Ohio State Football: Former three-star recruits living a dream

Urban Meyer always loaded his Ohio State football team with four-star recruits but also had a knack for finding diamonds in the rough. Some are now at the NFL Combine.

Four of the 11 Ohio State football players at the NFL Combine were three-star recruits. Let’s take a look at those players who were undervalued coming out of high school.

I’ll first look at three Ohio State recruits on the defensive side of the ball and then the transfer who made quite an impact on offense.

DT DaVon Hamilton was ranked the No. 998 player in the country in the 2015 recruiting class. It took the defensive tackle some time to get rolling but became a force in the middle the last two years when he recorded 44 tackles (13 for loss) and last season had 6 sacks.

CB Damon Arnette was another member of the 2015 class and it took him time to progress as well. He may have been drafted last year but decided to return for one more season. Now he certainly will be, and may be a high pick.

Stats really don’t tell the story when it comes to Arnette. He went from a question mark on the edge to a guy who would blanket a receiver.

I have no idea how the big, athletic LB Malik Harrison was rated a three star recruit. He performed well early on but then he took things to another level.

The last two seasons he has made 156 tackles (25 for loss) and had 6 sacks. If any GM needing a linebacker passes on this guy he will regret it.

Now for the player who was a three-star recruit for another team.

Offensive line coach Greg Studrawa got a steal when Jonah Jackson came to Ohio State from Rutgers as a graduate transfer. In his one season for the Buckeyes he was named first team All-Big Ten by the coaches.

It’s always interesting to see how Ohio State football players perform at the NFL Combine but even more so when they were undervalued as recruits. The players I mentioned have worked extremely hard to get to this point and are now living a dream.