tOSU Recruiting Discussion

[jwinslow]

If there were no scholarship restrictions, then six would be perfect, since urban would essentially be signing four OL in the '14 class and essentially signing two more in the 2012 class.

With them in place and still having major needs at wr, lb and qb, I think they sign 5.

That said, they may end up finding room for the sixth by the time that Knox has finished enjoying the process.

 

[Krenzelicious]

Holmes wins his battle; Trout doesn't. Keep battling, Kyle.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKVV2Iqtrc4"]247Sports - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Taosman]

ESPN not showing any Ohio State commits. Shocker!

 

[brutus2002]

Ohio State currently has 14 offensive linemen on scholarship. Four of those are seniors. If Ohio State only signs the three current verbal commits + one more there will be 14 scholarship OL in 2014. That's not counting the possibility of Munger or Price moving over to the OL.

To compare, Alabama has won three of the past four BCS championship games. They run an offense that relies as heavily on strong line play as anyone in the country. How many offensive linemen does Alabama have on scholarship?

Fourteen

If the staff takes 5-6 total OL in this class, it's not because they believe 16-17 OL is the optimum number to have on the roster. It's because they are either unhappy with the ability of the guys currently on scholarship or they believe their will be further attrition.

We have 14 on scholarship but 4 are seniors and 3 will never see a significant snap on the OL. So we have 7 OL that have a legit shot at PT outside of the 4 seniors who will be gone after this year.

6 OL this recruiting season is fine because 1-2 of them will be JUCO. I would not take 6 OL if they were all H.S. kids because it would cause our class to be unbalanced in the future. The JUCO players will filter out sooner making more sense.

Alabama won their NC's on the defensive side of the ball. They knocked McCoy out of the game which sealed the deal...shut out LSU...and held ND to 14 with their walkons in the game on defense...heck I think I even seen cheerleaders suiting up at halftime.

Alabamas offense had nothing to do with their NC's. When you 3 and out teams 8-9 times a game and cause turnovers/sacks/fumbles...its easy to score.

 

[pnuts34]

We have 14 on scholarship but 4 are seniors and 3 will never see a significant snap on the OL. So we have 7 OL that have a legit shot at PT outside of the 4 seniors who will be gone after this year.

6 OL this recruiting season is fine because 1-2 of them will be JUCO. I would not take 6 OL if they were all H.S. kids because it would cause our class to be unbalanced in the future. The JUCO players will filter out sooner making more sense.

Alabama won their NC's on the defensive side of the ball. They knocked McCoy out of the game which sealed the deal...shut out LSU...and held ND to 14 with their walkons in the game on defense...heck I think I even seen cheerleaders suiting up at halftime.

Alabamas offense had nothing to do with their NC's. When you 3 and out teams 8-9 times a game and cause turnovers/sacks/fumbles...its easy to score.

Your point is valid to a point. Alabama did have some tremendous defenses, but let's not forget that they also had the luxury of having arguably the best RBs playing for them back to back to back. Their offense is primarily set up to be run smash mouth offense with a qb as only a game manager, so their offensive stats will hardly ever be outrageous like the stats urban has and Oregon has put up. But against ND, they only rushed the ball around 40 times and still got 265yds, with lacy getting 140 himself, that's dominant in the trenches. LSU Had one of the best defensive lines and defenses overall and Alabama still had 130 more yards than what LsU allowed on average, and had one of the most rush yards against them for the season. And against ND, Alabama's o line simply dominated ND and hardly touched the ball rushing but the holes were so huge big plays were broken all day by lacy and yeldon. The combination of great defense and stellar o line play is what has won Alabama NCs, not just their defense. But both sets of teams is stacked with talented former 4-5star players that they are now running like a machine and can plug players in when the vets declare for the nfl. Osu isn't there, yet. We still need to stockpile talent and see who fits our system. After this season we have 4 major holes to fill and we need to bring in as many as we can to help fill the 2 deep. If prince, Knox, Mavety and eluemenor want in, we should welcome that with a juco guy only being here for a year. The trenches is one of the most important ways well knock off Alabama and the sec elite

 

[cincibuck]

In most situations you're going to have four to five years to develop even a talented OL.

RBs, WRs and QBs at the level UMF seems to be working are gone in three years.

Maybe that's the math that's driving his current recruiting classes.

 

[ShowMeBuck]

If we can land one of the JUCOs along with Prince and Knox or Nelson we take 6. It's that simple. I can see us with 5 and holding out for Prince. If he doesn't commit late we end with 5.

 

[pnuts34]

If we can land one of the JUCOs along with Prince and Knox or Nelson we take 6. It's that simple. I can see us with 5 and holding out for Prince. If he doesn't commit late we end with 5.

5 would be great with the level of guys, but I don't see the staff turning any of them down in the that unrealistic scenario and we could essentially get 7. Quite unrealstic, I know but not totally out of the realm of possibility.

 

[NastyNatiBuck]

Don't forget Oregon's loss to Stanford this past year. They lost because they got beat in the trenches. You cannot win BIG Championships or NCAA Championships without dominating the trenches. Look at the games where we were embarrassed under Tressel. We were pounded in the trenches. Anyone who suggests otherwise is plain wrong.

What everyone here is arguing, quite hamfistedly, is not the importance of offensive line play. The argument is whether having too many offensive linemen will make the line better, and even if it does, will it be to the detriment of other positions.

Reasons for more offensive linemen: it is easy for linemen to get hurt, and having more projects against that. Also, it has been said that protecting OL to college is harder than most other positions, so having more OL helps.

Reasons against more offensive linemen: ol don't actually get hurt more than other positions, and having too many ol can cause other positions to suffer from too few people.

Teams in past years have succeeded with more and with less linemen on their rosters, but no team has succeeded without good line play.

I'm sure that I forgot some of the reasons, but this is basically the gist of it. Watching some of the people here try to articulate themselves is a lot, to quote Patches O'Houlihan, "like watching a bunch of retards trying to hump a doorknob."

 

[Buckeye86]

It's crazy to think that Friday Night Lights hasn't even happened yet. I think I am going to set that as my personal mark for an initial evaluation of a recruiting class under Meyer from now on (which is still early in the cycle ).

We are well on the way to a stellar '14 class. It will be interesting to see if FNL will be the start of a major push to close the '14 class or if it will be more about laying the groundwork for '15.

It will obviously be a little bit of both, but I would love to see guys like Derrell Scott, Joe Mixon, Curtis Samuel, Johnnie Dixon, Austin Roberts and/or Mike Gesicki, Demetrius Knox, Damian Prince, Thomas Holley, Matt Elam, Elisha Shaw, Raekwon McMillan and any number of the DBs including the Glenville duo show up.

If even a few of those players attend it would be a great sign for a very strong finish to the recruiting class. '15 looks to be off to a great start as well.

Like I said, its crazy that FNL hasn't even happened yet. There should be a lot of great news coming out on both classes in the near future.

 

[tlinc]

It's crazy to think that Friday Night Lights hasn't even happened yet. I think I am going to set that as my personal mark for an initial evaluation of a recruiting class under Meyer from now on (which is still early in the cycle ).

We are well on the way to a stellar '14 class. It will be interesting to see if FNL will be the start of a major push to close the '14 class or if it will be more about laying the groundwork for '15.

It will obviously be a little bit of both, but I would love to see guys like Derrell Scott, Joe Mixon, Curtis Samuel, Johnnie Dixon, Austin Roberts and/or Mike Gesicki, Demetrius Knox, Damian Prince, Thomas Holley, Matt Elam, Elisha Shaw, Raekwon McMillan and any number of the DBs including the Glenville duo show up.

If even a few of those players attend it would be a great sign for a very strong finish to the recruiting class. '15 looks to be off to a great start as well.

Like I said, its crazy that FNL hasn't even happened yet. There should be a lot of great news coming out on both classes in the near future.

It will be interesting to see, but I actually think 2014 recruiting is going to slow down for a while. We may get 1 or 2 more commits soon (Eluemenor? Roberts?), but I think that we are going to hit a period where not much is happening in terms of public commitments until around the All Star games in January.

It seems like McMillan, Lattimore and E. Smith are likely in, but not announcing until late. Seems like many of the linemen (Knox, Prince) are waiting. Doesn't seem like Samuel or Holley are close to decisions.

I think this is all for the best as I doubt Urban wants the class completely filled before some of the top guys are ready to decide. Plus, senior season performance may serve as a tie breaker for some of the tough decisions that will have to be made regarding the last few open spots.

 

[HorseshoeFetish]

It will be interesting to see, but I actually think 2014 recruiting is going to slow down for a while. We may get 1 or 2 more commits soon (Eluemenor? Roberts?), but I think that we are going to hit a period where not much is happening in terms of public commitments until around the All Star games in January.

It seems like McMillan, Lattimore and E. Smith are likely in, but not announcing until late. Seems like many of the linemen (Knox, Prince) are waiting. Doesn't seem like Samuel or Holley are close to decisions.

I think this is all for the best as I doubt Urban wants the class completely filled before some of the top guys are ready to decide. Plus, senior season performance may serve as a tie breaker for some of the tough decisions that will have to be made regarding the last few open spots.

09/14/13 at California Berkeley, Calif. 7:00 p.m. ET
09/21/13 vs. Florida A&M Columbus, Ohio TBA
09/28/13 vs. Wisconsin * Columbus, Ohio 8:00 p.m. ET
10/05/13 at Northwestern * Evanston, Ill. 8:00 p.m. ET
10/19/13 vs. Iowa * Columbus, Ohio 3:30 p.m. ET
10/26/13 vs. Penn State * Columbus, Ohio 8:00 p.m. ET

IMO this is the section of the schedule when kids will decide to be a Buckeye in 2014 and beyond. Not just HS football players mind you, but 5,6, and 7 year old kids that will see the Buckeyes for the first time. If you think noon games are quiet on eastern time, imagine living on the west coast.

 

[Buckeye86]

It will be interesting to see, but I actually think 2014 recruiting is going to slow down for a while.

I wasn't implying that there would be of flurry of commitments at FNL, just that we would be in really good shape with the players in attendance down the homestretch.

I think this is all for the best as I doubt Urban wants the class completely filled before some of the top guys are ready to decide.

I agree, we saw what the staff can do on the recruiting trail when they know exactly who they want to fill out the class last year with Smith, Wilson, Clark and Bell.

 

[Smudger]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuZxsBiqqok&feature=player_embedded"]The Opening: Ohio State Analysis - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Muck]

If Austin Roberts decides on the Bucks then he, Lonnie Johnson & Terry McLaurin would make three outside skill position players Ohio State is taking from Indiana.

Has that ever happened before in a single class?