Ohio State Football: Why Urban Meyer Recruits These States Hard
Urban Meyer is working hard to load his Ohio State recruiting classes with players from these states.
If there is a 4 or 5 star high school player who Urban Meyer thinks would fit in at Ohio State you can bet the coach is going after him regardless of where he lives. But Urban Meyer and his staff spend a lot of their time recruiting certain states hard, and it’s easy to see why.
Each year different recruiting services evaluate every state and list them according to the number of high value recruits each state produced. There will be some variance in the rankings because each service uses a different criteria.
But usually Ohio will be around the No. 5 spot and you know Urban will usually keep the best players from leaving the state. In recent years, the top four states have generally remained the same and only the order may be different. Those states from one to four in this year’s 247 Sports rankings are Texas, Florida, California and Georgia.
It makes sense to recruit these ares hard instead of just cherry picking all over the country. After all, many of these players know one another, either by playing with or against each other or meeting one another at a football camp. When Urban brings in a player from these talent rich areas, and they have a good experience as a Buckeye, it is likely others will follow.
Of course with the relationships Urban Meyer made as head coach of the Florida Gators, he hit the recruiting trail in the Sunshine State soon after taking over as head coach of the Buckeyes. He has had a lot of success in the state with the likes of the Bosa brothers, Trevon Grimes, Shaun Wade etc.
Urban’s success has varied in the other states but not for lack of effort. In fact, that effort by the Ohio State staff finally paid dividends in the 2017 recruiting class. Before the last recruiting cycle, the Buckeyes only had their foot in the door in the state of Texas, but then they knocked the door wide open.
There were five outstanding recruits from Texas in the 2017 Ohio State recruiting class, and three of them were among the top six players in the state. Think that may make other players from the Lone Star State think about making the trip east to play for the Buckeyes?
Coach Meyer and his staff haven’t had as much success in Georgia and California but there have been outstanding recruits from both states who came to Ohio State. And the future is looking bright for the Buckeyes with recruits committed to the 2018 class.
Former Ohio State players Raekwon McMillan and Vonn Bell are from Georgia. Emory Jones, the No. 1 ranked dual-threat QB in 2018, is from the state as well.
Marcus Baugh and Michael Thomas are the two recruits from California during the Urban era. However, Thomas was recruited by Luke Fickell before coach Meyer took over as head coach.
It looks like things are getting brighter now in the quest for California recruits. 5 star offensive lineman Wyatt Davis from Bellflower, CA is a member of the 2017 class. His high school teammate Jaiden Woodbey, a 5 star safety, has already committed to the 2018 class.
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Another area of the country, Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia, commonly known as the WMV, is a hotbed for high school talent. Defensive line coach Larry Johnson is probably the most respected man in that entire area with his many years of recruiting there. He has been having success recruiting the area as a Buckeye assistant.
In the three recruiting cycles coach Johnson has been at Ohio State, eight players from Maryland and Virginia have decided to play football for the Buckeyes. In fact, this year’s 5 star defensive end Chase Young is from Hyattsville, Maryland.
Urban Meyer will always work hard to get the top Ohio recruits, and those he wants from neighboring states as well. But when he gets outside of that eight-hour range he often talks about, his main focus will be on the areas loaded with talent.
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The recruiting momentum for Urban Meyer appears to be building in all four states, as well as the WMV. There is a very good chance that coach Meyer and his staff will build on their success, and bring even more talented players to Columbus from these areas in the future.