Burrow, Young Okudah Give OSU Draft Bragging Rights
Ohio State won't officially accomplish what its fan base will claim occurred should the first round of the NFL Draft unfold with Joe Burrow, Chase Young and Jeff Okudah going off the board at the outset.
To OSU loyalists, that will mark the unprecedented achievement of one school providing the first three choices in the Draft, no matter how loud the protest from Louisiana.
Perhaps that's the silver lining in Ohio State's season ending a game short of the College Football Playoff championship in January. That way, Buckeye fans weren't forced to shed their love for Heisman Trophy winner Joe Burrow and rescind their claim on him as one of their own.
It would assuredly gotten messy had Burrow and LSU taken down OSU in the national title game, but as things happened, there's no awkwardness in the on-going love affair between the former Ohio Mr. Football and the rooting base he left behind in transferring so he could find playing time.
Now Burrow seems destined the No. 1 overall pick by the Cincinnati Bengals, with Young going No. 2 to Washington and Okudah an even-money choice to go third to Detroit if the Lions hang onto that selection.
If not, they'll likely trade down only two spots with Miami so they can grab Okudah fifth, which would give Ohio State its second set of Top Five picks in the last five years.
Back in 2016, San Diego chose defensive end Joey Bosa third overall and Dallas followed with Ezekiel Elliott, part of a first-round in which OSU had three players go in the Top 10 (Eli Apple No. 10) and five in the first round (Taylor Decker No. 16, Darron Lee No. 20).
Young and Okudaha, like Bosa and Elliott, were recruited to Ohio State by former head coach Urban Meyer, who reflected with SI.com's Albert Breer on the transfer of Burrow to LSU after spring practice in 2018.
"It crushed us,” Meyer said. “But we kind of knew, and I could’ve done what a lot of coaches do, and not name a starter until August, because it was that close. But Joe and his mom and his dad, they’re just wonderful people. He earned the right. He graduated, he did everything right. Yeah, that broke our heart. We all loved Joe. We still do.”
As for how Meyer will feel if three players he recruited hear their names called before any other player from any other school:
“It’d be a feeling of great pride we had, first of all, a staff that went out and found those people. Jeff and Chase were top 10 recruits. But Joe Burrow was not. He was a guy that did not have some of the big offers. So that goes to show you that our recruiting staff and coaching staff did their jobs and went out and found the best of the best.”
Penn State provided the draft's first two choices in 2000 when Courtney Brown and LaVar Arrington immediately came off the board.
Michigan State furnished the first two picks and three of the first five choices in 1967.
The other schools to have two Top Five picks since 1960 include many of college football's traditional power programs:
- 1960 -- LSU: Billy Cannon (1) Johnny Robinson (3).
- 1967 -- Michigan State: Bubba Smith (1), Clint Jones (2), George Webster (5).
- 1976 -- Oklahoma: Lee Roy Selmon (1), Joe Washington (4).
- 1977 -- USC: Ricky Bell (1), Marvin Powell (4), Gary Jeter (5).
- 1981 -- UCLA: Freeman McNeil (3), Kenny Easley (4).
- 1984 -- Nebraska: Irving Fryar (1), Dean Steinkuhler (2).
- 1987 -- Miami: Vinny Testaverde (1), Alonzo Highsmith (3).
- 1991 -- Nebraska: Bruce Pickens (3), Mike Croel (4).
- 1995 -- Penn State: Ki-Jana Carter (1), Kerry Collins (5).
- 1996 -- Illinois: Kevin Hardy (2), Simeon Rice (3).
- 1997 -- Ohio State: Orlando Pace (1), Shawn Springs (3).
- 2002 -- Texas: Mike Williams (4), Quintin Jammer (5).
- 2010 -- Oklahoma: Sam Bradford (1), Gerald McCoy (3), Trent Williams (4).
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