Ohio State Football: 3 early signees who’ll have instant impacts in 2020

Ohio State football pulled the No. 1 wide receiver and the number three overall recruit from Penn State’s backyard in the middle of Pennsylvania. Julian Fleming’s high school experience at Southern Columbia was vastly different from Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s, who played high-level competition in Texas’ largest division and played in a pass-first system while putting up huge numbers.

Pennsylvania isn’t exactly the high school football hotbed that Texas is, so Fleming dominated quietly. As seen in the film, he usually caught short passes in his high school’s Wing-T offense and turned them into big gains by “out-athleting” the defense. Occasionally, however, he bolted upfield, outrunning everybody to catch an 40-plus yard touchdown with ease.

It’s hard to tell how his talent will play against better competition, but the scouts seem to agree that he one-of-a-kind, as proven by the fact that he is Ohio State’s third-best recruit ever, according to the 247Sports Composite.

For the same exact reasons as Smith-Njigba, Fleming will almost certainly see lots of action as a true freshman in 2020, and could easily be the Buckeyes’ third-best receiver and a key piece of the offense.

It’s weird to say, seeing as they just lost three key seniors, but with Fleming, Smith-Njigba and four-star Gee Scott Jr. all coming in — in addition to older versions of Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson — the Buckeyes should definitely have the best receiving corps in the Big Ten and it could be a top-five unit nationally.