Dan Gilbert Sounds Off on Mo’s All-Star Snub
February 6, 2009Jackets Preview Game #52
February 6, 2009The year 2008 saw the Ohio State Buckeyes take the field with top recruit Terrelle Pryor. His presence may have made recruits for this year shy away from Columbus. And the Buckeyes may have gotten some bad news on signing day with Marlon Brown and Justin Green going their own way. But while some may want to focus on the bad news that came up over the final week of Signing Season, the truth is that Ohio State Buckeyes will take the field in 2009 with one of the top recruiting classes in the country, despite not signing a “Pryor.”
For those of you wondering how the main recruiting boards graded Ohio State:
Scout.com: 1
CBS.com: 2
Rivals.com: 4
And while those guys are obviously in the “know,” here is a quick synopsis of what others in the blogosphere as well (as main stream media) are saying about what the Scarlet and Gray was able to do with this season’s back of high school seniors.
“There are other players in the class who can compete for time and may be overlooked for now (see: Nathan Williams last year), but will have to take this year to better themselves and concentrate on how they can help the program in the future. I see defensive tackle Johnny Simon, safety Jamie Wood, and offensive lineman Jack Mewhort as future stars in Columbus, but right now they face log jams in their positions. Of those three, Mewhort and Wood have the best chance at playing time (especially Wood on special teams), but they will have to work hard to compete with returning players. Storm Klein, Jonathan Newsome, and Zach Boren are kids I really think have a chance to develop under the staff and will have a bigger impact than most analysts are giving them credit for. Overall, I think this class will have a tremendous impact at Ohio State and will team up with the great class of 2008 and the future 2010 class to put the Buckeyes into MNC position in a couple of years.” [Alex/Eleven Warriors]
“The Winners: Ohio State – People have wondered how OSU has dominated the Big 10 the last 4-5 years. It’s easy, they out-recruit the rest of the league by a mile! They brought in a defensively heavy class that includes Corey Brown and Dorian Bell; both should fit in somewhere in the usually deep defensive rotation.” [Mizerle06/SpartyandFriends]
“But when the Buckeyes hit 25 on the number, they weren’t forced to make any adjustments, and it worked out, just as Tressel hoped it would. Some teams in other conferences oversign regularly and then expect the class to be thinned by players that don’t qualify academically or otherwise don’t enroll. Though the high school coach of Florida running back Jaamal Berry said this week that Berry still is taking standardized tests to improve his scores, Tressel said he’s not aware of any recruits that are in danger of not qualifying academically at Ohio State.” [Doug Lesmeresis/Plain Dealer]
“Tressel’s staff really only targeted one elite quarterback, Tajh Boyd, and was left scrambling for MAC-level scraps when Boyd opted for Clemson. So quarterback really wasn’t a priority — it seems they’re content with ex-baseball player ToddJoe Bauserman as an insurance policy for now. When Pryor goes pro after destroying everything in his path in 2011? They can still deal with that next year, I guess.” [Matt Hinton/Dr. Saturday]
“The only verbal commitment Ohio State lost was Justin Green, the speedy defensive back from Louisville, Ky. Green initially committed to Kentucky, then switched his verbal to Ohio State. On National Signing Day, though, Green chose Illinois. It was perhaps justice for Ron Zook and the Illini, who lost defensive end Melvin Fellows to the Buckeyes.
Last year, Jim Tressel joked that a gentlemen’s agreement existed within the Big Ten “only among gentlemen” after Michigan’s Rich Rodriguez stole a recruit away from Purdue. This year, though, Ohio State stole Fellows and Illinois countered with Green.” [Jason Llyod/Morning Journal]
So, while Ohio State has been unable to win a BCS Bowl for the past three seasons, I think we can all agree that it isn’t because of a lack of recruiting. Sure, the south is littered with plenty of solid recruiting classes. In fact, four of the top 10 classes (per Rivals.com) are a part of the SEC. But to get back to the National Stage, it will take convincing wins over our Big Ten rivals. And as long as these recruiting classes keep on coming, the Buckeyes should be on everyone’s radar for a long time coming.
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(Photo courtesy Terry Gilliam/ Associated Press)
4 Comments
“But to get back to the National Stage, it will take convincing wins over our Big Ten rivals.”
After our BCS losses the last 3 years, as well as the rest of the conferences poor bowl performance this year it will take convincing wins over out of conference teams (and I don’t mean the MAC) to get back on the national stage.
I think recruiting is overrated, theres lots of hype coming out over these guys because its a sports void this time of year. The NFL is over, the NBA is approaching the all-star break and is in that jan-feb slump (although this season seems to have some excitement that past years haven’t) so the talking heads of the sports world turn to the recruiting spree. I think the quality of the program and player development is more important than the initial ratings of the recruiting class. The top 10 maybe 15 recruiting teams probably have a very small gap in talent, what these programs do with these players when they get to campus is more important, but its a long process so it doesn’t make for good ESPN talking points.
“After our BCS losses the last 3 years, as well as the rest of the conferences poor bowl performance this year it will take convincing wins over out of conference teams (and I don’t mean the MAC) to get back on the national stage. ”
Very good point. Until the rest of the conference steps up their game, it will take OOC wins as well.
Too many white kids!
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