Ohio State Football Recruiting: Stealing Taylor Decker Would Be Huge Victory

Ohio State's recruiting class for 2012 is already rock-solid, as the folks at Rivals.com have it rated as the No. 7 recruiting class in the country.

New head coach Urban Meyer deserves a lot of credit for this, as he has stepped in and drawn recruits to Columbus at an impressive rate. You would never know that the program was just punished by the NCAA.

But Meyer's not done yet. In fact, he has a legit chance to score perhaps the biggest recruiting victory of his brief tenure this weekend. All he has to do is convince Taylor Decker that Ohio State is the right place for him.

Scout.com reported on Friday that Decker is due to pay a visit to Ohio State on Saturday to speak with Meyer and the Buckeyes coaching staff. Whether or not it's an "official" visit is unclear, but Decker is going to be there.

The reason this is significant, of course, is because Decker has already verbally committed to Notre Dame. Brian Kelly thinks Decker, one of the top offensive tackles in the country, is already his.

But that ship may have already sailed. In December, Notre Dame announced that running backs coach Tim Hinton and offensive line coach Ed Warinner were leaving the program, and that didn't sit well with Decker.

"I mean, at first I thought the world was ending, because they were gone," Decker said in a text message to the South Bend Tribune.

"They were important, but I picked Notre Dame for Notre Dame. Don't get me wrong, the coaches are great, but after thinking it through I also chose ND for ND."

By the way, it just so happens that Ohio State rounded out its coaching staff this week by hiring none other than Hinton and Warinner.

So if Decker still wants to play for them, all he has to do is jump ship from Notre Dame and commit to Ohio State. The move would become official on National Signing Day.

The pieces fit together so well that it almost seems like a lock that Decker will change his mind about where he wants to play college ball.

If he does, you would have to tip your cap to Meyer. He's already done a great job of securing top recruits, but now he's looking at stealing one of the best players in Ohio from one of the most prestigious programs in the country.

He may end up making it look easy, but stealing Decker would be no small feat. There simply aren't many 6'8," 300-pound tackles to go around, so securing Decker would be securing a potential starter.

If Meyer gets him, it will be abundantly apparent that he's still got it.