Ohio State welcomed recruits to campus for face-to-face visits Tuesday after a 14-month long recruiting dead period. Credit: Mackenzie Shanklin | Photo Editor
For the first time in over a year, Ohio State welcomed recruits to campus for face-to-face visits Tuesday.
The beginning of June marked the end of a 14-month recruiting dead period that restricted all interactions between college football programs and recruits to virtual meetings. With recruits finally able to return to campus, Ohio State assistant athletic director of player personnel Mark Pantoni expressed his excitement to meet with prospects in person again.
“The kids are excited, the staff is excited to finally see these people up front rather than these constant Zooms,” Pantoni said. “The good thing is we’re not in-season right now, so it’s all hands on deck in the building.”
As the Buckeyes adjust to a return to normalcy in recruiting, they’re dealing with an atypical influx of recruits in June. Director of on-campus recruiting Erin Dunston said Ohio State is expecting 51 official visits and between 150 and 200 unofficial visits in the month, in comparison to the typical “high 40s to low 50s” official visits they conduct throughout a normal year.
Official visits consist of a one-on-one, hour-long workout with a coach, while unofficial visitors are not allowed to partake in the workout.
Despite the “overwhelming” nature of the month, Pantoni emphasized that recruits deserved the opportunity to visit campus as soon as possible once the dead period was lifted.
“We just felt like, since they’ve been so loyal to us, we wanted them to get here that first weekend because they deserve it,” Pantoni said. “They deserve to all be here together, get to know each other.”
The recruiting dead period also took away the opportunity for recruits to visit campus during game days, but Pantoni said that restriction was not as negative as it is widely believed.
“[Gameday visits are] just very limited on the amount of time, you just don’t have time with these kids,” Pantoni said. “The more time the coaches can spend around these kids, not leave their side, and really develop that relationship — either during the summer or after the season — I think we’ve had the most success in those instances.”
As Ohio State deals with the overflow of recruits on campus, Dunston is coming in as a new member of the program’s recruiting machine.
After two years at Kansas, Dunston pointed to the culture at Ohio State as a driving factor for her decision to come to Columbus.
“The people, and the vision and the family atmosphere that coach [Ryan] Day and Mark Pantoni showed me is what brought me to Ohio State,” Dunston said. “I think my personality, my organizational skills, my experience is what is going to allow me to help elevate Ohio State in the recruiting aspect.”
As she navigates a return to normalcy in her new role, Dunston — who Pantoni labeled as an “all-star” — pointed to a unique nature within Ohio State’s recruiting process.
“All the coaches are involved with every recruit. So it’s not just the position coach, it could be their coach as well as another coach that’s also involved with recruiting a kid or building that relationship,” Dunston said. “Coach Day, he says ‘tough love’ and ‘you’re gonna fight to be the best version of yourself.’ When we talk to these parents, that is the atmosphere that Ohio State has. It’s not a pitch, it’s what the atmosphere is and what they’re gonna walk into and I think that’s the difference from other universities I’ve been to.”
Although the Buckeyes’ recruiting staff is now able to meet with recruits in person, Dunston said the lessons they learned in the pandemic will still be valuable moving forward.
Dunston mentioned using virtual modes of communication as a supplement to on-campus visits.
“With Zoom you had to brush up on, it’s not that in-person, face-to-face. It’s learning to communicate in a different way,” Dunston said. “Those transferable skills of doing that, I think we’ll take with us.”
As Ohio State trudges through the busy month of June, Pantoni said the next few weeks will be critical for their recruiting success.
“We’re putting all our chips in, right now, the month of June,” Pantoni said. “We just have to do a great job and then after the visit, we have to do a great job staying in touch.”
