COLUMBUS, Ohio – Criticism of Ohio State’s offensive line recruiting reached a fever pitch last Saturday in Charlotte.
Five-star offensive tackle David Sanders Jr. chose Tennessee over Ohio State, and even though the Buckeyes were close to signing the most promising prospect in the 2025 class, “almost” wasn’t what the offensive line needed.
Now that there are only two committed young players in the class, 4-star tackle Carter Lowe and 3-star interior lineman Jake Cook, it’s up to Frye to add even more young players to the class before signing day in December.
He spoke about this and more at his press conference on Thursday and gave an insight into the recruiting landscape as he sees it.
“In my opinion, in our opinion, it’s all about evaluation,” Frye said. “You’ve got to be a guy that can come here and grow and perform and play. The change (in aspect) has really had to do with the NIL landscape, so figuring out what that part really is, how rooted you are in it and how far you need to be in it, what their priorities are… Is that 40, is that 60? Is that 90? I mean, that’s not our evaluation of what we have. So the game of football hasn’t changed. Recruiting has changed. Yeah, I know that, but you still have to take guys that you can develop, because that guy from day one that’s ready and the offensive line, you have to track them down for me when you find them, because they’re few and far between.”
Ohio State has signed four offensive linemen in the 2024 cycle: Ian Moore (No. 168), Gabe VanSickle (No. 283), Deontae Armstrong (No. 386) and Devontae Armstrong (No. 445).
In 2023, Ohio State signed Luke Montgomery (No. 92), Joshua Padilla (No. 228), Austin Siereveld (No. 300) and Miles Walker (No. 501).
The last five-star talent Ohio State signed was in 2021 when Donovan Jackson joined the Buckeyes. Sanders would have been the highest-rated talent for Ohio State’s offensive line since coach Ryan Day arrived.
That recruiting loss has prompted them to look elsewhere for what’s next in the class — which could happen Saturday when three-star offensive lineman Jayvon McFadden makes his college choice. The Buckeyes are the presumed favorites there.
In any case, there is still some work to be done when it comes to recruiting candidates from other schools or making offers to prospects who do not currently have an offer from Ohio State.
“I mean, keep your head on the swivel,” Frye said. “I mean, December is still a long way away and the weekend is coming up … And yes, stars are important, sure, my wife can say, ‘That’s a five-star player, that’s a really good guy.’ But like I said, that pool of linemen is not as deep as some of the others. I mean, we should get them. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t get those guys, and like I said, it doesn’t mean we’re done. December is a long way away, too.”
As for why Ohio State hasn’t been able to sign highly rated offensive linemen straight out of high school, that’s something Frye and the team are working on. Although the Buckeyes already have a number of NFL prospects, including four potential 2025 NFL Draft picks to start on the offensive line in 2024, they’re working on making the offensive line a target.
“Yeah, we had Paris (Johnson Jr.), he was your national five-star, but then we had two other draft picks that, Dawand (Jones) wasn’t a five-star, right? Luke (Wypler) wasn’t a five-star,” Frye said. “They’re good players and they developed those guys before I got here. All the guys on the wall. I mean, yeah, you’d love to get all those guys, but do they fit with the next four-star players, are they really four-stars? Do they really fit? Do they really want to? From a pipeline standpoint, you just look at the wall in the room and you’ve seen all these guys that have come from all different levels.”
Of particular note is Josh Simmons, the tackle transfer from San Diego State who moved from right to left and from the Mountain West Conference to the Big Ten this time a year ago. His play in the first half of the season showed that he was still adjusting.
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But as the season progressed, he improved every week, so today, a year later, it wouldn’t be unreasonable for Simmons to land on the first or second day of the draft.
Ohio State has these developmental stories to draw on, and the state’s NIL program is well-positioned and adds a remarkable number of talented players to the class each year.
Now it’s all about signing quality offensive players. It’s up to Frye and the rest of the recruiting staff to make that happen in the next few months.
“Yeah, there’s all kinds of stories,” Frye said. “You get a guy that comes from way out of state and he gets involved and he develops and he keeps going and yeah, when he walks across the stage or his name is called, he’s the next sticker on the wall in the O-line room and then there’s the next guy that looks and says, ‘We did it with this guy, we did it with that guy,’ and everyone’s a little different, but they all got to where they wanted to be.”
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