Can Ohio State ever have the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class? Hey, Stephen!

Published Jul. 07, 2023, 5:00 a.m. By Stephen Means, COLUMBUS, Ohio -- In today’s Hey, Stephen! I compare Ohio State’s place in the 2024 recruiting rankings. Questions have been submitted by Buckeye Talk Subtext subscribers. Find out more and sign up for a two-week free trial here. Hey, Stephen: Can OSU ever get back to the No. 1 recruiting class? — 801 area code Hey, 801: Ohio State has flirted with the top spot in the recruiting rankings on four different occasions since Urban Meyer arrived in 2012 and raised the program’s level of recruiting: The 10 greatest threats to Ohio State football: Buckeye Talk • Meyer’s first full class in 2013 finished second to Alabama and was the backbone of a team that eventually won a national title in the first year of the College Football Playoff -- and probably should’ve gone back-to-back. It featured two five-star recruits and eight other top-100 recruits; • His 2017 class also finished second to Alabama and eventually turned into the heart of Ryan Day’s first year in 2019 as arguably the most complete OSU team in the past 15 years. It featured five five-stars and six other top-100 recruits; • Meyer finished second again in 2018 — this time behind Georgia – though this class never really lived up to the hype with its only first-round draft pick being Chris Olave as an underrated three-star recruit. It featured three five-stars and 10 other top-100 recruits; • Then the first class Day built from scratch finished second behind an equally historic Alabama class in 2021, and that was before it added Quinn Ewers (who would later transfer to Texas) as a perfectly rated quarterback from the 2022 class. It featured seven five-stars — including three of the nation’s top five players — and eight other top-100 recruits. The common theme behind each of these second-place finishes is the same reason why it’s hard to envision a world where the Buckeyes ever actually finish No. 1. The idea of “Alabama being Alabama” will remain true until Nick Saban chooses to retire. That could’ve opened a door, but now Kirby Smart is turning elite recruiting classes into national titles at Georgia. He’s only three years older than Day so that train isn’t stopping anytime soon. Maybe that No. 2 ceiling can be broken in the 2024 class. Most of the remaining targets put OSU head-to-head with the only teams that can keep it from doing so. But even then you’re threading a small needle through an impossible hole to make that happen. Georgia is already over the 300-point threshold and aren’t close to being done with its 2024 class. Meanwhile Alabama hasn’t even gotten started yet, so you can’t judge the rankings until that happens. Can Ohio State one day win a recruiting national title? Sure, but it’s unlikely and a more difficult goal than winning an on-the-field title. But it also doesn’t matter in the grand scheme. The more important factor is the quality of these classes, especially since they typically aren’t signing the biggest classes every year because of Big Ten limits on the size of recruiting classes. The Buckeyes have lived inside the top five in point total every year since Day took over, and that’s good enough to expect there won’t be a fall-off on the field on Saturdays. But constantly having classes that have an average star rating of at least 91 will ensure they’re still competitive when they get on those playoff stages -- just as they have in Day’s first four appearances.