Ohio State recruiting: State Secrets, 2/7 - Visits for the class of 2014

Ohio State's 2013 recruiting class may go down as one of those landmark classes that ultimately leads the school to back to the pinnacle of the sport. In fact, the very legacy of the entire Urban Meyer-era at Ohio State may one day reflect back towards the class of 2013, forcing us to revisit the genesis of something really huge. But for all the positive attributes about this truly loaded group, at least in Meyer's mind's eye, it's only as good as the one potentially waiting to supplant it.

However, before we totally move on to the future of the future of Ohio State football, let's take at least a brief moment to look at a few of the many net positives pertaining to what's truly a landmark class for Meyer, his elite level staff of recruiters, and devout Ohio State recruitniks everywhere.

As we mentioned last night, the 2013 class ranks no worse than third amongst the major recruiting services (and that's from oft criticized ESPN). Rivals has it graded as the second best class in the country and 24/7 subscribes to a similar ideology. Perhaps most wild of all, Scout rates it as the nation's best. The late additions of James Clark and Vonn Bell evidently really helped push things over the top. 247's Composite Rankings (which take a formulaic approach to summing and averaging the mathematical grade assigned to each player), ranks the Buckeyes as having the nation's second best crop of newcomers.

The major recruiting services weren't the only ones high on Ohio State's 2013 class, though:

Welcome my man Vonn Bell.

— Braxton Miller™ (@BraxtonMiller5) February 6, 2013

Miller also went on to respond to one prolific future Buckeye offensive weapon who had tweeted Miller to talk about what could be:

"@treydayy_: Cant wait to run that option with @braxtonmiller5 ! We gone go Take that natty ! #GoBucks!" U kno it.

— Braxton Miller™ (@BraxtonMiller5) February 7, 2013

Now, to officially kick off the slow march to February 5th, 2014, let's take a look at some of the high profile class of '14 Ohio State targets who'll be in Columbus on official visits this weekend:

Jamarco Jones (6-6/290) OT | De La Salle Institute, IL -
Dante Sawyer (6-3/240) DE/LB | North Gwinnett H.S., GA -
Lawrence Marshall (6-3/225) DE | Southfield, MI
Nick Glass (6-2/205) S | Peachtree Ridge, GA - Georgia commit
Kyle Trout (6-6/285) OT | Lancaster, OH
Nick Chubb (5-11/208) RB | Cedartown, GA
Demarre Kitt (6-1/182) WR | Sandy Creek, GA
Shai McKenzie (5-11/210) RB | Washington H.S., PA

4-star ATH Myles Autry was originally expected to make the trip as well, but has elected to visit Tennessee instead. If the lunatic fringe of the Internet is any indication, Autry should hear some pretty choice things about Ohio State in lieu of their adding Vonn Bell in the waning moments of NSD '13. Current Ohio State commit 4-star OT Marcelys Jones is also expected to make the trip to Columbus for a recruiting weekend that should include the big Ohio State-Indiana basketball game.

Though today was seemingly all about 2013, don't think that Meyer and his staff weren't making moves with an eye on the future as well. While Meyer called the offensive line "priority 1A, 1B, and 1C" for 2014 at his National Signing Day '13 press conference, he still has his eye on adding skill position help as well. 4-star WR Drake Harris reported speaking to Meyer today ($). And one new potential target that doesn't fit either description reported an Ohio State offer yesterday as well:

2014 Locust Grove DB Cortez McDowell says #OhioState has offered. Kid is blowing up.

— Jake Rowe (@JakeRoweRivals) February 6, 2013