Your (almost) daily dose of good-natured, Ohio State banter.
This week at LGHL, we are taking a deeper look at what we’ll see on the field from the 2025 Ohio State Buckeyes with our “Players to Watch” Week. Incoming freshmen, transfer portal acquisitions, and new starters are on the radar of our writers this week as we are now less than three months away from the start of the football season. With so many key players from last season’s national title team now preparing for their rookie seasons in the NFL, there will be a new cast of characters in Columbus who will be looking to earn their place in Ohio State lore.
Today, we want to know what past Ohio State recruit had you most excited when they committed to being a Buckeye. Even though many of the answers to this question are likely to come from football, we are accepting picks from other sports as well.
Kids these days might find it hard to believe since the men’s basketball team has a hard time bringing in big-time recruits, but Thad Matta was a monster when it came to convincing high-profile talent to commit to the program. Buckeye Nation was salivating when Matta was able to convince Greg Oden and Mike Conley to make a pit stop at Ohio State before heading to the NBA.
What makes today’s question a little more interesting is that Matt and Brett have already looked towards this season since earlier this week they revealed the players they think could be sleeper first-round picks in the 2026 NFL Draft after their Ohio State careers are over.
So, after trying to predict the future, now they are looking back and celebrating some of the Buckeyes that had them excited about the future when they officially announced they were heading to Ohio State.
Today’s question: Which Ohio State freshman were you most excited to watch?
We’d love to hear your choices. Either respond to us on Twitter at @Landgrant33 or leave your choice in the comments.
Brett’s answer: Terrelle Pryor
I didn’t move to Columbus from Western New York until 2005, so I wasn’t in on the ground floor for all the hype surrounding Maurice Clarett ahead of and during his freshman season in 2002. The first massive high school recruit that I can remember being excited about, possibly even becoming a Buckeye, was Terrelle Pryor. Along with Ohio State, Pryor was also considering Penn State, Michigan, Oregon, and West Virginia.
There was even a time when many were wondering if Pryor was also going to play basketball at the school he committed to, as he originally committed to the University of Pittsburgh while Jamie Dixon was the basketball coach. Pryor decommitted from Pitt and reopened his recruitment when it became obvious that his sports future was with football. While most high school football recruits would sign their letters of intent in early February, Pryor delayed his decision until after Jeannette’s basketball team won a state championship in mid-March, officially signing with Ohio State on March 19, 2008.
Even before taking a snap as a Buckeye, Pryor had fans anointing him as the next big thing. Not only did Pryor register a 4.4 in the 40-yard dash, but there were comparisons to Vince Young and Randall Cunningham. In high school, Pryor became the first player in Pennsylvania to throw for 4,000 yards and run for 4,000 yards. Just a couple of years removed from Troy Smith winning the Heisman Trophy, Ohio State fans were anticipating having an even better version of Smith at quarterback.
Ohio State was coming off a 2007 season that saw them make it to the BCS National Championship Game with Todd Boeckman at quarterback. If a Buckeye offense with Boeckman could come close to winning a national title, imagine what the offense could do with Pryor running the show.
Despite Pryor and Ohio State not winning a national title during his three years in Columbus, the quarterback did lead the Buckeyes to three BCS games, winning the Rose Bowl against Oregon and the Sugar Bowl against Arkansas. We never got to see Pryor’s senior year play out since he declared for the NFL’s Supplemental Draft after he was suspended for the “Tatgate” scandal, and head coach Jim Tressel was fired.
Matt’s answer: Maurice Clarett
My excitement to watch a specific true freshman is a bit different than Brett’s. The buzz surrounding Terrelle Pryor’s recruitment made him one of the most anticipated players to ever step foot on Ohio State’s campus. When Maurice Clarett got to Columbus, I had never heard of him. One, because this was long before the recruiting explosion, and two, we were still generally using dial-up internet in those days.
But my Mo C excitement kicked in at epic levels when I sat in my very hot A-Deck seat at Ohio Stadium on Aug. 24, 2002 for the first game of my senior year. That was the day that Clarett announced himself to the Ohio State and college football worlds as he proceeded to rip off 175 yards and three touchdowns against Texas Tech in his first game as a Buckeye.
That game set off one of the most thrilling, nerve-inducing roller coasters of a season that I have ever experienced in any sport, and Clarett was the driving force of many of the positive and negative emotions. To this day, I still believe that had he not gotten hurt about two months into the season, he would have been a Heisman Trophy finalist as a true freshman, and potentially could have gone down as the greatest freshman running back in college football history.
Between being a bit banged up and the now-infamous ego and personality issues that plagued him during his all-too-short stint as a Buckeye, that did not come to pass. Nonetheless, he finished his one season of college football with 1,237 yards rushing on a 5.6 yards per carry average. He rushed for 16 touchdowns and added two through the air.
Clarett was a powerful, violent runner and seemed to only get better the more hits he took, but he complemented that with incredible speed and balance. However, when Mo C was right, there was never a more game gamer, or someone who more refused to give up.
I don’t think that I would get too much of an argument from folks when I say that his strip of Sean Taylor following a Craig Krenzel interception in the end zone in the third quarter of the BCS Title Game is one of my favorite plays in Buckeye history (Jack Sawyer’s strip sack touchdown of Quinn Ewers is up there too).
Clarett didn’t give up on a play that he easily could have avoided getting anywhere near, and no one would have faulted him. But that effort, resiliancy, and grittiness are what made him such an exciting player to watch every time that he put on the scarlet and gray.
No, Mo C’s time on the field with the Buckeyes never reached anywhere near what its potential could be, but to see him be fully embarrassed by Ryan Day and the program over the last year or so honestly makes me emotional. To know what Maurice has gone through and the man that he has worked incredibly hard to become makes me root for him just as hard now as I did 23 years.