Ohio State lapping the field with 6 top-50 commits
National Signing Day is over seven months away, but Urban Meyer's early returns for the class of 2018 has shown yet again that Ohio State is as good as it gets in the recruiting world.
ESPN released its updated top 300 prospect list on Tuesday and six players of the top 50 players have already committed to the Buckeyes. That number is double the next closest schools, as Tennessee and Clemson both have three players in the top 50.
Meyer has shown in early returns that he's built Ohio State into a dominant national brand. Five of his top six commits are from outside of Ohio, with his top player, Taron Vincent, leaving the state of Florida to head north.
| Player | Position Ranking | Overall Ranking | Home State |
|---|---|---|---|
| Taron Vincent | 1st (DT) | 12th | Florida |
| Brenton Cox | 5th (DE) | 18th | Georgia |
| Matthew Jones | 3rd (OT) | 19th | New York |
| Emory Jones | 2nd (QB) | 22nd | Georgia |
| Jalen Gill | 5th (ATH) | 35th | Ohio |
| Teradja Mitchell | 2nd (ILB) | 40th | Virginia |
Meyer now has 14 players committed for the class of 2018, a strong enough showing to see Ohio State soar to the top spot in the latest team rankings. This is despite the fact that No. 2 Miami has 18 players committed and No. 3 LSU already has a whopping 22 recruits that have offered a verbal pledge.
The 52-year-old has built the Buckeyes program into a national power both on the field and in recruiting battles since taking over in 2012. Ohio State has improved its final recruiting ranking in each of the last four years, going from seventh in the country in 2014 to second last year.
In the last two years alone, Meyer and Ohio State have sent 19 players to the NFL via the draft, most in the country. The fact he regularly pulls in top-level recruits and then molds them into professional players has turned the program into a pipeline to the NFL. It also helps him replace those drafted players with another high-ranked player, making rebuilding a very streamlined process.
Ohio State has been in two of the three College Football Playoffs in the brief history of the event, and if early recruiting tells us anything, that isn't going to change for the foreseeable future.