Recruiting fans always will remember the players that their favorite team landed but will also remember the ones who got away, sometimes even more vividly than team successes.

No matter how good the recruiter is, be it Jim Tressel, Urban Meyer or Ryan Day, there are going to be kids who get away, or at least it appears that they got away.

But with only one signing period for much of the run of this series (the first year of the December signing period went into place for the class of 2018), how do you really say that you “had someone” who may or may not have given you a verbal commitment.

It got us to thinking about some of the names out there that still bother fans, the ones who flipped, the ones who never answered the call and ultimately ended up somewhere else.

As the month of July draws close, let’s take a walk down memory lane and talk about a few of these names from the class of 2006 through the class of 2018. The jury is still out on classes from 2019 and beyond and my first year with the site was 2006, so that seems to be a good starting point.

2006 | 2007 |

This was one of Ohio State’s highest rated recruiting classes of the time, coming in at No. 4 overall with 20 players. The Buckeyes would land four five-stars, as part of the “Brew Crew” and would solidify it with Terrelle Pryor, taking a little longer than most, to finally land with the Buckeyes. Add to the mix DeVier Posey, Michael Brewster and Mike Adams and it was a star-studded class at the top and would hold big names though out, even if guys like Keith Wells, Lamaar Thomas and Willie Mobley would all end up moving on.

Josh Jenkins

When Josh Jenkins selected West Virginia over Ohio State, Buckeye recruiting fans were ready to lose their mind. Sure, there have been other instances where the Buckeyes have not been able to beat out the Mountaineers for a kid, Jason Gwaltney comes to mind, but Jenkins was at such a position of need, was right across the Ohio River and fans wanted him in the worst way. Jenkins would end up playing in five games as a freshman and then would start 24 games later in his career before a knee injury would derail his career. The big lineman always seemed to be part of the “Brew Crew” label but if we are being honest now, with Adams, Brewster and J.B. Shugarts all in the class, while it stung missing out on Jenkins, it would have been a luxury.

Michael Floyd

Floyd had an Ohio State offer but never really seemed to be someone on the verge with Ohio State as he ended his recruitment in mid-October, right on the heels of his official visit to see the Fighting Irish. That does not mean that Ohio State was not interested, and it would have been fun to see what Floyd would have been able to do in an Ohio State offense as a 6-foot-3 receiver. The Buckeyes were just fine with Posey in the class, but Floyd would go on to haul in 266 passes, 25 touchdowns and almost 4,000 yards at receiver in the NFL as a first-round pick.

Brandon Harris

Harris was a top-40 player nationally, took an official visit to Ohio State in mid-January and this one felt as if it could happen, but the Buckeyes had to wait out and survive a Miami official visit. We know how this one ends up Harris ends up picking the hometown Canes and that’s all she wrote. The Buckeyes had been active recruiters through the state of Florida for years but even with assists from players like Travis Howard and Etienne Sabino, the Buckeyes probably ended up second in this one.