The Fence Around Ohio Hasn’t Applied to 5-Star Recruits Lately
The best high school football players in Ohio are expected to go to Ohio State. That’s the way it’s been since football became a thing that people do.
The Buckeyes’ lifeblood runs scarlet with Ohioans and no matter how far away Urban Meyer searches for players, Ohio has laid the foundation for everything Ohio State football has become.
It was once said that Jim Tressel put a fence around Ohio, and maybe that seemed true for a while. In reality, however, there has never been a fence around Ohio, and just imagine where Michigan football would be if there was.
Ohio State never wants to see the top players in the state leave, and while they sign a good percentage of the in-state players that they want, plenty get away. Every year Ohio produces players who will go on to play all over the nation in Power 5 programs, but it’s not every year that the state produces 5-star prospects.
Recruiting rankings aren’t the end-all, but they do shine a light on certain players that Ohio State shouldn’t allow to leave the state.
That player this year is Lewis Center defensive end Zach Harrison. Harrison (6-6 240) is the No. 2 player in the nation and has official visits scheduled with Michigan and Ohio State next month. He has already taken an official visit to Penn State. He is then expected to announce his commitment somewhere prior to his senior season.
Harrison is probably the biggest in-state recruit for the Buckeyes since Braxton Miller in 2011 or Beanie Wells in 2006. Suffice it to say, it’s not every year that Ohio produces a player that many feel Ohio State
must not let out of the state.
This being Urban Meyer’s Ohio State, the Buckeyes are better equipped to handle the loss, but it’s something that they’d rather not have to do.
Even though Harrison has stated all along that he is no guarantee to become a Buckeye, most still think that’s where he’ll end up. The stakes that come along with Harrison’s recruitment got me wondering about the history of Ohio’s 5-star prospects and where they ended up. So I went back to the official start of the internet recruiting rankings in 2002 and looked at every in-state 5-star prospect to maybe get an idea of exactly what that Ohio fence looks like for the very best players.
I tried to look at Scout’s rankings, but since 247Sports took them over, they have done one hell of a job of making those rankings unavailable. So if 247 is going to pretend the rankings never existed, I guess I will too. I do know that Scout had John Simon as a 5-star prospect in 2009, so he is included in the table below. I don’t recall any other players only being 5-star prospects per Scout, however, so I think the information below is as accurate as it needs to be.
Since 2002, there have been 31 5-star prospects in the state of Ohio’s final rankings, be it Rivals, 247, ESPN, or the composite. The Buckeyes have signed 20 of those players. That’s a .645 batting average, which is great for baseball, but doesn’t constitute a “fence” in football. The 11 5-star prospects who left the state went to Michigan (2), Notre Dame (2), Clemson, Alabama, Tennessee, USC, Texas, Miami, and LSU.
There are some fluctuations in those numbers, however.
From 2002 to 2008, there were 17 5-star prospects in Ohio and 13 of them ended up as Buckeyes. That’s a pretty good average. But who got away?
Prescott Burgess went to Michigan in 2003, Fred Davis went to USC in 2004, Ben Martin went to Tennessee in 2007, and Kyle Rudolph went to Notre Dame in 2008. As a lesson to never get too worked up about recruiting, the only one of these four commitments that wasn’t seen as “the worst thing to ever happen” was Rudolph, who turned out to be the best of the four players.
Or maybe that just proves people need to be worked up about
everyone?
It was that stretch from 2002 to 2008 that solidified the fence talk, but it hasn’t been like that for a decade now.
Of the last 15 5-star prospects in Ohio, eight of them have left the state, including two of the last three.
In the seven years that Urban Meyer has been with the Buckeyes, Ohio has produced just eight 5-star prospects. That’s an average of 1.1 per year. Zach Harrison would be the ninth, by the way.
In the 10 years before Meyer arrived, there were 23 5-star players. That’s twice the number per year that Meyer is now dealing with, which makes it even more imperative to keep the best players in the state from leaving.
Overall, Meyer has signed five of the eight 5-star prospects in Ohio during his time at OSU. The three who got away? All offensive linemen.
Entire article:
https://theozone.net/2018/05/the-fence-around-ohio/
