Was listening to the Doug Lesmerises podcast the other day. He keeps talking about the 2018 recruiting class that was ranked #2 by 24/7 (and that was without Justin Fields). Here are guys from that class who were ranked top #100
Nicholas Petit-Frere (#7)
Taron Vincent (#20)
Tyreke Johnson (#21)
Jaelen Gill (#30)
Tyreke Smith (#34)
Jeremy Ruckert (#37)
Teradja Mitchell (#44)
Tommy Togai (#55)
Matt Jones (#68)
Josh Proctor (#71)
Kamryn Babb (#73)
Brian Snead (#80)
Tyler Friday (#93)
That's 13 top 100 guys. Furthermore, there's 1 OT (NPF) 1 interior OL (Jones) 2 DTs (Vincent and Togai) 2 DEs (Smith and Friday) 1 LB (Mitchell) 1 S (Proctor) 1 RB (Snead) and 2 more DBs (Johnson was listed as a S and Babb as a WR, but both are corners now).
OSU lost starters at RB, RT, LG, DE, 2 DT, OLB, 2 CBs and a S. That's 11 top 100 at those positions. Now, we certainly don't expect new starters to come in and as good as Chase or Okudah or Dobbins or even Malik Harrison from day 1. But we have talent at those positions who haven't really made their mark yet (partly because the guys ahead of them were blocking them). When you add in players from other classes fighting for these jobs, I think we can come out OK.
So it'll be interesting to see how these position races sort themselves out. For sure you can say that for just about. every position battle, we have a guy who was highly rated and has been on campus 2 years ready to compete for that job.