COLUMBUS — Recruiting high school football players into big-time collegiate programs means rising and falling on the decision of teenagers.
Obviously, that’s a recipe for erratic consequences. But even by that standard Ohio State football coach Urban Meyer had a wild Wednesday.
It was the first day of the NCAA’s new early signing period. The second will take place as usual, in early February. Yet the vast majority of players who know where they want to go opted for the early day this year.
On the surface, the Buckeyes had a spectacular day.
Westerville athlete Jaelen Gill, Florida defensive tackle Taron Vincent, New York tight end Jeremy Ruckert, Virginia linebacker Teradja Mitchell, Florida safety Tyreke Johnson, New York center Matt Jones, St. Louis receiver Kamryn Babb, and Oklahoma safety Josh Proctor are all consensus top-100 national prospects. Meyer’s class ranks No. 2 nationally, behind only Georgia, according to most industry analysts.
Still, the Buckeyes suffered a series of late defections that took what could have been an epic class and reduced it to merely great.
Trouble began on Dec. 6 when Stockbridge, Georgia defensive line commitment Brenton Cox, a 5-star recruit pledged to the Buckeyes since April 14, decommitted. Cox delivered the news during an in-home visit with OSU assistant Larry Johnson, and wound up staying home with Georgia.
That was a tame experience compared to what was coming.
Quarterback Emory Jones, a top 40 recruit, was committed to Ohio State for more than a year. But he took repeated recruiting visits this fall to Alabama and Auburn. When OSU sought a stop to those flirtations, Jones declined. So, Meyer and quarterback coach Ryan Day offered a scholarship to Texas signal-caller Matt Baldwin, and obtained a commitment from him on Dec. 7.
“After Jones did not shut down his recruitment and Baldwin committed to the Buckeyes, the staff had moved on from Jones. There was basically no communication between Jones and the Buckeyes from that point on,” according to Bill Kurelic, the dean of Ohio State recruiting.
Jones wound up signing with Florida, who will be breaking in coach Dan Mullen, someone Jones did not visit with prior to December.
Wait, it gets better – or worse.
Fairfield, Ohio offensive tackle Jackson Carman, rated a top-10 recruit by 247 Sports and the No. 1 prospect in Ohio, signed with Clemson. Carman was considered an Ohio State lock by most recruiting analysts. However, he got into a twitter spat with Ohio State alumnus and college football commentator Kirk Herbstreit after the Buckeyes fell to Oklahoma in September.
Carman tweeted the Buckeyes should bench reigning Big Ten MVP J.T. Barrett, who went on to earn his third 1st-team All-Big Ten honor and lead the team to a conference championship. Herbstreit engaged with Carman on Twitter, and the spat concluded with Carman threatening to attend USC or Clemson instead of Ohio State.
Upon signing with the Tigers he noted there would be less pressure on him at Clemson. Also, he said the Tigers’ coaching staff told him Meyer was on the back end of his career. Meyer is five years older than Clemson coach Dabo Swinney.
While such back-and-forth can be high comedy to those without a vested interest in such matters, it leads to exasperation for coaching staffs.
The peak of insanity was scaled on Wednesday night by Calfornia safety Jaiden Woodbey, another top-30 prospect.
Woodbey committed to Ohio State in February, and multiple reports had him re-affirming his pledge to the OSU staff within the past two weeks.
However, last weekend he visited hometown favorite USC, then flew across the country for another quick visit to Florida State and its new coach, Willie Taggart. Woodbey said the Seminoles were his childhood favorite and tweeted that former coach Jimbo Fisher never bothered to offer him. When Taggart did, Woodbey jumped.
Woodbey then announced a press conference on Wednesday night at 8:30 p.m. Pacific time. It was pushed back 30 minutes, then broadcast for another bizarre 75 minutes via various social media platforms before Woodbey announced he would be a Seminole. Interestingly, Taggart has not yet announced who will be Florida State’s defensive coordinator or even Woodbey’s position coach.
Ohio State was on the positive end of a couple of flips. St. Louis receiver Cameron Brown turned away from Nebraska, while Pickerington defensive lineman Alex Williams spurned West Virginia to sign with the Buckeyes. Still, those two are among the bottom four-rated prospects in the 21-member class to date.
Final results of class rankings won’t be available until February, when the second signing day concludes. Ohio State is involved with a number of elite prospects, including Cleveland defensive lineman Tyreke Smith, Maryland offensive tackle Rasheed Walker, New Jersey defensive end Jayson Oweh, and New Jersey defensive tackle Tyler Friday.
They could still eclipse Georgia in the rankings, and while that’s nothing more than a paper crown, it’s great fun to follow — unless your team is on the wrong end of the teen drama.