Ohio State’s 2009 recruiting class was ranked No. 1 by Scout.com, and only one player from that group—John Simon—was drafted by an NFL team. While the much less-heralded 2010 recruiting class was a huge success, despite low expectations, 2009 was the opposite: lots of hype but little payoff. The “Brew Crew” in 2008 received a tremendous amount of hype, and the class that followed it was expected to help propel the Buckeyes to their first national title since the 2002 season. It never panned out that way. Instead, the two classes played a role in one of the Buckeyes’ worst chapters, where they went 6-7 in 2011. While the 2008 class deserves a brunt of the blame with several of its top names among the “Suspended Five,” the 2009 class deserves some blame as well for its long list of recruiting busts. Dorian Bell, Melvin Fellows, Jaamal Berry, Duron Carter, Jamie Wood, Dominic Clarke, Jonathan Newsome, James Jackson and Corey Brown were all expected to be the leaders of the…
Continue Reading: Ohio State Football: How OSU’s 2009 Recruiting Class Failed to Meet Expectations
