By now, every Ohio State fan knows wide receivers coach Brian Hartline is relentless in landing premier wide receiver talent.
What may not be clear as day to some is just how successful Ohio State is at landing top wideouts compared to everyone else.
With Carnell Tate's commitment to the Buckeyes on Monday, followed by Brandon Inniss’ commitment on Tuesday and Noah Rogers’ commitment on Wednesday, the Buckeyes have now landed more top-50 and top-100 wideouts than any other school in the past five recruiting cycles.
To further illustrate that point, here are all schools that have landed a wideout who was a top-100 prospect nationally since the 2019 recruiting cycle, according to 247Sports' composite rankings.
- Ohio State: 14
- Alabama: 7
- Georgia and Clemson: 5
- Oklahoma, LSU, USC, Texas A&M: 4
- Oregon, Texas: 3
- North Carolina, TCU: 2
- Mizzou, Arizona, Jackson State, Penn State, Kentucky, Maryland, Notre Dame, Washington, Florida, Miami, Stanford, Lousiville: 1
Now let's trim that down to all schools that have landed a top-50 wideout over that same time period.
- Ohio State: 7
- Alabama: 4
- USC, Texas A&M, Oklahoma: 3
- Georgia: 2
- Oregon, Mizzou, LSU, Maryland, Notre Dame, Clemson, Texas: 1
In case you're keeping score, that's seven more top-100 prospects for Ohio State than Alabama over the past five cycles. Those players include Tate (2023), Inniss (2023), Rogers (2023), Kyion Grayes (2022), Kaleb Brown (2022), Emeka Egbuka (2021), Marvin Harrison Jr. (2021), Jayden Ballard (2021), Julian Fleming (2020), Jaxon Smith-Njigba (2020), Gee Scott Jr. (2020), Mookie Cooper (2020), Garrett Wilson (2019) and Jameson Williams (2019).
The Buckeyes also now have a decisive lead in the top-50 race, as Inniss (No. 18 overall in the 2023 class), Tate (No. 28 overall) and Rogers (No. 50) are all top 50 overall prospects in the 2023 class. Should their rankings hold, Ohio State would become just the third school to land three top-50 overall wide receivers in the same recruiting class in the era of composite recruiting rankings.
Teams with three top-50 overall wide receivers in the same recruiting class in the composite rankings era:
— Dan Hope (@Dan_Hope) June 22, 2022
2000: Texas - B.J. Johnson, Roy Williams, Sloan Thomas
2021: Alabama - Ja'Corey Brooks, Agiye Hall, JoJo Earle
2023: Ohio State - Carnell Tate, Brandon Inniss, Noah Rogers
Guess Hartline is pretty good at this, eh?
Editor's note: This article was originally published on June 20 after Tate’s commitment and has been updated to reflect the current numbers following Inniss and Rogers’ commitments.
