Ohio State's 2020 Early Signing Day Was Free of Drama, and That's Just How the Buckeyes Want It

Ohio State was expected to sign a class of 21 players on Wednesday, and that’s exactly what happened. By 11 a.m., all 21 members of the Buckeyes’ recruiting class of 2021 had sent in their National Letters of Intent, officially confirming they would be coming to Ohio State and allowing the program to publicly introduce them for the first time. 

From a fan’s perspective, that made for a forgettable signing day, as there were no announcements to eagerly await from uncommitted prospects like there were from C.J. Stroud last year and Zach Harrison the year before.

From Ohio State’s perspective, though, that’s just the way Ryan Day, Mark Pantoni and the rest of the Buckeyes’ staff like it.

While Ohio State certainly would have been happy to land another potential future star on signing day, it was even happier to already have firm commitments from all 21 players it signed on Wednesday. Once the last of those commitments came from five-star wide receiver Emeka Egbuka five days before signing day last Friday, Ohio State knew exactly who it would be signing on Wednesday.

Sometimes, the hoopla of signing day can be bad, as teams can lose commitments from players who choose to flip to other schools at the last minute – but the Buckeyes didn’t have any of that on Wednesday, either. 

Beyond just Wednesday, the 2021 recruiting cycle as a whole was mostly “drama-less” for the Buckeyes, as Pantoni said Wednesday. They had only two decommitments for the entire cycle – cornerback Devonta Smith (who signed with Alabama on Wednesday) and defensive end Tunmise Adeleye (who’s set to sign elsewhere on Wednesday night) – and both of them came in the summer. Otherwise, Ohio State’s 2021 recruiting class stayed strong from start to finish, from five-star defensive end Jack Sawyer becoming the first member of the class in February 2019 to the 21 signings on Wednesday.

Pantoni believes that speaks to the type of players Ohio State recruits, as well as an emphasis by the staff to make sure players are truly committed to the program before their commitment is accepted.

“Before we even take a kid’s commitment, we want to make sure they’re a great culture fit,” Pantoni said. “We don’t want to deal with a lot of games being played and kids have decommits and then a couple weeks later, he wants to go visit other schools. We try to eliminate that early on, make them understand what a commitment here means, and it just shows the quality of kids we’re recruiting.”

Day also believes the Buckeyes’ focus on recruiting players who aren’t just physically gifted, but who also exhibit the character and personality traits they covet, played a big part in Ohio State keeping its class together even in a year where COVID-19 prevented some of its signees from ever visiting campus.

“I think we identified early on some really special families that just built this thing and use their feedback from the recruits as well,” Day said. “Who are the guys that fit our culture? That’s what we just kept talking about over and over and over again. If they don’t fit, they probably need to go somewhere else. And we’ve been very, very honest in recruiting. 

“I think that people recognize the fact that when you come here, we’re going to do everything we can to take care of your son, and try to maximize him to be great. This has been a strange year, it just has. We’ve worked so hard to take care of our guys this year and give them every chance they have to get on the field and fight for them, keep them safe and maximize them the best we possibly can. And I think people see that about us. Because of identifying the right people early on, it allowed us to build a special class.”

RELATED Resetting Expectations: With Recruiting Process Over, It Will Soon Be Time for Ohio State’s Incoming Freshmen to Face Rigors of Entering Cutthroat Program

In order to recruit players without being able to bring them to campus or go on the road to visit them, Ohio State’s staff used Zoom regularly to communicate with recruits and make virtual presentations to them. In order to build camaraderie among the commits, Ohio State scheduled some group Zoom calls so that they could all be together even though they were physically apart.

“We had two different Zoom calls where we had the whole class on the Zoom calls,” Pantoni said. “One of them, we had them and their parents and we kind of did like a game show where we had a lot of fun and it was very interactive. And the second one was more serious about just sharing their experience with the team and what they were going through with all the pandemic, and it was just good to get all the guys together, see them face to face, let the guys interact among each other.”

Of course, the members of the class also communicated regularly with each other on their own – with Sawyer even hosting many of his fellow commits in Columbus earlier this fall for the Buckeye Bash they organized on their own – and Day and Pantoni believe that played a key role in keeping the class together, too.

“They have their group text where they talk every day,” Pantoni said. “And so, on our end, we didn’t have to do a ton of work. They were on it. If there was ever any sort of smoke or issue, they let us know right away. Like ‘Hey, might want to watch this guy,’ but they were awesome. They handled it. They got great leadership in that group. And we were there just to support them and do what we could.”

Day and the Buckeyes have focused on trying to build genuine relationships with the players they’re recruiting, while looking for the players who truly want to be at Ohio State rather than trying to chase players who might not fit the program’s culture, which they believe is necessary especially now that the one-time transfer exception is expected to be expanded to all sports in 2021.

“The days of talking people into coming to your school, in my opinion, those days are over,” Day said. “When I was young, this is no kidding, a head coach walked in with a book and dropped it on my desk on how to close the sale. Those days are over. Because with one-time transfer coming in and all the different things that are going on in the world, you have to be an open book, and this is who we are, this is our culture.”

“Who are the guys that fit our culture? That’s what we just kept talking about over and over and over again. If they don’t fit, they probably need to go somewhere else. And we’ve been very, very honest in recruiting.”– Ryan Day

All of that enabled Ohio State to sign a class of players on Wednesday that currently ranks second among all schools, behind only Alabama, for the class of 2021 in the 247Sports’ team composite rankings. That’s probably where the Buckeyes will end up even if they sign five-star defensive end J.T. Tuimoloau, their top remaining target for the 2021 class, as Alabama continued to build on its lead with multiple signing-day flips on Wednesday.

Day and Pantoni really don’t care what the rankings say about their class, though; they’re concerned about building a class that they believe will ultimately help the Buckeyes win national championships, and they believe that’s what they’ve done with their class of 2021.

“It’s the best class in the country for Ohio State,” Day said when asked if he thought Ohio State signed the best class in the country on Wednesday. “What’s the best class in the country for another school? That’s not the same for us.

“In the end, what matters is what they do when they get here, and that’s what we stay focused on.”