Larry Johnson has a track record of landing some of the best edge rushers in the country. He has been the best at that for quite a while, and Ohio State has landed studs such as Joey Bosa, Nick Bosa, and Chase Young under his watch. Johnson's latest five-star defensive lineman is Khary Wilder, who will be seeing more snaps as the year goes along.
Micah Parsons is someone the Buckeyes were recruiting hard out of high school. He was listed as the fifth overall recruit in the 2018 recruiting class. He would have been an excellent defensive end. Parsons recently revealed how close he was to picking the Ohio State Buckeyes out of high school.
Micah Parsons came close to attending Ohio State
While speaking with Sterling Holmes of FanSided on behalf of Tide, Parsons revealed how close he was to moving to Columbus and picking the Buckeyes. He also talked about the famous recruiting violation that forced him to stop considering Ohio State.
"I don't think people think about that too often because there was like a 50/50 chance I was going to Ohio State, you know, between Ohio State and Penn State. And because of that, I just decided that I was going to stick with Penn State. It's crazy because I haven't talked about that stuff in a long time. Like, I really almost did go there at some point. The thing about playing with great guys like Nick Bosa, Chase Young, Hall, and all of those great pass-rushers coming through there, it would've been pretty cool, because I would've been the edge rusher at Ohio State."
Parsons clearly thinks about what would have happened if he had been a member of the Ohio State Buckeyes. He thinks he could have been drafted higher had he come to Columbus. Of course, because Parsons took a picture with Kirk Herbstreit while College GameDay was on set, it was deemed a recruiting violation. Ohio State's punishment was that they had to stop recruiting Parsons.
Ohio State would have had an all-time defensive line with Micah Parsons
Had the Buckeyes been able to actually keep recruiting Parsons, they might have had one of the best defensive line rooms of all-time. Adding him to a roster with Young and Bosa would have given them one of the best collections of pass-rushers ever. Parsons could have had 15 sacks every year with Ohio State.
Instead, the Buckeyes had to play against Parsons. Parsons played linebacker for Penn State and was eventually a top-10 pick. He played linebacker for the Cowboys and is now a defensive end pass-rusher for the Packers. That's where he would have played under Urban Meyer and Ryan Day.
The rules in college football are much different now. What Parsons did back then is not a violation now. Quite frankly, it's hard for teams to commit recruiting violations in this day and age of college football. Based on Parsons' answer, it seems that he thinks about what would've happended if he was in Columbus often.
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