The 2002 football season brought Buckeye fans everywhere happiness, triumph and a sense of being the best. We were college football's National Champions. The upperclassman-laden squad was filled by current National Football League standouts Michael Jenkins, Mike Doss, Cie Grant, Chris Gamble, as well as many other notables.
The hardships and battles these players endured during practice and the games, throughout their college careers, paid off with the greatest prize. However, for the coaches, one of most difficult battles was won in recruiting these athletes and getting them to commit to Ohio State in the first place. This battle takes place way before the players ever graduate high school.
Recruiting is primarily one of the most important and difficult aspects of college coaching. For the program, it is extremely important to fill all position necessities as players graduate or leave early.
After the 2008 season, 26 seniors will be graduating along with a few questionable underclassmen who may forgo an extra year of eligibility to pursuit National Football League dreams. As the graduating class is so large, so will the next recruiting class.
Assistant Football Recruiting Director Coach Greg Gillum said the class of 2009 will have somewhere in the vicinity of 25 commitments.
"It is hard at this point to say for sure," Gillum said. "There are many intangibles involved as far as who may and who may not come back for their final year of eligibility so we really won't know exactly where we stand until the season is over. We are always looking for the best players and you never know which juniors will come out their senior year and shine."
However, it is difficult to go out and receive 25 commitments and current technology has made it even more difficult.
"The amount of information flying around on the Internet, both accurate and inaccurate, leads to many people forming opinions and making decisions based upon bad information," Gillum said. "Some potential student-athletes are heavy into the Internet and believe everything that pops up as the truth and often times this will lead to a player losing interest or becoming disenchanted with a program or a staff."
The 2008 class is filled with talent that will push current upperclassmen to keep their starting positions. Unfortunately for the players, many fans and analysts have compared the class to the class of 2002 adding significant pressure to the upcoming freshman.
"This 2008 class has enough star power to be the best class in the Coach Tressel era - probably the best class since 2002," said Alex Gleitman, a recruiting expert for a major "unofficial" Buckeye Web site.
The 2002 class was filled stars such as A.J. Hawk, Troy Smith, Santonio Holmes, Bobby Carpenter and Quinn Pitcock - all of whom are currently on NFL teams.
"We only know the potential of the Class of 2008," Gillum said in response to class comparisons. "You cannot really evaluate a recruiting class until after two years and see not only how many, but also the degree of contribution each and every member of the class is making to the team."
For many high school athletes, playing for a storied program such as OSU is a dream since early childhood. Conversely, some of the top talent in the country need convincing in just to visit campus and Columbus.
"(Invite-only) camps are pretty important for the kids who are yet to receive scholarship offers from schools," said former Buckeye and current Indianapolis Colt Anthony Gonzalez. "It also gets kids to see your school and come to campus. I came to a camp just like this (Ohio State Senior Camp) but it was much smaller; only 30 or 40 kids."
Ohio State hosted a rising senior invite-only camp of about 400 athletes this past Friday. It gave players that have received OSU offers a chance to see the university and meet the coaches. It also gave a chance for high school athletes without offers to earn one from an OSU coach or one of many other present college coaches.
Gonzalez served as a guest wide receiver coach along with many other OSU football alumni such as Archie Griffin, Cris Carter, Mike Doss, Ahmed Plummer, Bobby Carpenter, Will Allen and Mike Vrabel.
Camps might be a big draw for certain high school athletes who get to experience the facilities of a major college program and be coached by the sport's best athletes and coaches.
The camp helped win over wide-receiver Duron Carter, son of Buckeye-legend Cris Carter, who verbally committed to Ohio State during camp.
"I committed to Ohio State and it feels good to know I'll be attending the best school in the country," Duron told Scout.com.
Carter is now the 18th player in the class of 2009 to verbally commit to Ohio State. The Buckeyes seem extremely close to their goal of 25 commitments to replace the heap of seniors graduating after the upcoming season.
Anthony Gonzalez said he chose Ohio State because of the coaches.
"Tt is as simple as that," Gonzalez said. "I felt most comfortable with them."
David Sokol can be reached at sokol.26@osu.edu.
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