Wolverine247 Board

Which is perfectly reasonable. Michigan didn't do anything wrong, and yet we came in 2nd for Garnett, Diamond, Kozan, Dunn and Reeves in 2012, and Standifer didn't qualify which pretty much lost us Treadwell too. Add in 2013, where we've come in 2nd with Isaac, LMIII, Conley, and Levenberry, and it seems wildly unfair that the biggest coaching change should come at Oregon and basically giftwrap Dontre Wilson to OSU.

I'm aware, and I'm aware that there are one-on-one battles we've won (Poggi comes to mind), but we really have come in 2nd an annoying amount for top prospects. I recognize that's a factor of even being in the conversation for great recruits, but I'd still like to see a better ratio for closing.

Too be fair, how many of those kids would have been had the Tressell situation never played out? From May until November the program was kind of in limbo with Fickell at the helm. Some of those kids (not all, but especially the local guys/western PA guys) may have given the Buckeyes a much stronger look had Tress and company stayed and continued to recruit hard through the summer. That year with Fickell was during crunch time for 2012 recruits, and early time to build relationships with class of 2013 kids.

It's a game of What ifs? I think some of the this years flips could be due to the same thing. Trey Johnson committed to Auburn in August of 2011, OSU wasn't exactly looking good at the time. And OSU didn't even contact the kid until a year later at least. Same thing could have happened with Dymonte Thomas, his prime recruiting time was when recruiting was the last thing on OSU coaches minds. If a solid relationship was built 2 years ago everything may have played out completely differently. I'm sure the same thing could be said about Michigan recruiting during the RR-Hoke transition when maybe some kids that would've normally given them a hard look didn't because nobody knew what was going to happen.

last time I looked only the 2010 season was vacated right? I understand your displeasure with the buckeyes for them getting quality players, when it comes to recruiting, after all, we are rivals, but this is a pretty immature statement, we are after all on probation, we are paying the price for what happened, everyone knows it, maybe its time for you to accept it and move on.

That's not what I said nor implying. Ohio State coaches didn't plan for Reeves, Williams, and others to commit to other schools so that they could jump in and "steal" them at the last second. It's just the way the chips fell. What happened, happened. Ohio State paid/is paying the price for it. Be fair to those kids that many here ridicule for jumping ship and choosing to go to college at OSU.

College coaches have the goal to go out and get the ~25 best young men to come to their school to get their education, get mentoring for adulthood, and to play their hearts out on the football field. It's up to the kids where they decide to go, not the other way around. And in this case there was a bad situation where one of the schools they really wanted to research/visit/consider was undergoing a transition so it got passed up. Then OSU hires Urban Meyer, sanctions are given, the storm passes and they then give the school another chance. It just so happened to work in their favor a couple times. There's nothing negative about it, which I feel is the impression around here.

Exactly...im not providing a diatribe on recruiting technique/strategy, rather the incredulous fortuitous circumstances which INDIRECTLY occur.

I'll believe it when i see it. Alot feel he's gonna stay with oregon. Me being one of them. Hope youre right though!!! I'm not confident with any of the oregon commits right now

"But we'd never know that", must have missed that as that was the key part to that statement. Obviously nobody would ever know, that's why I said what I said. Some people here implied that "the only reason OSU got 5 guys last year and 2 this year is because coaches left" and similar statements, well if it is fair game to say that without concrete evidence, then I can say the opposite was true. We can sit here and play the game of What Ifs? all day long, that wasn't my purpose of responding here. My point continues to be, don't condemn a high school player for flipping to a school he would have normally given a decent shot under normal circumstances. Nor should you condemn the NEW coaching staff when they pursue kids who had committed to other schools/were leaning to other schools when the staff wasn't even hired yet. Both of these happen a lot at big time schools who have transitional coaching periods, which you should be aware of if you pay attention to recruiting even just a little bit.

It's not fair to ridicule a kid who decommits when the coach who he promised to play for jumps ship to another school for more money. If that kid decides to take a second look around at schools, then it's fair game for any coach in the country to be interested and to pitch their school to them. I see absolutely nothing sketchy about it, which I feel is the impression here when OSU or MSU or ND benefit from it.

I agree completely with this, but there is a wrong and a right way to make positive gains. Maurice Clarett and Terrell Pryor didn't receive that sort of help.

Well said. C

As long as Meyer is the head coach i will believe OSU is dirty.

The punishment is fine but it doesn't mean that my opinion of OSU being dirty goes away.