Ohio State Football: What You Need to Know About Buckeyes DE Noah Spence

Most 5-star recruits typically fall into one of two categories: immediate and/or big-time superstar or big-time bust.

Ohio State's top recruit in the 2012 class has so many credentials from his high school performance that anything short of pure domination at the college level could be a disappointment.

We're talking, of course, about Harrisburg (Penn.) star Noah Spence, a consensus 5-star DE prospect and Rivals.com's No. 9 overall player in the class of 2012.

Spence's high school resume is just mind-blowing, as he was named the 2011 Maxwell Club High School Player of the Year, joining recent winners such as Jeff Driskel, Sharrif Floyd and DeVier Posey. He was also the 2011 Gatorade Pennsylvania Football Player of the Year.

In four years at Bishop McDevitt H.S., Spence had a mind-blowing 48 sacks—22 of which came in his junior year—and blocked three punts as a senior.

Spence's highlight film is nothing short of spectacular, as he showed the ability to get to the quarterback almost whenever he wanted to, using a great amount of speed and strength. He also had a strong performance in Tampa last January at the Under Armour All-American Game.

Rivals also compared him to the late Derrick Thomas, which is quite the honor considering how great of a sack artist Thomas was in the NFL.

Spence will certainly have all sorts of opportunities to get on the field this season even with the tremendous depth up front for the Buckeyes which includes John Simon.

Urban Meyer has shown that he's never afraid to use his freshmen if they're ready to play, and Spence has enough physical tools and strength that should translate to the college level pretty quickly.

Spence and fellow freshman DE Adolphus Washington each have some ground to make up in order to get on the field, but each has tremendous physical tools and the ability to step in immediately.

Spence looks more like he can play now, while Washington looks like he can just as easily be as good as Spence can be.

He is the type of pass-rusher who can turn a good defense into a great one, and Meyer's background in the SEC and building those types of defenses is a big reason why Spence is a Buckeye today.

Spence, if he lives up to his potential, will be right up there with Vernon Gholston, Thaddeus Gibson and Cameron Heyward in terms of big-time defensive ends OSU has produced in the last decade.

He has the ability to be that good.

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