Ohio State Lands Late-Rising DB Mafu Rau as Buckeyes Add Needed Depth Before Signing Day
By Colten Brooks on December 2, 2025
Cathedral Catholic (San Diego, CA) corner-back Mafu Rau was a virtual unknown in scouting circles, but blew up in his senior season.
With Signing Day a little more than 6 hours away, Ohio State added another piece to what has become a quietly massive defensive back haul in the 2026 class, securing a commitment Tuesday from Cathedral Catholic (San Diego, California) defensive back Mafu Rau.
Rau is listed at 6-foot-1 and 195 pounds and is currently rated a 3-star prospect, ranked No. 1,128 nationally, No. 109 in California and the No. 84 cornerback in the class.
The numbers don’t scream “classic Ohio State take” at first glance, but the timing and the context make this one feel like a staff-driven evaluation win, the kind where the Buckeyes are betting on traits, development and a ceiling that recruiting services might not have fully caught up to yet.
Rau’s story is a big part of why Ohio State likes him. He was born in New Zealand and is Māori, and while he moved to Southern California as a kid, his path to this moment hasn’t been the typical blue-chip, early-offer arc.
Rau wasn’t even a starter at Cathedral Catholic until this season. Once he finally got his opportunity, he played well enough to earn real exposure, and that late emergence is exactly what Ohio State is buying into: the idea that he’s still early in his football development and has more growth ahead than behind.
“People didn’t really know who I was until this year,” Rau said. “But I’ve always felt like once I got my shot, I could show what I can do. Ohio State believed in me off what they saw, and that means everything. I want to go there and prove I belong.”
As a prospect, Rau fits the mold of a modern, versatile defensive back. He’s long and rangy, built like a corner, but with enough size that the Buckeyes can keep options open. At 195 pounds already, he looks like a player who can hold up on the boundary, but could also grow into a safety or nickel role depending on how his body develops and where the staff sees the best matchup value.
Ohio State is clearly comfortable projecting him across multiple spots, and in a class where the Buckeyes have prioritized defensive back quantity and flexibility, Rau makes a lot of sense as a late-cycle addition.
His commitment also says something about where Ohio State’s 2026 defensive back class stands on the eve of Signing Day. The Buckeyes were determined to stack talent in the secondary after recent cycles left less margin for error, and they’ve largely done it.
Ohio State already has two safety commitments in St. Thomas Aquinas’ Bobby Jackson-Ruud and Toledo Whitmer’s Landon Bishop, plus two corners in Huber Heights Wayne’s Teion Cherry II and Greenville (S.C.) High School’s Tremayne Shepley. Rau gives them another defensive back, and, importantly, another body with real upside, in a class that needed to be deep.
The timing, of course, will invite obvious speculation. Ohio State has been in pursuit of Erasmus Hall (New York) five-star safety Sterling Hodel for what feels like forever, and Hodel is expected to announce his decision tomorrow morning.
The Buckeyes taking Rau now doesn’t necessarily mean anything definitive about that recruitment, teams can make room in different ways, and Ohio State has shown it will take the players it believes in regardless of outside noise, but it does reinforce one thing: the staff didn’t want to go into Signing Day with only one possible outcome at defensive back.
Rau put it simply: he didn’t commit to be a backup plan, and Ohio State didn’t take him like one.
“They told me they love my upside,” Rau said. “They told me they see what I can become. I’m not coming to sit back, I’m coming to work.”
In a week that’s all about star ratings and splashy announcements, Rau’s commitment is the kind Ohio State has built a program on, too: identifying traits, trusting development, and stacking the room so the future doesn’t hinge on any one decision.
Rank | Pos | Name | Height | Weight | High School | Home Town |
 | QB | Tyree Figurs | 6'3" | 190 lbs | Mission Hills | Mission Hills, CA |
| HB | Jahkay McCallum | 6'1" | 190 lbs | Liberty | Bakersfield, CA |
 | WR | Ashton Ramsey | 6'3" | 190 lbs | Loyola Academy | Chicago, IL |
| TE | Jordan Ivory | 6'5" | 235 lbs | Culver Academies | Culver, IN |
| OT | Marcus Okam | 6'7" | 285 lbs | Pickerington Central | Pickerington, OH |
| OT | Grady Austin | 6'6" | 305 lbs | Princeton | Cincinnati, OH |
 | OT | Derron Merriman | 6'6" | 300 lbs | Hilliard Bradley | Marysville, OH |
| OT | Alex Jordan | 6'7" | 280 lbs | Paramus Catholic | Paramus, NJ |
| IOL | George Crecelius | 6'4" | 285 lbs | Cy-Fair | Cypress, TX |
| IOL | Thaddeus Roe | 6'4" | 290 lbs | Avon | Avon, IN |
| IOL | David Weeks | 6'4" | 300 lbs | Janesville Parker | Janesville, WI |
| DE | Deontae Savage | 6'6" | 240 lbs | Avon | Avon, IN |
| DE | Ornell Mack | 6'5" | 240 lbs | Winton Woods | Cincinnati, OH |
| DT | Vondree Eagles | 6'3" | 345 lbs | Reynoldsburg | Reynoldsburg, OH |
| DT | Dillon Bridges | 6'3" | 290 lbs | Snider | Fort Wayne, IN |
| LB | Pauly O'Dwyer | 6'5" | 215 lbs | Washington | Massillon, OH |
| LB | Emmanuel Wooden | 6'2" | 210 lbs | Westerville South | Columbus, OH |
| LB | Jaylen Smalls | 6'2" | 210 lbs | Glenville | Cleveland, OH |
| LB | Avondre Lincoln | 6'1" | 200 lbs | Princeton | Cincinnati, OH |
| CB | Teion Cherry II | 6'1" | 175 lbs | Wayne | Huber Heights, OH |
| CB | Tremayne Shepley | 6'1" | 185 lbs | Greenville | Greenville, SC |
| CB | Mafu Rau | 6'1" | 195 lbs | Cathedral Catholic | San Diego, CA |
| S | Bobby Jackson-Ruud | 6'1" | 190 lbs | St. Thomas Aquinas | Fort Lauderdale, FL |
| S | Landon Bishop | 6'0" | 195 lbs | Whitmer | Toledo, OH |
| P | David Procter | 6'5" | 170 lbs | Elder | Cincinnati, OH |