Ohio State football: How high can they get in recruiting rankings?

Thanks to commitments from three of the nation’s top ten receivers this week, the Ohio State football program has climbed to number two in 247Sports’ recruiting rankings. Ryan Day currently has thirteen players pledged to join his program in 2023.

There was a lot of hand wringing among Buckeye faithful when the program had not had a commitment in nearly six weeks and OSU was taking a tumble in the rankings. Now that the first two five-stars of this recruiting class and the state of North Carolina’s best prospect in ten years are now in the fold, everyone can relax a bit.

Receivers Brandon Inniss and Carnell Tate are those five-stars, and the number two and three receivers in the country according to 247Sports’ Composite Rankings. Noah Rogers is the most talented recruit his state has seen in a decade (read my article about these three here).

Their addition to the class helped vault the Buckeyes past Penn State and close in on Notre Dame for the top spot in the rankings. They also increased Ohio State’s per-recruit average to 94.15, the best among teams that have at least ten players committed (fewer than ten commits is too small of a sample size in my opinion). The average per player is what I tend to focus on when looking at recruiting rankings.

247’s ranking are based on the overall point total of a team’s commitments. Notre Dame being number one right now is misleading. The Irish have two more commits than the Buckeyes, but their per-player average is almost a full 1.5 points behind Ohio State’s. Third place Clemson’s average is over 2.5 points lower.

Don’t be fooled by where a team is currently ranked. Texas Tech, Cincinnati, and Northwestern are all in the top ten right now, but all three have at least twenty players committed and none have a per-player average above 88. Once things pick up among the usual suspects of heavy hitters (Alabama, Oregon, etc.), those three will tumble in the rankings quickly.

Each recruiting cycle is a marathon, not a sprint. We still have six months until the early signing period in December. An awful lot can happen and probably will. My advice is to not worry about where the Ohio State football team is in the rankings right now.

Keep an eye on that per-player average, because it speaks to the quality of the class. Sometime around the middle of October is when I’d take a look to see where the Buckeyes sit.