Urban Meyer's got an eye for talent. Anyone familiar with his success in college football can see that.
He's among the best at convincing the nation's top talent to come to Ohio State year in and year out, but it's those recruits who are under-appreciated that can often be forgotten beneath such big names like Vonn Bell, Joey Bosa and Ezekiel Elliott.
The three-star names litter Ohio State's roster, providing the perfect mesh with those big names to win football games, all under Meyer's watchful eye.
Meyer's success can be attributed plenty to the development and performance of the big-time recruits, but it's the growth of the other guys under strength coach Mickey Marotti along with Ohio State's positional coaches that fill in the blanks and lead to championships.
Here's a look at the unheralded recruits in Meyer's tenure the head coach and his staff molded into champions at Ohio State, including what makes them so vital to the Buckeyes.
Kenny Guiton
Guiton didn't really get his chance to show what he could do during critical moments until Braxton Miller went down with injuries in 2012, Meyer's first on campus. A Jim Tressel recruit in the class of 2009, Guiton blossomed under the tutelage of Meyer and Tom Herman to become a fan favorite even though he was just a three-star recruit from Houston.
Guiton's headed back home to work with his former quarterbacks coach at the University of Houston, showing his charisma and personable nature to be exactly something Herman wants around his program.
Bradley Roby
It might be hard to believe, but Roby was just a three-star recruit out of Suwanee, Ga., in 2010.
Roby had his fair share of run-ins with the law during his time at Ohio State, but Meyer helped straighten him out and springboard him into a first-round NFL Draft pick of the Denver Broncos in the 2014. He was an All-Big Ten performer in his redshirt sophomore and redshirt junior seasons at Ohio State, easily the best corner the Buckeyes had to offer those two years.
Darryl Baldwin
Baldwin is another three-star recruit in the class of 2010, but unlike Roby, he didn't get his shot until his fifth year on campus — the 2014 national championship season.
A vital part of the offensive line that paved the way for Ezekiel Elliott's powerful post-season, Baldwin's quiet strength on the unit where he thrived under Ed Warinner was a crucial cog to Ohio State winning the national championship.
Michael Thomas
Thomas led the Buckeyes with 54 receptions last season, showing off his size and speed to become a bit of a security blanket for Cardale Jones during the College Football Playoff.
Thomas only had three offers out of high school, going to Fork Union Military Academy along with Jones before redshirting at Ohio State. Now, he enters fall camp as the Buckeyes No. 1 receiver and NFL scouts are talking highly of the nephew of former Pro Bowl wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson.
Devin Smith
The guy Meyer repeatedly called "the best deep-ball catcher in America" during his senior season only garnered three-star status out of Washington High School in Massillon, Ohio. Smith only received six college scholarship offers, but blossomed into a player teams didn't have an answer for downfield in his career.
Smith's 28.2 yards per catch average was far and away the best in the country in 2014, flouishing even further with the big arm of Jones throwing bombs down the sidelines. He was a weapon that will be sorely missed this fall.
Jacoby Boren
Boren's the final chapter to a football-bred family deep of Ohio State ties. He battled injuries all last season while playing center for the Buckeyes, the most important position on the offensive line.
Though he's a tad undersized to play center in the Big Ten, Meyer's adoration for Boren — another three-star commit — showed through last season in the run to the national title.
Tyvis Powell
Powell committed when Ohio State was at its most vulnerable — when Tressel was on his way out amid NCAA investigation and the immediate future of the program was in flux.
His flashy smile, contagious personality and athletic ability saw him start all season last year and make a bunch of key plays along the way. Another three-star, Powell's charisma and relationship with Jones alone deserves mention on this list.
Cardale Jones
Speaking of Jones — a former three-star commit and the man who quarterbacked the Buckeyes to the three biggest wins of the season last year — what Tom Herman and Meyer did to turn the one known as 12-Gauge's life around is nothing short of remarkable.
You all know about the infamous tweet Jones sent back in 2012, but the person you see these days is completely different than the immature freshman back then. Not to mention he's a pretty good quarterback, too.
Pat Elflein
Elflein earned All-Big Ten honors as a sophomore, his first full season as a starter, in 2014. He stepped in admirably for a suspended Marcus Hall in 2013, proving he belonged time and again in games against Michigan and Michigan State.
Yet another three-star recruit, it's a pretty well-known fact that Elflein's the second-best offensive lineman Ohio State's got to offer this season. He serves as another example of Warinner's magic touch through Meyer molding an under-the-radar commit into a star.
Darron Lee
Lee's stardom speaks for himself, as he burst onto the scene during 2014 spring practice as the guy to replace Ryan Shazier. It seemed like a tall task, but one that Lee achieved with flying colors.
Luke Fickell saw the three-star high school quarterback as the perfect speed linebacker also big enough to play against the run and rush the quarterback, and he couldn't have been more right.
Meyer's aptitude for developing talent is exhibited mightily in this group of players. He helped some of Tressel's recruits realize their full potential and turned three-star recruits into crucial contributors to both building the program and winning the first ever College Football Playoff National Championship.
Plenty of it has to do with the abilities of his staff (three of players on this list are offensive linemen, for example), but it's always the man in charge who has final say with who is a part of the starting lineup.
