Ohio State Recruiting: Flurry of Commitments Add to Impressive ’09 Class

Ohio State football has seen its peaks and valleys over the past two seasons.

Troy Smith winning the Heisman Trophy, the signing of phenom quarterback Terrelle Pryor, and key players returning for another National Championship run in ’08 highlight those peaks.

On the other hand, back-to-back shellackings in successive years for all the marbles provide the low-lights.

This hasn’t deterred prospective recruits from giving Ohio State some serious attention.  In fact, it has had quite the opposite effect. 

In the 2008 recruitment period, the Buckeyes arguably netted the top recruiting class of the season, and perhaps Jim Tressel’s most talented group during his tenure as head coach.

The 2009 class is bringing much of the same.  With a full allotment of 25 scholarships believed to be available, coupled with anticipated early enrollees to count against the ’08 class, the magic number has been pegged at 27, and could possibly be as high as 30.

The Buckeye coaching staff has a method to the madness known as recruiting.  Any prospect worth garnering a verbal or written offer from this staff before the season starts is considered a high impact and high priority athlete.  The coaches also tend to hold a few schollies for late bloomers and surprise players for later in the process.

This year?  Not so much.

Any other year, Ohio State may have, at most, a handful of verbal commitments by this time.  Taking a look back to 2003, only one player had committed pre-camp.  In ’04 and ’05?  A total of five per year.  In ’06 and ’07?  Only three.  In the '08 class?  A total of eight.

Fast forward to the '09 class and the morning of June 20, and the Buckeyes already had 17 verbal commitments—and that was BEFORE the Senior Advance Camp held this past weekend.

Let’s take a glance at who’s in the fold already, as it includes some very gifted players:

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