Ohio State Football: Ryan Day emphasizing homegrown talent in recruiting
Ryan Day is placing a priority on locking up top in-state talent. This could lay the foundation for the Ohio State football program moving forward.
Ryan Day has taken on a new philosophy when it comes to recruiting. During the days of Urban Meyer, it was get the top talent no matter where they are. Only the best for Ohio State.
When you are Urban Meyer and have three national championships that tactic works well. Recruits will come from wherever to play for a coach like that. Ryan Day has proven he and his staff can recruit at a high level, he just doesn’t have the pedigree of an Urban Meyer. Yet.
Day needs to lock up the top in-state talent to provide the foundation for this program moving forward. It also doesn’t hurt that the Buckeyes just so happen to be in one of the best states for high school football in the country. That has been proven time and again, most recently by Ohio State commit and No.2 overall player in the 2021 recruiting class, Jack Sawyer.
Four-star Cincinnati running back recruit, Corey Kiner, who is high on the Buckeye wish list for the 2021 recruiting cycle, agrees that this a great state for high school football players, from Cleveland.com:
"“We breed talent every year,” Kiner told cleveland.com. “We’re just as good as a Florida or a Texas or a California. They get football all year round and you only get to see it in the fall for us. We’re just as good, if not better. It’s just you only get to see it at one small time of the year.”"
So Ryan Day has made it a priority in locking these guys up. In the 2020 class, the Buckeyes took eight players from Ohio. So far for the 2021 class he has locked up five of Ohio’s best football players as verbal commitments.
According to Stephen Means of cleveland.com, the Buckeyes are in on 9 of the top 10 players in the state of Ohio. Furthermore, these players tend to bleed Scarlet and Gray and could install more of a home state pride feeling when it comes to Ohio State football.
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As Ryan Day has continuous success and his teams are College Football Playoff contenders every season, this philosophy could shift back into Urban’s way of recruiting. But for now, Day is taking this approach and it could pay off well for him as the talent in this state continues to get better.