Ohio State Football Recruiting: Buckeyes Will Have Nation's Best Defense in 2012

Despite their shortcomings, the Ohio State Buckeyes already had one of the better defenses in the nation. Now, thanks to a frantic recruiting blitz by new head coach Urban Meyer, the Buckeyes will be the best defensive team in the nation in 2012.

Ohio State ranked 26th in the nation in points allowed this past season and much of that came under duress as the Buckeyes were inept offensively at times. When you consider the defensive skeleton already in place, the fact that Luke Fickell will stay on as defensive coordinator and the top-notch recruits Meyer has landed, a huge improvement is almost guaranteed.

Incredibly, Meyer has already added three top-eight defensive ends in No. 1 Noah Spence, No. 3 Adolphus Washington and No. 8 Se'Von Pittman. On top of that, he has also reeled in the No. 5 defensive tackle in Tommy Schutt and the No. 8 outside linebacker in Joshua Perry.

While it was expected that Meyer would make an immediate impact in terms of recruiting, I'm not sure anyone could have predicted this. The Buckeyes weren't really even in the picture in terms of the top recruiting classes in the nation a couple weeks ago, but they have rocketed up the charts to No. 5, according to Scout.com.

A great recruiting class is certainly no guarantee for immediate results as some of those players could be busts or could take a while to fully develop, but when you add that type of top-flight talent to an already solid unit, it's hard to believe that the Buckeyes won't improve by leaps and bounds on that side of the ball.

Not only is the talent fantastic, but the Buckeyes will certainly have some cupcakes on the Big Ten schedule next season to help matters as well. Penn State, Purdue, Indiana and Illinois all figure to be fairly weak offensively within Ohio State's division, plus the likes of Iowa, Northwestern and Minnesota in the Legends Division.

Meyer hasn't even coached a game at Ohio State and hiring him already looks like a great decision. In his past stops Meyer has proven that he knows how to get the best out of his players, plus Fickell staying on staff will be great since he now has head coaching experience and will be able to integrate the freshmen into the defense quickly.

Perhaps the most important component a great defense needs is the ability to get to the quarterback. Ohio State did that to some degree last season, but the Buckeyes figure to have a never-ending cycle of excellent defensive linemen in 2012 thanks to Meyer's recruiting class.

Expectations are going to be high for Meyer and his initial recruiting class at Ohio State, but it seems like the Buckeyes are in an ideal situation to field the nation's best defense next season and to be major players in the Big Ten.