Recruiting Comparison: Notre Dame vs Ohio State
There are many ways to evaluate matchups, and one of those ways is to look at things from a recruiting standpoint, and the Notre Dame vs. Ohio State matchup is quite intriguing in that regard.
Recruiting rankings don't determine wins, but they are certainly a fun way to compare teams and matchups. Ohio State has traditionally recruited as well as anyone nationally, and that momentum has continued since Ryan Day took over as the Buckeyes head coach prior to the 2018 season. This is a very intriguing matchup from a recruiting standpoint.
Here are the 247Sports composite rankings for the starters and top rotation players for the Notre Dame offense and the Ohio State defense.
Ten of Notre Dame’s 11 starters on offense were a four (9) or five-star (1) recruit coming out of high school. That includes its entire wide receiver rotation, tight end rotation and its top two running backs. The lone three-star in the starting lineup is Joe Alt, who has already exceeded early expectations and has developed into one of the best left tackles in all of college football. Alt was a Freshman All-American last season.
Notre Dame's offensive skill talent is much maligned, but it is impressive from a recruiting rankings standpoint. Quarterback Tyler Buchner was a Top 100 recruit and as I mentioned above the entire receiver starting lineup were four-star recruits, and three of the Irish receivers (Lorenzo Styles, Tobias Merriweather, Deion Colzie) were ranked as Top 100 recruits by at least one service. Notre Dame also has a former four-star recruit at running back in Chris Tyree. Notre Dame's lone five-star is tight end Michael Mayer, who has certainly lived up to his recruiting ranking.
Ohio State counters with the same number of four and five-star recruits in their starting lineup with ten. Their lone exception is defensive back Tanner McCallister who transferred from Oklahoma State this off-season. The Buckeyes have one more five-star recruit on their starting defense than the Notre Dame offense does, both up front in defensive ends Zach Harrison and Jack Sawyer.
Notre Dame's offense, however, has five Top 100 recruits in its starting lineup while Ohio State's defense has just three.
The Buckeye defensive line is littered with former top recruits, which offers optimism for an increase in production this upcoming season. Ohio State has so much depth up front that they have multiple former five-star recruits in J.T. Tuimoloau and Taron Vincent who will play a big role despite being labeled as backups.
Notre Dame's offensive line counters with a group of players that were heavily recruited and highly ranked coming out of high school.
Now let's look at the Notre Dame defense and the Ohio State offense.
The Notre Dame defense is a great example of identifying and developing talent, currently projected to start just five players who were ranked as four-star recruits. They have six players who were ranked as just three-star recruits, including All-American safety transfer Brandon Joseph. In fact, their whole secondary was ranked as such coming out of high school, while the Irish have several four-star defensive backs coming off the bench.
Joseph and Cam Hart not being Top 500 recruits is a perfect example of why recruiting rankings must always be taken as just a part of the evaluation process and not the end all be all. The same is true for Isaiah Foskey, who was not a Top 200 recruit, but so far he has far outplayed Ohio State's five-star ends.
While Notre Dame doesn't trot out a lot of highly ranked recruits on the back end, the defensive line rotation is the exception. The entire starting front were ranked as four-star recruits and the Irish bring several highly ranked defensive line recruits off the bench.
Ohio State’s offensive unit is an embarrassment of riches from a recruiting perspective. Ten of the 11 projected starters were rated as a four (5) or five-star (5) recruits. That doesn’t include former five-star pass catcher Julian Fleming, who is a key reserve for the unit.
Along with Fleming, quarterback CJ Stroud, running back TreVeyon Henderson, wide receivers Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Marvin Harrison Jr. and Emeka Egbuka, offensive lineman Paris Johnson Jr., Matthew Jones and Donovan Jackson were all rated as Top 100 players when they were coming out of high school.
CLASS RANKINGS
Here are the class rankings of the two programs from the last five seasons. (247Sports composite)
NOTRE DAME
2022 - 7
2021 - 9
2020 - 18
2019 - 15
2018 - 10
OHIO STATE
2022 - 4
2021 - 2
2020 - 5
2019 - 14
2018 - 2
Advantage: Ohio State
Be sure to check out the Irish Breakdown message board, the Champions Lounge
Irish Breakdown Content
Notre Dame 2022 Roster
Notre Dame 2022 Schedule
Notre Dame 2023 Class Big Board
Notre Dame 2023 Commits Board - Offense
Notre Dame 2023 Commits Board - Defense
Notre Dame 2023 Scholarship Offers
Notre Dame 2024 Scholarship Offers
Ranking The 2022 Signees - Offense
Ranking The 2022 Signees - Defense
———————
Become a premium Irish Breakdown member, which grants you access to all of our premium content and our premium message board! Click on the link below for more.
Be sure to stay locked into Irish Breakdown all the time!
Join the Irish Breakdown community!
Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown YouTube channel
Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown podcast on iTunes
Follow me on Twitter: @RiseNDraft
Like and follow Irish Breakdown on Facebook
