Ohio State’s 2020 recipient recruiting class was the best in the country. The Buckeyes brought Julian Fleming (five-star prospect, receiver No. 1), Jaxon Smith-Njigba (five stars, fifth classified WR), Gee Scott Jr. (four stars, No. 10 WR) and Mookie cooper (four stars, 16th best WR) all in one class.
And before these four players, who have not yet played a college game, entered the campus, some asked if Brian Hartline just got the best wide receiver recruiting class of all time.
When discussing the top receiver class, the first comparison is with the Alabama class of 2017 that contained Jerry jeudy, DeVonta Smith, Henry Ruggs and Tyrell shavers.
Recently on The Late Kick podcast, 247Sports’ Josh Pate examined this comparison and concluded that this kind of catcher Scarlet and Gray has what it takes to deal with the 2017 Crimson Tide ride.
This is what Josh said (the full video is above):
With the wide receiver run, Ohio State brought the last cycle, with Fleming and Smith-Njigba, Scott, Cooper, you remember, could it rival Alabama’s 2017 class as the best ever? Do you remember one had Jerry jeudy, DeVonta Smith, Henry Ruggs. Okay, yes. The answer is yes, it could. We’d been talking about that wide receiver run for months and months and months before Buckeyes signature day. And now, what is so funny is that they are at the No. 1 receiver in the United States this year, Emeka Egbuka outside of Washington state, and the only question about how much talent they’ll get at wide receiver this year is how many men are willing to go in and compete with the talent shortages they brought in the past cycle. So yes, I absolutely could compete for that. Now that it’s a very high state and we have the benefit of knowing more or less what that Alabama class did.
BTW, if you have any time after the podcast, check out Alabama’s recruiting class of 2017. It may have been number 1 in the country, if not number 2. Look at how many guys, and they’re top notch engagements, no there are busts, there are no mistakes. That class was totally insane and the broad body of receivers was a kind of crown jewel.
While Ohio State had two five-star prospects in its 2020 class, at Fleming and Smith-Njigba Alabama had only one, Jeudy. But the crimson tide had four of the top 12 scorers ranked in that class according to the 247Sports Composite, while the Buckeyes had four of the top 16.
What will be decisive in this debate is what these Scarlet and Gray receivers do on the field at the university, as we have seen what the Alabama receivers have done. In his Crimson Tide career, Jeudy caught 159 passes for 2,742 yards and 26 touchdowns. Smith, so far, has 118 catches for 2,109 yards and 23 touchdowns. Ruggs had 98 sacks for 1,716 yards and 24 touchdowns. Shavers is the only one of the class who failed to hit, recording just one catch for two yards and one touchdown before transferring to Mississippi state this offseason. All three were part of the Alabama national championship team as freshmen, and Jeudy and Ruggs were selected in the first round of the NFL Draft 2020.
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If Ohio State can get that kind of production from Fleming, Smith-Njigba, Scott and Cooper for years to come, the Buckeyes will certainly be happy.
