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National Signing Day is finally in the books, and Ohio State’s 2017 recruiting class is officially official.
You probably already know the high level details at this point: The Buckeyes signed 21 players, finished with the No. 2 ranked class in the 247Sports Composite rankings, and easily cleared their highest ranked recruiting class ever, despite bringing in a relatively small group. The group had five consensus five-star players and 19 total blue-chip recruits. One of the two non-blue chip players, of course, was Blake Haubeil, one of the nation’s top kickers.
So we know that this Ohio State recruiting class is really, really good. But Ohio State is used to signing really, really good recruiting classes. To get a better idea of exactly how elite this group is, let’s see how the top end stacks up with Urban Meyer’s other Ohio State recruiting classes, using the ratings from the 247Sports Composite:
Top Ten Recruits in the Urban Meyer era at Ohio State
| Name | Rating | Position | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Rating | Position | Year |
| Noah Spence | 0.9974 | DE | 2012 |
| Nick Bosa | 0.9965 | DE | 2016 |
| Jeffery Okudah | 0.9954 | CB | 2017 |
| Chase Young | 0.9953 | DE | 2017 |
| Baron Browning | 0.9936 | OLB | 2017 |
| Shaun Wade | 0.9903 | CB | 2017 |
| Raekwon McMillian | 0.9894 | LB | 2014 |
| Adolphus Washington | 0.9884 | DE | 2012 |
| Wyatt Davis | 0.987 | OG | 2017 |
| Vonn Bell | 0.9867 | S | 2013 |
What that tells us is that of the top ten recruits, a whopping five of them came from this year’s class. And there are a few other players, like Trevon Grimes and J.K. Dobbins, who aren’t far away from that cutoff mark.
Given the rest of the names on that list, it seems that Ohio State’s new freshmen are in good company. Noah Spence was very productive with Ohio State before off the field issues forced his departure, but he’s an NFL starter now. Nick Bosa had a strong freshman campaign. McMillian was one of the best players on some very good defenses and will be an early round NFL Draft selection. Vonn Bell was an excellent starter for a College Football Playoff championship team, as was Washington.
If two or three of these five pan out like McMillian or Bell, the Buckeyes, especially on defense, are going to be loaded in the near future. If all five? Look out.
You don’t have to be a five-star recruit to have a great career at Ohio State. Plenty of the best players the last five years are not on this list, or even especially close to it. But bringing in this kind of talent helps, no doubt. Ohio State’s future looks to be in extraordinarily good shape.