Historic Draft Class Makes Ohio State College Football's Offseason Champion

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Urban Meyer squirmed, the mere mention of all of Ohio State's outgoing talent giving him an apparent rush of anxiety.

So when the Buckeyes head coach went ahead and answered a question about how his team's plentiful presence at Thursday's NFL draft would benefit his program, perhaps it shouldn't have come as a surprise that his mind immediately shifted to his own task at hand.

"How valuable for us?" Meyer asked, repeating the question. "There's no value for us. They're all gone."

Not even on the recruiting trail?

"Oh," Meyer said, quickly and more comfortably.

"Absolutely, we use that for recruiting."

In fact, Ohio State already has been.

It'd be hard to imagine the Buckeyes enjoying a better offseason than they did in 2015, now one year removed from their White House visit following their College Football Playoff championship victory at the end of the 2014 season.

While in Washington, President Obama name-dropped the likes of Ezekiel Elliott, Joey Bosa, Cardale Jones and Braxton Miller—Ohio State stars from the past still set to return for the future.

And yet, despite the Buckeyes falling short of expectations after becoming the first unanimous preseason No. 1 team in the AP Top 25 and losing 16 starters—including nine underclassmen—to the NFL, Meyer finds himself with as much momentum as ever on the recruiting trail.

In the Buckeyes' sudden presence in the pros, Ohio State didn't just find a replacement for last year's national title sales pitch, but perhaps an upgrade—or, at the very least, the ability to now sell both.

"To see that whole group, they're all over the place," Meyer said, referencing the number of recent ex-Buckeyes who returned to Columbus for Ohio State's spring game earlier this month. "There's nothing better."

Recruiting based on his ability to put players in the pros is nothing new for Meyer. Ever since quarterback Alex Smith was drafted first overall out of Utah in 2005, the three-time national champion head coach has had a ready-made pitch for prospects, one that was only strengthened in six years at Florida thanks to the likes of Percy Harvin, Tim Tebow, Joe Haden, Brandon Spikes, Carlos Dunlap, Reggie Nelson and Maurkice and Mike Pouncey.

But even though the Buckeyes have had a steady presence at the draft since Meyer arrived in Columbus in 2011—Johnathan Hankins, Ryan Shazier, Bradley Roby, Jack Mewhort, Carlos Hyde, Devin Smith and Jeff Heuerman have each been picked in the top three rounds in the past three years—Meyer's yet to experience anything like what he's about to witness in Chicago this weekend.

In fact, given the potentially historic nature of Ohio State's upcoming draft class, the same could be said for the rest of college football.

With the potential to have as many as 16 players picked this weekend—the Buckeyes' nine declared underclassmen plus Taylor Decker, Joshua Perry, Nick Vannett, Adolphus Washington, Miller and a few other less likely seniors—Ohio State could very well match or even surpass its own 2004 record for possessing the most players picked from one school in a single draft.

These won't just be picks filling out the back end of the draft either, as the Buckeyes had five players selected in Thursday night's first round—and three in the top 10—falling one short of matching Miami (Fla.)'s 2004 benchmarks for most first round picks from a single school in one draft.

That's been helpful for OSU assistants like running backs coach Tony Alford, who's been able to sell having coached and helped develop Elliott, selected fourth overall by the Dallas Cowboys on Thursday night. The response from recruits, as one might predict, has been strong, thanks in large part to Elliott's status as the draft's top running back.

"Guys know who he is. We don't have to toot that horn," Alford said. "When you can say, 'Here's testimony of what we're doing. It's not theory. This is how we develop our guys.' Listen, none of those 16 [potential draftees] came in NFL-ready. They were developed by [strength coach Mickey Marotti] and his staff and Coach Meyer and his staff."

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Pick a position on the OSU roster and there's an NFL-centric recruiting pitch to be found.

Meyer will soon be able to add Cardale Jones to the list of pro QBs he's coach, which already includes Smith, Tebow and Cam Newton. Left tackle Taylor Decker became Ed Warinner's fourth offensive lineman selected in the last four years when the Detroit Lions took him 16th overall. The New York Giants' No. 10 pick, Eli Apple joins Roby as first-round cornerbacks to have been coached by Kerry Coombs, and the Buckeyes will likely see two linebackers and two safeties taken in this draft alone (the New York Jets took Darron Lee with Thursday's 20th pick).

And then there's the case of wide receivers coach Zach Smith, who's already produced two starting NFL wideouts in Corey Brown and Devin Smith at Ohio State, in addition to New England Patriots pass-catcher Aaron Dobson during his previous stint at Marshall. This year, the Buckeyes assistant will likely double his NFL player resume, with Miller, Michael Thomas and Jalin Marshall each prepared to begin their pro careers.

"That's been a major selling point about this program," said Smith, who also doubles as Ohio State's recruiting coordinator. "That's the standard at receiver: You're going to go start in the NFL. If you aren't going to go start in the NFL, you're not going to start here, so that's really the baseline."

So what sells better: That standard or a national title?

"I don't know that either sells better," said Smith. "They all want both."

Only very few can pitch both.

It's not a coincidence that it's usually Meyer and Alabama's Nick Saban who can be found atop the recruiting rankings each February, given the two coaches' track records on the field and penchants for putting players in the pros off of it. Riding the momentum of last year's national title, Meyer inked the nation's fourth-ranked class for the 2016 cycle and currently lays claim to 2017's top-ranked class.

A big part of the OSU staff's pitch to its upcoming class of prospects has been its current class of soon-to-be pros—something the Buckeyes have been able to sell since the 2015 season came to an end. At each stop on the predraft circuit, Ohio State has been front-and-center, keeping the Buckeyes fresh in the mind of recruits everywhere.

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"We've had three of the most incredible moments for recruiting here in the last couple of months," said Ohio State defensive coordinator Luke Fickell. "From pro day to the actual [NFL Scouting] Combine to 100,000 [fans] at a spring game to possibly 16 guys being drafted in the NFL here.

"It's a testament to the program, but it's also great to get out to recruits to show them this is something special that's going on."

To maximize the program's exposure this weekend, Meyer's also in the Windy City, where he'll serve as a television analyst for the NFL Network on Friday night. With him will be an OSU recruiting assistant, documenting the latest Buckeyes-turned-pros for all of social media—including Ohio State targets—to see.

"We're pretty creative around here," Meyer said with a smile.

As for the Ohio State assistant coaches, most turned down invites from their former players to attend the draft and take part in their special moments. Instead, they'll be on the recruiting trail, searching for the next crop of Buckeyes Meyer will soon enough have to start worrying about replacing.

And at this point, it's no secret what their recruiting pitch will be.

Ben Axelrod is Bleacher Report's Big Ten lead writer. You can follow him on Twitter @BenAxelrod. Unless noted otherwise, all quotes were obtained firsthand. All statistics courtesy of CFBStats.com. Recruiting rankings courtesy of 247Sports.