Why Ohio State football fans had a very stressful night
By Ryan Stano
National Signing Day is officially over. The Ohio State football program started the day with the second-best recruiting class in the country and finished it with the fourth. They kept one big-time recruit from flipping and lost one other one to Oregon. But Wednesday night was scary.
Ohio State thought they had signed the number-one player in the entire country in receiver Jeremiah Smith. In fact, Smith announced his re-affirmed commitment to the Buckeyes just after noon on Wednesday. He was the biggest recruit in the entire class so there was some relief to keep him.
And then time went by. And more time. Then some more. All of a sudden, it was 10 pm and Smith's letter of intent still wasn't in to Ohio State. Could he have flipped? Did Miami come in from the top rope with a bag of casah like they had for so many others on Wednesday?
Ohio State football fans were freaking out, and I have to admit I was a bit worried too. It seemed very odd to have him commit earlier in the day and then not send in his letter. After about ten hours, the letter finally came in and Ohio State officially announced they had signed him.
So what was the hold up? Why did it take so long for Smith to get the letter in? Apparently, his parents and their representatives were looking over the details of the NIL contracts to make sure things were solid. So much for not caring about the money, huh?
dark. Next. Next story. Jim Harbaugh given notice of allegations for Level I violations
In the end, it doesn't matter. The Buckeyes were able to keep him on board and bring in a relatively strong class. I don't really care what they had to do to get it done. Now the Buckeyes have a class of 21 coming in with some wiggle room to bring more in when February rolls around or using the transfer portal.