Historic Draft Class Makes Ohio State College Football’s Offseason Champion

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Urban Meyer squirmed, the mere mention of all of Ohio State’s outgoing talent giving him an apparent rush of anxiety.

So when the Buckeyes head coach went ahead and answered a question about how his team’s plentiful presence at Thursday’s NFL draft would benefit his program, perhaps it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that his mind immediately shifted to his own task at hand.

“How valuable for us?” Meyer asked, repeating the question. “There’s no value for us. They’re all gone.”

Not even on the recruiting trail?

“Oh,” Meyer said, quickly and more comfortably.

“Absolutely, we use that for recruiting.”

In fact, Ohio State already has been.

It’d be hard to imagine the Buckeyes enjoying a better offseason than they did in 2015, now one year removed from their White House visit following their College Football Playoff championship victory at the end of the 2014 season.

While in Washington, President Obama name-dropped the likes of Ezekiel Elliott, Joey Bosa, Cardale Jones and Braxton Miller—Ohio State stars from the past still set to return for the future.

And yet, despite the Buckeyes falling short of expectations after becoming the first unanimous preseason No. 1 team in the AP Top 25 and losing 16 starters—including nine underclassmen—to the NFL, Meyer finds himself with as much momentum as ever on the recruiting trail.

In the Buckeyes’ sudden presence in the pros, Ohio State didn’t just find a replacement for last…

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