Turf War: Ohio State, Penn State battle for Big Ten title, top recruits

The stakes are rife with implications now and longterm for Ohio State and Penn State.

Placement atop the Big Ten, especially its gauntlet-like Eastern half, is on the line. There’s national jockeying imbued therein to be determined between the sidelines.

And then there’s the thing that actually sets up the stakes: A red-hot recruiting rivalry.

Ohio State-Penn State has virtually superseded all other Big Ten affairs in recent years — and plenty of national ones as well — with games of far-reaching magnitude. It has all the subplots and trimmings to do the same Saturday night under the lights in Happy Valley, where the fourth-ranked and undefeated Buckeyes (4-0), in their second game with Urban Meyer back on the headset, meet the ninth-ranked and similarly unscathed Nittany Lions (4-0), resurgent in national prominence under fifth-year coach James Franklin.

Yet this clash extends well beyond leaving a final Big Ten team undefeated and positioned for a College Football Playoff sprint. It just might be evolving into the most important game for the never-ending cycle of recruiting battles that are waged almost 365 days a year among the sport’s titans.

Just look at the composition of both squads’ current rosters: Ohio State has 12 players combined from national prep powers The Bullis School and DeMatha (Maryland), IMG Academy (Florida), Bishop Gorman (Nevada), Cass Tech (Michigan), St. Xavier and Moeller (Ohio). The Nittany Lions have eight players from those same seven programs.

Saturday night isn’t just about the here-and-now for the Big Ten’s two top-rated teams, nor is it a high school reunion for 20 competitors from the same backgrounds.

It is much, much more extensive for college football. In the 2018 Composite Team Rankings compiled by 247Sports, Ohio State (No. 2) and Penn State (No. 6) had their closest finish in the joint Meyer-Franklin Big Ten era.

“This is Big Ten territory now that Maryland is in the Big Ten, and this is a huge game for bragging rights, for recruiting purposes — and it’s going to definitely have an impact when it comes down to it,” said DeMatha coach Elijah Brooks, whose program has a couple dozen players right now in college football including OSU’s Chase Young and PSU’s Mark Allen and Shane Simmons. “The program that can say they won this game or the Big Ten title or advances to the playoffs or the national championship definitely has a leg up on the recruiting trail.”

Unranked two years ago, Penn State toppled Ohio State, 24-21 in another White Out en route to the Rose Bowl. Last year, the Buckeyes edged the Saquon Barkley-led Lions, 39-38. Had Ohio State not later fizzled against Iowa, it likely would have again found itself in the College Football Playoff after winning the initial edition in 2014.

“I know right now it’s a big game because Penn State, they have knocked Ohio State out [of the Big Ten Conference championship game] before,” said Detroit Cass Tech coach Thomas Wilcher, with Buckeyes Mike Weber and Joshua Alabi as well as PSU’s Donovan Johnson involved in the current iteration. “I’m quite sure everybody is looking forward to what’s going to happen this year because they’re both doing great job and this game means a great deal.”

Midweek, Meyer acknowledged the scope of this game extends beyond Saturday night and all the way to national signing day in February.

“I think, especially in that part of the country, when you start talking about Jersey, Maryland, that Eastern Shore, that’s a big battle with them,” Meyer said. “Absolutely, I tell you, our conference on the East side, it’s not just Penn State, this is a real one, top to bottom.

“It’s day to day in recruiting, day to day in preparing your team.”

It is no accident the 20 combined players from those prep powerhouses have varying roles of import for this game. Both the Buckeyes and Nittany Lions have made it an emphasis to recruit from those proven training grounds, which in turn prepares those players for stages like the one in Happy Valley.

“When you coach at a Moeller, and I’m learning this more and more as I go to different places, there’s a built-in expectation when a kid comes to Moeller that you don’t have to teach and train. You’ve got to maintain it and develop it, but there’s a level of expectation for kids who go to Moeller for them to prepare to go to an Ohio State, Penn State, a Michigan State and other Big Ten programs,” said former Moeller head coach John Rodenberg, who before taking over Indianapolis Lawrence Central in February had coached Ohio State tight end Jake Haussman and PSU’s Aeneas Hawkins.

“I’ve always been a big fan of Urban. He’s been very honest in recruiting our players. When he recruited Sam [Hubbard], he never promised him any playing time or anything. Recruited him as an athlete, very honest, very upright. Penn State was the same thing, they’d call and check on Aeneas’ grades. … I’ve been real appreciative of how those coaches came in and evaluated players and appreciated how they kept up on them, especially how they were doing in class and off the football field. It’s just been really a first-class situation.”

Former IMG teammates Taron Vincent, Isaiah Pryor, Marcus Williamson from Ohio State will see fellow IMG alum K.J. Hamler with the Nittany Lions; Buckeyes quarterback and surging Heisman Trophy candidate Dwayne Haskins, of The Bullis School, has Penn State’s Jonathan Holland as a former classmate; St. Xavier’s Justin Hilliard will be in scarlet and gray opposite former teammate Sean Clifford; lastly, Tate Martell and Haskell Garrett, who starred at Bishop Gorman in Las Vegas will see former teammate Jabari Butler on the Penn State sideline.

“It’s definitely something we’re proud of here at DeMatha: Players and kids choose to come here so that they have the opportunity to play on a big stage like Penn State-Ohio State. I know a lot of people here in the DeMatha community will be tuned in,” Brooks said. “It’s definitely something we strive for as coaches, to make sure our players are developed so that they can go into these top-tier programs and be ready to compete with some top players across the country from very demanding programs similar to ours.”

And the team that wins beneath the lights Saturday night in Happy Valley will find itself positioned to get the in-demand prospects once again.