers in the sense they almost never get players who intended to play for the Buckeyes.
But this circumstance is a drastically different situation than most recruitments.
McCullough’s father is now on the coaching staff for the Hoosiers, his brother just committed to Indiana in the 2023 recruiting class and his other brother transferred from Miami (Ohio) to play for the Hoosiers.
The McCulloughs are coming in strong to Bloomington, and the 2022 four-star who had been committed to Ohio State since August just could not pass up that opportunity.
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LOCAL REACTION
“The loss of Dasan McCullough is a tough decommitment for the Buckeyes. First of all, McCullough has been one of, if not the best, recruiters for Ohio State in this class. He truly embraced the role of being a leader in this class, and formed strong bonds with several Buckeye targets, including Rivals100 safety Xavier Nwankpa.
“Also, McCullough is a perfect fit for OSU’s ‘Bullet’ position, which is a hybrid linebacker/safety role in its defense. The 6-foot-4, 215-pounder is one of the more versatile prospects in the 2022 class, and finding a replacement for him in this cycle is going to be difficult. Given Ohio State’s stellar recruiting and how this loss was more so due to factors out of their control, that drops the Sting Factor down just a little bit.” – Joseph Hastings, BuckeyeGrove.com
Sting Factor: 7
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NATIONAL REACTION
“McCullough is a fantastic player. He was an aggressive recruiter in Ohio State’s 2022 class. He has the potential to possibly be in the five-star discussion. It is a major recruiting haul for coach Tom Allen and the Hoosiers, and I completely understand why he made the decision.
“This one hurts Ohio State, but the Buckeyes should be fine. They had three of the top four outside linebackers committed to them and now it’s two with McCullough headed elsewhere. If anything, this might mean Ohio State turns up the heat even more on five-star OLB Shawn Murphy or another top target in a loaded position group.
"Keeping McCullough would have been great for Ohio State and losing him is not ideal, but the Buckeyes are loaded and there are still lots of options at outside linebacker.” - Adam Gorney, national recruiting director
Sting Factor: 4