Ohio State’s wide receiver group ranked highly compared to the rest of college football

Ohio State is set to reload at wide receiver once again during the 2024 college football season.

Marvin Harrison Jr. is off to the NFL and Emeka Egbuka chose to return to school. He will lead a group that doesn’t have a ton of experience but all of the talent in the world.

If you are a college football die-hard, you have probably read Phil Steele’s preseason preview. In that preview, he has the Buckeyes ranked as the No. 3 wideout room in the country.

“OSU is always at the top,” says Phil Steele, and he’s not making any changes this season, placing the Buckeyes top-three yet again. They could be No. 1 but Steele doesn’t like that there’s “no dominant tight end” in the group.”

Harrison was the alpha of the group last year and Egbuka struggled with injuries. The expectation is that Egbuka can return to his sophomore form when he had nearly 1,200 receiving yards. Even though he played in 10 games last year, Egbuka was visibly hurt and finished with just 515 receiving yards.

Carnell Tate had 264 yards and a touchdown as a freshman and Brandon Inniss caught one pass for a 58-yard touchdown. Both are elite recruits who were hurried on the depth chart as freshmen but should have a bigger role in 2024.

Jeremiah Smith is the most talented freshman wide receiver to come through Columbus and he has a chance to have a legit role right from the jump. If Smith reaches his freshman potential, the sky is the ceiling for this group.

Oregon and Missouri are both ahead of Ohio State and you can argue that the Buckeyes deserve to be ahead of both. Tez Johnson is legit for the Ducks but they’re hoping for a jump from transfer Evan Stewart. Missouri may have the best wideout in the country with Luther Burden and he’s joined by Theo Wease and Mookie Cooper.

The depth of Ohio State is special and maybe where they stand out the most. Jayden Ballard is a speedster that hasn’t had much opportunity and Mylan Graham is another very intriguing freshman. Bryson Rodgers redshirted last year but the Buckeyes are high on him.

If Brian Hartline has shown anything in Columbus, it is that he can develop these guys and get them to the NFL . On the way there, they’ll be amongst the best in the country.

Related: Ohio State takes big recruiting loss to Alabama by missing out on highly coveted recruit in own backyard