Urban Meyer and Jim Tressel agree: Ohio State has never had a more talented roster

We've said this before, but the best way to understand the way Urban Meyer speaks, and thus his outlook on the world, is this: If you and him ever go to a breakfast spot and he tells you the pancakes are anything other than the best he's ever had, assume they are inedible garbage and order something else.

We call him Superlative Urban, and he struck again 

"As of now this is one of the most talented rosters in the last decade, maybe ever," Meyer told Adam King of 10TV in Columbus. "I mean, that's a big statement. They've got to play. But you look at the quality of athlete at every position, I've never seen anything like it."

As far as the most egregious statements Urban's ever made, this one ranks pretty low. He was echoed by Jim Tressel, a man known for being so conservative that his assistants had to talk him out of punting on third down. (That last statement might be an exaggeration of my own.) 

"I don't know if I've ever seen that many great players in that building all at once -- every position, every place you turn," Tressel said.

There's a lot to unpack there. Let's start here: is it true? 

247Sports has yet to release its Team Talent Composite ratings for the 2024 season, but the site had Ohio State at No. 3 last season -- a hair behind No. 2 Georgia at 974.79 points to the Bulldogs' 977.80, but a good bit behind No. 1 Alabama's 1,015.43. The most talented team in the Team Talent database (dating back to 2015) was 2022 Alabama, a roster boasting 14 5-stars and 61 4-stars, which edged out the 2023 Crimson Tide with 1,016.83 total points (whatever that means).

The mythical 2015 Ohio State team, which brought most everyone back from the 2014 championship but whiffed on a preordained title defense due to an inexplicable home loss to Michigan State, had 907.32 points per 247 (4 5-stars, 49 4-stars); the most talented Buckeye outfit was the 2018 group, whose 11 5-stars and 55 4-stars equated to 984.30 points. 

Ohio State's 2023 roster was populated by 10 5-stars and a whopping 63 4-stars, and the 2024 group will shine even brighter. The Buckeyes sunk majority of their considerable NIL budget into retaining players like defensive ends JT Tuiomolau and Jack Sawyer, defensive tackle Tyliek Williams, cornerback Denzel Burke, safety Lathan Ransom, offensive lineman Donovan Jackson, running back TreVeyon Henderson, and basically everyone with an option to go pro other than Marvin Harrison, Jr. 

Still, Ohio State had enough resources left over to sign the nation's No. 5 recruiting class, a group of 4 5-stars and 14 4-stars led by the nation's top prospect in wide receiver Jeremiah Smith, and the most star-studded transfer class in the portal's short history. 247 ranked Ohio State's 7-man class "just" ninth in pure tonnage (Ole Miss was No. 1, with 24 players) but the Buckeyes were far-and-away No. 1 on a per player basis, led again by the portal's No. 1 overall prospect in safety Caleb Downs. Ohio State also added the No. 1 transfer running back in Quinshon Judkins, Kansas State starting QB Will Howard, Alabama 5-star QB signee Julian Sayin, and Alabama's starting center Seth McLaughlin. 

Will 2024 Ohio State edge out 2022 Alabama for the most talented team in an era where we think we have better tools to rate college talent than ever before? Who knows and, most importantly, who cares? 

Around these parts, the most talented college football roster of all-time is 2017 Alabama, a team that "only" had 39 players drafted, but 25 of those 39 draftees were taken among the first 100 picks.

Time will tell how Ohio State's collection of talent stacks up to the greats of the recent past, but what matters most in the present is that this Ohio State team feels like the most talented of all time.

Here we have Ryan Day's two immediate predecessors -- men who combined to win 85 percent of their 208 combined games, nine Big Ten championships, and Ohio State's only two national championships since the Vietnam War -- come out and say on local television they've never seen such a collection of talent at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center. 

Neither man came out and said it in these explicit terms, but they didn't have to: this was Tressel and Meyer telling the Ohio State fan base that if this team falls short of its national championship expectations, it's Ryan Day's fault. 

Already, Day is in one of the most unique predicaments in recent college football history. His .875 winning percentage outpaces Tressel's and is a tick behind Meyer's, with two Big Ten championships and five AP Top 10 finishes in five seasons. But Ohio State hasn't reached the College Football Playoff in three seasons, because it hasn't won the Big Ten in three seasons, because it hasn't beaten Michigan in three seasons. (Tressel + Meyer combined Michigan losses: one.) 

Meyer, for one, has shown no fear of criticizing his former assistants' coaching in his role on national television. 

“How do you evaluate the roster of a college program, especially a blue-blood program like Texas? It’s called the NFL Draft,” Meyer said of Tom Herman's Texas tenure in 2020. “They have top-10 recruiting classes every year. However, it doesn’t show up in the NFL Draft.”

If Ohio State falls short again in 2024, we already know what Meyer will tell the nation from the Fox set: It's not the players' fault, so it must be the coaches.

Ohio State, the university and the fan base, has never invested more in a football roster than it has in 2024. And while it remains to be seen if this really is the most talented team in recent Ohio State and/or college football history, what's absolutely true without a hint of hyperbole is that no coach will ever have more pressure to deliver a national championship than Ryan Day has in 2024. 

Enjoy your season, Coach Day.