INDIANAPOLIS — It’s fitting that the coach who has the No. 1 rated recruiting class thus far for 2022 and just completed Ohio State’s highest-rated ever class in 2021 would have plenty to say about recruiting.
Friday was Ryan Day’s turn to speak at Big Ten Media Days and the Ohio State coach who has yet to lose a regular season game in his tenure provided plenty of insight regarding his pursuit of the nation’s most talented teenagers.
Some of the highlights from Day's time in Indianapolis:
- On the possibility of Ohio High School football players having the option of getting additional reps in the spring to close the gap in player development with recruits from states like Texas, Florida and California: “I think it’s close to happening, it’s something I’ve been a big part of, meeting with the Ohio (High School Athletics) Association. It’s being pushed for very strongly to play some spring football. We were about to get it done, I think, I don’t want to speak for the people there. But once COVID hit, it got put on the back burner, now it’s coming back to the front burner again. There’s been a lot of conversation on 7-on-7, which I believe is something we need to get going in the state of Ohio like, yesterday.”
- On OSU’s recent recruiting of offensive tackles: “When you look at where we’re at there with Thayer (Munford), with Nick (Petit-Frere), with Dawand (Jones), you look at Paris Johnson, I’m really impressed with the quality of guys we’ve recruited there. If there’s four better tackles in America, I’d like to know where they are. You can’t get them all, you have to understand that. But I’m pretty impressed with how we’ve recruited this past year, some of those guys have a chance to be really good. I think with the offensive line there’s a balance there. If we recruit 16 offensive linemen, only five can play. So there’s 11 guys who are not on the field. Some of those guys may be super talented five stars, but other guys are going to need to develop into really good offensive linemen, because it is a developmental position. I think we found a good balance there of going to get the top guys, but having guys that maybe weren’t as highly recruited but are going to turn into fourth and fifth-year seniors and be really strong for us.”
- On the 2022 and 2023 recruiting classes: “I think we’re in great position. Not just the talent, but the quality of people we’re bringing into the program right now. I’m just really impressed. It’s going to be nice for this class that we’re actually going to be able to recruit them the right way. We’re going to be able to go to their schools, we’re going to be able to watch them play basketball, watch them in spring football, maybe see them play a game, meet their coach, meet the AD. We’re not in a huge rush with that class because we want to do it the right way and go back to the way it was before there was COVID. But we’re excited and we think we’re in a great position.”
- On hosting around 50 official visits for recruits in June and recruiting philosophy: “We wanted to get as many guys that we were interested in on campus, we hadn’t been around them. We felt like these people deserve to be on our campus and deserve to get our best shot. Our staff worked really hard in June, and I think it’s going to pay a lot of dividends. We had a lot of unofficial visitors as well, but we had about 50 official visitors. Hats off to our staff, we really busted their tail. We really like doing official visits in the spring, we really don’t like doing them in the season. It’s very distracting trying to find out ways to bring official visitors in during a game. It’s good to see the atmosphere, but you’re not getting the coach’s attention. And it’s all about relationships. I think we really hit a home run in some of those areas. Some people we brought in, slam dunk. Others we brought in, it just wasn’t the right fit. That’s not right or wrong, it just was what it was. The more we can get those people in front of us, the better feel we had building our class.”
Curry down to five
One of Ohio State’s most important defensive line targets for the class of 2022 has narrowed down his list of schools.
Caden Curry, a four-star defensive lineman from Greenwood, Indiana, announced a top-five list of Ohio State, Alabama, Oregon, Clemson and Indiana on Friday afternoon.
Thank you to all the coaches who have spent time getting to know me and my family! Im now proud to release my top 5 schools! @CGSportsNetwork @cg_coach_moore pic.twitter.com/TkHou19FvT
— caden curry (@CadenCurry14) July 23, 2021
The 6-foot-5, 250-pound Curry is the 69th-best prospect in the 2022 class and the 11th-best defensive lineman, according to 247Sports’ composite rankings. His versatility to play all over the line makes him an appealing prospect for the Buckeyes, and Curry has even drawn some Bosa brothers comparisons from OSU defensive line coach Larry Johnson.
OSU, who already has 17 commits for 2022, has yet to receive a verbal from a defensive line prospect. Other top defensive line targets include Hero Kanu, Chris McClellan, Enai White and Kenyatta Jackson.
Young eager for upcoming visit
The nation’s No. 1 running back prospect for 2023 is already eagerly anticipating his visit to Columbus on July 28 for a BBQ.
Bck in Columbus 28th #GoBuckeyes pic.twitter.com/6UXlgC0P8G
— Richard Young (@richardyoung239) July 23, 2021
Richard Young, the 17th-best recruit in the class, will be one of two 2023 running back targets attending the BBQ along with Jayden Limar. Other running back targets for 2023 include Justice Haynes and Rueben Owens. Young, Owens and Haynes are the No. 1, 2 and 3 running backs in the 2023 class, respectively.
We compiled a list of expected visitors for the weekend’s BBQ in Tuesday’s Hurry-Up.
