With Six Players Leaving Early Over the Last Two Seasons, Is It Time to Declare Ohio State DBU?

You'll see that a lot if you follow an Ohio State defensive back, from the present or recent past, on a social media platform. A three-letter acronym used to help describe how the Buckeyes' secondary feels about itself. 

Best in America.

BIA FOREVER! @1Tyvis @EliApple13 @AkronsVO_21 @MalikHooker24 @shonrp2 @BradRoby_1

— Vonn Bell (@TheVonnBell7) January 11, 2017

And with the way Ohio State is churning out defensive backs to the NFL over the last two years, it's making it more and more difficult to argue. After redshirt sophomore cornerback Marshon Lattimore declared for the NFL Draft on Wednesday, the Buckeyes have seen six defensive backs forgo eligibility to leave for the NFL over the last two seasons. That's a pretty ridiculous rate.

For the second straight season, Ohio State must replace 75 percent of its starting secondary. Lattimore, cornerback Gareon Conley and safety Malik Hooker all declared early just one year after Eli Apple, Vonn Bell and Tyvis Powell did the same.

Apple was selected in the first round at No. 10 overall by the New York Giants and played a major role for a playoff team. Bell was a second-round pick by the New Orleans Saints and finished his rookie season second on the team in tackles. Powell went undrafted, but spent all year with the Seattle Seahawks and was a key special teams contributor.

Lattimore and Hooker are projected first-round picks in the upcoming Draft and Conley is certainly in the discussion, as well. Six NFL-caliber defensive backs in the last two years — all of which left school early — that's pretty tough to match.

But if there's one school that's producing talent in the secondary at a similar rate, it's Urban Meyer's former place of employment. Florida had a pair of first-round picks in 2016 in cornerback Vernon Hargreaves and safety Keanu Neal and the Gators have a pair of potential first-round corners with Teez Tabor and Quincy Wilson this season. All four of those players left school early and all four can potentially be first-round picks.

Replenishing talent is hard enough. Replenishing it at the rate Ohio State had to the last two years in one spot on the team is even more difficult. The Buckeyes had 15 total players declare early over the last two seasons — six of those have come in the secondary.

That type of mass exodus could leave a team depleted, but with the way Meyer and Co. have recruited since arriving in Columbus, there's still plenty of talent left in the cornerbacks and safeties meeting rooms.

Damon Webb is the lone returner in the back-four and the senior-to-be safety is going to need to transition from first-year starter to leader rather quickly. One-time high profile recruit Erick Smith and sophomore-to-be Jordan Fuller figure to battle for the other starting safety spot. 

At corner, it will be Denzel Ward taking over at the No. 1 spot. He was a co-starter this past season as a sophomore and with Conley and Lattimore now gone, Ward assumes the role as the leader in Kerry Coombs' meeting room. The other spot is up for grabs, though. Damon Arnette was Ohio State's fourth corner this season and probably has a leg-up in the competition, but the talent wave coming to Columbus will certainly push for early playing time.

And yes, reinforcements are on the way. The Buckeyes are bringing in what's arguably the best defensive back class in modern recruiting history with six players joining the program — all of which are ranked in the top-150 nationally, three in the top-50.

Four of the six — five-star corner Jeffrey Okudah, five-star corner Shaun Wade, four-star safety Isaiah Pryor and four-star corner Marcus Williamson — are already enrolled at Ohio State and will participate in spring ball. A fifth, former five-star corner and Alabama signee Kendall Sheffield, who spent this past season in junior college, is expected to do the same. Four-star cornerback Amir Riep is slated to sign with the Buckeyes in February and join the team in June.

It's an absolutely loaded defensive back haul and certainly one that can contend for playing time right away with all of these early departures. The incoming talent is certainly arriving at the right time.

There don't seem to be an overwhelming number of candidates for this mass exodus to continue next season for Ohio State. Then again, that's what we all thought after last season and then Hooker and Lattimore seemingly came out of nowhere and enjoyed breakout seasons.

Perhaps that's because Ohio State is the new Defensive Back University. Perhaps DBU is, in fact, BIA.