Ohio State football: Studrawa recruiting criticism unwarranted

The Ohio State football team continues to produce great offensive linemen year after year. So why is Greg Studrawa taking shots from the fanbase?

Buckeye fans know the offensive line has been one of the team’s strengths the last few seasons. So, it was rather surprising to me when I ran across some comments which were a bit critical of offensive line coach Greg Studrawa’s recruiting because Ohio State lost out on a few coveted linemen in the 2021 class. Their stance was his track record of bringing in high-quality recruits is alright, but it is not on a par with the rest of the team’s position groups. So, I guess it’s time to dig in and take a look.

To really evaluate Studrawa’s recruiting, we have to look at the national recruiting picture and not just the individual Buckeyes. In the last five recruiting cycles (2017-2021), there have been 28 five-star offensive linemen. Studrawa has been directly or partially responsible for reeling in five of them; one in each class. Over that same period, Georgia has signed six, while Alabama has managed just four, and Clemson only three. To me, that’s successful recruiting.

Now, let’s take a close look at the Buckeye five-star offensive line recruits. In 2017, Studrawa helped bring in Wyatt Davis, the top guard nationally, all the way from California. The next year, after Ohio native Jackson Carmen, the country’s second-ranked tackle, almost literally thumbed his nose at the Ohio State football program and trotted off to Clemson, Studrawa was instrumental in signing the number one player at the position, Nicholas Petit-Frere.

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2019 saw him lure the nation’s second-ranked center, Harry Miller, out of his home state of Georgia. Studrawa got the nation’s top tackle, Paris Johnson, Jr., in 2020, and the 2021 top guard in Donovan Jackson from Texas.

So, in those five recruiting cycles, he’s twice brought in the nation’s top tackle and twice brought in the top guard. By the way, the number one tackle in the 2022 recruiting class, Zach Rice of Lynchburg, Virginia, is scheduled to visit the Buckeyes in early June. Again, that seems like successful recruiting to me.

Let’s go a bit further and look at guys who were not five-stars, but were among some of the highest rated at their positions. Josh Myers was the number two guard andEnokk Vimahi was rated seventh at that position.

Matthew Jones was the top-rated center coming out of Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, while Luke Wypler was the number two center in 2020. Max Wray, who recently transferred to Colorado, was a top-ten tackle.

Player development should not be overlooked here. Studrawa is not only responsible for recruiting Thayer Munford but developing him into a four-year starter. Munford was the number 28 tackle nationally and the second-lowest rated member of that Ohio State class.

Coach Stud, as he’s known, has done an outstanding job of recruiting and developing depth. When Munford and Petit-Frere missed the Michigan State game with COVID issues, Dawand Jones and Wray stepped in and were nearly flawless; the offense did not miss a beat.

When Harry Miller was out of the lineup, Matthew Jones replaced him and was outstanding. When you have back-ups you can depend on like that, you’re doing something right.

Over the last two seasons, the Ohio State offensive line has turned into a unit of bulldozers. The team has averaged 262 rushing yards per game and nearly six yards per carry. You don’t put up those kinds of numbers without a quality offensive line.

Next. Ohio State now has a huge advantage over Oregon. dark

I realize losing out on a couple of wanted recruits is frustrating, but I think Greg Studrawa is doing a good job on and off the field for the Ohio State football team. Ryan Day obviously thinks so as well. If he thought there was a problem, he’d have made a change by now.

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