Purdue football coach Ryan Walters made recruiting lockdown cornerbacks a priority.

On Friday evening, the Boilermakers landed one of the nation’s best in the 2025 class.

Columbus, Ohio’s Dawayne Galloway, a four-star cornerback by 247Sports, announced on his Instagram account he’s verbally “100% committed” to Purdue.

Galloway becomes the 11th known member of Purdue’s 2025 football recruiting class, and the second from Ohio in a span of three days.

Galloway is the highest ranked recruit in the class as of now.

What Dawayne Galloway’s recruitment means

Galloway was one of the most sought after cornerbacks in the 2025 class, having offers from 29 programs, an impressive list that included Michigan and Georgia, which have combined for the last three national championships.

The Boilermakers already have former five-star cornerback Nyland Green, an incoming transfer from Georgia. Green will be a redshirt junior this season. Purdue lacked experience at cornerback last season, especially after a season-ending injury to Marquis Wilson and without Stanford transfer Salim Turner-Muhammad last year.

Galloway, listed at 6-foot-1 and 175 pounds, will certainly be a boost for the future of Purdue’s secondary. He twice has finished second in the 100 meters at the Ohio Division II state track championships and was an all-state cornerback last season for Marion-Franklin High School.

Where Purdue’s 2025 class stands

Purdue has hit Ohio hard for the 2025 class. Galloway joins defensive lineman Drayden Pavey (Cincinnati) as commits from the neighboring state this week. Tight end Brian Kortovich and running back Ziaire Stevens also hail from Ohio.

They’ll be part of a still incomplete 2025 recruiting class that also includes four from Indiana and one each from Texas, Michigan and Tennessee.

 Purdue football’s Kydran Jenkins often ends up at the last place you’d expect, in the best possible ways.

Bo Heard saw it during Jenkins’ freshman year at Jefferson County High School in Louisville, Ga. “Unbelievably freakish,” he called those moments. Like the time Jenkins lined up on the right goal post and leaped full extension to save a shot headed for the upper left corner, palming the ball one-handed and tucking it away like a wide receiver.

Oh yeah, Heard coached soccer, too. Jenkins said most Boilermakers are unaware of his past life as an all-state goalkeeper. He gives them other reasons to believe nothing will get past him.

Jenkins defied the usual path of players from his hometown when he ended up at Purdue. He defied other trends by sticking around after breaking through as one of the Big Ten’s best pass rushers last season.

Jenkins did, however, move to a new home — one he plans to make permanent. The undersized edge rusher became an inside linebacker over the past nine months. That projects as his best positional fit in the NFL. It also makes him a central figure in the turnaround the defense seeks in its second season in coach Ryan Walters’ system.

“He has a different set of versatility, being able to still look at the quarterback and now play sideline to sideline from the cylinder,” Walters said. “Guys feed off of his athleticism and the energy he brings, and so I’m excited to see what that looks like this fall.”

He saw it on opening day. When Indiana State quarterback Elijah Owens escaped a closing pocket in the second quarter, he created a 1-on-1 race with Jenkins to the edge on the far side of the field. Jenkins won, recording his first sack of the season with the range and open-field tackling skills of a Mike linebacker.

Jenkins keeps transforming, and keeps winning.

Small town star

Jefferson County football needed help. The previous graduating class depleted the return options on special teams. While the coaches stabilized the kickoff team, they struggled to find someone to reliably field punts.

So they sent Jenkins — standing about 6-0, 230 pounds at the time — back to field punts during practice. He looked like a natural. A week later, he took a punt back 50 yards for a touchdown

Jefferson County found a new primary kickoff and punt returner. Opponents encountered a brick wall rumbling downhill with velocity.

“I got that a lot: ‘For you to be that big, I don’t know how you could be that fast,’” Jenkins said. “I’ve been running my whole life.”

Jenkins also ran as the featured back in Jefferson County’s single wing offense as a senior. His defensive potential, though, enticed college coaches. Purdue defensive line coach Brick Haley remembers an explosive talent — nimble on his feet and quick to diagnose plays.

Haley extended Jenkins’ first scholarship offer — when he served as an assistant at Missouri. Jenkins reminded him of former Tigers star Nick Bolton, now starting for and winning championships with the Kansas City Chiefs.

“His instincts were off the chart,” Haley said.

The Tigers made a familiar recruiting pitch to a southern prospect. Come play for an SEC program and you’ll play a lot of games in or near your home state. Haley believed a commitment might be imminent.

In the meantime, former Purdue assistant Greg Brown caught on to Jenkins, too. The university’s more rural environment and smaller scale can work against it when battling the SEC for recruits. Here, it became a decisive factor in the Boilermakers’ favor.

Jenkins carries himself with a small-town persona straight out of Louisville — pronounced LEWIS-ville — a town of about 2,300 in central Georgia. He wanted to move far from home, but did not seek glitz and glamour.

“Not a lot goes on there, and once you’re down there, you can easily get stuck down there,” Jenkins said. “My mom, she fought so hard every day to put us in a good spot. Going somewhere far would really help me and get me away from this.”

His official visit to West Lafayette became the only one he took anywhere. He confronted some culture shock — and some climate shock — but quickly embraced a new family.

Staying loyal

Haley said Mizzou saw Jenkins as a “true inside linebacker.” Purdue quickly saw a difference-maker off the edge.

He matched George Karlaftis for the team lead in sacks with five as a redshirt freshman. He earned honorable mention all-conference honors with four sacks and seven hurries in 2022, helping Purdue’s push to the Big Ten championship game.

Then came the breakthrough. While Nic Scourton challenged for the Big Ten sack lead, Jenkins complemented him from the other edge with 7.5 sacks and 15.5 tackles for loss.