OSU Oversigning - the roster trimming begins

Submitted by rbgoblue on

On the heals of a 27 man recruiting class, it is no secret that Ohio State has signed a SEC-esque volume pf players during his short tenure (last 4 years were 27+23+24+25 = 99, with several 5th year seniors from the 2011 class still on the roster as well).  During his signing day press conference, Urban Meyer named three players who would leaving the team due to career ending injuries, Armani Reeves, Devin Bogard, and Ron Tanner.  Bogard suffered 3 ACL injuries between high school and college, most recently this past fall vs Rutgers, so one could understand why he why he would hang it up.  Reeves saw the field at nickleback, and was said to have suffered from concussions, most recently in the Big Ten Championship game vs Wisconsin.  Ron Tanner's career was pretty much relegated to special teams, but he was said to have had a "foot injury" that kept him out of a couple of games.

What is curious about the medical disqualifications of Reeves and Tanner, however, is that both were seemingly healthy enough to participate in the CFP National Championship game against Oregon last month.  Player participation link.  So if they were healthy enough to safely see the field in January, and were not seen leaving the field injured, under what circumstances could their medical conditions now preclude them from being able to play football again?

gbdub

February 5th, 2015 at 12:11 PM ^

It's also interesting because, while they didn't find a role on OSU, maybe they would have worked out at Michigan. Over signing and cutting is a nasty thing to do to the students, of course, and that's my biggest problem with it. But stockpiling talent to keep it from your competition makes it straight up anticompetitive cheating. (That's part of why the schools limit was introduced in the first place)




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buckeyejonross

February 5th, 2015 at 2:31 PM ^

Oversigning is unethical. Period. And signing 30 kids every year is also unethical. Being 10 scholarships over the limit is unethical. OSU is three over. Three! There are seven months left until August. We have 17 d-lineman, and 17 o-lineman, it wouldn't shock me if someone transfers for more PT. We have two RBs in Dunn and Ball that have great talent and will never get a carry. We have no clue what Braxton will do. Or Stephen Collier. It's not illogical to think people will transfer. If OSU had to get 10 guys trimmed by August I'd be pissed. But like I said, three is leaving yourself a cushion.

Look, this would be hard to defend if Meyer has a history of oversigning. But he doesn't. He didn't even oversign in the SEC, when it was basically the wild west. Quite frankly, I don't care if you guys like Urban Meyer personally or not. But it's clear he is doing what he has always been doing, and there is not a single past Urban player that's made a fuss over being yanked around or pushed out. Not one. Google it. Nothing comes up.

Quite frankly, Reeves has started at nickel for two straight years, if he's being pushed out over a bogus injury, for some unproven freshman, I'd be pissed, because he was and is a major contributor. People get hurt. People transfer. Having a three person contingency cusion, is risky, and is also smart planning. If yinz all disagree that's fine. I'm not asking you to agree. I'm just telling you how the program is run.

BigBlue02

February 5th, 2015 at 2:56 PM ^

So unless someone transfers, you don't have enough spots on your roster for all the incoming recruits. Isn't that the definition of oversigning? Banking on someone transferring is an awful thing, which is why oversigning is horrible. You say that it is only 3. What happens if no one decides they want to leave? Then you either cut someone or tell a newly signed recruit they have to greyshirt. Those are your only options. There isn't some magic potion that makes "only" oversigning by 3 not as bad as oversigning by 30. It is pretty obvious you think that oversigning is ok as long as it is only a couple kids rather than a bunch. And that is the problem with you and everyone else saying it is ok. I hope you have a kid someday that is able to play college athletics and I hope he is the only kid that is asked to pay his way the first year after he is told he has a full scholarship. Then I'd love to hear this same argument of how it isn't so bad that you have to pay 50 grand because of oversigning

wildbackdunesman

February 5th, 2015 at 4:49 PM ^

Oversigning is unethical - until Ohio State does it and you rationalize it away.

 

You over signed by 3, you are stuck hoping that 3 will transfer under their free will or.....get injured...so the Buckeye coaches won't have to pressure someone to transfer or drop out.

 

Ohio State oversigned.  Admit the obvious fact.

NFG

February 5th, 2015 at 11:51 AM ^

I hate seeing players like Reeves and Dunn choose OSU over us, just to have unfullfilling careers due to depth or injuries. Just fucking commit to us from now on. Albeit, they wouldn't have a NC ring then, but Harbaugh.

LSAClassOf2000

February 5th, 2015 at 12:00 PM ^

There's been some background cleanup of trolling incidents from members of other fanbases in the past few days (mainly trolling regarding recruiting news), or at least that's something I've been trying to focus on a little bit around here. The conversation you reference might be from a thread that was removed actually - I can't remember specifically. There was one that I know came down that had a lot of BuckeyeJonRoss in it. 

UMFanstuckinOhio

February 5th, 2015 at 11:54 AM ^

from Myer and SEC pratices. 

OSU is looking to sign 27 recruits in this class. Are they back dating early enroll kids or are they going to have to go through this process?

In the Big Ten, coaches are allowed to sign up to 28 players per year, but any time they sign more than 25 players they are required to petition the Big Ten Conference office for permission to accept the additional three letters of intent. The Big Ten office will review the roster and the school has to prove that there is room for all 28 players without anyone being pushed out.

74polSKA

February 5th, 2015 at 12:42 PM ^

So, in the rare instance that a team couldn't clear the scholarships, who gets to decide which recruits get their LOI's pulled? It seems pretty shady to petition the conference after the fact. Couldn't the coach just boot the lowest rated guys before they've even stepped foot on campus? This either shows complete disregard for these kids or that this policy is really a joke and that schools will be given free reign to clear space by any means necessary.