Ohio State Football: How to keep receivers happy

The Ohio State football team has the deepest group of receivers in college football. How well Brian Hartline has recruited that room is insane. There are four and five-star recruits all over the roster. That happens every single year. New top-level talent replaces the talent that heads to the NFL.

Keeping all of that talent happy is certainly a challenge. The Buckeyes just had two receivers head for the transfer portal in the offseason because of that issue. When you have that many great players at one position, not everyone is going to be happy.

So how does Hartline keep the receivers happy? He doesn’t. He can’t guarantee everyone playing time. That’s part of his recruiting pitch. He tells them that the best guys are going to play. It’s up to each guy to work as hard as he can so that he gets snaps on game day.

Will that result in some transfers? Absolutely. Look at Jameson Williams. He left for Alabama because he was behind three first-round receivers at Ohio State. He ended up being a first-round pick himself because he was finally bel to emerge from the shadows of Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson.

The Ohio State football program will continue to keep adding talent to the receiver room as long as Hartline is on staff. Kids are going to be unhappy with playing time if they aren’t good enough. If they feel that way, they can get into the portal and go elsewhere. That’s the new life in college football.

The great thing about the way the Buckeyes recruit is that they will always have depth at that position even if a few kids transfer out. Hartline will always keep that pipeline churning. As long as he’s in Columbus, fans don’t need to worry about that position.