Best Possible (and Realistic) Finish to Ohio State’s 2018 Recruiting Class by Billy “Buckeyebillz” George

Last year I predicted that Ohio State would end Alabama’s six-year streak of having the No. 1 recruiting class in the country. Needless to say, I was wrong. But I am almost 100% certain that the Buckeyes will dethrone the Crimson Tide in that department with its 2018 class.  

If one were looking for an example of a quintessential recruiting class it would look a lot like Ohio State’s does at the moment. The Buckeyes currently have fourteen commits in its 2018 class thus far, which is ranked No. 1 in the country at this juncture, and the average rating per commit is 0.9530 according to the 247sports.com composite rankings. Expect the class to only get better in due time.  

Players that have already committed to Ohio State are five-star defensive linemen, Tyron Vincent and Brenton Cox, four-star safeties Jaiden Woodbey and Josh Proctor, four-star linebackers Dallas Gant and Teradja Mitchell, four-star offensive linemen Max Wray and Matthew Jones, four-star running backs Jaelen Gill and Brian Snead, Four-star dual-threat quarterback Emory Jones, four-star cornerback Sevyn Banks, four-star defensive end Andrew Chatfield, and three-star running back Master Teague. 

This is merely a small sample size of just how good this class could get. Allow me to present to you what would, and very well could, be the perfect finish to Ohio State’s 2018 class, as each of the potential future Buckeyes I will mention is crystal ball favorites to pick Ohio State.  

The Five Stars:  

Along with the two five-star prospects that have already committed to Ohio State, the Bucks are in good shape –and are the favorites – to land five-star defensive end Micah Parsons, five-star offensive Tackle Jackson Carmen, and five-star cornerback Anthony Cook.  

Parsons, the one-time Penn State commit, would be the fifth five-star defensive lineman the Bucks will have landing in the last three recruiting classes, and the third one in this class alone. Before he even verbally committed to Penn State, he seemed to have narrowed his choices down to Ohio State and Penn State. After having de-committed from Penn State, however, many speculate that he will end up playing his college ball in Columbus. That would give the Buckeyes by far the nastiest d-line haul in the country.  

Perhaps the biggest (no pun intended) “must-get” prospect from Ohio that Urban Meyer has targeted since his arrival at Ohio State, Jackson Carmen could very well be the best offensive lineman in the country. Carmen is the No. 1 ranked offensive tackle in the country according to the 247sports composite rankings, and the majority(66.7%) of recruiting experts that have cast their crystal ball on him have him going to Ohio State, despite him stating that Clemson was his leader.  

Anthony Cook, the nation’s eight-ranked prospect overall and second-ranked cornerback, has been high on Ohio State from the get-go as well. At the moment Ohio State seems to be his leader, but it may be hard to lure him away from in-state school Texas and its new high profile head coach Tom Herman, whose offensive wizardry helped Urban Meyer and Ohio State win a national title with its third-string quarterback in 2014.  

Nevertheless, it’s exciting to see such high-profile prospects showing so much interest in Ohio State, which has become a regularity under the tutelage of Meyer.  

The Four Stars: 

Four-star targets whose crystal ball predictors have favoring Ohio State are Tyson Campbell, Kamryn Babb, Jeremy Ruckert, Tyreke Smith, L’Christian Smith, Michael Harris, Christopher Oats, and K’Vaughan Pope. 

Oats, Tyreke and L’Christian Smith are three prospects that the Buckeyes are hoping to keep in Ohio. L’Christian is listed as an athlete, but will likely play either wide receiver or h-back in college. One of a small handful of receivers that are showing strong interest in Ohio State in this class, he is a top priority of Urban Meyer’s. And, like Jalyn Holmes a few years ago, Tyreke Smith is a four-star Ohio defensive end that the Buckeyes are really high on. Christopher Oats, on the other hand, seems to have an equal amount of interest in Cincinnati University as he does in Ohio State. He is the second-best linebacker prospect in Ohio.  

Along with L’Christian Smith, Kamryn Babb is another four-star receiver who’s favored to go to Ohio State, and is a crucial piece to its 2018 class, as it is starving for receivers at this point. The country’s tenth-best receiver and second-best player in the state of Missouri, Babb is considered a heavy Ohio State lean. Another Ohio State lean that could potentially help the Bucks out in the receiving corp. is Jeremy Ruckert, the second-best tight end in the country.  All signs are pointing toward the 6’5.5″ 238 lbs. New Yorker becoming a Buckeye.

Lastly, Tyson Campbell is the nation’s third-ranked cornerback, stemming from Fort Lauderdale, Florida’s American Heritage high school, the very place where Ohio State landed Torrance Gibson in its 2015 class. Ohio State is deadlocked with Miami (Fl) University as Campbell’s leader in crystal ball predictions, with five out of thirteen (38%) of them. Campbell could be yet another stud that the Buckeyes add to its already stacked secondary.  

So, in conclusion, you may be wondering just how Ohio State’s class would look if all of the players that are crystal ball favorites actually did wind up picking Ohio State. Don’t worry, I already did the math for you. Assuming there are no de-commitments, the addition of the prospects mentioned above would give the Buckeyes’ 2018 class a composite score of 323.25. 

In other words, Ohio State may very well be in the process of piecing together the greatest class in247sports.com history!