Ohio State Football: At linebacker, size does matter

When a linebacker joins the Ohio State football team is his weight a good indication whether or not he will have a successful college career?

Strange things can happen when these addictions collide. They are, following Ohio State football, keeping track of recruits and analyzing numbers? You discover trends people who have a normal thought process, and a life, may not notice.

Here is one that people in their right minds might find interesting. When it comes to the chances of Ohio State linebackers having success, size does matter. At least that has been the case with nearly every LB recruit during the Urban Meyer era.

Players who are listed under 215 pounds as a recruit tend to succeed. Those who weigh over 230 as either a recruit or during their freshman season do as well. With others who have weighed between 215 to 230 it has rarely been the case.

Don’t believe me? Check out the linebacker recruits along with their weights beginning with Urban Meyer’s first class. The second number listed beside some of the players was their listed weight during their freshman season. I left out players who were moved to defensive end.

2012

Joshua Perry 220…238
Cameron Williams 217
David Perkins 230
Luke Roberts 220

2013

Mike Mitchell 222
Trey Johnson 218
Chris Worley 190
Darron Lee 205

2014

Raekwon McMillan 242
Dante Booker 212
Kyle Berger 215

2015

Justin Hilliard 225
Jerome Baker 203
Nick Conner 225

2016

Keandre Jones 210
Tuf Borland 225…228
Malik Harrison 222

2017

Baron Browning 229…238
Pete Werner 220…235

2018

Dallas Gant 225
Teradja Mitchell 232
K’Vaughan Pope 210

Players who were listed over 230 pounds include Josh Perry and Raekwon McMillan. Players under 215, Darron Lee, Chris Worley and Jerome Baker. They turned out to be pretty good players didn’t they?

However, nearly every linebacker recruited during this time period who was listed between 215-230 pounds dealt with an injury situation or transferred to another school.

One exception was Cam Williams who was an excellent special teams player and a solid backup. However, he never became a full-time starter.

Could it be the case that talented players in the 225 pound range have been pushed along too quickly when their bodies weren’t quite ready for the punishment college linebackers have to endure? Hard to say for sure but you can’t rule it out.

Especially when undersized linebackers like Lee, Worley and Baker didn’t have that problem and went on to have success. It was obvious they needed to put on weight before being thrown into the mix.

Lee and Worley were red-shirted and Baker was mostly used on special teams his freshman year.

I thought the trend had been broken when Tuf Borland and Malik Harrison played so well last season. Now Borland is dealing with an Achilles injury.

At least it has been reported he is progressing well and Harrison is the presumed starter at outside linebacker.

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Of the three talented linebackers in the 2018 recruiting class only Teradja Mitchell and K’Vaughan Pope fall into the good range as far as their weight is concerned. Dallas Gant is listed at 225 pounds, and since he is said to be in contention to make the two deep I hope he will gain at least six pounds quickly.

That’s not because I’m superstitious, I just know numbers don’t lie. And I want the young man to be successful.

In writing this, I just wanted to point out something I have noticed regarding the success some Ohio State linebackers have had since 2012, and those who haven’t. Make of it what you will.

However, when a LB recruit commits to play for Ohio State, I will still first take a look at his reported weight. So far during the Urban era that has been an important stat.