Buckeye logjam in the skill positions (and why the Buckeyes offered James Onwualu)

James Onwualu got an offer from Ohio State yesterday which I didn't give too much consideration until I looked at his rankings.  Scout has him ranked as a 3 star and 33rd best wide receiver.  Rivals doesn't have a rank and 247 has him ranked as a 3 star and 50th best wideout.

That made me wonder - Why would Ohio State offer a kid ranked that low?

He currently has offers from Michigan, Michigan State, Notre Dame, and Stanford which is a good sign but after looking into it the love is coming from an Underarmor camp he attended in December.

He got the 2nd highest score at the camp which led to the influx of offers.  Over the weekend he narrowed his list to Notre Dame, Michigan, Stanford, and Minnesota and that forced Ohio State to make an offer.  It wasn't said but I'd guess this was a conditional offer based on Onwualu attending the Ohio State camp over the summer so the coaches can see him up close before making it official.

A post about this on the Ozone forum that was thankful that they were going after him because the Buckeyes need depth got me thinking about the 2013 recruiting strategy at wide receiver.  Here's the current depth chart at wide receiver.

Corey Brown JR
Verlon Reed SO
Chris Fields JR
TY Williams SO
Devin Smith SO
Even Spencer SO
Frank Epitropoulous FR
Ricquan Southward FR
Mike Thomas FR

Note there isn't 1 senior on the team and we currently have 9 scholarship players at wide receiver.  When you consider that Ohio State is serving a 3 scholarship reduction due to Tatgate and the fact they recruited 3 players on special teams, they only have 79 scholarships to give in 2013.  That means without adding a single recruit, wide receivers will take up 11.3% (9/79) percent of the scholarships next year.  In a conventional offense you normally only have 2 wide receivers which means you'd expect wide receivers to have about 9% (2/22) in total but many spread offenses have 3 on the field which would bump that to 13.6% (3/22).  Using that figure instead you get 10.7 so I'd expect the Buckeyes to take 1-2 wide receivers for the 2013 season.

One caveat to this is Ohio State fans are used to recruiting a bunch of running backs for their historical brand of smashmouth football.  If we recruit 3 wide receivers we will need to account for this with fewer running backs.  Here's the depth chart at running back.

Zach Boren SR
Jordan Hall SR
Adam Homan SR
Carlos Hyde JR
Rod Smith SO
Warren Ball FR
Bri'onte Dunn FR

With 3 players graduating it would seem this would be an area of great need but the change in offensive philosophy will probably lessen the demand.  The move to more 1 back offense means we can expect to have about 1.5 recruits out of the 22 on the field or 6.8%.  For the 79 open scholarships this means we should have 5.3 players in this area.  Considering that the Buckeyes already have 4 players on scholarship, this will mean the Buckeyes will take 1-2 running backs at most for 2013.  That also assumes we won't replace either of our graduating fullbacks but my guess is we've seen the last of fullback recruits and they will train their tight ends to move into that spot as needed.

The bottom line is between wide receiver and running back the Buckeyes will probably take 3 wide receivers or running backs.  They could take 4 but at some point it starts cutting into other positions which leads to the situation we saw at offensive line throughout the Tressel regime.

At this point you may be asking yourself what does all this mean when the original question was about a scholarship offer to an unknown kid from Minnesota.  Despite the Ozone poster's concerns, the Buckeyes will be fine at wideout in the next few years as Verlon Reed and Devin Smith are excellent receivers with good hands.  What we don't have is a true running back/wide receiver hybrid and from all indications, James Onwualu excels at both.

Urban Meyer was hoping to get a player like that last year but it didn't work out.  This year I expect 2 of his 3 offensive skill position recruits to fit that mold.  He is scouring the national lists and is trying to get the top recruits into Columbus this summer where he will run them in drills against one another to finalize his priority list.  The problem is Michigan has already gotten many kids to verbally commit and using that fact to pressure other kids into doing the same thing.  The offer from Urban was a preventative measure to slow down Onwualu's decision process so he will at least visit Ohio State before making a final decision.  Let's hope it works.