Watching the great defenses last night in the NC game has inspired a lot of "why not us" posts. Indeed, for the past 2 years, we've lamented our defensive failure. 

A commenter on LR pointed out that in the 2019/2020 recruiting classes combined, BAMA signed 15 Top 100 defensive players and Georgia signed 12.  

Ohio State signed 2 of the Top 100 Defensive Players in the same time.  Two.  ONLY T...W...O...  TOTAL. !!!

I did a dive into our 2018 class to see how we were recruiting.  ON THE SURFACE we recruited at the BAMA/GEORGIA level...EIGHT In the top 100 we had: We had 2 five stars. Taron Vincent (often injured) & Tyreke Johnson (transfered/should have played safety not corner), Tyreke Smith (good, rotational, injured); Teradja Mitchell (captain, role player); Tommy Togiai (one very good year, rotation guy, went pro too soon); Josh Proctor (starter, injured); Tyler Friday (very good rotation DE, lots of minutes, injured). Antwaun Jackson (No. 1 JUCO transfer, rotation guy, top 100 his original year). 

EIGHT in the top 100 is BAMA/GEORGIA level defensive recruiting. Some of these dudes were snake-bit by injury, a good amount of them. Others just didn't play up to the level of a top 100 recruit, so they were "misses" in that sense. Recruiting was very good... it didn't pan out like we thought. Some of these guys will definitely contribute next year, so incomplete. 

Things are looking up in 21/22, however...per 24/7:

2021: 6 defensive commits in the top 100... including 2 five star players. Denzel Burke (year 1 starter) was #196.

2022: 5 defensive commits signed in the top 100 ... including 2 5 star defensive players. Would go to 6 when/if Abor signs in Feb.

Hero Kanu (signed) is ranked #106 & Christian Miller (pursuing) is ranked #107.

We have 11 total (potentially 12 if Abor signs) including 4 FIVE star players combined which is comparable to Bama/Georgia numbers.

This is a good sign and with a good D-coordinator should be looking up!