The Hurry-Up: Taking a Look at How Ohio State’s Offensive and Defensive Recruiting Classes Compare Nationwide Over the Past Six Years

Comparing OSU’s offensive and defensive classes

I was listening to the Cover 3 Podcast a couple weeks ago on a mailbag episode when a listener submitted a question asking if 247Sports was ever planning on releasing a second ranking system – one that split up offense and defense into separate point systems to supplement the overall team rankings the site employs now.

I thought it was an awesome idea in order to track which programs recruit the strongest on each side of the ball, and it sounds like there’s a good possibility we could wind up seeing that in the future. 

But until we get official numbers from them, I powered down a double-espresso coffee and took it in my own hands to do my best in giving at least a taste of what that might look like. Similar to the comparison made two weekends ago – when taking a look at how Ryan Day’s first two recruiting classes compare to those of the Urban Meyer Era – I did some math things to break down the offensive and defensive classes of the 2017, 2018, 2020 and 2021 recruiting cycles.

It’s not perfect. The 247Sports formula – a complicated one governed by a Gaussian Distribution Formula that you can read up on here – would serve up different point totals if the publication elected to create separate offensive and defensive ranking systems. But this is at least a snapshot, using the point total assigned to each player from each of those classes. 

Ohio State finished with a top-five class in each of those years, and once again, I took out the 2019 class because it was an anomaly for the Buckeyes in having taken a very rare small class of just 17 commits. To compare how the Buckeyes did in each cycle, I broke down the offensive and defensive point totals for the other four programs that finished in the top five that class. 

As you will see below, I broke down Ohio State’s class extensively by keeping track of each player’s point total individually. As for the other four programs each year, I didn’t keep track of every single player’s point total by name, but I did add up all of the individual scores to get the total for offense and defense.  

From an Ohio State side of things, what I found most interesting was this: Ohio State’s reputation of putting players into the NFL Draft speaks for itself, and it’s a point of emphasis on the recruiting trail that we’ve hit on plenty of times this year. Defensive players for the Buckeyes, however, have been more successful in getting selected. Since the 2017 draft, eight of the 10 Buckeyes selected in the first round were defensive players, and of the 33 overall players drafted, 19 were defensive players. 

So I wanted to find out whether or not the recruiting point totals heavily favored the Buckeyes, and it turned out to be a bit of a mixed bag depending on the class. As a rule, I categorized all specialists (kickers, punters, long snappers) as offensive players.

OK, so obviously those tables and point totals wouldn't have much value if they didn't have context. Here's how those Ohio State classes stack up against the offensive and defensive classes for the other four programs that finished in the top five of each of those respective cycles:

The lauded 2017 class for the Buckeyes, which finished with a 94.59 average player rating, was absolutely loaded on defense. The top four players from this class were all defensive players in five-star prospects Chase Young, Jeff Okudah, Baron Browning and Shaun Wade. Pete Werner was the lowest-ranked player on defense and will head into 2020 as one of the unit's most important players.

The top-ranked offensive player for the Buckeyes was Wyatt Davis, while Thayer Munford was the third-lowest-ranked prospect in the class and is headed into the 2020 season as one of the anchors along the line. 

Of note: Najee Harris and Dylan Moses (Alabama), D'Andre Swift and Jake Fromm (Georgia) and Donovan Peoples-Jones (Michigan) came from this class.

Here are some team stats from the 2019 season, when members of the 2017 recruiting class were in their third season contributing for their teams and making their biggest impacts, for the top-five teams in the 2017 recruiting class.

We will have to wait for the 2020 and 2021 seasons to get a true gauge of how the 2018 and 2019 cycles turned out.

Another loaded Ohio State class that finished with a 94.29 average player rating – a rating ranked fourth in the modern recruiting era – saw the Buckeyes bring in the nation's top-ranked offensive tackle (Nicholas Petit-Frere) and two additional five-star prospects on defense (Taron Vincent, Tyreke Johnson), all three of whom are entering a huge season in 2020. 

Of note: Justin Fields was Georgia's top-ranked player signed in the 2018 class as one of the all-time best recruits in college football.

The Buckeyes' most recent recruiting class deviated a bit from the 2017 and 2018 cycles by loading up on offense. Receivers Julian Fleming, Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Gee Scott Jr., offensive tackle Paris Johnson Jr. and quarterback C.J. Stroud were the five highest-ranked players in the class, and the additions of Mookie Cooper and Luke Wypler meant that seven of the 10 players in Ohio State's class came from the offensive side of the ball. 

Meanwhile, linebacker Cody Simon was the defense's highest-ranked player, followed by defensive linemen Darrion Henry-Young and Jacolbe Cowan. Eight of the Buckeyes' top 16 players in the class came from the defense.

Of note: Bryan Bresee (Clemson) and Elias Ricks (LSU), two priority Ohio State targets, were two of the three highest-ranked defensive players in this class, and quarterbacks Bryce Young (Alabama) and DJ Uiagalelei (Clemson) were two of the biggest highlights on offense. 

*Jesse Mirco does not yet factor into the team rankings

Obviously, the 2021 class has the most mystery centered around it because no class is yet complete with decommitment possibilities and opportunities to add more talent to the equation for each program. As of right now, the Buckeyes have the highest-ranked defensive player in the class (Jack Sawyer) and three of their top-four players are on offense (TreVeyon Henderson, Donovan Jackson, Kyle McCord).

Of note: The Buckeyes' defensive line class of Sawyer, Tunmise Adeleye and Mike Hall is No. 1 in the country in weighted point total (77.4 points) in the 2021 cycle.

Top players

As an added bonus, here are the top 10 players from the 2017, 2018, 2020 and 2021 classes on each side of the ball combined in terms of which players earned their respective recruiting classes the most points with their rankings.