Ohio State Football: Can No. 1 Recruiting Class Lead Buckeyes to Promise Land

The Buckeyes have always been great at recruiting talented players for their system. Last year they were in the top ten in the nation for recruiting and they brought in the best recruit in the nation in Terrelle Pryor.

This year, the recruiting class is even better, ranking No. 1 in college football.  So can these young guns get the team back to their third National Championship in four years?

The Buckeyes never really rebuild, they reload. When you think they will struggle they seem to surprise everyone.

When Troy Smith won the Heisman there was some doubt about how well Ohio State’s defense could perform, but they didn’t disappoint. They played great after losing players like A.J. Hawk in the first round of the draft that season.

James Laurinaitis established himself as a leader while the rest of the defense established themselves as one of the top in the nation. They certainly did their jobs that season getting their team to a National Championship game and beating the second ranked team twice.

The next season there were questions on how the offense would recover after the losses of Heisman winner Troy Smith, Ted Ginn Jr., and Anthony Gonzales. The one thing that got them back to the National Championship was Chris Wells who had a phenomenal season gaining over 1,600 yards which is the best in school history for a sophomore.

This season they’ve lost Chris Wells, Brian Robiske, Brian Hartline, James Laurinaitis, Malcolm Jenkins, Todd Boekman, and Marcus Freeman to the NFL Draft. They’re losing the main players on the offensive and defensive sides.

How can this team make it back to the national championship game?

It all starts with Terrelle Pryor on the offensive end. He’s put on about ten pounds of strength, and I expect to see him set up everything for this offense. Now that he has the jitters out of his system he can grow and hopefully become the next great at Ohio State.

The running game doesn’t look good if you look at what they’re losing with Chris Wells, but Dan Herron was busting out major runs at the end of the season and I only look for him to improve. Among others you have Brandon Saine, who’s had injuries but he’s a receiving threat out of the backfield, and they have Jaamal Berry as one of their best recruits.

At the wide-out position they will need to learn quickly. Brian Hartline and Brian Robiske have gone on, and they biggest threat you see here is DeVier Posey and Ray Small. The young players coming in like Duron Carter will need to fill in quickly especially with Small’s inconsistency.

The offensive line was pretty young last year and is always getting more and more stacked by the years, hopefully they can protect against a good defense in USC early.

Defensively the young players will have to be fast learners like the young team of ’06 was. Chimdi Chekwa, Ross Homan, and Donald Washington will all have to become the leaders and teachers of this young defense.

This should be an interesting season and one that can set-up great things for the future. They have a big test early playing USC in the second game. If they can get it done early and be prepared for their grind it out schedule they could punch their tickets for the national championship game.

The key player will have to be Terrelle Pryor. I think he is the success and failure of the team this year. He will need to carry the team on his back as Chris Wells did in ’07.

That being said it will also be up to this top ranked recruiting class to find out their roles early.