Better Know a Buckeye: Shaun Wade

It's officially football's off-season, which means it's time to better know the incoming class of Buckeyes.

For first-time readers, I've been writing these Better Know a Buckeye features since Ohio State's highly regarded 2008 class and brought the feature to Eleven Warriors in 2013. The goal is to provide a comprehensive profile of all incoming freshmen, detailing their back stories, why they came to Ohio State, and what they could contribute in the immediate future.

This series for this year will start chronologically by order of commitment date. First up is Shaun Wade, a cornerback from Jacksonville. Wade's commitment on Jan. 12, 2015 seemed curious and inexplicable when he made it. He was a high four-star and soon-to-be five-star prospect then. He also came from the same high school that produced Ben Edwards, who pledged to Ohio State before he flipped to Auburn and later signed with Stanford. Wade seemed likely to follow a similar path, leading from Ohio State to an equally prestigious football power in the South like Alabama, Florida, or Florida State. Yet, Wade's pledge stuck and he ultimately enrolled at Ohio State in January.

This feature will proceed in the usual fashion familiar to long-time readers. I first start with his recruitment, brief as it was, before his commitment. Thereafter, I mention some of the uncertainty around the durability of his pledge, especially as Alabama emerged as a credible challenger. I next provide a scouting report of Wade that details his strengths and areas for improvement. I close with projections about whether Wade will redshirt in 2017 and provide some highlight film for the reader to watch at the end of the feature.

HIS RECRUITMENT

Shaun Wade was always going to be a hot commodity on the recruiting trail for 2017. His high school, Trinity Christian Academy, recently became a talent factory. Its 2015 alumni, for example, signed with programs like Auburn (Jeffery Holland), LSU (Kevin Tolliver II), Miami (Kendrick Norton), and Stanford (Ben Edwards). As a freshman, Wade already had offers from Clemson, North Carolina, Ohio State, UCLA, and Virginia Tech. Wade said nothing about any of his offers. His recruitment had just started and was off to a great start with no timetable or end in sight.

This changed on Jan. 12, 2015, when Wade offered a surprise commitment to Ohio State mid-way through his sophomore year.

HIS COMMITMENT

Shaun Wade pledged to Ohio State on Jan. 12, 2015, earning the distinction as the first commitment in what ultimately became Ohio State's 2017 recruiting class. He chose Ohio State over other prestigious offers like Clemson, Georgia, and Ole Miss, among many others.

The timing was surprising. Wade had not visited Ohio State yet. He ultimately did not say much about why he committed to Ohio State at the time. It came the same day as the national championship win over Oregon, which made the decision perhaps appear impulsive to recruiting analysts. All things considered, this fueled speculation whether a site-unseen pledge from a Florida kid would hold when there were still more than two years until signing day.

Suspicion at the time seemed warranted. Trinity Christian's coaches encourage their highly-ranked sophomores to make soft pledges as both a placeholder and a means to forge a relationship with big-name coaches across the country. If it seemed like Wade was playing the field, perhaps he was. Ohio State's coaches would need to put in work for the next two years to secure what could (and later did) become one of the elite players in the entire country.

The first threat was Florida, which offered Wade two weeks after he pledged to Ohio State. Wade visited Gainesville and came back with high remarks. Wade indicated he was "100 percent right now" an Ohio State pledge, but Florida would be a program he looked forward to watching in 2015.

The biggest challenger to Ohio State was Alabama. Nick Saban's program commands any recruit's attention, increasingly across the country but especially in the South. An unofficial visit to Tuscaloosa in early November 2015 eventually became an offer on Feb. 11, 2016. Wade attended Alabama's junior day later that same month.

The probability of a flip became so high that 89 percent of Shaun Wade's Crystal Ball projections on 247Sports still have him going to Alabama.

We know that never materialized. Why it didn't materialize still seems like kind of a mystery. The best explanation put forward is Alabama lost interest in Wade the more they felt he would ultimately stick with Ohio State. Alabama coaches, which had previously pledged to see him play in the state championship game, no-showed and started to look at other cornerback options late in the 2017 recruiting cycle. That no-show may have been the final push Wade needed to stick with his commitment to Ohio State.

Wade later reaffirmed his pledge on Dec. 12, 2016. He arrived on campus on Jan. 8 to start classes.

WHERE HE EXCELS

Shaun Wade is a five-star prospect and a top 20 player nationally. He is one of many reasons this might be Urban Meyer's best recruiting class he ever signed (ignoring, for the moment, what we know about Ohio State's 2013 signing class after the fact).

Wade's greatest attribute might be his length. He's not the tallest cornerback on paper (6-1), nor "big" (177 pounds), but he has elite all-around length and size. He's at the fore of what defensive back coaches want in their programs as opposing wide receivers get bigger and bigger. Wade will be able to assist Ohio State's defense covering the opponent's biggest wideout.

Unlike other big defensive backs programs sign, Wade has good speed for his length and size. It's unlikely he will lose a step as he goes through strength and conditioning in the winter and have to make a transition to safety.

His ball skills are beyond impressive. He was a two-way player for a talent-laden Trinity Christian program. The highlight film at the end of the feature showcases his ability to high-point interceptions and bait quarterbacks into ill-advised throws into zone coverage.

MUST WORK ON

My comments here are largely minor. Wade is a five-star prospect and one of the top 10 prospects Ohio State has signed in Urban Meyer's six years in Columbus.

I think his backpedal needs work. Much of Wade's highlight film features his athleticism and play-making ability. It's light on fundamentals. What you do see suggests a two-way player who roamed through the secondary while on defense, often giving generous cushion to wide receivers in order to use his athleticism to bait the quarterback into throwing to his man. Ohio State's coaches will work hard to mold him into more of a "true corner" than his highlight film suggests.

Further, I'm not sold that Wade is necessarily the best tackler at cornerback. He's not a bad tackler. He won't be a liability in that important department. However, good form is lacking in this department.

REDSHIRT?

I've been burned on these features before in this section, especially on the 2015 signing class. Urban Meyer increasingly redshirts true freshmen despite well-traveled pledges on the recruiting trail that he does not. All the same, Wade seems too promising a prospect to redshirt in 2017. At the least, he's a special teams standout as a true freshman.

HIGHLIGHTS

Here are senior highlights of Shaun Wade.