2023 tOSU Recruiting Discussion

[RB07OSU]

You had me at “second-tier teams like _ichigan”.

Actually, that was exactly the reason I instantly liked the post (aside from being well thought out and reasoned). In fact, anyone that calls *ichigan a second-tier program can earn my instant respect.

My take is that Stud is a pretty good coach when it comes to developing an OL that works for our offense. On recruiting, he is above average. That might not be a popular opinion, but "above average" is relative. We have absolute aces at recruiting on our staff...when you are comparing any coach to LJ Sr, Hartline, Alford, etc., most are not going to come out even close.

Stud has brought in some darn good recruits, some that you might expect like Tshabola, Parris Johnson, Christman, etc. (obvious Ohio guys). However, pulling off Donovan Jackson last cycle, then Luke Wypler, Harry Miller, NPF, etc. in the past were pretty impressive pulls. But I will concede some of the misses we've had at OT have been puzzling and frankly have hurt.

If you are having trouble reading my post and think I am vacillating, it is because I am. Stud's results in recruiting have been pretty all over the place, but our OL has been performing pretty well lately. At the end of the day, I will take results on the field and while I was in a "fire Studrawa" phase for a little bit, results over time tip in his favor for the time being. And may be worth pointing out that we haven't "missed" on Goodwin, so probably a good call to withhold judgment and hey, the COVID thing is going to help slant things to the more local team, though in his case there is not really a huge difference. But if he does go to Kentucky, I agree with LJB that he wasn't coming here anyways.

Edit: Also, just had to orient myself...if we get Tshabola and Wagner, that is two top 100/borderline top 100 overall recruits at OT. Obviously Rice and Goodwin would be ideal, but we aren't in a bad spot.

 

[LordJeffBuck]

I’m not blaming Stud for Covid, I am blaming him for being a weak recruiter that was unable to overcome it.

You're being totally unfair. A "weak recruiter" doesn't bring in two #1 OT recruits in four years, and narrowly miss a third because the kid wanted to stay closer to home due to an unprecedented global pandemic.

And that's just OTs. During that same four-year period, Stud also brought in the #1 OC (Matthew Jones, 2018); #2 OC (Harry Miller, 2019); #2 OC (Luke Wypler, 2020), and #1 OG (Donovan Jackson, 2021) ... three of whom, by the way, had no connection to the State of Ohio. He's also brought in three other "top ten" recruits: Max Wray (#9 OT in 2018); Enokk Vimaha (#7 OG in 2019); and Ben Christman (#7 OG in 2021).

None of this is to say that Ohio State will be alright at OL in 2022 or 2023 or beyond. I simply don't know. Maybe Stud will end up signing some top prospects in 2022. Maybe someone like Trey Leroux or Grant Toutant will develop. Maybe the Buckeyes will find someone in the transfer portal. All I know is this: Offensive line was a strength of the team in 2019 and 2020, and it will be again in 2021.

You know football well enough to know that you can’t go into a season with three guys who can play tackle.

I know no such thing. As Josh Winslow has mentioned, Ohio State entered the 2014 season with just one guy (Taylor Decker) who could play tackle, and somehow ended up finding Darryl Baldwin, a former 3-star DE recruit, to fill in at RT. The Buckeyes won a national championship that season.

How about the 2002 national championship team? You might remember Shane Olivea at LT (12 starts), but does anyone remember who was starting at RT?

Spoiler: Spoiler

It was Ivan Douglas (11 games)

True freshman OG Rob Sims had 5 starts filling in at both RT and LT. Not exactly a "Big Three".

Anyone who's been a member of BP for more than 15 minutes knows that I'm more on the negative/cynical end of the fan spectrum. So if I'm saying that you're overreacting about the OT situation, then you're probably overreacting.

 

[HotMic]

Tshabola is listed as a tackle now, but he’s projected as a guard at the next level. Wagner definitely has a prototypical OT body, but he’s going to need a few years after he gets in the program (NPF).

Recruiting the OL is like recruiting two different positions. Nobody is arguing Stud hasn’t done a great job on the interior of the line, but for whatever reason he just can’t replicate that success on the edges. He’s playing with fire when it comes to numbers, I’m not sure why people are afraid to admit that.

Like I said, maybe he lands Wagner and another highly-ranked ranked guy that can play right away and it’s all a moot point. I’m hoping that’s the case.

 

[Mike80]

Man we are spoiled. We're literally complaining about not having kids who aren't even juniors (2023) in high school locked up in recruiting yet.

 

[ScriptOhio]

Uiagalelei’s name should be familiar for those who follow college football, as he is the younger brother to Clemson quarterback DJ Uiagalelei. The Buckeyes targeted the QB, but he spurned them in favor of the Tigers. Clemson has yet to offer the younger brother, but expect them to enter the race sooner than later and the relationship could make them immediate front-runners.

 

[ScriptOhio]

SAMSON OKUNLOLA



And while Proctor is already one of the Buckeyes' early top targets, at offensive tackle specifically but regardless of position, Okunlola has yet to receive an Ohio State offer. The Buckeyes are very interested in the blue-chipper, and an offer is likely to come down the pike at some point.

He's hoping so, anyway.
.
.
.
Okunlola, unlike Proctor, was able to check out Ohio State’s campus following the camp and got a chance to look around.

He liked what he saw even though it was just a quick tour. He’s still cool with taking the patient route, though, and seeing where the chips fall as he continues to build his recruiting portfolio.

"Right now, I have 19 offers so I’m taking it pretty slow," Okunlola said. "Just calling and talking to coaches and getting to know them, getting to know their techniques and getting to know their school and what they offer.

"We can always improve, everybody can improve on anything all around. I’m not the best I can be right now. I’ve always got more in the tank."

 

[ScriptOhio]

Dante Moore is standing in his dad’s living room, a football scooped under his right arm and eyes unbroken from the TV.

Braxton Miller has his full attention.

The ball hangs in the air at Ohio Stadium, landing in the lap of Devin Smith. Ohio State 33, Wisconsin 29. A game-winning Hail Mary pass from one of Moore’s icons.

The next week, Moore watches again as Miller runs for an explosive 81-yard touchdown against Indiana, a clinic in using burst, speed, vision and subtle cutbacks to haul his way down the field.

As a 9-year-old in 2015, Moore gushes at Miller as he watches “The Spin” during Ohio State's season opener at Virginia Tech.

Now it’s Moore’s turn. So he does what a lot of us did as kids. He reenacts the plays before him.

“I used to be in my living room watching him and just start practicing what he was doing in the games,” says Moore, who years later is now a 15-year-old blue-chip quarterback prospect himself. “I didn’t move the couches or anything like that. But me just being there by myself I used to just move and act like there were defenders in front of me, just doing whatever he did. I wasn’t the type of kid to jump on the couches and stuff, but I imagined it in my head and doing it right in front of the TV.”

Miller was Moore’s favorite football player as a kid growing up in Elyria, Ohio, and that fanhood continued when he moved to Detroit during Miller’s core Buckeye seasons. Those two factors turned Moore into a scarlet and gray fan.

“Being from Cleveland, of course, you’ve gotta grow up as a fan of the school right by you,” Moore said. “I grew up an Ohio State fan, of course. But like I always say, when the recruiting process hit in high school and eighth grade, seventh grade, it was just like everything starts to go away. I can’t favor no school like that when I’m trying to choose a school. But like I said, I did grow up loving Ohio State.”



https://247sports.com/player/dante-moore-46084709/

 

[ScriptOhio]

Arch Manning has visits scheduled, ready to get a real feel for college programs

Looking at the visits quarterback Arch Manning has in mind, it’s obvious the New Orleans (La.) Isidore Newman signal-caller is wide open heading into the summer and beyond.

The 247Sports Composite and Top247’s No. 1 rated passer in the 2023 class has June visits locked in for Clemson, SMU, Texas, Alabama and Georgia. The 6-foot-4, 208-pound Manning will camp at Clemson June 8-9 alongside his brother Heid Manning who is a center. They head to the Lone Star State the weekend after that, where they will spend a day with the Mustangs and a couple more with Longhorns. The third weekend of June will be spent in Tuscaloosa and they’ll wrap up the month with a weekend in Athens.

“You still want to workout with your teammates and not be gone every day, you want to have some semblance of normalcy,” Arch’s father Cooper said. Manning and his teammates are in the thick of spring practice right now. “Arch has been talking to Stanford, he’s especially interested in doing a Stanford, USC swing and also a Notre Dame, Ohio State swing. It might be hard to get it all done in June but he’s been enjoying talking to those guys as well.

“On the heels of that I think there will be a time he wants to see Virginia (where his older sister will attend school) and North Carolina too. He’s been to LSU and he’s been to Ole Miss. We’ll figure out, hopefully whether it be in July, go see some schools, maybe it’s in the dead period but at least you can go see some things out there. Then August boom you’re in summer practice and it gets harder. He’s been enjoying getting to know these schools from other parts of the country. You kind of knock out what’s close to you and he’s enjoyed having conversations with Notre Dame, Ohio State, Stanford and USC. They just kind of came on the scene in the last month or so, the last few months.”

Entire article: https://247sports.com/college/ohio-...UVvdmRJ5awUdRdgCTK6rB5Q0UXrw1w-Gtf66Vix3b6NJ8

Just sayin': If he ends up somewhere other than a SEC school color me shocked....

 

[pnuts34]

Arch Manning has visits scheduled, ready to get a real feel for college programs

Looking at the visits quarterback Arch Manning has in mind, it’s obvious the New Orleans (La.) Isidore Newman signal-caller is wide open heading into the summer and beyond.

The 247Sports Composite and Top247’s No. 1 rated passer in the 2023 class has June visits locked in for Clemson, SMU, Texas, Alabama and Georgia. The 6-foot-4, 208-pound Manning will camp at Clemson June 8-9 alongside his brother Heid Manning who is a center. They head to the Lone Star State the weekend after that, where they will spend a day with the Mustangs and a couple more with Longhorns. The third weekend of June will be spent in Tuscaloosa and they’ll wrap up the month with a weekend in Athens.

“You still want to workout with your teammates and not be gone every day, you want to have some semblance of normalcy,” Arch’s father Cooper said. Manning and his teammates are in the thick of spring practice right now. “Arch has been talking to Stanford, he’s especially interested in doing a Stanford, USC swing and also a Notre Dame, Ohio State swing. It might be hard to get it all done in June but he’s been enjoying talking to those guys as well.

“On the heels of that I think there will be a time he wants to see Virginia (where his older sister will attend school) and North Carolina too. He’s been to LSU and he’s been to Ole Miss. We’ll figure out, hopefully whether it be in July, go see some schools, maybe it’s in the dead period but at least you can go see some things out there. Then August boom you’re in summer practice and it gets harder. He’s been enjoying getting to know these schools from other parts of the country. You kind of knock out what’s close to you and he’s enjoyed having conversations with Notre Dame, Ohio State, Stanford and USC. They just kind of came on the scene in the last month or so, the last few months.”

Entire article: https://247sports.com/college/ohio-...UVvdmRJ5awUdRdgCTK6rB5Q0UXrw1w-Gtf66Vix3b6NJ8

Just sayin': If he ends up somewhere other than a SEC school color me shocked....

Yup, and expect Ole Miss to not only put on the full court press, but man coverage, swarm, using every legacy angle, etc etc

 

[HotMic]

This is going to be so hilariously wrong


HotMic’s Hunch May Edition

QB: Cameron Edge
RB: Richard Young
RB: Willtrell Hartson
WR: Carnell Tate
WR: Braylon James
WR: Anthony Brown
ATH: Dakota Patterson
TE: Tanner Lemaster
OL: Luke Montgomery
OL: Peyton Kirkland
OL: Josh Padilla
OL: TJ Shanahan
OL: AJ Salley

DL: Derrick LeBlanc
DL: Brenan Vernon
DL: John Walker
DL: Sydir Mitchell
LB: Trevor Carter
LB: Ta’mere Robinson
DB: AJ Harris
DB: Caleb Presley
DB: Elliot Washington
DB: Sonny Styles

 

[pnuts34]

This is going to be so hilariously wrong


HotMic’s Hunch May Edition

QB: Cameron Edge
RB: Richard Young
RB: Willtrell Hartson
WR: Carnell Tate
WR: Braylon James
WR: Anthony Brown
ATH: Dakota Patterson
TE: Tanner Lemaster
OL: Luke Montgomery
OL: Peyton Kirkland
OL: Josh Padilla
OL: TJ Shanahan
OL: AJ Salley

DL: Derrick LeBlanc
DL: Brenan Vernon
DL: John Walker
DL: Sydir Mitchell
LB: Trevor Carter
LB: Ta’mere Robinson
DB: AJ Harris
DB: Caleb Presley
DB: Elliot Washington
DB: Sonny Styles

I'm glad you could even come up with that many viable names to make a class

 

[AuTX Buckeye]

This is going to be so hilariously wrong


HotMic’s Hunch May Edition

QB: Cameron Edge
RB: Richard Young
RB: Willtrell Hartson
WR: Carnell Tate
WR: Braylon James
WR: Anthony Brown
ATH: Dakota Patterson
TE: Tanner Lemaster
OL: Luke Montgomery
OL: Peyton Kirkland
OL: Josh Padilla
OL: TJ Shanahan
OL: AJ Salley

DL: Derrick LeBlanc
DL: Brenan Vernon
DL: John Walker
DL: Sydir Mitchell
LB: Trevor Carter
LB: Ta’mere Robinson
DB: AJ Harris
DB: Caleb Presley
DB: Elliot Washington
DB: Sonny Styles

It would be kinda awesome for like this and the 2022 class and all going forward after signing day take your “hunches” and see them laid out together … be curious

 

[HotMic]

If I’m Ohio State, I’m getting in on this kid now. He’s close to home, and blowing up.

https://247sports.com/Player/Luke-Burgess-46116032/

 

[ScriptOhio]

Just sayin': Getting another 5 star out of Texas especially one that committed to Texas would be huge.

 

[ScriptOhio]