Ohio State’s 2021 Class Could Be Best In College Football History

You probably know that Ohio State is off to a ridiculous start in assembling its 2021 recruiting class.

The Buckeyes currently hold commitments from the three highest-ranked players committed to any school in the 247 rankings.

They already have commitments from 11 of the nation’s top-100 prospects in the 247 Composite rankings.

They have added more top-100 players just since the start of February (5) than the entire rest of the Big Ten has committed, combined (4).

The Buckeyes already have commitments from the five highest-ranked players in Ohio. They have commitments from more of Pennsylvania’s top-5 players (2) than Penn State (0).

They have the two highest-ranked running back commits of any Big Ten team, and the two highest-ranked wide receivers as well.

The have the top-ranked guard commit of any school in the league, the best defensive tackle, the two highest-ranked defensive ends, the top inside linebacker, highest-ranked cornerback and safety, and the top-ranked player listed as an athlete.

So yeah, the class is off to a pretty great start.

With 17 players currently committed, the Buckeyes’ class rates 294.67 points in the 247 Composite team rankings. That number is a combination of the rankings of the players in the class and the number of players committed, so it will continue to rise as OSU adds more members to the class between now and the end of the cycle.

The Bucks are currently more than 63 points ahead of North Carolina, the team ranked No. 2 right now. There is a bigger gap between OSU and UNC than there is from the No. 2 Tar Heels to No. 10 Notre Dame.

However, it would already rank No. 6 in the 2020 cycle, less than a point behind the Buckeyes’ 2020 class. So with a little under eight months to go before even the Early Signing Period, OSU’s class is already close to as impressive as their last class finished. And that group, which included three players ranked as 5-star prospects, was no slouch.

The really interesting question is how high up in the all-time rankings the 2021 class could end up.

Only a handful of programs have ever finished with a class rated at 320 points or higher.

The first was Urban Meyer’s 2010 class at Florida, which ended up at 324.62, and included five players ranked as 5-stars, and 17 players who were 4-star prospects. There were 11 players ranked No. 52 or better nationally, including the players listed No. 1, No. 4, and No. 6 overall.

The next program to reach that mark was Alabama, which signed 29 players to finish with a ranking of 323.87. That class included standout RB Najee Harris, LB Dylan Moses, WR Jerry Jeudy, and QB Tua Tagovailoa among others. Perhaps you’ve heard of them.

Georgia did it the very next season, ending its 2018 class with 323.31 total points with 26 players signed. The best player in that class was a QB named Justin Fields. They also signed 5-star DE Brenton Cox, who had been committed to OSU earlier in the cycle. That class included four of the top-12 players in the nation, five of the top-16, and seven of the top-25.

Those are the only three times in the modern recruiting era that a team has cleared 320 total points in the Composite rankings, with the 324.62 mark from Florida’s 2010 class topping the list.

It is already looking somewhere between possible and likely that the Buckeyes’ 2021 class will not only join that elite club, but could end up at the very top of the heap.

As mentioned above, the Bucks are already at 294.67 points for the 2021 class. As recently as 2011, a team won the recruiting title with a point total under 300. That was Alabama, whose 25-man class finished with 298.50 points.

And the Buckeyes’ current total would have been enough to beat any program’s 2009 class. LSU was atop the list that season at 293.15.

But the real question is just how high this year’s OSU class could finish. There are obviously several unanswered questions right now: Who will be added to the class? Will all the current commits stick with their pledges? Where will they all finish ranked when the cycle ends?

But using the 247 Class Calculator tool, it’s not hard to see the Buckeyes challenging for – or breaking the designation of the best class in history.

They are currently considered either the clear front-runner or strong contenders to land 5-star DE JT Tuimaloau, 5-star WR Emeka Egbuka, 4-star OL JC Latham, 4-star DE Tywone Malone, and 4-star CB Jaylin Davies.

If all five of those players ended up in the class, the Buckeyes would have 322.60 points with their 22 commits. That would rate as the fourth-best class in history in total points, and the best of those four in terms of average player rating.

OSU is likely to end up with roughly 24 players in the class, give or take a recruit.

Derrick Davis, Jr., a 4-star safety from Pennsylvania is a strong candidate. If he joined all of the above players and committed to OSU, it would push the Buckeyes’ class to a record-high 325.24 points.

Hudson Wolfe, a 4-star TE from Tennessee is one possibility. Adding him (but not Davis) to the class would bring it up to 323.93 points, behind only Meyer’s 2010 Florida class.

At that point, pretty much any additional player ranked higher than No. 450 in the nation would push the Buckeyes’ class to the top spot all-time.

If OSU added the players listed above, that would give them 14 recruits ranked in the top-75 of the 247 Composite. That’s more than Penn State (8) and Michigan (4) have on their 2020 rosters combined.

A lot can change between now and Signing Day, of course. Players might decommit, rankings might change, or some of the guys who appear to be likely additions now could end up somewhere else.

But right now, Ohio State is seemingly on the way to building one of the greatest – if not the greatest – recruiting classes of all-time.