Ohio State Football: How Buckeyes are quickly separating from Big Ten
Recruiting is an instrumental part of college football and right now the Ohio State football team is the elite standard on the trail allowing the Buckeyes to separate from the rest of the Big Ten.
The Ohio State football team has been one of the elite programs in college football for years now. But over the last few, the Buckeyes have been slowly separating from the rest of the sport, especially the Big Ten Conference.
Ohio State plowed through the regular season schedule last season as its opponents had hope for maybe a half while some only a quarter. Upon the retirement of Urban Meyer, many outside the program and fanbase did not know what to expect out of the Buckeyes.
However, those close to the program and passionate fans knew what was coming and expected 2019 to be a continuation of Meyer’s tenure.
Ryan Day is a brilliant head coach with all the intangibles on the field to succeed. But off the field Day is excelling too, maybe even more than expected. Ohio State landed QB Justin Fields as a transfer quickly in January 2019 and then turned around and picked up transfer Oklahoma RB Trey Sermon this year. Both acquisitions filled major voids for the Buckeyes.
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Continuing on recruiting, the Buckeyes have been hot on the trail in the 2021 class which currently sits comfortably atop the rankings according to 247Sports. Ohio State has three 5-star and eleven 4-star recruits already and four of those recruits (all rated in the Top 100) committed as the country began observing social distancing.
Recruiting is reaching unprecedented heights in Columbus and it is evident the Buckeyes are recruiting to win National Championships. Whereas the rest of the conference is recruiting so they can first win their own division.
Ohio State has shown in can with both the Big Ten East and the conference title consistently, so the focus can turn toward greater aspirations.
The 247Sports Composite also lists the nation’s top recruiters by position coach and, well, the Buckeyes have five of the top eight – Tony Alford (1), Brian Hartline (2), Kerry Coombs (3), Larry Johnson (6), and Al Washington (8).
Next. 2021 Ohio State recruiting class is getting absurd. dark
But for those programs struggling to keep pace with the Buckeyes, the speed is now approaching Secretariat levels. By the looks of things, experts will start being able to pencil in Ohio State to the CFP every year as they are able to do with Clemson now thanks to recent dominance and the abysmal play in the ACC.