Justin Scott’s Ohio State decision is a deep cut to the Michigan fanbase

Why Justin Scott committing to Ohio State stung so badly for Michigan football and its fanbase.

The Michigan football fanbase has been basking in the glow of their second consecutive win over rival Ohio State all off-season despite an embarrassing loss to TCU in the College Football Playoff.

The typical verbal jabs from the Wolverine coaches and players alike only fuel the flames of their fanbase’s lack of self-awareness, which is seemingly on display every day on social media. That was once again the case last week when five-star defensive line recruit Justin Scott announced his commitment to the Ohio State 2024 recruiting class over Michigan football and Notre Dame.

Scott’s decision to commit to Ohio State seemingly caught everyone off guard, including most recruiting experts.  Like most big-name recruits who are interested in possibly attending college in Ann Arbor, the Michigan football faithful had somehow convinced themselves that Scott was going to commit to them despite having one crystal ball prediction in favor of Notre Dame and another leaning towards Miami. Scott’s official visit list in the month of June consisted of stops at Georgia, Miami, Michigan, and Ohio State with Columbus, Ohio being the final stop on that tour.

Scott announced on Twitter last Sunday evening that it was that final stop in Columbus and his time spent with defensive line coach Larry Johnson that sealed the deal for him. “Going into the visit (at Ohio State), my fam was heavily set on Michigan,” Scott told On3. “Throughout the (Ohio State) visit they were really still set on Michigan. But towards the end of it, coach Johnson sat us down and went over an in-depth plan that they had for me.”

Why Michigan football fans are so mad

And herein lies the venom from the Maize and Blue fanbase. Scott admittedly reports that he and his family were leaning toward Michigan football until Johnson laid out a road map of success for the 6-foot 4-inch 310-pound defensive tackle from Chicago, Illinois.

If Michigan fans should be angry at anyone, it should be at their coaching staff for obviously not laying out an individualized plan for Scott and his family. Instead, what I’m reading mostly is accusations that Ohio State just threw a bunch of NIL money at him. I’m sure that the NIL collectives in Columbus did indeed meet with Scott, but that isn’t cheating any more given today’s college recruiting environment despite what warning the NCAA likes to issue.

My favorite social media posts to read are the people who immediately say things like, “This recruit isn’t very good and didn’t want to compete, so that’s why he isn’t coming to ‘our’ school.” The ignorance in that statement and those like it are laughable. Trust me, I read them from all fanbases, especially when an athlete decides to transfer out of his current program.

Most of these ignorant statements come from people who don’t have an athletic bone in their body and have never, nor will ever be in a situation even remotely relatable to the one that Scott and his family were facing.

Scott is the fourth five-star recruit to commit to Ohio State in the 2024 cycle. The next closest schools are Georgia and Alabama which both currently have three five-star commits. Michigan on the other hand has zero five stars in their 2024 class. Georgia is still currently ranked number-one overall but they also have more commitments than Ohio State does at this point.

There is a very real possibility if the Buckeyes can land another five-star and the highly ranked four-stars who they have crystal balled already, that they can leapfrog Georgia for the top-ranked class.

Michigan football on the other hand has now slipped to fourth in the recruiting rankings and USC has started nipping at their heels to capture that number four spot. I also believe when it is all said and done, the Crimson Tide will be in the top four as well, meaning Michigan might be outside of the top five in recruiting once again.