I've been thinking about doing this recruiting series for awhile now, but wanted to focus on Urban's classes and therefore needed to wait a bit for these players' stories to build. Much has been done on re-evaluating the recruits that signed with OSU, but not much on the key targets that got away. I always find it interesting to look these guys up, so I figured others would enjoy the research as well. With the offseason now in full swing, let's get to it.
For this offseason, I will focus on the 2012 recruiting class and will attempt to get something out every Monday until I run out of players. As you can imagine, this won't take the whole offseason by any means for a couple of reasons: (1) Urban didn't have much time to assemble the 2012 class and (2) Urban doesn't miss on many targets. Still, I think it will be fun to write these up and I hope that you enjoy them.
I figured I'd get the biggest name off the board first: Stefon Diggs.
THE RECRUITMENT
While much may not have been written about Urban's other misses, much has been written about Diggs. Ranked as the 8th best player and 2nd best WR in the country, Diggs quickly became a household name as the perfect fit for the vaunted Percy Harvin role in Meyer's offense. Despite early disinterest in Ohio State on the part of Diggs, Urban was able to secure an official visit on January 27, 2012, less than one week before signing day. While Urban had a lot of ground to make up, the visit appeared to go very well. Signing Day came and went with no announcement from Diggs as to where he would be playing his college ball, and that seemed like a good sign for the Buckeyes that he was weighing his options heavily following the visit.
Stefon Diggs visit to Maryland seems like a courtesy. I'm hearing he's leading heavily towards Urban Meyer and Ohio State. #Terps #buckeyes
— Dan Hellie (@DanHellie) February 2, 2012
As Dan Hellie notes in his tweet, Randy Edsall and Maryland were able to secure Diggs's final official visit prior to his decision. While Hellie didn't think the visit would affect OSU's chances, it may have sealed the deal for Diggs as OSU seemed to trend down immediately following the visit.
Stefon Diggs is concerned with the # of players Ohio State signed this year could hurt #Buckeyes chances of landing him
— Dan Hellie (@DanHellie) February 8, 2012
On February 10, 2012, Stefon Diggs announced his commitment to Maryland, stating, "I want to win a championship. I want to win bowl games. Where else is a better place to do it than your city?"
THE COLLEGE LIFE
| Year | Conf | Class | G | Rec | Yds | Avg | Td | att | yds | avg | td |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | ACC | FR | 11 | 54 | 848 | 15.7 | 6 | 20 | 114 | 5.7 | 0 |
| 2013 | ACC | SO | 7 | 34 | 587 | 17.3 | 3 | 7 | 45 | 6.4 | 0 |
| 2014 | Big Ten | JR | 10 | 62 | 792 | 12.8 | 5 | 5 | 28 | 5.6 | 0 |
| Career | 150 | 2227 | 14.8 | 14 | 32 | 187 | 5.8 | 0 |
Diggs's best season was his true freshman year, 2012. With 1,896 all-purpose yards, including 848 receiving yards, Diggs came 297 yards short of setting Maryland's all-purpose yards record, set by Torrey Smith in 2009. He also took two kickoffs to the house that season, something that hasn't been done in Urban Meyer's tenure at OSU.
Freshman Year Highlights
In his sophomore season at Maryland, Diggs was on pace to eclipse his freshman yardage totals before a broken fibula ended his season after seven games.
Diggs's final season came in his junior year, Maryland's first as a member of the Big Ten conference. Diggs's numbers dipped a tiny bit, but he remained the clear and consistent offensive threat they were hoping to get when they signed him in 2012. Due to the move to the Big Ten, he did play Ohio State in 2014. OSU beat Maryland 52-24, while Diggs had 52 receiving yards and one TD.
Diggs was suspended one game by the Big Ten in 2014 for making contact with an official during a scuffle at Penn State. Diggs was the only player suspended, but Maryland was fined $10,000 for failure to control on Edsall's part. You might remember that the Maryland players refused to shake hands at this game.
LIFE AFTER COLLEGE
Diggs decided to forego his senior year at Maryland for the 2015 NFL draft, where he was selected in the 5th round by the Minnesota Vikings. He put up 720 yards receiving his rookie season, second only to Amari Cooper among rookie WRs. He also became the first Vikings rookie WR to put up back-to-back 100 yard games since Randy Moss in 1998.
Diggs has quickly emerged as Minnesota's top wideout, and it's not hard to see why.
WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN
Ohio State was just fine without the service of Stefon Diggs, but he certainly would have added that Curtis Samuel level talent to the offense that OSU never quite got from the 2013 version of Diggs: Dontre Wilson. With the problems in 2012 and 2013 coming on the defensive side of the ball, I'm not going to say that this one was a dagger by any means, but it sure would have been fun to watch this guy in scarlet and gray. From a recent LandOf10 article, Urban knew they missed on a special one:
“We had a good relationship with Stefon Diggs and his family,” Meyer recalled. “I really thought we had a legitimate shot at him. I knew when we were watching him play that he was something special.”
Diggs mentioned winning a national championship and bowl games during his commitment, something he never got to do at Maryland. Maryland went 0-2 in bowl games during his time there, while Ohio State won a national championship in Diggs's final collegiate year.
After all was said and done, though, the UrbanMeter on this one reads as follows:
DON'T BE THIS GUY
From a 2012 11W recruiting notebook:
DMcDougal24 13 JAN 2012, 10:04 AM
I've decided that I don't want Stefon Diggs. He seems to be enjoying the process and making all of the teams wait, it reminds me of Terrelle Pryor a few years ago. It just comes off as selfish and I think the Buckeyes would be better off pursuing other athletes.
UP NEXT: Davonte Neal
