Ohio State in pursuit of top prospects, No. 1 rated recruiting class for 2017

National Signing Day 2017 is just one day away. At the same time, the college football recruiting world is moving at full-speed. Ohio State has already been able to construct one of the best recruiting classes in program history and is in a close second to Alabama for the No. 1 overall class this year.

Urban Meyer and the Buckeye coaching staff have already added 20 commitments to this class, which is already more than what was expected entering the year. However, with that being said, there are still multiple targets still uncommitted that the Buckeyes are hoping to add to the class.

The first being Marvin Wilson (Bellaire, TX / Episcopal). Seen as the No. 1 defensive tackle in the class, Wilson has been viewed as one of the best players in the class regardless of position.

The five-star DT has a final four of LSU, Florida State, Oklahoma and Ohio State, but there has been no indication as who is the favorite of the group. All four programs have been heavily recruiting him in the waning moments of this year’s recruiting cycle— with Ohio State being the last of the bunch to visit him, which will hopefully bode well for the Buckeyes.

While there has been no official indication on which way Wilson is leaning, there has been plenty of speculation. LSU has been the longtime favorite to land the 6-foot-4, 329-pounder.

Bleacher Report released their predictions on where they believe the top remaining prospect will land, and Buckeye Nation will be happy to see that they believe in the end it will be the Buckeyes. Again, this is all speculation as Wilson himself has been quiet since announcing his top four, but if his tweet from mid-January means anything, Ohio State could put the icing on the cake for this class.

If the Buckeyes are unable to land Wilson, there is another interior defensive lineman the program is looking at in Jay Tufele (South Jordan, UT / Bingham). Another top-rated DT, Tufele is seen as the third best DT in the class and is a top 50 overall player, according to the 247Sports Composite Rankings.

At one point, Tufele was looking more and more like a future Buckeye, but in the last couple months, communication between him and the program has appeared to drop off a bit. While Urban Meyer and assistant coach Larry Johnson visited Tufele on Jan. 26, there was a significant amount of time between his official visit for the Michigan game and the in-home visit where there was little to no reported communication.

That being said, Ohio State is still a contender for Tufele and is included in his final list of schools he is considering. While many believe that hometown school Utah will be his decision, Meyer and the Buckeyes can never be counted out this time of year.

Another target the Buckeyes have been heavily recruiting the last couple months is Thayer Munford (Massillon, OH / Washington). Munford’s recruitment process has been a sort of roller coaster.

Early on in his recruitment, it seemed like the four-star offensive tackle was low on the Buckeyes radar, but in the last few weeks, Ohio State has heavily increased its interest in him—and it seems to be paying off.

Munford was on Ohio State’s campus twice last week. The week prior, the Buckeye coaching staff visited him just as many times. Because of this rapid increase in contact, many have pegged the Buckeyes as the heavy favorite. In the 247 Crystal Ball predictions, Ohio State has a 91 percent chance in landing the blue-chip prospect.

Baring a major surprise, the last member of potential future Buckeyes would be JUCO running back Jalen Hurd. The former Tennessee Volunteer made the surprising decision to transfer from the program mid-season and it was reported that he was on Ohio State’s campus last weekend.

The news came as a surprise, but it has become normal for Urban Meyer to shock the recruiting world this time of year.

Hurd played in seven games last season for Tennessee, but in his last full season for the program, he gained 1,288 yards on the ground for an average of 99.1 yards per game to go along with 12 rushing touchdowns.

While Hurd played RB at Tennessee, he has stated that he would be open to a position change, most likely WR or TE, however, with the recent commitment of three-star WR Elijah Gardiner (Kemp, TX / Kemp), the WR position isn’t as big of a need anymore for the Buckeyes.