Ohio State Football: Meet Noah Spence, the Buckeyes' Flagship Recruit

Ohio State's recruiting class got a seismic shot in the arm when Urban Meyer arrived in Columbus late in November.

Since then, the Buckeyes have seen their recruiting class ranking skyrocket all the way to No. 4 on Scout.com with the most recent commitment from OT Taylor Decker.

But the biggest jewel in this class may be the one that few people expected OSU to get months ago: five-star DE Noah Spence.

But just who is the Buckeyes' big prize.

Here's a deeper look at the stud pass-rusher set to come to Columbus in 2012.

Who Is Noah Spence?

Rivals.com's No. 9 prospect in the Rivals100 as of Jan. 17, Spence is your prototypical edge rusher, at about 6'4", 245 lbs from Harrisburg (Penn.) Bishop McDevitt H.S.

It's hard to find a big-time school that didn't give Spence a scholarship offer.

He and Mario Edwards are in a class of their own when it comes to elite edge rushers.

Rivals also compares Spence to the late Derrick Thomas, who had a spectacular pro career with Kansas City.

The Hall of Fame end had 126.5 sacks in his 11-year pro career. So to be compared to one of the best pass-rushers of the modern era in pro football is quite an honor for Spence.

Spence's Resume

You don't get to be a top-10 prospect by accident.

And Spence's career has been pretty impressive to say the least.

He combined for 16 sacks in his first two seasons, then erupted in his junior year for a mind-boggling 22 sacks.

His senior year, he had 10 sacks, 23 tackles for loss and blocked three punts on the way to being named an Under Armour All-American and the Gatorade Pennsylvania Football Player of the Year.

Those types of numbers speak for themselves.

The Spence Race Before Urban Meyer

The Pennsylvania product grew up not too far from State College, and Penn State seemed to be at the top of their list up until the Jerry Sandusky scandal cost Joe Paterno his job.

He also had offers from almost every SEC school, including Alabama, Auburn, Florida and LSU.

Other powers like Oregon, USC, Michigan and Notre Dame also had their hat in the ring.

Spence seemed like a sure NSD commit until...

Enter Urban Meyer

Urban Meyer officially agreed to become OSU's head coach on November 28 and made a recruiting impact almost immediately.

Just days before his hire, 5-star DE Adolphus Washington made his verbal commitment to Ohio State.

After Meyer's arrival, he hit the ground running, landing a pair of big-name DL in Tommy Schutt and Se'Von Pittman, each of whom decommitted from Big Ten rivals Penn State and Michigan State, respectively.

That haul is great enough on its own, but Meyer pursued Spence heavily and pulled off a huge shocker just weeks after his hire.

Spence Chooses Ohio State

On December 19, Noah Spence tweeted that he was going to play at Ohio State despite all of the negative energy around the program.

The commit of one of the best players of the country signaled the end of what seemed to be the dark cloud that hung over Ohio State for almost a full year up to that point.

Landing a talent like Spence along with the defensive linemen who were already committed beforehand is just icing on the cake.

Spence was the fourth 5-star on OSU's commit list according to Scout.com, joining RB Brionte Dunn, Schutt and Washington.

Sanctions Don't Deter Spence

Days after the Spence commit, the NCAA at long last ended the Ohio State saga and levied its punishment on the program, which included a one-year postseason ban.

While this news would send recruits fleeing Columbus, the entire 2012 recruiting class stayed resolute and together, which is a great sign for the future.

In fact, Noah Spence's father Greg told ESPN.com's Jared Shanker that not only is their family committed to Ohio State for the next four years, but for life.

That alone is a telling statement, and it shows that Ohio State and Coach Meyer mean something to the Spence family.

What to Expect from Spence in Freshman Year

The question that always comes up in recruiting is what freshmen will make an impact in their first season.

Now, with this season's unusual circumstance of no bowl game or conference championship game, there are two ways Meyer can go about this season:

—Meyer can redshirt as many of the freshmen as he can and give them four bowls to play in.

—Or he can treat this year like normal and play the best players to get them ready for 2013.

With a talented young player like Spence, expect him to play mostly in pass-rush situations with seniors John Simon and Nathan Williams projected to start on the edges.

Spence should see the field in plenty of scenarios, but like most freshmen, expect more playing time from him later in the season.

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