Back in 2013, Ohio State signed a four-star tight end out of Riverside, California rated as the fourth best prospect at his position who was the No. 85-ranked overall player in the country. Marcus Baugh committed early that year to the Buckeyes — who only needed one tight end in their class — and never really wavered so they never got much of a chance to look at another in-state prospect, a four-star recruit himself named Jake Butt, who hailed from nearby Pickerington North High School right in Central Ohio.
As things stand right now, there’s no question who has had the better career through three seasons. Butt is an All-American at Michigan who caught 51 passes for 654 yards and three touchdowns as a junior for the Wolverines. Butt has 92 catches in his first three seasons in Ann Arbor; Baugh has just three in Columbus.
No, it’s certainly not a forgone conclusion that Butt would have ended up at Ohio State had the Buckeyes extended an offer, but coach Urban Meyer has a pretty good track record of keeping kids in state. If Ohio State wants a kid from Ohio, it gets him almost every single time. The Buckeyes already had Baugh, though, and didn’t need a second tight end in the class so they never offered Butt. On the surface, it looks like a pretty big recruiting miss.
To be fair to Baugh, when he arrived on campus he was stuck behind two NFL-caliber tight ends. Jeff Heuerman was selected in the third round by the Denver Broncos in 2015 and Nick Vannett will likely be an early-round selection in the upcoming NFL Draft. Butt certainly had a greater opportunity to play early at Michigan. There were some off-field issues with Baugh, as well, and he even thought about leaving Ohio State early on in his career.
“I was just homesick, dumb, immature,” Baugh said of his early career after a recent spring practice. “But it was a good thing [my dad] didn’t let me leave because it really helped me grow up.”
And now with Heuerman and Vannett now out of the picture, it’s finally Baugh’s time to start as he sets to enter his fourth year in Columbus. He still has an opportunity to live up to the hype he came in with.
“I feel good,” Baugh said. “I finally get to go out there and do my thing.”
Baugh redshirted his first year at Ohio State and then saw playing time mostly on special teams — he appeared in 12 games — during the Buckeyes’ national championship season in 2014 as he was stuck behind both Heuerman and Vannett. Last year, though, he became the No. 2 tight end and appeared in all 13 games primarily in a blocking role.
Next season, Baugh will be the only tight end on Ohio State’s roster with any sort of playing experience. Much more will be asked of him.
“He’s a good athlete, he’s really developed and he’s come a long way,” tight ends coach and offensive coordinator Ed Warinner said. “He had a great year for us last year, we were real excited and I think the sky’s the limit.”
Baugh said it has been a long road for him to get to this point where he’ll be a starter. He still needs to work on some of the extra stuff that needs to be done to be a high-level player in the Big Ten: lifting weights, film study, those types of things.
“I need to love training,” he said. “I like to play ball, that’s all I’ve done. In high school, I barely touched weights and now I came here and now I’ve gotta lift weights and it’s just something I never did. I have to learn how to love it.”
With two years of eligibility remaining, Baugh still has that chance to meet the expectations many had of him when he first committed back to Ohio State. No, he may never be the player Butt is at Michigan, but that’s not really the entire point. With two seasons left, Baugh still has time to be a very valuable player for the Buckeyes.
The only question: Will he finally reach his potential?
“He had some bumps in the road early in his career here,” Warinner said. “... But we’re going to push him to the next level in terms of his blocking and pass receiver. He’s made a lot of nice catches, a lot of nice plays so I’m really happy with where he’s at.”
