Category: OSU Football (Page 30 of 42)

The Buckeye offense should be a force next season, but the defense will have to replce nine starters. The Columbus Dispatch has an excellent article explaining the challenge facing the Ohio State coaches. They will be able to draw upon some great talent, but the unit will need to learn fast.

In their final rankings of the top 100 high school football recruits in the country, running back Chris Wells, who has committted to Ohio State, heads up their list as the #1 recruit in the country.

Wells is a big back with speed and he’ll be an important addition to an already explosive offense next season. He’ll probably battle Pittman for the starting spot at running, but we can expect him to at least split time. Adding a power back to the mix will make nest season’s offense even more formidable.

Jim Tressel continues to keep a strong hold on Ohio players. When Coach Tressel took over as the Buckeyes head football coach he vowed to keep the talent from Ohio in Ohio. The Buckeyes are slowly rising in the recruiting ranks as they have some strong late signings. Ray Small of Glenville keeps the Bucks family tree from Glenville going as he commits to the Ohio State and Thaddeus Gibson of Euclid follows suit saying Ohio State “feels like home”.

With the addition of Glenville offensive lineman Bryant Browning, Jim Tressel is getting a late recruiting surge that is helping to round out an excellent recruiting class.

Rivals.com is very high on recent recruit Robert Rose:

Nobody had a better U.S. Army All-America Bowl than Rose, a fast-riser from Cleveland’s Glenville High School. Rose, a strong and stout 6-foot-4 and 255-pounder, couldn’t be blocked in the game and his development late in the season during the Ohio state playoffs and then in the all-star game has been amazing.

He went from a sure fire top 250 national prospect to quite possibly the No. 2 player in Ohio and a five-star candidate.

They are still targeting some excellent prospoects:

There is little doubt that OSU is in a great position to also land in-state stud Thaddeus Gibson after an official visit this weekend. The battle to land the four-star player from Euclid, Ohio, is down to OSU, Tennessee and Michigan, but most sources agree it’s a two-team race between the Bucks and Vols.

Then there is City College of San Francisco four-star linebacker Larry Grant, who had originally planned on signing with Florida at mid-term but a math class kept him from heading to Gainesville.

He’s now in the final process of evaluating his options and it appears to be down to Texas A&M and Ohio State for him.

Should be interesting.

Jim Tressel always takes care of business, and now he’s bolstering the Buckeye defense with commitments from new recruits:

With three weeks until national signing day, Ohio State’s recruiting class continues to grow, especially on defense, and rise in the national rankings.

On Tuesday, defensive end Walter Dublin of Sarasota, Fla., called Ohio State coach Jim Tressel with his oral commitment, the 14th high school player to pledge his future to the Buckeyes.

Allen Wallace, the national recruiting director for Scout.com, has Ohio State rated 10th nationally, but the only school ranked higher with that few commitments is USC at No. 5.

It’s good to see them working on the defense. On offense, this year’s class is already led by running back Chris Wells, considered to be the #1 ranked player in the country by Scout.com. The 6-foot-2, 235 pound Wells stole the show at the U.S. Army All-American Bowl, featuring the top high-school seniors in the country. It will be fun to watch this guy in the Buckeye offense next season. The offense is already explosive, and adding a big back will make them even more potent.