Ohio State’s 2018 recruiting class has the potential to be the best in program history.
The Buckeyes currently have the nation’s No. 1-ranked recruiting class and with a number of their top remaining targets still on the board, there’s a good chance they finish No. 1 on National Signing Day.
A large portion of Ohio State’s 2018 haul figures to be on the offensive line. The Buckeyes are slated to lose at least two starters up front from this year’s team in Billy Price and Jamarco Jones and there has been concern about a lack of depth behind the starters for two years now. Urban Meyer likened that to a lack of "misses" along the offensive line in recent classes.
“More than a few. You can’t do that,” Meyer said this spring. “What happens is you have a year like we did last year. True freshmen should not play here. That’s because there was some misses in there.”
Additionally, Ohio State signed just three offensive linemen in its 2017 class. As a result, the Buckeyes are going to target a large group to bring in for 2018.
“More than a few [misses]. You can’t do that. What happens is you have a year like we did last year. True freshmen should not play here [on the offensive line]. That’s because there was some misses in there.”– Urban Meyer
Two members are already in the fold with four-star offensive tackle Max Wray and recent pledge, four-star guard Matthew Jones. But Ohio State is likely looking at a five-man haul along the offensive line in this class.
The No. 1 option is rather obvious and it’s a name we’ve discussed at length here at Eleven Warriors. Five-star in-state offensive tackle Jackson Carman is one of the top prospects in the country and he’s the Buckeyes’ No. 1 priority — not only on the offensive lin but in the 2018 class in general.
Carman has offers from just about every major college football program in the country, but Ohio State is certainly one of the favorites. There’s been a lot of discussion about Clemson as a possible destination and the Fairfield, Ohio, native is fresh off a visit to USC. However, Carman has been to Columbus what seems like 100 times and at this point it’d be surprising if he didn’t commit to Ohio State.
Another name that’s been talked about quite a bit when it pertains to the Buckeyes’ offensive line targets is four-star Fredrick “Juice” Scruggs. Ohio State and Penn State appear to be the two favorites for the nation’s No. 3-ranked center prospect. Scruggs is an Erie, Pennsylvania native, but his current 247Sports Crystal Ball reads 100 percent in favor of the Buckeyes.
So while Carman and Scruggs are probably the two most likely to wind up in Ohio State’s class, there’s probably room for at least one more in the 2018 haul. Who could be that fifth member, though? Well, there are a number of names to keep an eye on.
Verdis Brown, a four-star prospect from IMG Academy, is the nation’s No. 2-ranked center and another option for the Buckeyes should they covet an interior lineman for that fifth spot. Brown is a Chicago native so he has Midwest ties and the 6-foot-3, 294-pounder is high on Ohio State as well as many others.
Nicholas Petit-Frere is the nation’s seventh-ranked tackle prospect and he recently visited. Petit-Frere is from Tampa and is also considering Florida, Notre Dame, Alabama, Auburn and others. Another option at tackle could be four-star Darian Kinnard, an in-state prospect and the nation’s 18th-ranked tackle. He is committed to Kentucky and does not currently have a scholarship offer from the Buckeyes but there’s potential he adds one later in this cycle.
Ohio State has other targets, too, such as five-star guard Jamaree Salyer, four-star guard Trey Hill, four-star tackle Darrell Simpson and others, but as of right now, those feel more like longshots than realistic options.
So there is a bit of mystery for the Buckeyes’ 2018 class when it comes to the offensive line. But Ohio State would love to land a big group when National Signing Day rolls around and it certainly appears like it is on its way to doing so.
At this point, it’s just a matter of who finds their way into the class when things are all said and done.
