A little more than a year ago, Ohio State commitment Ben Christman was ranked as the No. 22 overall prospect in the country in the Class of 2021.
Now, the 6-foot-6, 300-pound lineman checks in at No. 114 after four minor adjustments in the last four months, all of which came in a recruiting dead period to knock his ranking down a little bit further.
It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but that is the college football recruiting world in a nutshell. Christman was offered by the Buckeyes staff just two months into Ryan Day’s tenure — and for good reason. Christman has ideal size and he’s cerebral. He’s got good feet from years of playing basketball, and he’s strong as a bull. He’s built to be a Big Ten offensive lineman and he’s put good film on tape. He can play tackle or guard. And like Buckeyes center Josh Myers at the same point in his career, he’s not yet been taught much about pass-protection, but he clearly has the athleticism and football IQ to quickly pick it up.
“The ranking drop just adds more fuel to my fire,” Christman told Lettermen Row this week. “I’ve been working to be the absolute best player I can possibly be every single day, and I’m ready to have an elite senior season by constantly giving everything I have.”
Just sayin': Come on in next year with a "mean streak" and a huge "chip on your shoulder" and you'll do fine...