Slow starts on the recruiting trail aren’t particularly new to Ohio State under Urban Meyer. Back in the 2015 recruiting cycle, the Buckeyes had several silent months early on, and it wasn’t until Joe Burrow committed in May that the class really got going. Urban Meyer would like to avoid a repeat this season, and that effort just got a huge boost, as Mentor, OH tackle Ryan Jacoby announced his commitment to Ohio State on Twitter on Thursday afternoon.
Jacoby, a 6-foot-5, 270 pound do-it-all lineman is the second member of Ohio State’s 2019 class, as he joins fellow offensive lineman Doug Nester, a tackle from West Virginia. Jacoby is ranked by 247Sports as the 353rd best player nationally, 39th best tackle, and 10th best player in Ohio.
While his rankings aren’t super lofty right now (though they certainly aren’t anything to complain about), he’s just now growing into his frame, and could be in for a massive senior season, and a pretty big recruiting bump around November, after all of the camps and games are over.
Jacoby held offers from Oregon, West Virginia, Michigan State, Michigan, and Penn State, among others, and has received a ton of attention in the past few months after a great junior season. While the Big Ten trio of Michigan State, Penn State and Michigan certainly expressed interest in Jacoby, this was always a case of when, rather than if he would commit to the home-state Buckeyes.
Jacoby visited Columbus just a couple of weeks ago, on February 10, and knew he’d be announcing his commitment to the Buckeyes just shortly after, when given the green light by Meyer and Greg Studrawa, and apparently, today was that day.
In Jacoby, the Buckeyes are getting a versatile, impressive athlete, with good feet, and a very good core. He’s fairly inexperienced in pass protection (to be expected with high school linemen), but his ceiling is pretty much sky-high when he gets in a college weight program, and starts to learn from an extremely talented coach like Studrawa. Buckeye fans should be very excited about this newest commitment.