Pat Signal: Pitt lands Ohio State transfer Ryan Jacoby

Pitt made a potentially impactful addition to its offensive line on Sunday night, as the program landed a commitment from Ohio State transfer Ryan Jacoby. The former four-star tackle out of Mentor High School near Cleveland entered the NCAA transfer portal last Monday and made the decision to continue his athletic and academic career at Pitt in less than a week.

The 6’4”, 305-pound lineman played as a left tackle in high school and earned first-team all-state honors as a junior in 2017 and as a senior in 2018. As a junior, he helped Mentor accrue a 13-2 record and 41.2 points per game en route to the Division I state championship game. And as a senior, Jacoby was part of a Mentor team that went 11-2 and averaged 36.9 points per game, which placed the Cardinals offense among the most productive in Ohio.

Upon his arrival at Ohio State in 2019, Jacoby redshirted as a true freshman. He then found himself continually buried on the depth chart of one of the top programs in the country, falling behind Thayer Munford and Dawand Jones at left tackle. And as a result, he never got a chance to take the field with the Buckeyes.

At Pitt, Jacoby will be reunited with former Mentor teammate Byron Floyd, a long snapper who joined the program in 2020 as a walk-on. And the two will soon be joined by fellow Cleveland-area lineman Ryan Baer, a four-star tackle in the 2022 class out of North High School in Eastlake, just west of Mentor.

Jacoby will join Pitt as a redshirt sophomore with four years of eligibility remaining. However, it appears Jacoby will have to sit out the 2021 season due to his late entry into the transfer portal, as the deadline to transfer and retain immediate eligibility was July 1.