Recruiting Ohio (and MI)

is the best recruiter OSU has had since Woody Hayes. Not even John Cooper or Jim Tressel (*spits over left shoulder three times and crosses self*) were better. 

Jim has his work cut out for him in Ohio, so understandably he is working hard to pull in talent from other parts of the country.

While I think part of it is that Harbaugh is just trying to find the place players, wherever they happen to live, I think another part is that trying to recruit the state of Ohio hard, for the type of players Michigan expects to get, is going to be a lot of time invested for minimal returns. 

Let's face it: Ohio has effectively had a wall built around it, keeping the best players instate, for the better part of the last 20 years. It was hard enough pulling kids out of there even before Tressel made an emphasis on shutting the border down. Now with Meyer there, it's near impossible. OSU is in a unique position where they're in an incredibly talent-rich state and they have zero instate competition for the players they want. No other instate school will even come close. Kids in that state grow up dreaming of getting to play for OSU because that's all there is in that state. Most every state has at least two schools fighting for the same kids. Some states have a lot more. Ohio is the lucky son of a bitch that has no instate competition. 

MSU can recruit Ohio hard because they're not going to ever get the types of players, consistently, that UM or OSU get. They'll take all the guys out of OH that we both think we're too good for. And that strategy has worked out pretty damn well for them. 

as I perused Penn State's roster to see where they are getting the talent. I remember seeing a story about two years ago highlighting Franklin's rousing recruiting efforts. Basically he goes from De Matha over to the other side of Pennsylvania for his talent, not many Ohio guys. I think we need more Ohio Talent, gotta be some talent there we're passing on I think.

We recruuit where we have relationships...hence the pipeline building in the south, Jersey, east coast & west coast.  As coaches come and go (the sign of a healthy & quality program) we will build new pipelines based on their relationships.  Harbaugh is just getting started I wouldn't worry too much about Ohio.  Winning will also help us which is coming.

It doesn't seem like the same grit and determination is there this year with the recruiting class. In 2016 we climbed a tree, slept over at a recruits house, etc. but now we can't even get anymore offensive tackle recruits when we have instant playing time available. The staff is too NFL and we need more college coaches.

This is not 1969. You can recruit basically anywhere these days with the same effectiveness whether the state is adjacent to you, or across the country.  

Get the best players.

Don't worry about where they come from.

Your premise is that the staff purposely does not prioritize recruiting kids from Ohio and, to a lesser extent Michigan.

Yet, how do you know if this is true?

You assume as much based upon the geographic distribution of signed and verbal commits, but you don't know who is on the staff's recruiting board and how those players are ranked in terms of recruiting priority.

I assume that the staff goes after those athletes that they want and who they feel will be a good fit for the program and the University regardless of his geographic point of origin.

I have no problem with not recuriting Michigan heavier. I don't think we're hitting Ohio hard enough though. IMO Kentucky and MSU have no business pulling top 10 recruits from Ohio. It seems like the staff is trying so hard to go national and forget that we're by a goldmine. Kentucky has taken the approach to recruit Ohio heavily, and we've seen how quickly they went from an SEC bottom feeder to the top half of their conference (and quickly ascending, currently 5-2). 

want to play for Michigan....they could come from Mars for all I care.

Here is how many kids OSU has / will have on their roster from Ohio, by recruiting class:

• 2018, 4 (out of their 18 recruits)
• 2017, 6 / 21 total recruits
• 2016, 11 / 25
• 2015, 12 / 27
• 2014, 9 / 24

Based on the above and the presumption that there are LOTS of very good football players in Ohio, one can conclude / hypothesize:

• OSU is shifting their recruiting to get more out of state players
• There are lots of of very good players in Ohio that do not go to OSU
• If you don't recruit Ohio, you aren't going to get players from Ohio
• The schools most likely to get these non-OSU recruits are probably MSU, Pittsburgh, WVA, Cincinnati, and others located close to Ohio

Personally, I would prefer to see UofM recruit harder (spend more time) in Ohio for a number of reasons.

I live in Dublin, Ohio and my kids attend schools in Hilliard.   The kids are inundated with Ohio State here.   From the stupid o-h-i-o cheer to having your kid be required to play Hang on Sloopy in band class, they get it everywhere from the time they start school.  So the kids are made fans typically of OSU because they grow up with it.

Years ago, it wasn't as big a deal.  HS football in Columbus was a joke.   Cincinnati and Cleveland HS football teams dominated in the 1970's - 1990's.  In those places, there's a lot less Kool Aid getting passed around.   In the past two decades, Columbus has really grown and continues to grow.   The metro area is now about 2 million while Cleveland and Cincy continue to decline.

There is very much an anti-Michigan attitude around here as well.   Ask someone around here who their favorite two teams are and the answer is likely to be "OSU" and whoever is playing Michigan.  Even MSU gets a pass around here although they have had a lot more success against OSU in recent years.

I'm also not sure that Harbaugh has made his prescence know much around here with HS coaches.

One last note:  All the HS championship games were played in either Massillon or Canton for several years.  Prior to that, I think they were rotated around the state.    OSU made a push and they are all now played at the 'Shoe.   Just another sip of the ole Kool-Aid for the kids.