Eastside Catholic five-star defensive end J.T. Tuimoloau commits to Ohio State
J.T. Tuimoloau will continue his already storied football career at Ohio State.
The Eastside Catholic High School standout, who is considered not only the top recruit in Washington in this loaded 2021 class, but the top recruit in the country by 247Sports.com, revealed his much-anticipated commitment to the Buckeyes on Sunday afternoon during an announcement ceremony on CBS Sports HQ.
“This has been one long and thoughtful voyage,” he said on the broadcast, surrounded by his family. “That being said, I’m blessed to announce that for the next three to four years I will be attending the Ohio State University.”
The five-star defensive lineman, who won a pair of Class 3A state football titles as a four-year starter for Eastside Catholic, chose Ohio State over offers from programs spanning multiple Power Five conferences.
He narrowed his choices to five schools in December — Alabama, Ohio State, Oregon, USC and hometown Washington — before visiting four of the programs this spring. He canceled what would have been his final visit to Alabama last month, opting to focus on the three remaining Pac-12 schools and the Buckeyes.
Though Tuimoloau had three West Coast programs in his final four, recruiting analysts had long predicted his eventual landing spot might be Ohio State.
“It just felt like home,” Tuimoloau told CBS Sports HQ of his visit to Columbus.
Tuimoloau, a 6-foot-5, 275-pound defensive end, has been considered among the best pass rushers in the nation throughout his high school career.
He collected 64 tackles and 11 sacks his last full season in 2019 — the spring 2021 season was delayed and shortened by the COVID-19 pandemic — and scored the game-winning touchdown in the state title game against O’Dea that season to pace Eastside Catholic to back-to-back championships.
“His tangible things: speed, agility, strength are a plus,” Eastside Catholic coach Dominic Daste told The News Tribune earlier this year. “What sets him apart is his intelligence.”
Tuimoloau was a two-time Associated Press all-state pick during his high school career at Eastside Catholic, including being named the 3A player of the year as a junior. He was both a Northwest Nuggets and Western 100 selection by The News Tribune in 2021. He was also one of four All-American Bowl selections from the state in this class, though the annual game was not played due to the pandemic.
Tuimoloau becomes the fifth recruit ranked in the top 10 in the 2021 class by 247Sports to commit to the Buckeyes. He will also join the second-ranked recruit in Washington — and eighth-ranked recruit nationally — in this class in five-star receiver Emeka Egbuka this season in Columbus.
Egbuka, who was the Associated Press all-state player of the year as a junior in 2019 and the 2019 TNT All-Area player of the year, starred for three seasons at Steilacoom, and led the Sentinels to a program-best runner-up finish in 2A his final season, before enrolling early at Ohio State this spring.
Both Tuimoloau and Egbuka heading to Ohio State marks the first time in recent memory the state’s top two recruits have departed for the Big Ten.
Five of the state’s top 10 recruits, as ranked by the 247Sports composite, will join the Huskies for the 2021 season, led by five-star quarterback Sam Huard, who is considered the state’s third-ranked recruit and another top recruit nationally, and broke the state’s career passing record in his final season at Kennedy Catholic.
Four-star recruits in O’Dea’s Owen Prentice (No. 5 in Washington by composite rankings), Kenendy Catholic’s Jabez Tinae (No. 7) and Bethel’s Will Latu (No. 8) have also signed with UW.
Two more of the state’s four-star recruits are also Pac-12-bound, with Lincoln’s Julien Simon (No. 4) already enrolled at USC and Kennedy Catholic’s Junior Alexander (No. 6) heading to Arizona State.
This story was originally published July 4, 2021 at 1:11 PM.
