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COLUMBUS, Ohio – The 2021 Ohio State Football recruiting class has provided a heck of a way for Ryan Day to begin his tenure as head coach.
Day’s first class, built from the ground up, features 12 top 100 players with five five-star rated players, including wide catcher, running back and guard. It also saw him lock down Ohio with six commitments, including five among the state’s top six players. The class even went abroad to find an Australian bettor.
The leadership the class built after a series of spring commits took the conversation from the best of the present to how it might be historically best. Yet somehow that huge lead wasn’t enough to keep Alabama at bay and ultimately saw the Tide gain the upper hand.
If that class weren’t enough to give the state of Ohio its first National Scouting Championship, what will it take to get there?
The Buckeyes have never been ranked No. 1 in the country but have finished second on three occasions. In fact, only six times a non-SEC school has claimed the title, the last being in 2008 when Miami, Fla. Was the only team to surpass the 300 point threshold. Other schools to accomplish this feat are the State of Florida (twice), Texas (2002) and USC (three times).
Nick Saban and his team have dominated the rankings since 2010, winning all but two recruiting titles during that span. Alabama have kept the first-place Buckeyes ‘stellar classes twice, with Georgia claiming the other in 2018 – although the Bulldogs’ most prized entry in this cycle, Justin Fields, ended up in Columbus a year later.
The state of Ohio will probably never beat Alabama – or an SEC school – when it comes to the number of players in a class. This is a difference in the philosophy of the conference as the Big Ten generally try not to go over 25. This is probably why Day and recruiting coordinator Mark Pantoni aren’t so determined to be in the top class.
“I’m not interested at all because it’s just someone’s opinion,” Day said early in the signing period. “I understand, I respect everything. But in the end, you’ve got to find the right guys for the state of Ohio, the right person. It’s not 100%, but the guys we hire are the right fit for us. This is the # 1 recruiting class for us.
The Buckeyes’ road to first place will depend on the idea of quality over quantity, just as it would have when the idea of having the best class in history was still on the table.
They won that fight in 2017 with an average score of 94.59 compared to Alabama’s 93.76. The same can be said in 2018 when Georgia held the top spot – it was third in 2017 and 2021 – with a 94.29-94.23 victory. The Crimson Tide holds a 0.40 lead in 2021, but landing linebacker Raesjon Daivs on Wednesday or ultimately capitalizing on the momentum behind defensive end JT Tuimoloau in April will put OSU back on top.
It would be 3 for 3 when it comes to recruiting classes that finished second in the table despite having more quality players scoring.
The other way continues Philosophy Day, and Pantoni already seems to apply. You find a guy in the state highly rated (Jack Sawyer) and a national guy who can serve as an equal (Kyle McCord) and then crown them as leaders. You let these guys be the water that makes the class grow, resulting in early engagements that give you a chance to be picky about closing a cycle.
It worked in 2021 with Sawyer and McCord, and that same approach is already at work in 2022, thanks to CJ Hicks and Quinn Ewers. Hicks brought the best of Ohio with him while planting the seeds for OSU to go national. By the time Ewers followed suit, the rest of the country started to pay attention, although not everyone ended up pulling the trigger.
Once again, the state of Ohio is off to a good start, and with a potentially quiet recruiting period underway, these staff could benefit from additional functionality to help repeat last spring’s success. We could very well move into summer with most of the 2022 class already intact once again.
The Ohio State formula is enough to knock out Alabama and be the first school north of the Mason-Dixon Line to win a recruiting crown. It will just have to go perfectly for it to happen.
Otherwise, there was always the last laugh on NFL Draft Day, which is probably just as rewarding.
“We’ve had classes in the past that were probably four or five and probably had more NFL Draft picks in the first two rounds than some of those other classes,” Pantoni said. “The way I classify recruiting classes is how they end up. (The) NFL being an important part, but also key contributors, newbies. We will be back here in three or four years and that is how we will rate it. “
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