Ohio State Football: Can the Buckeyes Hit a Last-Minute Recruiting Gold Rush?

Urban Meyer's arrival to Columbus as head coach at Ohio State has certainly sent all kinds of shock-waves through the college football universe.

And one of the things that has come from his arrival is the sudden attention from an unprecedented amount of blue-chip high school recruits.

He has hit the recruiting trail in the past week hard, hitting the phone lines hard and trying to get kids into Columbus next season.

Among the players he not only has contacted, but steered into taking official visits are DE Noah Spence, WRs Cyrus Jones and Joel Caleb, and even QB and FSU commit Jameis Winston.

He has also tried to improve the offensive line as he has tried to reel in big names like D.J. Humphries and Jordan Diamond.

Whether or not he is able to land most or any of these players remains to be seen, as it seems like some are still a little hesitant because the NCAA sanctions against Ohio State still have not been announced with no telling when those will be revealed.

But if the sanctions that OSU is given are merely just the self-imposed sanctions which include three years of probation and five scholarships lost over the next three years, OSU shouldn't have a problem reeling a couple of those players into Columbus.

Players like Spence are expected to announce their commitments at their respective high school All-American games early in January, a few days after Ohio State's Gator Bowl game against Florida.

Under Jim Tressel, OSU has had a horrible track record with recruits committing at these games.

Meyer clearly has a much, much better record in these situations by comparison.

Whether or not Meyer is able to actually steer a substantial amount of these 5-star players, even just three, remains to be seen.

But the fact that Meyer has just come in and made a few phone calls and created such a huge buzz is very stunning.

And it's not like he doesn't have talent to build off of. 

Most of Ohio State's roster is full of young guys that went through a very tough year that fans hope has become a growing season.

Some of those players have grown up quite a bit, especially QB Braxton Miller and DB Bradley Roby among others.

The only thing that seems to be holding Meyer's process back, if at all, is that we don't know what his coaching staff will look like.

Clemson OC Chad Morris looks like he will stay there, and the same could be said for LSU's Greg Studrawa. 

Meanwhile, on the defensive side of the ball, former Arizona coach Mike Stoops is in a holding pattern as he is sifting between other head coaching offers or the job of Ohio State co-defensive coordinator.

As of right now, Meyer's staff only includes RB coach Stan Drayton and LB coach/possibly co-defensive coordinator Luke Fickell. Mike Vrabel's status is still unclear.

But with all of that uncertain, the fact that Urban Meyer has come in and brought with him a stunning amount of recruiting buzz in such a short time is something for Buckeye fans to get excited about.

If there were down times in Columbus, those seem to be going away very shortly.

Follow me on Twitter @bielik_tim for the latest news and opinions in college football.