The amount of hand wringing and finger pointing around Buckeye Nation is ridiculous. The staff didn't "lose" anyone. They fought as hard as the could for Floyd. He didn't come this way. As far as Andersons is concerned, how did the staff lose a kid with academic issues? What were they supposed to do about the fact that Anderson either could not get in or a conclusion was reached that he was going to have a hard time staying in? Did you see him make his commitment yesterday? All the other kids were smiling and saluting their new school. He looked like there was a gun to his head. I get accused of being negative. I am a realist and you get it from me straight no chaser. Forget about Ohio State. Georgia offered. Miami offered. Anderson "chose" WVa over Miami and Georgia in addition to Ohio State? If you believe that you are just choosing to be negative. Lets not forget the concerns about this kid off the field. At one point I believed he should not be offered because of them. I was that concerned. He is a great player and I put my faitn in JT about those issues. There have been some decisions on players with issues that came back to bite us but I still have a great deal of faith in JT's wisdom when it comes to these things. That we offered does not mean they went away. JT felt he was a coachable kid both on the field and off. We won't see that how that plays out now. There is a little part of me that sees a silver lining in that cloud.

Here is where we chould be focused. Getting John Hankins was huge. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of his offer list. Oklahoma, Alabama and Florida offered him. Those are the schools you want to be fighting with over DLs.

The Pete Carroll news is huge for us. I think we had a great shot at Henderson anyway. Now the main competition is out of the way. Hendersons dad did not seem impressed with all that is going on in Florida, the other school supposedly in it. We come out of this class with the top OL, and arguably the top player in the country, how can you see this as a bad finish? We are going to get Christian Bryant so we still get a top safety out of this class. Brad Roby visited. The staff really liked him at corner when he came up to camp. Can't argue with this staff about it's corner recruiting. We are always at least good at corner. That makes the inability to recruit safeties utterly bizarre to me, but I won't go there right now.

The other two players I want you to keep in mind late are Dominique Brown and guard Quentin Spain from Virginia. Brown is a top ten player in the class now. He is a kid to be very happy about getting should be come in as an athlete. I hear he is going to put schools that will play him at quarterback at the top of his list. I hope that is not the case. I have a high school coach who I respect that has seen him throw a lot more than me, say he thinks he throws well enough to at least get a shot. I say if he will not come in as an athlete that we should pass. He is one to watch. Getting him in here to play as a WR or safety would be a great get late.

Quentin Spain is a beast from Virginia. He has not been a name out there because he committed to West Virginia last February. He had not taken any other visits. He has now decided to visit Ohio State, coming off a performance in the Army game practices that had tongues a waggin'. Saw some film of the one on one drills and he was the only lineman that held his own. He was the only blocker to successfully stop Sharif Floyd.

One last thing. Recruiting classes are built on homestate talent. We think about schools recruiting nationally. Ohio State recruits nationally. You do not get top ten classes off out of state recruiting. Notre Dame is the only school that does that. Look where the best programs are. They are in great high school football states. With the talent in Ohio this year we were never going to have a great class. We still have a very good shot at a good one. Relax and lets see how it plays out.

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Comments (10)

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written by fish-61, January 10, 2010

I agree D. I have been following recruiting for a long time and there have been so many kids that OSU "lost" on the recruiting trail and it turns grown men into petulant six year olds.

If the staff can close with Henderson, and either the guard or James I will be more than happy. Every year there are concerns about the OL depth but a class with Norwell, Henderson and either James or Spain (I would take both if they wanted to come) would be another great OL haul.

I know Floyd was a big name but Hankins could be the big space eater that can add another wrinkle to the defensive line rotation.

It is hard to believe with the way some fans are acting that OSU just smacked Oregon to win the Rose Bowl, Pryor just made a massive statement about his development and a possible top 15 draft pick is coming back for his senior year. I guess when you can't complain about losing big games anymore, Pryor not living up to the hype or JT not being able to keep underclassmen around you have to complain about a high school kid's choice about his future.

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i agree
written by Tim88, January 10, 2010

good post duane

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written by DSelwyn, January 10, 2010

Recruiting classes are built on homestate talent. We think about schools recruiting nationally. Ohio State recruits nationally. You do not get top ten classes off out of state recruiting.

I'm sure that's true, as Gator fans high five each other over Joshua Shaw and Sharrif Floyd.

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This class comes down to OL and S
written by JarheadBuck, January 10, 2010

I'm not quite as easy a grader as Duane, but he's certainly in the ballpark.

We've got plenty (too many?) good RBs, QBs and WR in this class. We landed a good DT (which is enough since we get another year from Cam), a couple DE and 3 more LB types. We also landed a K. We still have a shot at Roby as CB (not a huge neeed).

So this class comes down to OL and S (both BIG needs).

On OL, landing "just" Norwell would be an utter disaster (meaning we can look forward to 4 or more years of "shuffle weekly to find 5 servicable guys" for the OL beginning in 2011).

Landing Norwell + Henderson would make for only a fair class (great guys, too few numbers). Norwell + Henderson + James/Spain would make a good class. Norwell plus all 3 (Henderson, James and Spain) would make it a very good class. If lose out on Henderson, the best we can do is a fair class by landing both James and Spain. Landing anything less than Norwell, James and Spain would put us back in the jackpot.

The above assumes we land Bryant (and maybe Dom. Brown) at S. If somehow we miss on Bryant, we're back to a disaster class.

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Oline recruiting
written by RobS, January 10, 2010

Hey D, any word on the future of coach Bollman? I really believe that once the transition occurs that the oline issue of low numbers and shuffling around will resolve itself. I just hope that whomever we get in that position next can recruit good talent like what Bolls has shown he is capable of. It is a coaching philosophy that is our numbers issue, not a recruiting one.

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written by Buckeyenut, January 10, 2010

I'm sure that's true, as Gator fans high five each other over Joshua Shaw and Sharrif Floyd.

I gave Urban Meyer a high five when he snuck away with Hankins and James Louis.

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written by 1buckfaninmich, January 11, 2010

Duane:
Excellent blog--of course people are disappointed when a national guy like Floyd (particularly the way he played in the Army AA game) apparently has OSU as his leader and goes elsewhere. But, perspective is everything--neither we nor Fla would have any guarantee that Floyd will pan out (though he likely will), and we also must remember whom we have (we have good DTs now and we did get Hankins). BTW, I have read elsewhere that Florida was interested in, but never offered Hankins. Where did you obtain your information that he actually recieved a Fla offer?

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As always...
written by BeerNBuckeyes, January 12, 2010

Always good comments by Duane.
As many fans panic about "losing" Floyd, let's remember a D-lineman we "landed" a few years back. He was a big stud who might play DE or DT, and he dominated at the AA game. Rob Rose may have started on many teams, but he never became the big star at OSU we all hoped he would be. I'm not dissing the guy, he can play... and gave us some great minutes. I'm just saying I know I for one thought he would be a dominant player for us. It is hard to tell how these kids will work out. I hope Floyd turns out to be a great player, as he seems like a good kid. But I'm not ready to say OSU missed out on a big opportunity. Not yet.

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Roby
written by chris in socal, January 14, 2010

roby just committed to the buckeyes....i am not sure about him....his offers were from west virginia, auburn, and vanderbilt... i guess he could be a diamond in the rough, but I would much rather see a guy who being recruited by Florida, Alabama, USC, and Texas come to the bucks

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written by bucki in az, January 14, 2010

come on duane. i need a daily fix. especially w/ less than 3 weeks until signing day. i'll settle for every other day. i need it BAD!

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