Throughout his 16-year head coaching career, Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer has fielded some extremely talented teams. He’s won three national championship — two at Florida and one at Ohio State — and been in the hunt for one seemingly every year.
Meyer is 73-8 overall in his six seasons in Columbus, and there’s no reason to think the train is slowing down anytime soon. The Buckeyes are recruiting at an all-time level, and the roster reflects that.
According to the 247Sports Composite Rankings — which combines prospect ratings from 247Sports, ESPN, Rivals and formerly Scout — this year’s Ohio State team is Meyer’s best. How the season plays out, though, will truly determine how this group of Buckeyes is remembered.
That said, we broke down every Ohio State roster from 2012 through its current iteration and awarded five points to every five-star prospect, four points to each four-star player and so on. Meyer’s teams are listed below, beginning with his least talented roster.
| ★★★★★ | ★★★★ | ★★★ | ★★ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 47 | 25 | 3 |
FIVE-STARS: DE Noah Spence, LB Curtis Grant, DT Adolphus Washington, LB Etienne Sabino and QB Braxton Miller
Meyer went undefeated in his first season at the helm, but he inherited the least talented roster — from top to bottom — of his Ohio State coaching career. The Buckeyes were led by former five-star defensive end Noah Spence, five-star linebackers Curtis Grant and Etienne Sabino, five-star defensive tackle Adolphus Washington on defense and five-star sophomore quarterback Braxton Miller on offense.
| ★★★★★ | ★★★★ | ★★★ | ★★ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 48 | 22 | 3 |
FIVE-STARS: DE Noah Spence, LB Curtis Grant, DT Adolphus Washington, S Vonn Bell, QB Braxton Miller and WR Jalin Marshall
Ohio State returned much of its roster the following season and added a five-star talent in safety Vonn Bell, who many point to as Meyer’s first national recruiting win. The Buckeyes finished the regular season unscathed, but their issues in the secondary in the Big Ten Championship against Michigan State cost them a shot at playing for the national championship.
| ★★★★★ | ★★★★ | ★★★ | ★★ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 52 | 24 | 2 |
FIVE-STARS: DE Nick Bosa, LB Raekwon McMillan, LB Justin Hilliard
With four-star quarterback J.T. Barrett under center, five-star linebacker Raekwon McMillan manning the defense and the addition of five-star defensive end Nick Bosa, Ohio State once again found itself in the preseason conversation for the national title despite significant attrition. A mid-season stumble at Penn State didn’t keep the Buckeyes out of the playoffs, but the lack of weapons on offense reared its head once again in a brutal 31-0 loss to Clemson, the eventual national champion.
| ★★★★★ | ★★★★ | ★★★ | ★★ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 50 | 23 | 3 |
FIVE-STARS: LB Curtis Grant, LB Raekwon McMillan, DT Adolphus Washington, S Vonn Bell, QB Braxton Miller and WR Jalin Marshall
With Miller still under center, the Buckeyes were still primed for a run at a national championship. When he went down with a shoulder injury in preseason camp, Barrett took the reins and led the Buckeyes to their first and only title in the Meyer era. Four-star running back Ezekiel Elliott rushed for more than 600 yards in the final three games — Big Ten Championship, Sugar Bowl and College Football Playoff National Championship.
| ★★★★★ | ★★★★ | ★★★ | ★★ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | 51 | 24 | 3 |
FIVE-STARS: DE Nick Bosa, LB Raekwon McMillan, DT Adolphus Washington, S Vonn Bell, LB Justin Hilliard, QB Braxton Miller and WR Jalin Marshall
After knocking off Alabama and Oregon in the span of 12 days to win the first-ever College Football Playoff National Championship, Meyer’s squad returned 15 starters — five of which would go on to be first-round NFL Draft picks the following spring. The insertion of McMillan into the starting lineup was supposed to offset the loss of the aforementioned Grant, as well, but the Buckeyes once again fell in a late-season contest to Michigan State to end their repeat dreams.
| ★★★★★ | ★★★★ | ★★★ | ★★ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | 56 | 20 | 2 |
FIVE-STARS: DE Nick Bosa, DE Chase Young, CB Jeffrey Okudah, LB Baron Browning, CB Shaun Wade, OG Wyatt Davis, LB Justin Hilliard
Despite the above-mentioned loss to Clemson, Meyer signed the best pound-for-pound recruiting class in the history of the 247Sports Composite rankings — Ohio State finished second in the overall standings to Alabama, which signed eight more players. The Buckeyes were expected to return to the College Football Playoff in Barrett’s final season, but blowout losses to eventual semifinalist Oklahoma and at Iowa were too much to overcome.
| ★★★★★ | ★★★★ | ★★★ | ★★ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 60 | 18 | 2 |
FIVE-STARS: DE Nick Bosa, OT Nicholas Petit-Frere, DE Chase Young, CB Jeffrey Okudah, LB Baron Browning, CB Shaun Wade, DT Taron Vincent, OG Wyatt Davis, CB Tyreke Johnson and LB Justin Hilliard
The season is a little over five months away, but this year’s Ohio State squad is (on paper) the best of Meyer’s seven-year tenure. The Buckeyes return several players who put their dreams of playing in the NFL on hold for another year, and also recently signed the best overall recruiting class in program history — led by five-star offensive tackle Nicholas Petit-Frere, who trails only Bosa as the highest-rated prospect Meyer has signed during his tenure.
