Ohio State’s recruiting class of 2016 officially ended its run in Columbus when Demario McCall played his sixth and final season with the Buckeyes this past fall.
While his lengthy career never blossomed into what many believed it could become when he arrived at Ohio State as the No. 44 overall prospect in the 2016 class, there were plenty of other players in his class –
which was ranked as the fourth-best class in the country at the time – who went on to play major roles for the Buckeyes.
Although it did not spawn quite as many marquee players as the 2017 class that directly followed it – a class that still has one of its members on the Buckeyes’ 2022 roster (Jerron Cage) – the class of 2016 made a significant impact at Ohio State nonetheless, highlighted by a pair of superstars who would become first-round NFL draft picks in just three years as well as nine other players who became multi-year starters for the Buckeyes, including three multi-year captains.
Out of the 24 total scholarship players who signed with the Buckeyes in 2016, exactly half of them became starters for Ohio State while three of them had lengthy careers as backups. The other nine left the team to either transfer elsewhere or stop playing football altogether before exhausting their collegiate eligibility.
Now that all 24 members of the 2016 class have completed their Ohio State careers, it’s time to take a look back at how each of them fared in Columbus and what they’ve done since.
TWO SUPERSTARS
QB DWAYNE HASKINS
While Haskins was only a one-year starter at Ohio State, his lone season leading the Buckeyes’ offense was one of the greatest individual seasons in OSU history.
Haskins completed 70 percent of his passing attempts for 4,831 yards and 50 touchdowns – both school records – and finished third in the Heisman Trophy race while winning the Silver Football and Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year honors and leading the Buckeyes to a 13-1 record with a Big Ten championship and a Rose Bowl win in 2018.
A different kind of quarterback than just about every other quarterback Urban Meyer recruited during his seven-year tenure, in that he did almost all of his damage with his arm rather than with his legs, Haskins was selected with the No. 15 overall pick in the 2019 NFL draft, becoming Ohio State’s first Round 1 pick at quarterback since Art Schlichter in 1982. And by redefining Ohio State’s offense as one in which pass-first quarterbacks could thrive, he set the stage for the run of elite quarterbacks that appears set to continue at Ohio State for years to come.
DE NICK BOSA
The lone five-star recruit in Ohio State’s class of 2018, Bosa became exactly the kind of player he was expected to be when he arrived at OSU as the eighth-ranked overall player in his class, though his Buckeye career might always be remembered most as a case of what could have been.
Bosa made an immediate impact as a true freshman, recording 29 total tackles with seven tackles for loss and five sacks even though he never started a game. He established himself as one of college football’s elite defenders as a sophomore in 2017, when he recorded 16 tackles for loss with 8.5 sacks and earned first-team All-American and Big Ten Defensive Lineman of the Year honors even though he was still only a part-time starter.
He got off to a spectacular start in 2018, recording six tackles for loss with four sacks in just two-and-a-half games, but his season and Ohio State career ended prematurely when he suffered a core muscle injury in the Buckeyes’ third game of the year against TCU. That kept Bosa from making as big of a mark at Ohio State as he could have, but that didn’t stop him from being selected with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2019 NFL draft, and he’s continued to be a dominant force for the San Francisco 49ers, earning first-team All-NFL honors in 2021.
NINE MULTI-YEAR STARTERS
.
.
.
continued
Here's a 2019 article re-ranking the 2016 classes:
Re-Ranking the Recruiting Classes of 2016: Who Really Had a Top-10 Haul?
2. Ohio State
Original rank: 4
Record since 2016: 37–5
Conference titles: 2
College Football Playoff appearances: 1
New Year’s Six bowl appearances: 3
National titles: 0
Major contributors: DE Nick Bosa, DE Jonathan Cooper, WR Austin Mack, QB Dwayne Haskins, WR Binjimen Victor, C Michael Jordan, OG Malcolm Pridgeon, TE Luke Farrell, LB Tuf Borland, S Jordan Fuller, P Drue Chrisman.
This class includes a Heisman Trophy finalist (Haskins) who shattered Big Ten passing records, and it may wind up containing a No. 1 pick in the NFL draft (Bosa). It also includes some critical role players and a specialist (Chrisman) who was truly special at times in ’18.
Entire article:
https://www.si.com/college/2019/02/28/signing-day-2016-recruiting-rankings-alabama-oklahoma
). Never fails, year in, year out, that friends text me about recruiting info found on twitter, or where ever, and I'm able to confirm or correct it based on what you guys provide here. So, thanks again guys!!!
