This Week in Ohio State Football: Getting old but staying young

Vo. 1, No. 43

This week in Ohio State football, the Buckeyes lost a big recruiting battle to Indiana.

We also look at the relative age of Ryan Day’s roster to the rest of college football and another preseason ranking.

Ryan Day and staff made a concerted effort to bring in age and experience via the transfer portal over the winter, but the Buckeyes are still going to be one of the youngest teams in the Big Ten and the country.

That was a revelation via Rotowire’s tool comparing the relative ages of every roster in college football for 2026.

Ohio State is the second-youngest team in the Big Ten, topping only USC.

That is interesting because both of them signed big recruiting classes for 2026 at a time when many programs are shifting more scholarship spots to veterans. That probably has a lot to do with their age, but it is a little surprising considering how many veterans Ohio State brought in via the transfer portal.

But, again, maybe perception is not reality as many teams now bring in larger transfer classes than Ohio State every year.

Also of note: The older teams in the Big Ten aren’t expected to be very good. That starts with Michigan State followed by UCLA, Nebraska, Northwestern and Penn State.

Penn State could be a darkhorse in the conference race in no small part because of a weak schedule, but their age also owes to bringing in a massive amount of players from Iowa State, where Matt Campbell was the coach last season.

How all those Big 12 guys look competing against Big Ten players every week is going to make for a great experiment.

Also of note: Indiana comes in 15th in the Big Ten and tied for 105th nationally in age after being one of the oldest teams in the country last season.

And… the youngest team in the country is Georgia with Texas tied for 134th (three spots ahead of the Bulldogs) so it’s still a young man’s game even if everyone is looking for experience where they can find it.

Speaking of Indiana, Ohio State lost a five-star receiver recruit to the Hoosiers.

Yes, really.

I know they won the national title last year, but that’s still a bit of a stunner to read, isn’t it?

To be fair, Monshun Sales is not just any five-star receiver. He attends Lawrence North High School near Indianapolis, so this is a home-state win for the Hoosiers.

Nonetheless, he is Indiana’s highest-rated commit of all time according to 247Sports, which has him as the No. 1 receiver in the country for 2027.

Of course the sky is not falling for the Buckeyes.

This is more a success story for Indiana, which is a program built on transfers the past two seasons so seeing how/if they transition to more traditional roster construction primarily via high school recruiting will be interesting.

At this point, coach Curt Cignetti has 17 commits for ’27, and the class is ranked No. 30 in 247Sports Composite rankings.

Sales is their first five-star, but they already had six commitments from four-star prospects.

Ohio State’s 18-man class is ranked No. 7 in the nation midway through July.

If last year is a guide, they could add as many as 10 more prospects between now and December, including some late-bloomers who pop as seniors in Ohio and beyond.

The Buckeyes have verbal commitments from two receivers for 2027, including five-star Jamier Brown (formerly of Wayne High School, now at Big Walnut), so the cupboard isn’t bare.

Ohio State also has a verbal commitment from five-star WR Jett Harrison in 2028 and unrated (yet) Austin Miller for 2029.

Brian Hartline set an incredible standard in stacking multiple very highly rated receiver prospects in every class, something that might be a thing of the past even if he were still on the staff at his alma mater.

In the age of name, image and likeness-influenced recruiting and roster maintenance, lining up a half dozen five-stars at any position doesn’t make a lot of sense because they can’t all play but they do all cost a lot of money.

Not only that, it would appear they are probably devoting more resources to the line of scrimmage based on the size and pedigree of offensive and defensive linemen in this class.

That is noteworthy not only because it just makes sense but also because the volume of five-star skill players tended to skew the overall ranking for some of Day’s classes in the past.

The Hoosiers seem to have plenty of believers for this season, but Ohio State is No. 1 in the projected SP+ ratings at ESPN.

For what that is worth…

I used to really like SP+, but creator Bill Connelly played with it a little too much for my liking by adding recent history and recruiting into how he weights it rather than just relying on the numbers a team produced on the field.

Connelly says this makes the ranking more “forward facing,” but that’s really not what I’m looking for. I just want to know what the numbers say.

Instead it seems like more of a self-fulfilling prophecy, and it did not prevent SP+ from overrating Alabama, Penn State, Texas, Michigan, Clemson and LSU to start last season. (Isn’t that the point of trying to make the numbers forward facing?)

Jeff Gilbert hit on some of these themes in his most recent piece on the Buckeyes for PressProsMagazine.com.

Indiana was No. 23 last year when they returned a good chunk of their surprising ’24 team, but the Hoosiers are No. 5 right now despite massive losses from the national championship squad.

Ohio State is No. 1 this year followed by Oregon, Notre Dame, Georgia and then the Hoosiers.

Texas, Texas Tech, Miami, Texas A&M and LSU fill out the top 10.

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I wrote a basketball column for Press Pros this week, and it was busy at MJ where I noted USC’s social media team is apparently not aware how The Iliad turned out for the Trojans, and Apple made a big announcement for football video game fans.

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