Excuses Excuses. No one likes to apologize for not meeting expectations.
However, sometimes excuses are reality.
Every inside source we fully trust has informed Bucknuts that Ohio State has lost a handful of 2023 recruits because collectives elsewhere were offering upfront NIL money that some young men felt they couldn’t forego can. And we don’t blame the young men for that at all. Get your bag, young fella.
Additionally, we’re told that these special recruits wanted to play for the Buckeyes, but as the OSU collectives try to play by the rules — due to the clumsiness of Ohio State’s bloated and outdated compliance department — and don’t make upfront recruits some young men felt they had no choice but to take the money and flee. And that doesn’t make them pranksters, Maurice. This is the reality of the situation.
Bucknuts asked the head coach at Wednesday’s Ohio State press conference ryan day – roughly speaking – how many recruits he thinks his program has lost in 2023 because they cannot make NIL advance payments.
“That’s a good question. Depends on when you ask that question,” Day said. “No, I think, you know, it’s certainly become part of the conversation. But the 19 guys signed, today in the early days I’m guessing it’s 12:30 right now so there’s still open time to sign so we’re going to keep swinging this thing.
“But I think for me today it’s like, okay, these 19 guys that have signed now, they deserve the recognition on a day like today because it’s a great group. And I think if you look at the quality of the people we bring in, I think that’s the focus right now. I think it must be for us. You know what I mean? So I’m proud of our guys and they’ll have incredible opportunities here for sure.”
Speaking of players who signed up for Ohio State’s Class of 2023, many of them, of course, had other programs (again, the collectives, not the programs themselves) trying to poach them with big upfront cash offers. But these recruits didn’t budge and signed on the dotted line with the Buckeyes.
“That says a lot about these guys,” Day said. “Seven guys from Ohio and a total of 19 guys here, I mean, these are guys who want to be Buckeyes. You know the options here and there’s a lot that goes into deciding where to go to school. A lot of these guys did it for all the right reasons. By that I mean focusing on the things that really matter, and one of those things, first of all, is the development that you’re going to get at Ohio State. It’s an opportunity to come in and get an incredible education, it’s part of a program that will be in the national championship hunt every year, but it’s also part of an incredible culture. And being in the city of Columbus.
“There’s just so many things that come with being a Buckeye that these guys realize early on. And it’s about relationships. And I think our coaching staff did an incredible job of building relationships during that process. Because this year was a unique season (because of NIL) and next year it’s going to be a very different, you know, unique recruitment cycle, and every year it changes. A lot has certainly happened this year. But in the end it comes down to relationships and our guys did great at that.”
And let’s be clear. The Buckeyes signed a very good class, being ranked the No. 5 class in the nation at the time of publication in 1923. Not too shabby. The point of this story is all of the sources that have informed us that the Buckeyes in this circle not only missed a top player or two due to NIL, they lost a “handful,” as one source put it, and “several “like another. And listening to Day’s answers to our questions, our sources seem 100 percent on point.