How important was it for Ohio State to sign 5-star Eddrick Houston?

Stephen Means, Nathan Baird and Andrew Gillis discuss 5-star defensive lineman Eddrick Houston who signed with Ohio State on Signing Day.

So one of the themes that was sort of hanging over signing day here today at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center was what was going on with Ohio State’s defensive line they had already lost a commit earlier in this cycle and Justin Scott a five-star guy they were potentially

Losing another one in edric Houston but then Ryan Day leaves and takes a phone call won’t comment on whether or not it was from Houston at least at that point comes back in and all of a sudden edri Houston confirms his commitment to Ohio state sticks with his class Andrew how

Significant was that not just for this class but maybe most importantly for Larry Johnson for a year where it looked like without him this would have been a a very uninspiring Year from defensive line recruiting to say the least yeah I’m not I’m not going to sit here and

Say that the edri Houston signing like saves the class I don’t I don’t think it does that I think you still need more quantity and quality when you’re talking about an Ohio State defensive line but my goodness does this change the way that you have to look at some things I

Think a little bit because if if this class did not have edri Houston you have one player on this defensive line and you have a three star commit and that’s it so when you talk about what Ohio State gains from this on the field it’s

A big deal to get edri Houston and all these things but we’ve kind of talked about this a couple of different times I think it matters more for narrative sake too because you know there were all these talks about Larry Johnson’s getting too old and programs are using

This against him and Ryan Day gave a pretty I would say impassion defense of Larry Johnson you know one of the things that he said which I thought was pretty interesting was you know a lot of these programs talk about doing it you know developing these unbelievable players

Larry Johnson’s actually done it and he’s like Ryan Dave was pretty adamant that he believes right there that Larry Johnson’s coming back next year that Larry Johnson can continue to do this so he gave a pretty pretty like he he was behind him he stood behind his his

Defensive line coach and it’s a big deal for him just because again if you don’t land edrick Houston every single gun of Ohio State fan are just the guns of Ohio State fans are pointed at this defensive recruiting staff and that’s not a place you want to be so massive win on the

Field edution is a great player massive win for what this does just narrative sake and proving that Ohio State still can get some of these guys on the defensive line and Ohio State was losing some other flips late in this process too which had already kind of creating

Some consternation even though this is still a highly ranked class but you know Ryan day and Larry Johnson are going to keep dealing with these rumors until Larry Johnson finally does retire and maybe that’s unfair but when you’re when you have a seven at the front of your

Age in this profession whether that’s fair or not cuz there’s a lot of other coaches coaching well into their 70s and being very successful at it but it it’s going to be something that probably does get weaponized against you a little bit on the recruiting Trail Stephen how much

Did just getting edrick Houston and I agree with Andrew it still as a whole doesn’t look great for this class they’ll only have two guys coming in the other guy being a much more developmental three star guy but how critical was this maybe for Larry Johnson just to

To build on something to to to have some sort of a positive finish to this class that can be something that builds into next year maybe Andrew says this cliche a lot the sometimes you just got to see the ball go through the hoop and I kind

Of compare Tony alord and Larry Johnson in that way is just when you’re starting to doubt their ability to get it done they get it done right Tony Alford and Larry Johnson both doing it in 20121 when Tony offer landed two top 100 running backs and Larry Johnson brings

In Jack Sawyer JT TW Malo was top 10 recruits Mike Hall as a top 60 recrui in Ty leek Williams who has been kind of awesome All-American level this year and maybe those guys come back for a fourth year maybe they don’t who knows we don’t know that information yet and we’ve seen

A couple of Cycles in a row here from both of those guys where it’s like okay what’s going on here Tony offer gets James peoples which is a pretty quality G now I know he lost Jordan L but James peoples is a quality G and this is a big

Get for Larry Johnson it’s a the ball can still go on the hoop is what edri Houston is but I’m still worried at this point because these rumors have been around for five six seven years at this point and up to now it didn’t matter because it still got you chase young it

Still got you a pretty good 2018 class even if it didn’t pan out on the field on paper when you signed that 2018 class there were a lot of good names like teron Vincent and Tyreek Smith it still got you that 21 class it still got you

Zack Harrison it didn’t matter yet on it didn’t matter it was just words but it feels like players are starting to be attentive to it a little bit here and it felt like the way Ryan Day talked about Larry Johnson today was very much that was a message to Ed Houston and whoever

Edri Houston is in the 2025 class and the 2026 class because it’s one thing that just be rumors that Larry Johnson has to deal with when he talks to us it’s another thing when it becomes a rumor that he’s got to deal with when he’s talking with parents and recruits

Who might hold the future of Ohio State’s defensive line in their hands and there’s clearly an impact at this point and that’s why you have to be worried about those rumors now in a way you weren’t worried about them two or three years ago know a couple years ago

It seemed like the NCA might be trending towards allowing these teams every team to open up it’s assistance not be limited to the 10 countable assistant anymore I think if that had happened Larry Johnson might still be here but you would have another defensive line

Coach in the mix I maybe he would be a a different role he wouldn’t even be counted as assistant coach anymore you could have him here still doing things um but because they’re still restricted to just the 10 and because Larry Johnson again on the other side of

Things like this defensive line this year was so productive was so important to why this defense was so good and as Ryan day keeps mentioning keeps hinting this could still be a very good defensive line next year in terms of the guys who have NFL decisions yet to make

Who haven’t announced those things and Larry Johnson’s Recruitment and development would be a big part of that too so we’re just in this weird kind of transitional period And I think if with those decisions still hanging out there if they had not if they had also lost

Edrick Houston I think it would have been a really tough off season for Larry Johnson for the program cuz then now you’re delving into the portal trying to scramble to find somebody else to help uh to land someone like him it’s not so much what it means for this next season

It’s what it means for you two or three years down the line that you don’t feel that hole the way that they have felt it frankly in some other positions over the last couple of years from recruiting failures that happened a couple years uh before that we’re going to talk a lot

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