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Published Feb 2, 2021
Sorting the numbers on Signing Day Eve
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Kevin Noon  •  DottingTheEyes
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@kevin_noon

We are less than 24 hours from National Signing Day, or at least what is considered the “traditional” February day for high school football commits to make things official with National Letters of Intent, fax machines and all of the pomp and circumstance that comes with all of that.

If we are being honest, the “early signing period” has taken away much of the excitement of its older and more established February brother. Only five members of the Rivals100 are “undecided” at this point and the number grows to eight within the Rivals250. There are also a handful of players within the nation’s top-250 according to Rivals.com that are considered verbal commits but still unsigned, either opting not to sign in December or having come to a decision between the two signing periods. And of course, all of those players are very much in play until they actually sign.

And then there is the case of J.T. Tuimoloau, the nation’s No. 6 overall player, a top defensive line prospect and No. 1 on the Ohio State hit parade. He is not expected to sign any time soon and is waiting out the NCAA on the re-opening of visits. So that is a name to remember, because there are still many more miles to travel for the five-star lineman.

Ohio State stands at 21 players in its class, all of them signed, sealed and more than a dozen of them are delivered as mid-year enrollees.

The class of 2021 appears to be close to done, regardless of how you feel about Tuimoloau or linebacker Raesjon Davis, a player that the Buckeyes are battling hometown USC over.

The addition of one or both will obviously change Ohio State’s ranking in the Rivals Team Rankings, but we are already looking at one of Ohio State’s top classes over the course of the Rivals.com-era (2002-current).

It got us to thinking about the top classes, where does this one stand in terms of the rest, even if it may not be done and we may have to wait awhile to get all the final datapoints.

The top classes

Top Ohio State Recruiting Classes: 2002-current
* As of 2/2/2021
RankYearPointsSigneesNational Rank

1.

2018

3,192

26

2nd

2.

2017

3,078

21

2nd

3.

2021

2,988*

21*

2nd*

4.

2013

2,903

24

2nd

5.

2020

2,769

25

5th

6.

2014

2,734

23

3rd

One thing that we know is that Ohio State will not be able to top its 2018 recruiting score of, 3,192 points. Even if Ohio State were to draw the inside straight and land both Davis and Tuimoloau, the Buckeyes would come up just short at 3,175 points. But landing either/or would move this class into some rare air as only the 3rd class in Ohio State history to eclipse the 3,000-point mark.

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