It’s been a rough couple of days on the recruiting trail for the Ohio State Buckeyes and they saw another highly-rated verbal commitment flip to another school on Wednesday.
Four-star cornerback Kayin Lee previously committed to play for Ohio State back in July. However, Auburn never stopped recruiting him and it paid off as the 5’10”, 175-pound defensive back flipped to the Tigers on National Signing Day.
🚨BREAKING🚨 4-star CB Kayin Lee has flipped his commitment from Ohio State to Auburn🐅
More from @ChadSimmons_: https://t.co/UHkRDtzBvC pic.twitter.com/VGhTgFmlAP
— On3 Recruits (@On3Recruits) December 21, 2022
“I’m close to home,” the Georgia native told On3. “I can play very early and I’m playing SEC football, which I feel like is the most competitive conference.”
As happens in many of these situations, a coaching change helped facilitate the flip. Hugh Freeze was hired as the new head coach at Auburn but he retained secondary coach Zac Etheridge, who was the main recruiter for Lee. The defensive back told On3 that Etheridge was a “big” part of his decision.
He also appears to be a big fan of Freeze.
“He was just after me from the get-go, from the first day we met,” said Lee during the 2023 On3 Consensus. “He was talking to me so much. He was talking to me more than the actual players that he hasn’t even met yet on the team, trying to get me to come.”
Ohio State also lost a commitment from five-star 2024 recruit Dylan Raiola earlier in the week, though it’s possible he could still end up playing there.
[On3]
