Buckeyes add top prospect in Ohio

Commitment should be celebrated, but let’s not take it for granted.

Urban Meyer can thank Fairfield High School graduate Jackson Carman for this round of praise, or thank any bits of uncertainty around Zach Harrison. He can thank Tommy Kraemer, or thank the memories Ohio State fans may have about Jordan Hicks (Lakota West) or Trey DePriest (Springfield).

Ohio prospect commits to Ohio State football is a dog bites man story, a familiar old tale you’ve heard before and will hear again. Dog bites man isn’t news.

But maybe Clemson and Notre Dame and Alabama have bitten Ohio State just enough in recruiting to make the obvious important to appreciate.

Paris Johnson Jr., a five-star tackle from Cincinnati, committed to Ohio State on Thursday night. Of course he did.

But what if he didn’t?

You can cycle everything in life through the washer of whatifs, so the 180-degree spin can effectively apply to the decisions of teenagers. If a 6-foot-7, 285pound rising junior from Cincinnati had committed to Alabama or Texas or Michigan or Notre Dame on Thursday night, that would have been a failure for Ohio State.

So getting Johnson must be a victory.

He’s ranked as the No. 1 prospect in Ohio, and No. 8 nationally, in the Class of 2020 by 247sports. com.

Harrison, a linebacker from Olentangy Orange, is the top Ohio player for 2019, and the No. 4 player nationally. He plans to announce his college choice

continued from C1 Aug. 14, and the Buckeyes should like their chances. But recruiting isn’t a place for assumptions.

Maybe you assume the best football player in Ohio will play at Ohio State. Maybe that’s smart.

But maybe you hold your breath more in the era where only 29 of Ohio State’s current 85 scholarship players (34 percent) are from Ohio. I’m always concerned about the Ohio flavor of the Buckeyes roster, at least slightly apprehensive about Meyer’s national recruiting strategy at a program whose foundational principle remains loathing for a rival.

You need Ohio kids for that.

Usually, my concern centers on the three-star in-state kids who could develop into stars but now may be left out. But I’m past the point of taking any Ohio high schooler for granted. Not because Ohio State doesn’t recruit well. It recruits amazingly. Maybe so well, an Ohio kid wouldn’t feel like a priority.

The numbers prove my fear is unfounded. The Buckeyes snagged four of the top five Ohio prospects in the 2018 class; five of the top six in 2017; three of the top five in 2016; four of the top six in 2015; six of the top seven in 2014; and three of the top four in 2013.

In the 10 years before Johnson and Harrison, the Buckeyes did pretty well with the top in-state high school player. Here’s where the best Ohio players from 2009 to 2018 wound up:

■ 2018: Jackson Carman (Fairfield), OT, Clemson

■ 2017: Josh Myers (Miamisburg), OL, Ohio State

■ 2016: Tommy Kraemer, OT, Notre Dame

■ 2015: Justin Hilliard, LB, Ohio State

■ 2014: Dante Booker, LB, Ohio State

■ 2013: Jalin Marshall (Middletown), WR, Ohio State ■ 2012: Adolphus Washington, DL, Ohio State

■ 2011: Braxton Miller (Wayne), QB, Ohio State

■ 2010: Jordan Hicks (Lakota West), LB, Texas ■ 2009: Jamie Wood, DB, Ohio State

DePriest was rated nearly as high as Miller in 2011, and as a five-star linebacker chose Alabama. Coming the year after Hicks had chosen Texas, Ohio State losing out on elite in-state linebackers in consecutive years shocked the recruiting sensibilities in the state.

Johnson is two years removed from Carman, but another tackle picking a school other than Ohio State so soon after Carman’s stunning selection of Clemson could have served as a warning.

Instead, Carman can be viewed as a one-off.

Among the top-50 national players in the Class of 2020, four have verbally committed, and Johnson is the highest-rated player to make a decision. The other three are a South Carolina kid to Clemson, a Georgia kid to Georgia and a Texas kid to Oklahoma, when the Sooners act as a homestate school to some players there.

So again, no shock. Kids who make calls this early typically go with the obvious choice. Outliers wait.

Maybe an Ohio kid to Ohio State football is never that much of a story. Or maybe the times tell us never to take it for granted.