Ohio State Football: Cause for concern on the recruiting trail

Ohio State has had a quiet run on the recruiting trail over the last few weeks, including a few misses and a de-commitment. Is it time to be concerned that Ryan Day is losing steam?

We have recently had several articles praising the Ohio State recruiting efforts like this one about how dominant the class has been or this one about how the class could be historically great.

Over the past few weeks, however, things have been quiet on the recruiting front. There were no new signings in the month of June, and there were a few key misses of guys considering Ohio State. There was even a rare de-commitment from the Buckeyes.

This brings up the question, is everything still going well for Ryan Day?

To the casual observer, these events seem bad, but hope is not lost in Columbus.

The first reason to remain optimistic is that Ohio State still has commitments or heavy leans from 5 members of the top 10 players in this year’s class.

Putting a focus on quality over quantity is something that Urban Meyer was able to use to bring the right guys onto campus.

Most years the Buckeyes end up having plenty of great players to fill their roster, so Ryan Day should focus right now on getting the best possible players, not just the ones who will commit the soonest.

The second reason to not overreact to these events is that none of them were really that shocking.

Eleven Warriors sums it up as:

"June has not been a fruitful month in recruiting for Ohio State, and though Grimes was very unlikely to end up with the Buckeyes, he adds to the growing list of top targets who have committed elsewhere this month:JC Latham (committed to Alabama)Hudson Wolfe (committed to Tennessee)Troy Stellato (committed to Clemson)Jaylin Davies (committed to Oregon)Devonta Smith (decommitted from Ohio State; committed to Alabama)[Tony] Grimes ]committed to North Carolina]Latham and Wolfe are the only two on this list who are substantial losses, with the loss of Smith also hurting, though the Buckeyes should be able to recover from that one a bit easier."

Ohio State has enough players who are still listing the Buckeyes as top targets, that the commitments from these players will pass quickly.

That’s what college recruiting is all about. Especially in a world when transferring out of a program is more common and easier than ever before, you want to make sure everyone you sign plans on playing for your program for the long haul.

I think that as more clarity comes around when/if recruits will be able to travel to campuses this fall, Ohio State will see a massive uptick of recruits declaring their intentions to play for the Buckeyes.