I pulled this from the Big Ten discussion thread, but I figured I put enough work into this that it warranted it's own thread.
Quote:
Originally Posted by blueinfla
However, you could make a claim the Tressel is further down the list because he has the best talent in the conference and despite being able to win in a very down Big10 conference, what else has he done? He's been bringing in top 10 talent every year, but what does he have to show for it? One MNC with players he inherited? Two other MNC game appearances where his team forgot to show up? I don't agree with the list, but I, at least, can see where the author was coming from.
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This arguement (made many times by various fans of other schools) has always tempted me to go back and look at the recruiting classes and analyze what exactly happened.
My hypothesis is that several years of recruiting classes not panning out (in particular the '03 class) really hurt Ohio State's depth, so while we had top end talent to dominate the Big Ten, there wasn't much behind it which became obvious when we played teams with equal top end talent and depth to boot. I am certain that this is the case, but I have never taken the time to actually break it down, so now I will.
disclaimer: my categories are super hazy and I am having a hard time putting people into the did not contribute categories who were injuried, but I don't really want to debate why people did or did not contribute, I just want to look at how many people in each class made solid contributions to the program, also, I am not going to count special teams contributions, I love guys like Shaun Lane to death for being true Buckeyes through and through, but you don't recruit people to come to Ohio State to play special teams
2002 Class (24)
Stars (5): Bobby Carpenter, A.J. Hawk, Santonio Holmes, Nick Mangold, Troy Smith
Solid Contributors(7): Doug Datish, TJ Downing, Quinn Pitcock, Nate Salley, Rob Sims, Tyler Everett, Brandon Mitchell
Contributors that didn't quite pan out (7): Roy Hall, Mike Kudla, Joel Penton, Jay Richardson, Tim Schafer, Stan White, Justin Zwick
Little or No Contributions (4): R.J. Coleman, Mike D'Andrea, Michael Roberts, E.J. Underwood
No Category (1): Clarett
I think it's pretty clear that the 2002 class carried the team for as long as they were on campus. What comes after is where the trouble starts.
2003 Class (15)
Stars (1): Anthony Gonzales
Solid Contributors (5): Donte Whitner, Ashton Youboty, Kirk Barton, Todd Boeckman, David Patterson
Little or No Contributions (9): Sian Cotton, Marcel Frost, Ira Guilford, Dareus Hiley, Louis Irizarry, Devin Jordan, Curt Lukens, Brandon Maupin, Reggie Smith
I think that the 2003 class really hurt us bad, in 2006 and 2007 this class would have been Juniors and Seniors. The amount of non contributors in this class clearly hurt our depth and experience when in came time to play in big games after the '02 class was gone.
2004 Class (24)
Stars (1): Ted Ginn
Solid Contributors (6): Marcus Freeman, Vernon Gholston, Rory Nicol, Antonio Pittman, Steve Rehring, A.J. Trapasso
Contributors that didn't quite pan out (5): Dionte Johnson, Ben Person, Brandon Smith, Curtis Terry, Nader Abdallah
Little or No Contributions (12): Alex Barrow, Albert Dukes, Eric Haw, Chad Hoobler, Dennis Kenedy, Shaun Lane, Devon Lyons, Kyle Mitchum, Nick Patterson, Jon Skinner, Brandon Underwood, Sirjo Welch
Another class that had an abnormally large number of non contributors.
2005 Class (18)
Stars (2): Malcolm Jenkins, James Laurinaitis
Solid Contributors (8): Alex Boone, Jim Cordle, Brian Hartline, Todd Denlinger, Brian Robiskie, Lawrence Wilson, Doug Worthington, Donald Washington
Contributors that didn't quite pan out (2): Jamario O'Neal, Maurice Wells
Little or No Contributions (3): Freddie Lennix, Rob Schoenhoft, Ryan Williams
Give them one more year (3): Austin Spitler, Andre Amos, Anderson Russel
In '05 we finally came out of our slump and started having more contributors than non contributors again, and it was this class that formed the core group that took us to four Big Ten championships but a 1-3 bowl record.
It is too early to judge a lot of the players in the classes beyond 2005, but I think it is pretty clear that you don't have to look much further than the 2003 and 2004 recruiting classes to understand Ohio State's troubles in big games recently. I would also say that the arguement that we bring in top ten talent every year is also shot down by an analysis of the 2003 and 2004 classes.
Luckily, we are breaking out of the void that the '03 and '04 classes left on our depth chart and things are only going to get better. And by the way, only at a place like Ohio State can you say that things are only going to get better after going 33-6 in the past three season. It's great to be a Buckeye!
