Whitney Mercilus NFL Draft

Akron Garfield grad Whitney Mercilus (on phone) celebrated with family and friends when he was picked in the first round of the 2012 NFL Draft after he left Ohio for a great Big Ten football career at Illinois.

(Bill Lubinger, The Plain Dealer)

COLUMBUS, Ohio – In the Rivals.com rankings of the best high school seniors in Ohio, No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, No. 6, No. 11, No. 12, No. 14, No. 30 and No. 31 are pledged to Ohio State. Nine of the Buckeyes' 22 oral commitments are in-state guys.

Ohio State hauls in a lot of Ohio kids. But the Buckeyes can never get them all. When a player leaves Ohio and finds football success, whether the Buckeyes never showed interest or went after the kid and lost out, it's never quite forgotten.

So while the Buckeyes are pulling in Glenville's Erick Smith, St. Vincent-St. Mary's Dante Booker and Glenville's Marshon Lattimore, the top three players in the Rivals rankings of Ohioans, Kentucky managed to grab five players in the top 16 of the state rankings. Oklahoma took offensive lineman Alex Dalton, ranked No. 5, and Michigan grabbed linebacker Michael Ferns, ranked No. 7.

Someone in that group, or a player rated much lower, will probably go on and play well enough for someone to ask some day, “Why isn't he a Buckeye?”

Over the last 10 years, here are five players from Ohio who were certainly asked about.

1. The 2009 linebackers: Chris Borland (Wisconsin), Luke Kuechly (Boston College) and Denicos Allen (Michigan State)

Ohio State's lack of depth at linebacker the past several years hurts even more knowing these three Ohio linebackers didn't get much of a look.

Kuechly was a two-star recruit according to Rivals, ranked as the No. 44 outside linebacker in the nation, who tore it up for three seasons at Boston College, leading the nation with 191 tackles as a junior. He then went No. 9 in the 2012 NFL Draft to the Carolina Panthers. Any school in the country would have wished it landed Kuechly, who out-performed his recruiting ranking about as much as any college player in recent history.



Allen, a three-star ranked as the No. 39 outside linebacker in the nation, got a brief look by the Buckeyes before going on to be a three-year starter with the Spartans. He told Mlive.com his highlight tape hit Jim Tressel's desk, and the Buckeyes passed. He led Michigan State in tackles and tackles for loss this season as the Spartans finished No. 3 in the nation, and he was named a second-team All-American by SI.com and a second-team All-Big Ten choice.

Wisconsin's Chris Borland (44) is a player that Urban Meyer mentioned several times he wished wouldn't have gotten out of Ohio in recruiting.

Borland's escape from Ohio was lamented by Urban Meyer multiple times since the coach arrived in Columbus. Borland was named the Big Ten's Defensive Player of the Year this season after being rated as a three-star athlete by Rivals.com.

Overall, Kuechly was ranked as the No. 25 player in Ohio by Rivals.com in 2009, Allen was No. 26 and Borland was No. 35. They all would have helped Ohio State.



2. 2004 tight end Fred Davis (USC)

Ranked as the No. 2 player in Ohio, No. 3 receiver prospect and No. 19 overall player by Rivals.com in the Class of 2004, the Toledo native narrowed his choices to Ohio State, Miami and USC. And then he got on a plane for Los Angeles and picked the Trojans.

At 6-4 and 210 pounds, Davis moved to tight end, and the three-year starter won the Mackey Award in 2007 as the best tight end in the country. He said at the time of his college choice that USC's more wide-open offense influenced his decision. He was taken in the second round of the 2008 NFL Draft by the Washington Redskins.

3. 2011 linebacker Trey DePriest (Alabama)

It's another linebacker, but a very different situation than the 2009 group. DePriest was a major recruit, and a friend of Braxton Miller, very much wanted by the Buckeyes when he chose Alabama over Ohio State. A five-star prospect according to Scout.com, he was a four-star and the No. 97 player in the class according to Rivals. The Springfield High grad started as both a sophomore and a junior for the Crimson Tide, ranking third on the team in tackles this season, and he'll return in 2014 as a leader of the defense.



4. 2008 defensive end Whitney Mercilus (Illinois)

Ohio State never offered this late bloomer out of Garfield High School. He was ranked as the No. 28 weakside defensive end in the nation and No. 39 player in Ohio in the Class of 2008. After a tremendous junior year, when he was a first-team All-American and the Ted Hendricks Award winner as the best defensive end in the nation, Mercilus turned pro. He took his 16 sacks, which led the nation, into the NFL Draft, where he was a first-round pick of the Houston Texans at No. 26 overall.

5. 2008 defensive lineman Jerel Worthy (Michigan State)

but never made an offer to the Huber Heights Wayne grad. Ranked as a three-star prospect and

in the Class of 2008, Worthy wound up at Michigan State, where he was a