Ohio State has had 435 individual players selected in the NFL Draft. Those players were under the guidance of 11 different head coaches. This little piece will breakdown the NFL Draft and try to find the impact Ohio State coaches and their players had on the league.
Which coach had the most NFL draft picks?
Woody Hayes is the obvious answer as he had players in the most drafts (28). What might be surprising is the coach that is ranked second. That spot belongs to Jim Tressel with 67 draft picks. John Cooper is third with 61 drafted players.
The Senator coming in at second is an impressive accomplishment when you consider that Cooper had players eligible in 13 drafts and Tressel only had 10 drafts.
Rounding out the top 5 are Earle Bruce (45) and Urban Meyer (33).
| RANK | COACH (NFL DRAFT) | PLAYERS |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | WOODY HAYES (1952-79) | 161* |
| 2 | JIM TRESSEL (2002-11) | 67 |
| 3 | JOHN COOPER (1989-01) | 61 |
| 4 | EARLE BRUCE (1980-88) | 45 |
| 5 | URBAN MEYER (2013-2017) | 33 |
| 6 | FRANCIS SCHMIDT (1936-41) | 20 |
| 7 | WES FESLER (1948-51) | 16 |
| 8 | CARROLL WIDDOES (1945-46) | 13** |
| 9 | PAUL BROWN (1942-44) | 11 |
| 10 | PAUL BIXLER (1947) | 5** |
| 11 | LUKE FICKELL (2012) | 4 |
*Bob Myers only counts once. He was drafted by the Colts in both 1954 and 1955.
**Russ Thomas was selected by the Lions in 1946 (Widdoes) and the Lions again in 1947 (Bixler).
DIGGING A LITTLE DEEPER: TOTAL DRAFT PICKS PER COACH
The easy way to determine draft picks is listed above. Giving credit to the coach at the time a player was selected in the NFL Draft. However, a more difficult, but arguably more accurate way to answer the question is to award the coaches with the players they recruited.
That means the coaches will get credit for the Buckeyes that they recruited and were selected in the NFL Draft.
With this model, Art Schlichter, Bob Atha, Robert Murphy, Kenneth Fritz, Vincent Skillings, Doug Donley, Calvin Murray, Ray Ellis, Todd Bell, Alvin Washington, Michael Guess, Jim Laughlin and Keith Ferguson are now credited to Woody Hayes, not Earle Bruce. Why? Because these 13 players were freshmen during Hayes' last season at Ohio State and were recruited by Hayes.
On the flip side, Hayes loses credit for nine players that were enrolled at Ohio State before he was hired, but were drafted while he was coach. What does this mean? Hayes gets credit for four more drafted players.
At this time, I will only do this for Woody Hayes, Earle Bruce, John Cooper, Jim Tressel and Urban Meyer. Why is Luke Fickell is not included? Because Fickell never had a recruiting class as Ohio State's head coach. He was hired after the 2011 signing period and Urban Meyer was the head coach for the 2012 class.
| RANK | COACH | PLAYERS | DIFFERENCE |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WOODY HAYES | 165* | +4 |
| 2 | JOHN COOPER | 69 | +8 |
| 3 | JIM TRESSEL | 66 | -1 |
| 4 | EARLE BRUCE | 39 | -6 |
| 5 | URBAN MEYER | 19 | -14* |
*Urban Meyer's difference number will improve a few years after he is no longer Ohio State's head coach.
When looking at these numbers, John Cooper is ahead of Jim Tressel. However, Tressel still has a better per average than Coop.
Another number that jumps off of the page is the downturn in talent during the Earle Bruce era. The man who wore the fedora did not bring in as much NFL talent as Hayes or the men who followed him. The negative 6 is an indicator that Bruce inherited a good amount of NFL talent when he took over and did not recruit NFL level talent during his final years.
Which Ohio State coach has the highest average number of players per draft?
**NOTE** These results are using the lazy players selected while coach model.
| RANK | COACH | PLAYERS |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | JIM TRESSEL | 6.7 |
| 2 | URBAN MEYER | 6.6 |
| 3 | CARROLL WIDDOES | 6.5 |
| 4 | WOODY HAYES | 5.8 |
| 5 | EARLE BRUCE | 5.0 |
| 5 | PAUL BIXLER | 5.0 |
| 7 | JOHN COOPER | 4.7 |
| 8 | WES FESLER | 4.0 |
| 8 | LUKE FICKEL | 4.0 |
| 10 | PAUL BROWN | 3.7 |
| 11 | FRANCIS SCHMIDT | 3.3 |
Considering Hayes had players eligible in 28 drafts, let's even the playing field a little and rank the coaches by average number of players selected per draft.
Jim Tressel currently edges out Urban Meyer by a tenth of a points. Over his ten seasons as Ohio State's head coach, Tressel averaged 6.7 players per draft. Meyer currently stands at 6.6. For Meyer to over take the vested one, he will need to have eight players drafted in the 2018 NFL Draft.
*If there is an error, or something is missing, please let me know.
**If you have a question, or want a little more research, ask in the comment section.
