New Jersey has the tendency to get overlooked when it comes to college football recruiting. It’s quite understandable considering the hotbeds of high school talent that exist in states such as Florida, Texas, California and Ohio. However, in today’s increasingly cutthroat business of wooing top prospects to your school, it pays to take a broad approach in scouring the country for those potentially game-changing players.

From the standpoint of Ohio State recruiting, that rings especially true considering the national reach of the program. With the top-ranked Buckeyes preparing for their first-ever road game against Rutgers Saturday night, the topic of establishing a foothold in the state of New Jersey recruiting-wise was explored a bit in head coach Urban Meyer’s comments to the media this week.

New Jersey’s Increasing Importance to Ohio State Recruiting

In particular, Meyer has always been impressed with the level of play, the exceptional coaching and the emphasis in producing well-rounded athletes both on the field and off.

“I think the respect I have for the high school coaches, the seriousness they take, not just in coaching football, but you get those really good New Jersey high schools, I think it’s a lot like here,” Meyer noted. “(It’s) about the attention to detail, about the academic, about the character, about all the things that you look for, and that’s normally what my history is. That’s what you get out of New Jersey, and that’s why we love it.”

Meyer has certainly backed up that affinity for players coming out of New Jersey since he became the Buckeyes head coach. His four previous recruiting classes have included five players from the state, including cornerback Eli Apple. The Vorhees, NJ native was rated the eighth-best at his position in 2013, and as a redshirt freshman last season played a crucial part in Ohio State’s national championship run, notching three interceptions and leading the team in pass breakups.

It wasn’t just establishing a footprint within the major media markets of New York City and Washington D.C. that prompted Big Ten commissioner Jim Delaney to add Maryland and Rutgers to the conference. Expanding the league’s recruiting base was another highly important factor in the move to bring in these schools. Two years into their association with the Big Ten and you’re already beginning to see the positive impact in that regard across the conference.

As of right now, 29 players in the Rivals.com New Jersey Preseason Top 40 rankings for 2016 have given verbal commitments, 15 of which have been to Big Ten schools. Among them are the blue bloods of both the conference and college football as a whole. In addition to Ohio State, you’ve seen Michigan, Nebraska and Penn State also have success at adding New Jersey-based players to their recruiting classes this year. The Wolverines have been particularly successful, with three players from the state already committed for 2016.

Running back Kareem Walker, a five-star running back out of Wayne, NJ and currently the highest ranked running back in the nation according to Rivals, was one of Ohio State’s first additions to this year’s recruiting class. He gave his verbal commitment three days after the Buckeyes defeated Oregon in the national title game. Among the highly sought after uncommitted prospects on the Buckeyes’ radar is Jordan Fuller, a four-star athlete out of Old Tappan High School rated as the eighth-best player in the state.

Though Meyer has certainly realized a great deal of success on the recruiting trail in The Garden State, he says there’s still room for improvement at steering top prospects to Columbus. This rings especially true considering the state is now firmly in Big Ten country and OSU has always considered itself a flagship program within the conference.

“Ohio State should be in the middle of (the New Jersey recruiting battles), and we’re doing the best we can,” Meyer emphasized. “I shouldn’t say doing the best we can, that sounds silly. We can always do better.”

And not only will Meyer be on the hunt for standout recruits in New Jersey, apparently he’ll also be in search of a great sandwich as well.

“Really good delis out there too when we go to Jersey, for those of you who haven’t been there,” he said.

What will undoubtedly be on the menu this coming weekend is keeping the momentum going and putting together a winning performance in Piscataway. Sustained success on the gridiron is in and of itself a recruiting pitch and the Buckeyes have enjoyed plenty of that. It all leads to the dual goal of competing for and winning championships along with having the best high school prospects in the country continuing their playing careers in Columbus.

New Jersey has always been teeming with college football talent. After all, it was here where the first-ever college football game was played between Rutgers and Princeton in 1869. As Ohio State continues to expand its recruiting presence there, fans of the Scarlet and Gray can expect to see players from the Garden State figuring prominently into what the program accomplishes on the field for years to come.

Main Photo: