With the Natty back in Columbus, Ryan Day and Ohio State’s tryst with fate is complete! For these bluebloods to go on a drought without one only made the triumph sweeter and the hardware shinier. On their way to the top, they squashed Tennessee and laid flowers on Oregon’s proverbial coffins at the Rose Bowl. That Oregon win represented something greater than even the blowout scoreline could project. The Ducks won the Big 10 and were ranked No. 1 in the country. Ryan Day snatched Dan Lanning’s chain that evening in Pasadena and that comes with a cost. Lanning is out for revenge.

With fall still a distance away, Oregon is battling on the recruitment frontier. The Ducks currently have a top-3 ranked commit class for 2026 (5-star OT Jackson Cantwell, 5-star QB Jared Curtis, and 5-star OT Immanuel Iheanacho). Those sweet Phil Knight-Nike dollars and Dan Lanning’s sustained progress are a deadly concoction. As an extension of their amazing efforts on the recruitment trail, Oregon commit Kendre Harrison has just made a massive announcement. The 5-star tight end has prematurely shut down his recruitment, reported On3’s Hayes Fawcett. Harrison is completely locked in with coach Lanning and has already made his mind up. “What’s understood don’t have to be explained, I’m HOME…SCO DUCKS,” he said. For the No. 1 TE prospect in his class to show, this level of confidence in the Ducks is huge. But how does this pertain to Ryan Day’s Buckeyes?

Scratch the conspicuous surface, and you’ll notice Oregon is coming for one of theirs. Did Kendre Harrison’s announcement just become the vessel for a major flip? Ohio State has a storied lineage of wide receivers. Jeremiah Smith is only the latest and arguably greatest of their history with the position. The likes of Marvin Harrison and Garrett Wilson are a couple of others over recent years. The Buckeyes are all lined up to continue this succession of elite WRs with 5-star Chris Henry Jr. Or are they?

The Cali native has been committed to OSU since 2023 and is rated the absolute top prospect in the class of ‘26 by ESPN. A huge coup for Coach Day. However, he may be getting twitchy feet. Just maybe, Oregon’s magnetic allure could be getting Chris Henry Jr. to turn his head towards his native Pacific coast. His interaction with the Kendre Harrison announcement, coupled with the location he interacted from, will not go down well in Columbus. Henry commented a subtle yet telling “🔥” emoji under Hayes Fawcett’s post for Harrison’s announcement. This may not be much in isolation, but there is no smoke without fire, and we quite literally have some fire. 

To add to Ryan Day’s peril, Chris Henry Jr. was simultaneously in Eugene, Oregon, as this news broke. He’s on an official visit to the Ducks’ campus. This flirtation with Oregon, while taking a visit there mere hours ago, doesn’t bode well for Coach Day. Henry’s itinerary also consists of Miami, his in-state USC, and Ohio State themselves.

There’s a potential inclination to stay close to home with him scheduling visits to USC and Oregon. It’s not quite time to sound the alarm bells, but the Buckeyes need to be wary. Losing Chris Henry Jr. will hurt massively, but his flipping to another Big 10 contender will be a travesty. However, let us not forget that Ohio State promoted receivers coach Brian Hartline to offensive coordinator last month, and this is a move the player was happy about. This move only strengthened his pledge to the Big Ten program.

“I love this move,” Henry said in February. “Coach Hartline knows how to develop receivers better than anyone, and now with him as OC I know he’s going to put us receivers in the best position to dominate for sure.”

With all this said, the uninitiated may be wondering why all this fuss about Henry. Well, he’s earned it and more. Henry has been through tragic adversity to get to this point.

With Chris Henry Jr, Ryan Day is getting a battle-tested player and human!

If you had to make a wide receiver in a lab, you’re probably going for a frame standing at 6’5 and 195lb. Chris Henry Jr. is built like a WR1 to the T. Pass catching literally runs in the blood of this Mater Dei alum out of Santa Ana. His dad, Chris Henry, was a WR for the Cincinnati Bengals. His career was brutally cut short when he fell out of a moving truck while still being an active NFL player.

But for Jr. to rise above this terrible tragedy and continue his father’s legacy is a testament to his character. He even shares a close relationship with current Bengals’ receiver Tee Higgins, who’s also been attributed to helping develop Henry. If he turns out as good as Tee, Ryan Day (or Dan Lanning) will be a happy man.

247Sports’ national recruiting analyst, Greg Biggins, bestowed some massive praise on Henry in his assessment. “When healthy, [Chris Henry Jr.] is an elite prospect with as much upside as any receiver in the class. Henry has tremendous length and flashes surprisingly agility and lateral quickness for a player his size. He’s explosive out of the gate, can stop and start on a dime, change direction and has a huge catch radius. He has the long speed to stretch the field and hit the home run combined with the size and sure handedness to be a go to guy on key third down situations. He’s dominant in the air on jump balls and as he continues fills out and gains strength, his game will take off to another level.”

Whether Ryan Day can fend off the competition or not, Chris Henry Jr. is bound for big things regardless of where he lands. Ohio State’s offensive coordinator Brian Hartline, also being their WR coach, is a feather in their cap. In fact it was Hartline who recruited him to the Buckeyes. It’s fair to assume the passing game will take precedence in Hartline’s offense as he tries to feature his receiving corp. given he’s got play-calling duties. Henry could want to be a part of that. But it’s worth reiterating how Oregon remains a strong pull for multiple reasons.