tOSU Recruiting Discussion

[RB07OSU]

While I think we are on our way to another top 5-ish class, I will say I am a little disappointed on our in-state recruiting. We arguably missed on 3 out of the top 5 players in Ohio with Baker, Scott, and Crawford (at least top 10), and they were all players the staff undoubtedly wanted and pursued early on. The top guys we did land I am ecstatic with in Hilliard, Conner, and EGW, but that is only 50% of the top Ohio guys we pursued. Plus you throw in Elijah Taylor and I think we have lost at least half or more of the actual "battles" in-state (I'm purposefully excluding Ward and Burrows since those weren't really battles). If we get James Daniels it will even out some though, especially throwing in Dre'Mont Jones, who had some other big offers. Now I am only saying '15...contrasted to '14 where we basically got everyone we wanted, save for Ferns and Byrne.

Of course you don't like to lose top Ohio boys but often we replace them with better national talents. Looking at each position though, this is my analysis:

1) Scott- Undoubtedly I prefer Harris, no no big deal here.
2) Crawford- Objectively, I like Crawford better than any of our current commits at CB and it does not look like we will get a national guy at corner. Looks like we may be done with Dean and Ward.
3) Baker- Hard to say yet because I do not know if we will fill the spot with anyone else or the status on other guys. I think if we somehow fill his spot with any of Holland, Gustin, or Jefferson, it is either a wash or even better.
4) Taylor- This one never bothered me, I honestly was not impressed at all with Taylor. Of course this is contingent but I think either Gallimore and/or Wilkins are light-years ahead of Taylor if we can just land one.
5) Daniels (if we miss out)- This will be tougher to fill, as I don't see any other center prospects on the board. We may have more talented OL nationally like Allen, Prince, Burrell, etc. but I do not see any future centers we are in on.

 

[Buckeye86]

5) Daniels (if we miss out)- This will be tougher to fill, as I don't see any other center prospects on the board. We may have more talented OL nationally like Allen, Prince, Burrell, etc. but I do not see any future centers we are in on.

There were rumblings a few weeks back about a commitment from a ND legacy living in South Bend who's name escapes me at the moment. I think he is an interior guy and a likely candidate to replace Daniels.

If the '16 in-state class somehow doesn't come together with all of the offers already out then my concern will increase significantly. '15 was a really strange year in Ohio and I think a "down" year as well.

 

[MD Buckeye]

There were rumblings a few weeks back about a commitment from a ND legacy living in South Bend who's name escapes me at the moment. I think he is an interior guy and a likely candidate to replace Daniels.

Mirko Jurkovic Jr.

 

[buckeyebri]

Not that I know much about recruiting, but I love guys like Conner who want to be a Buckeye from day one and do what it takes to get the offer. Give me one of a guy like him for every Baker any day. That is not meant to diss a talent like Baker in any way and is probably the Tressel in me coming out. I just dig guys who grow up and are willing to lay it on the line as a Buckeye.

 

[bukIpower]

Funny thing Bri is we were suppose to be Bakers childhood favorite too. I agree with you though Connor wasn't swayed by anything or even the fact that OSU drug their feet in the beginning the fact that he wanted to be a buckeye won out.

 

[pnuts34]

While I think we are on our way to another top 5-ish class, I will say I am a little disappointed on our in-state recruiting. We arguably missed on 3 out of the top 5 players in Ohio with Baker, Scott, and Crawford (at least top 10), and they were all players the staff undoubtedly wanted and pursued early on. The top guys we did land I am ecstatic with in Hilliard, Conner, and EGW, but that is only 50% of the top Ohio guys we pursued. Plus you throw in Elijah Taylor and I think we have lost at least half or more of the actual "battles" in-state (I'm purposefully excluding Ward and Burrows since those weren't really battles). If we get James Daniels it will even out some though, especially throwing in Dre'Mont Jones, who had some other big offers. Now I am only saying '15...contrasted to '14 where we basically got everyone we wanted, save for Ferns and Byrne.

Of course you don't like to lose top Ohio boys but often we replace them with better national talents. Looking at each position though, this is my analysis:

1) Scott- Undoubtedly I prefer Harris, no no big deal here.
2) Crawford- Objectively, I like Crawford better than any of our current commits at CB and it does not look like we will get a national guy at corner. Looks like we may be done with Dean and Ward.
3) Baker- Hard to say yet because I do not know if we will fill the spot with anyone else or the status on other guys. I think if we somehow fill his spot with any of Holland, Gustin, or Jefferson, it is either a wash or even better.
4) Taylor- This one never bothered me, I honestly was not impressed at all with Taylor. Of course this is contingent but I think either Gallimore and/or Wilkins are light-years ahead of Taylor if we can just land one.
5) Daniels (if we miss out)- This will be tougher to fill, as I don't see any other center prospects on the board. We may have more talented OL nationally like Allen, Prince, Burrell, etc. but I do not see any future centers we are in on.

I think you also forgot Tyler Green at DB. But I agree with all you've been stating about the future of the class. Baker was mainly big because he was an OH kid, but he wasn't a necessity at LB(especially if we continue to play nickel as much). Gustin and Jefferson seem like really long shots, but stranger things have happened(I do believe that Cornell was considered a long shot a few months ago). I think with some of the OH misses, an offer goes to Bowen sooner than later, as we still could use quality O linemen. With Urban, you always have to look out for the very very late finds around January that pop up, guys who we may have never heard of, but Urban makes interested and then we become players for. If Jefferson stays home, then I see an offer to Caver to be the tall possession WR that we need to go with all the speedsters. Still a lot of time left and we haven't even had FNL yet

 

[RB07OSU]

@pnuts34 I see Green as a safety and I was just looking at corners. I'm not sure I see an offer to Bowen unless we miss on Burrell and/or Allen and Daniels.

 

[calibuck]

I'm pretty certain that the other schools had tOSU depth chart out when they were talking to Baker and Scott. Lookit - they've got 7 LBers ahead of you, or there's 8 RBs ahead of you. Now if you're great, you'll play, but if not, you'll sit the pine. Do what you want, but if you look at UFla, or MSU's depth you'll see that within a year or two you'll be the big gun, at LB or RB. Pretty hard to pass up if you're a kid that wants to get to the NFL. Back-ups don't usually get drafted, or one-year wonders, like they do in basketball.

Even if you're 'life-long' Buckeye fans (which is around 18 years, yes?), then you have to take care of #1. Don't blame those kids a bit. They looked at the depth of whoever is already there, and said, I don't want to stand in line, I wanna play today. Only school I've seen stack RBs up like cordwood was USC, who had 10 4-5*s. Most of them became LBers, or merely special team players.

In any case, missing on the top 10 Ahia kids hurts a lot, but reading the posts above, most of us indicate that 'no big deal' because the Buckeyes are deep at that position. I, too, would rather see an Ahia kid with a schollie, rather than a national kid who is just a tad better. Heck, it'd be easy if we were Alabama, who doesn't produce enough D-I players to field a basketball team, let alone a football D or O. Then we'd take the best we could get. If tOSU got the top 15 Ahia kids each and every year, tOSU would have a #1-5 recruiting class each year. However, when there's a multitude of OL, or LB, or RB, it doesn't make sense to get all top ten but lose them to transfer or attrition or 'I wanna play, so I'm outa here'.....just my thoughts on a Saturday night. Go Bucks

 

[bukIpower]

I can really see this being a cause for concern for both players. With Scott he almost assuredly knew that Harris would be joining him in this class and when you have the number 1 tailback in the nation going to school with you in the same year the odds are he will play. With Baker he talked about the culture and the laid back atmosphere to be what he liked the most, and to me that indicates that he didn't want the competition. Just not the competition with workouts and in practice but he wants to play and the less competition there is obviously the better odds to play. Plus again, when you have the number 1 OLB/MLB in the same class why would you want to join him? I don't blame either one, but I will still maintain if I had a buckeye offer as a high school senior to be it would be very tough for me to spurn that offer considering I'm from there and my family is from there as well.

 

[UpNorth_Buckeye]

To think that the only reason, or even if you're saying their main reason, was not to go to OSU was because of depth than that seems to be a little conceited. Due to Scott's grades we were not in on him nearly as hard as MSU. And they showed his brother 1000x as much attention as we did (even if they never planned to give him an offer). And then the fact that one of his best friends is LeVeon Bell (or one of their recent RBs). As for Baker, he just clicked more with UF, the SEC factor, and the defensive coordinator. One must realize that OSU doesn't only miss on players because they are scared, but because sometimes other schools did a better job/were a better fit.

 

[buckeyesin07]

To think that the only reason, or even if you're saying their main reason, was not to go to OSU was because of depth than that seems to be a little conceited. Due to Scott's grades we were not in on him nearly as hard as MSU. And they showed his brother 1000x as much attention as we did (even if they never planned to give him an offer). And then the fact that one of his best friends is LeVeon Bell (or one of their recent RBs). As for Baker, he just clicked more with UF, the SEC factor, and the defensive coordinator. One must realize that OSU doesn't only miss on players because they are scared, but because sometimes other schools did a better job/were a better fit.

Not necessarily disagreeing with you, but depth chart is one aspect of "better fit." Larger picture, we're biased here (this is Buckeye Planet after all). But even if not, I don't think anyone would argue that Muschamp isn't even in the same zip code as Meyer in terms of whose program is trending upward, and MSU had a better season than OSU just last year, but that was the first time in, what, 30 years?

 

[pnuts34]

Not necessarily disagreeing with you, but depth chart is one aspect of "better fit." Larger picture, we're biased here (this is Buckeye Planet after all). But even if not, I don't think anyone would argue that Muschamp isn't even in the same zip code as Meyer in terms of whose program is trending upward, and MSU had a better season than OSU just last year, but that was the first time in, what, 30 years?

I agree with you both. But even more so the relationship factor for losing both guys. Looking at it, like if Ohio St offered me I'd have a hard time saying no, is a fan opinion. These recruits are making decisions affecting their lives and more is taken into account then a team they've rooted for since they were little. If Baker really didn't have a competitive attitude, then he wouldn't fit in at OSU and would've been lost in the depth chart regardless, UF was a much better choice if that's what he was looking for. OSU got in on Scott quite late in the game, it was a surprise that we were in his top 2, IMO. Our offense just doesn't fit him. He needs to a be a primary RB in a system like MSU or wisky where he can get the ball 20-30+ times/gm. Osu's offense isn't suited for that. Best of luck to both. Getting Harris and calling it a day would be great. Chilling with our 2 home runs at LB would be great too. And use the other schollies on linemen, as we can never have too many quality "big uglies" on O or D.

 

[buckeyeintn]

I agree with you both. But even more so the relationship factor for losing both guys. Looking at it, like if Ohio St offered me I'd have a hard time saying no, is a fan opinion. These recruits are making decisions affecting their lives and more is taken into account then a team they've rooted for since they were little. If Baker really didn't have a competitive attitude, then he wouldn't fit in at OSU and would've been lost in the depth chart regardless, UF was a much better choice if that's what he was looking for. OSU got in on Scott quite late in the game, it was a surprise that we were in his top 2, IMO. Our offense just doesn't fit him. He needs to a be a primary RB in a system like MSU or wisky where he can get the ball 20-30+ times/gm. Osu's offense isn't suited for that. Best of luck to both. Getting Harris and calling it a day would be great. Chilling with our 2 home runs at LB would be great too. And use the other schollies on linemen, as we can never have too many quality "big uglies" on O or D.

Carlos Hyde might disagree with the bolded portion.

 

[NJ-Buckeye]

Then maybe these RBs better concern themselves with the number of hits a body takes till final retirement
If you're going to get 30 carries a game... starting as a freshman... what impact does that have on your NFL career

on the other hand, our RB depth chart.. and LB chart is pretty daunting .. you better be awfully premier

 

[pnuts34]

Carlos Hyde might disagree with the bolded portion.

Carlos would more an likely agree with me. Carlos in 10 games averaged less than 20 carries a game. In the same 10 game comparison, Langford last year carried the ball 23 times a game and had close to 40 more carries in that 10 game comparison as well. And if you throw in Leveon Bells last year at MSU he averaged 30/car a game. Scott wont be seeing that many touches in the run game with the two athletic QBs that he'd be playing with, and because of the RB depth we have.