COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio State recruiting class may have been short on numbers, but it certainly is not short on star power. While Ohio State’s recruiting class finished No. 21 overall according to the Rivals.com recruiting rankings, it ranked No. 5 overall in average star rating at 3.71 per prospect.

Austin (Texas) wide receiver Garrett Wilson certainly helped the rankings as the second highest rated prospect in the signing class as a high four-star recruit and a member of the Rivals100.

Talk of recruiting numbers don’t mean much once you report to campus and Wilson is just one of several early enrollees to Ohio State over the winter semester looking to get a jump start on their collegiate careers and hopefully make an impact in their first years as collegiate players.

Wilson has already seen his body change in the few short weeks that he has been on campus and working in Mickey Marotti’s program as he is up six pounds to 186-pounds.

“The weight training program here is real,” Wilson said last week during a media availability. “They get you right.”

Ohio State will have to replace a lot of offense in the receiving game with the losses of players like Parris Campbell, Johnnie Dixon and Terry McLaurin. Ohio State loses 167 receptions, 2,433 yards and 31 receiving touchdowns just with those three departures.

The Buckeyes will have KJ Hill, Austin Mack, Binjimen Victor and Chris Olave all back but what are the chance that Wilson can get into the mix sooner rather than later?

“I don't know what to expect with that, but I'm (going to) just put myself in the best circumstance to play early,” Wilson said. “That's all I can do. I can just focus on doing everything I can to put myself in the best situation.”

Olave took a major step in his first-year with the Buckeyes but that door also opened up when Mack sustained a season-ending injury. After playing in the first two games of the season, it appeared that a redshirt was going to happen and then when Mack went down, Olave stepped up to come up big down the stretch with two touchdowns against Michigan and one against Northwestern in the Big Ten Championship game.

While Wilson can study what Olave did, it really is going to come down to making it impossible for the coaches not to have him out there.

“You just have got to buy in and if you are playing well enough to play, they will play you because they want to win games too,” Wilson said. “They are not saying he is a freshman or anything like that, if you are the best player and better than the senior, they will play you here. If I am better, then I will get in the game.”

The Ohio State coaches are excited with Wilson and what he has the potential of becoming but it is going to take some work to get to that point. Fortunately, the season is still more than a few months away and the freshman pass-catcher will have not only spring ball to go through but fall camp as well.

“His skill set is off the charts, his ball skills, adjusting to the balls down the field, route running ability, length, as good as I've been around,” head coach Ryan Day said of Wilson. “How he does the next few weeks in the off-season program will be important, then he'll have an opportunity to compete in the spring.”