Ohio State's program is preparing for a jam-packed month of visitors

COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Ohio State Buckeyes are gearing up for what will arguably go down as one of the most important months of recruiting in program history.

With the COVID-19 pandemic preventing them from hosting visitors on campus for over 14 months, high school prospective student-athletes are itching to visit as many schools as possible in June.

Led by a strong tandem of Erin Dunston and Mark Pantoni, as well as other key recruiting personnel, the program is ready to make a splash.

Dunston, who was recently hired as the Buckeyes' director of on-campus recruiting, revealed how many official and unofficial visitors they're expecting in Columbus next month.

"For official visits, we have approximately 51 approved right now," Dunston said. "For unofficial visits, it's kind of like an open door. If they come to camp and they want to unofficial visit, they can do that if they're coming to see the coaches and get a campus tour. I don't want to give you a small ballpark number or a large ballpark right now, but in my calendar, it's about 150 to 200 kids."

This number for official visitors is not only larger than what you would see in a usual month; it's unprecedented in the world of recruiting. Pantoni revealed how this figure compares to what a normal year would look like for the Buckeyes.

"It's obviously, for one month, very overwhelming," Pantoni said. "So, our max every year is usually 62 with a six rollover. We probably, in a normal year, get in the high 40s to low 50s. This is pretty extraordinary, but not unexpected, either."

There are some topics Pantoni could not quite delve too deep into considering the fact that none of the players are signed right now, but he did talk broadly about the 2022 class.

12 juniors are currently committed to Ohio State, with the program's assistant athletic director for player personnel saying they are satisfied with where things stand heading into June.

"I think we're very content with where's we're at," Pantoni said. "I'm always of the philosophy that we don't want to fill up too early just because you want to use the summer for the camp evals. There's going to be new kids who pop up. And then, going into the fall, with the development of these guys with their senior film. Guys always develop and get better.

"We feel good about the number we're at," Pantoni added. "Then, in these next few months, we expect to get a few more after we get some more eval."

June 4-6, otherwise known as Buckeye Bash 2.0, will feature over a dozen official visitors. These include Rivals100 targets Omari Abor, Xavier Nwankpa, Zach Rice and Zion Branch, as well as most of Ohio State's 2022 class.

With this marking the first weekend of visits since March 2020, Pantoni and company are hoping to make a strong impression.

"We just hope to set the bar high," Pantoni said. "So, when these kids go to other schools, it's like, they know what Ohio State was. We want them to think this is going to be really hard to top. Coach Day has been very involved and with a lot of input, which is awesome.

"We have an outstanding plan for the first weekend," Pantoni added. "We've had a great plan, we're just going to execute it the best we can. We expect nothing but the best."

One of the interesting parts of tOSU's June schedule is that there are a lot of commits on the front-end of the month, instead of staggering them out over all four weekends.

Pantoni, who acknowledged the importance of the pledges in their overall recruiting efforts, said the staff wanted the class to meet each other and spend time together in one weekend.

"We discussed that as a staff and we just felt like, since they've been so loyal to us, we wanted them to get here that first weekend because they deserve it," Pantoni said. "They deserve to all be here together to get to know each other.

"They are our best recruiters. Them, along with our current players," Pantoni added. "So, I know some of the local guys I'm sure will come back other weekends and help. It was our decision to get them all here at once that first weekend if they could."

On top of having over 50 prospects on campus for official visits, the Buckeyes will host a number of unofficial visitors and players who camp at the school in June. The program will also be able to host recruits for private workouts, such as four-star wideout Kevin Thomas and in-state linebacker Isaiah Jones.

Pantoni shed a little bit of insight into how these six one-day camps and private workouts will operate.

"Just as far as the 2022s, they can come work out for one hour with one coach," Pantoni said. "There's no wide receivers running routes together, there's no one-on-ones. It's just simply a one-on-one workout. And then, with the camps, that'll be mostly for the 2023s and 2024s, just to get that early evaluation on them.

"Every day is going to be crazy," Pantoni added. "There's not going to be any days off."

Stay tuned to BuckeyeGrove for more coverage on today's press conference.