Ohio State’s program is not way above our program. We have been consistently closing the gap the past 3 years and have played them evenly head to head. Urban Meyer is gone and we are poised to close whatever gap remains between our programs, albeit not that much now. Clemson, Alabama, Georgia and probably Oklahoma are elite programs that are clearly elite and above our program right now. OSU and ScUM are not in the same category as these programs. They may still be slightly better than our program for sure, but the gap is closing quickly in recruiting and should translate on the field soon.
Ohio St's 2012-2015 4-yr recruiting class ranking average (using 247 rankings) was 2nd best in the nation (to only Alabama). They had 5 5-star and 61 4-stars over those 4 years.
Penn St's 2012-2015 4-yr recruiting class ranking average was 28th best and we had 1 5-star and 24 4-stars over that period.
Those 4 classes were on campus the last time we went unranked at the end of the season (2015-2016 season), Ohio St finished 4th in the AP.
2013-2016 Ohio St fell also slightly below LSU's 4-yr class average to #3 with 4 5-stars and 64 4-stars. Penn St improved to the 21st best 4-yr class average 2 5-stars and 28 4-stars. They finished #6 and we finished #7 in that 2016-2017 season.
2014-2017 Ohio St was tied at #2 with LSU for 4-yr recruiting class average with now 8 5-stars and 59 4-stars. PSU improved to the 19th best 4-yr recruiting class average with 1 5-star and now 36 4-stars. They finished #5 and we finished #8 in 2017-2018.
2015-2018 Ohio St took back over #2 in the 4-yr recruiting class average with 10 5-stars and 64 4-stars while Penn St moved up to the #12 4-yr recruiting class average with 4 4-stars and 43 4-stars (passing Michigan by the way). They finished #3 last year and we disappointed at #17.
247 has Michigan as the 2019 recruiting #8 class, Penn St as #13 and Ohio St #14.
The talent gap has been cut roughly in half or slight better since the 2015 season AND we are on par with Michigan's talent. Ohio St has slightly underperformed with their recruiting classes in terms of their final rankings every single year. Penn St overachieved in terms of their recruiting class's talent by a wide margin in 2016 and 2017 and slightly underperformed last year.
The gap is closing on talent and we are the team that tends to overachieve the rankings while they have recently underperformed their rankings. It could be a changing of the guard soon.