We've had a bunch of talks about how we're worried about this or that and being the off season, I figured this may relieve some of those tensions (but I doubt it). So I took 4 classes, 2017-2020 for Ohio St, TTUN and PSU who are widely considered to be the B1G recruiting powers and counted the top 100 recruits and broke them down.
| Ohio State | TOTAL | DEFENSE | OFFENSE |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 12 | 7 | 5 |
| 2018 | 13 | 7 | 6 |
| 2019 | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| 2020 | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| TOTAL | 33 | 15 | 18 |
As you can see, the 2019 class had a drop off of top end talent but oddly enough, it's about on par with what both PSU and TTUN have gotten each year. You can also see Day has done a pretty damn good job thus far with the 2020 class.
| TTUN | TOTAL | DEFENSE | OFFENSE |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 6 | 4 | 2 |
| 2018 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2019 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 2020 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| TOTAL | 9 | 6 | 3 |
TTUN recruiting seems like an oddity to me. They've been pretty good as of late. 3 of the last 4 years they've won 10 games so the lack of top talent is kind of head scratching given their "Blue Blood" status.
| Penn State | TOTAL | DEFENSE | OFFENSE |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 2018 | 6 | 3 | 3 |
| 2019 | 5 | 2 | 3 |
| 2020 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| TOTAL | 14 | 7 | 7 |
Penn State is "trending" the right way, they've recruited better than TTUN but not as good as Ohio St. I think there may be a lack of top end talent in the 2020 class until Franklin can proven he can win big games but I could be wrong.
| 4 YEARS COMBINED | DEFENSE | OFFENSE | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ohio state | 15 | 18 | 33 |
| TTUN | 6 | 3 | 9 |
| PENN STATE | 7 | 7 | 14 |
As you can see from the last table, Ohio State has ran away with the total of top talent, landing over double the top 100 players as the TTUN and PSU, not to mention more than both combined. That's pretty damn impressive.
With these numbers in mind (and don't kill me for saying this), there is an argument to be had that we've been out coached at times, sure we've won the games and recruiting isnt a 100% accurate system but given the scores and how the games have been played, we've played down to the competition. I think we can all agree that the coaching on the defensive side of the ball has been bad to say the least.
FYI, there is no express purpose for this thread, just some data that can/will cause discussion to liven the board up a little bit.
Go Bucks!
