Looking Back At Ohio State’s 2012 Recruiting Class (Part One)

The 2012 Ohio State football recruiting class is technically the first of head coach Urban Meyer’s players that were signed and brought to Columbus. I write the phrase “technically” because there are many extenuating factors that need to be remembered and contemplated when looking back at the 25 players who signed on the dotted line in February 2012 and became Buckeyes.

First and foremost, I have been reviewing Ohio State recruiting classes over the years. I have looked back at the recruiting classes going back to 2005, which included players such as James Laurinaitis, Brian Hartline and Malcolm Jenkins. The 2005 class was relatively small with 18 players signed, and was not highly rated by the recruiting analysts, but the Buckeyes only lost three from that class to transfer or academic issues, resulting in 15 who either started or contributed to Ohio State during their careers. This 83 percent success rate ranks that group highly in the unofficial “Rule of Thirds” concept that is applied to recruiting classes.

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MotSaG Chat with Ethan Tucky

Can you imagine what it is like to be a top 100 recruit in the nation? How about a Top Linebacker in the country? Now also imagine you grew up 30 minutes from Ohio State that has arguably become the greatest Linebacker producing school of modern football era. That is exactly what Ethan Tucky is dealing with right now. The 6’2″ 210 lbs LB from Delaware, Ohio is a 4 star recruit and a top 100 player in the country according to 247sports. I was lucky enough to talk to Ethan tonight and get his reaction to his visit to Ohio State today.

downloadEthan Tucky has been an OSU fan his whole life and who can blame him he grew up a stones throw away and during what has been a golden era of Buckeye Football. When I asked him about the pressure of landing a Buckeye offer and choosing OSU being a hometown kid he had this to say… “A little yes, I try to be very open with recruiting though. In the end I am just trying to find the right fit for me.”. Who does Ethan list as his favorite football player of all time none other than former Buckeye Great James Laurinaitis. A player that every OSU fan hopes the next LB will compare to even a little bit.

You would think being so close to OSU he would have visited a million times but in reality today was his first visit ever to the campus. His impression of the campus was surprising to me he said of it… ” It wasn’t as big as people told me. I mean it is not small or anything but once I got on it the size didn’t matter to me.”. That tells me he wont be intimidated by OSUs vast size and that it wont be a negative factor for him.

What part of his campus tour did he enjoy the most? This also was very telling in my opinion. He said of the visit to OSU that he enjoyed the most… “The coaching staff feel, they really felt like good friends. So I enjoyed being able to open up and be comfortable with them.”.

It didn’t take long from his visit today for Ethan to list his Top 10 schools as he tweeted this message out shortly after our interview ended…

Even that list which he clearly claimed had no order was telling. Sure he put Ohio State #1 which has at least some feeling of being his favorite. But to not even list Michigan in his Top 10 shows you how much he loves OSU as a fan and how much an offer would be for him. The staff told him an offer is forthcoming once they see him play this fall in his new position as an OLB. He played DE last season but every school is chasing him as a LBer at the next level.

He doesnt have any visits scheduled for the rest of the summer but may travel to Michigan State to see their campus if he can arrange it. If I was a betting man I would put all my money on Ethan getting his offer pretty quickly into this coming HS FB season and him committing not to long after that. He is exactly the kind of person and player that Meyer loves and that OSU fans will enjoy watching play for years to come.