Ohio State Football: 5 breakout freshmen to watch in 2018

Urban Meyer has been one of the top recruiters in the nation, but his 2018 recruiting class could yield elite results for Ohio State football.

When it comes to Urban Meyer’s usage of freshmen in his career, his reputation precedes him a bit. It’s become well-known at this point that Urban likes to say that freshmen will play right away. However, both at Florida and now at Ohio State, that goal has been widely unfulfilled.

That doesn’t mean Urban never uses freshmen. During his time in Columbus, players like Noah Spence, Dontre Wilson, Ezekiel Elliott, Tyvis Powell, Joey Bosa, Vonn Bell, Curtis Samuel, Raekwon McMillan, San Hubbard, Demario McCall, Nick Bosa, Michael Jordan, JK Dobbins, Baron Browning, Jeffrey Okudah and Chase Young have all found the field early.

However, only a rare few of those, like the Bosa brothers, Jordan, McMillan, Dobbins and Young were significant contributions. It usually depends on recruiting class quality. Urban’s two best Ohio State classes to this point, 2013 and 2017, had multiple contributors.

The 2018 class is rated even better than both of those. Packed from top to bottom with five and four-star athletes, and ranked second in the country, the 2018 class is Urban’s highest rated ever.

Will that translate to the field this season? Well, it’s hard to say for sure. With the amount of talent Ohio State has, it’s extremely hard for young players to find the field earlier.

However, with the talent in the class, it’ll be hard to keep these guys off the field. Who could see time early?